Dark Crisis: Young Justice 2.....3 stars

 

Dark Crisis Young Justice Issue #2

I have zero interest in Young Justice or any of the characters from the original team. In general, I've never been a fan of kiddie superheroes and sidekicks, I stopped liking them at a fairly early age, so  when the 90's were in full swing, I took zero interest in Tim Drake as the new Robin, the re-emergence of Superboy, and any of the other original Young Justice members, thinking at the time they should make side kicks obsolete, so why am I reading this you might ask???

Well this comic has been getting panned on social media by the anti woke crowd, and they specifically have it out for Meghan Fitzmartin as being the new SJW dragon lady, so I had to check it out to see for myself. 

First off, is the issue woke? A little bit I guess, but I really think people are over reacting, but let's go through it.  

At one point, Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark) is in a conversation with Arrowette (Cissie King Jones) whereby Cissie makes remarks about the boys on the team being "three privileged idiots" who all happen to be white males. She also utilizes the phrase toxicity, (an SJW catch phrase word often used to deride young masculine behavior as being inherently misogynistic and self serving) Okay some subtle but, not in your face remarks about race and gender. 

I'm not really bothered by this, as I think this is all falls within the writer's right of free expression, perhaps if I knew the characters better I'd be more incensed. Cissie comes off a little cold hearted and appears to have some animosity towards her team members, but I'm at a disadvantage here because I don't know these characters back stories, to see if liberties are being taken with continuity, so let's move on....

Cissie also makes the following remark "I only remember fighting people the Justice League didn't understand like women, people from other countries (Presumably non white) and folks that were just doing their best" This comment is problematic as it subtly paints the late 1990's Justice League as a group of unsympathetic white fascists who were doling out "justice" by criminalizing the under privileged. I see what she's trying to get at, but even the 1960's Justice League wasn't interested in going around and arresting minorities, and women, so yes, pretty SJW, but again within the right of a writer's free expression. 

Later on the Young Justice team meets up with a replica of the late 1990's Justice League and Cassandra makes a remark about Tim Drake being able to date Spoiler again, Whereby Tim protests saying he loves his boyfriend Bernard, and Batman responds that he will date her again because "She's your destiny, once your out of this phase." to which Tim Drake immediately thinks "Fuckin what?" This made me giggle, and was well written because it's reminiscent of the stereotypical homophobic dad that would say "It's just a phase son, you'll get over being queer." lol. 

Now I don't have a problem with this because I'm not a Tim Drake fan, but a large portion of Tim Drake fans (the majority) are furious with this Meghan Fitzmartin for making him gay, because it destroys the continuity he had with his relationship with Spoiler, so one could surmise that she's really sticking it to the fans here, and this is not a nice thing to do, if this is the case? In short, Tim Drake fans feel the character has been disrespected not because they're homophobic, but because it basically erases Tim Drake's past, which is why I suspect this issue is getting so much heat. 

I'm sympathetic to fans who are upset about DC making unpopular changes to characters they love visa vi drastically altering their continuity or appearance, but I'm going to leave this aside, because it's a whole other topic all together, and I don't know Tim's backstory with Spoiler, so let's move again...

Finally Impulse states "This isn't even our past. This place...it's like our past got the design wrong. and is going out of it's way to be sexist, racist and homophobic." 

Here is where I think fans are clearly over reacting and not reading this right. Meghan is not referring to the late 90's Justice League as being racist & sexist & homophobic, but rather this clone copy of them that almost appears to be out of the 1960's. Was the past over 20 years ago more racist and sexist today, of course it was. Was it more racist and sexist in 60's and 70's, I don't even think that requires an argument, the answer for most people would be a resounding yes. 

In short, is Meghan Fitzmartin drinking the woke koolaid? probably a little bit, a glass or two, but not the whole punch bole. If you want to cry about woke, try being a Legion of Super Heroes fan for decades that just had their entire teams appearance changed for racial diversity and body positivity reasons for some over rated writers grand plans. Now that's woke! 

Unless your a Tim Drake fan, nothing really to complain about, it's all fair game. Writers are allowed the free expression of their political views whether you like it or not. 

As for Meghan Fitzmartin's writing as whole, the jury is still out for me, as this was a lot better than her Tim Drake special. I don't judge a writer on politics unless they make fundamental changes to a character I love.....then the gloves come off. 

3 out of 5 stars