Young Justice #5 took me a second read through to straighten things out fully. We essentially are given two story lines to follow, the present in Gemworld and two days before in front of the Hall of Justice in DC.
Cover to Cover
DC really has some fantastic cover art teams in place right now over most of their titles. The main cover is a gorgeous cover showing team YJ in reflections of broken crystals. It is a fantastic design layout.
Cover B has to do with the other half of the story with Tim and Stephanie (Spoiler) and their meet up with Zatanna. Again very well executed. This time there is even a synopsis page with the YJ team depicted going down the right side, each in a classic fighting pose for the character.
A Tale of Two Tales
This issue effectively splits between the fight in Gemworld and Tim and Stephanie in DC. The fight in Gemworld seems a bit overshadowed by the happenings in DC, but the events of DC appear to loop back into Gemworld two-fold. One is that it addresses the memory gap the team has. The team was separated from each other, but no one seems to remember much about why.
In Gemworld, the team is fighting the man himself – Lord Opal. I love the team dynamics as the flee captivity. There are lots of meaningless exchanges that serve to lighten the issue and make it fun.
When Lord Opal shows up on the scene he is ready to fight. He also seems to have the means to silence Young Justice’s strongest member as he wields a piece of Kryptonite. This befuddles the team as to how he could have a piece of a planet that should not be on Gemworld. In the end Impulse grabs it and runs it far away, which leaves a very pissed off Kryptonian loose.
The team team makes short work of Opal, but in his near defeat, Lord Opal begins to rip reality itself apart. Amethyst thought it had something to do with the planet, not Opal himself.
For Love’s Sake
The other half of the issue is spent with Tim and Stephanie in Washington DC. From panel 1 it is clear these two are back in the early stages where they were falling in love. While this is made clear, writers brought in the DC Queen of Magic – Zatanna!
Tim suspects something is wrong even though he cannot place a finger on it. This is where Zatanna’s skills come into play. If anyone can find out what’s wrong it should be her. Sure enough, Zatanna triggers SOMETHING in Tim and memories of the Young Justice Team are brought forth out of the shadows.
Sadly this leads to more questions than answers. Tim heads up to Metropolis to search for answers about Conner Kent while Steph heads off to deal with her father. The writers do a good job placing lots of emotion into the goodbye. One can’t help but wonder if this is foreshadowing something bad.
As we know Tim’s trip will lead him into the Gemworld debacle currently happening. We will have to wait and see how Stephanie figures back into the equation, but our next issue has one hell of a title – The fate of Young Justice