Young Justice, Volume 2: Lost in the Multiverse Review (Brian Michael Bendis, John Timms)

I have a love/hate relationship with Bendis. He’s written some undeniably brilliant comics over the years (and continues to - see his latest Jinxworld stuff) but some of his worst books suffer from word diarrhea, and nowhere is it more evident than in his superhero team books. His Avengers was basically them sitting around drinking coffee and “bantering” (ie. a meaningless blur of contemporary - now outdated - references and unfunny jokes). Same thing with his All-New X-Men, which was overloaded with characters from the beginning and only had more crammed in as the series went on, and his Guardians of the Galaxy - entire books full of characters standing around wittering on endlessly about nothing.

So it goes with his second Young Justice book. Lost in the Multiverse is the subtitle, premise and, for want of a better word, “story”. Young Justice has successfully rescued Superboy from Gemworld but can’t find their way home! So they bounce from one alternate universe to another, pointlessly fighting alternate versions of famous characters (with zero consequences of course) while inanely bantering the whole time. Ugh. It’s so tedious.

Also included is Teen Lantern’s origin, which wasn’t so much enlightening as it was leading to more questions (not that I cared to begin with), and the reveal of the contents of Jinny Hex’s mystery box that we saw in Batman: Universe. Same thing there - we see the contents and rather than understanding the reveal, it only leads to more questions like how, why and what? Very unsatisfying. Superboy’s fate made me realise this whole series is a joke and Bendis unites the Wonder Comics line - Naomi, Wonder Twins and Dial H for Hero - for no reason.

This book was utter rubbish. The first Young Justice at least had a decent story - the second doesn’t even attempt one. I’m completely turned off from this title now and won’t be bothering with it any more - I don’t recommend Young Justice, Volume 2: Lost in the Multiverse to anyone unless you can’t get enough of Bendis’ “filling space for the sake of hitting deadlines/producing content” empty waffling.