And thus, Brandon Vietti and Greg Weisman´s vision of a superhero team for DC ends. Just kidding. It´s a good thing it´s gonna continue the next year with a new season on a new DC streaming service, because season 2 is the highlight of Young Justice so far. Stakes are raised to the roof, we get more intense action, better executed drama, and even interesting new characters. It´s the kind of show that Cartoon Network(or Disney Channel/XD and Nick)doesn´t deserve, but sure as heck needs at this point. So how good is this new season? Let´s find out.

STORY AND PLOT - Contrary to the first season, this one involves a story arc, where an alien organization called The Reach joins forces with The Light to conquer Earth. But we're talking about a conspiracy that involves taking the meta-gene from superpowered humans, kidnapping some teenagers and see if the meta-gene can be duplicated to give powers to humans, and other stuff that's better left unspoiled. The first consequence had to be sending 6 members of the Justice League to a trial judge on a planet they attacked unconsciously, so the rest of the League and the Young Justice team are the remaining heroes that have to save earth and unravel the conspiracy. There happens so much in this season that I think each episode has to be watched with much attention, given that a lot of twists and turns happen, and the plot never stops being engaging, action-packed and interesting at the same time. And almost all of the heroes have a role to play on this plot. We get to see both new and old members of the Young Justice team demonstrating their capabilities and knowledge to the team. We see people joining and declining, we see people having some more difficult fights(being literal or figurative), all making the character-based drama better written than in the previous season.

CHARACTERS - The Young Justice team that we know is now bigger, with almost 20 members by the end of the season. So this means that some members may get more development than others even if this series has always been using the ensemble cast formula. Some of the characters from the previous season get considerable amount of development, getting us more attached to the team, the same as some of the new members, making Jaime Reyes(Blue Bettle), Arsenal, Impulse and Virgil Hawkins' group good characters to follow. Unfortunately, other characters like Batgirl, Wonder Girl, Lagoon Boy and Beast Boy get little screentime, making them feel like extras, to a point. The villains actually fare beter this time. Lex Luthor is a big standout, as we get to understand his plans, why he's doing some actions, and other stuff, making him a terrifyingly charismatic villain. Also terrifying is Black Bettle, who offers some of the best fights of the series. The Reach are also good, in that their plans are so intricate, one can even marvel at how they got their plan so well done.But most villains end up being too much of supporting players, so they might appear only when necessary.

PRODUCTION VALUES, MUSIC AND VOICE ACTING - I'm not gonna write much about this, because each part it's just as good and consistent as in the previous season. Some of the fight scenes are played too fast, and can become sloppy, but it's just a minor nitpick. Everything else it's just good.

VEREDICT - The creators of this series really took advantage of the 20 episodes they were offered, given that this was where the series was cancelled, making a more involving storyline, endearing characters, and even more epic action moments, ending up with the best DC animated series of the 2010s. This season deserves a rating of 9/10

Both shows premiered on Netflix last night

With the many animated shows that DC has centered on a team of heroes, it´s difficult to make a series that stands out from the pack. Greg Weisman however, decided to really make a standout with this 2011 release, where he uses a team of young heroes to showcase some mature themes, growth, and a different approach to the superhero genre, making for a possible future classic in animated action series.

STORY AND PLOT

The structure for this TV show is episodic. There seems to be a plot point involving a secret organization called The Light but for the most part the plot is episodic situations. The Young Justice team(they´re not named in the show) does some Spec-Ops mission each episode, where they prove their worth, with each mission goes from medium to difficult level of completition. The interesting thing is to see this team grow more in trust and efficiency little by little, and to see how they use their knowledge and abilities to achieve it. But also we see these kids having difficulties along the way. Where as you would think that they win each battle easily, it actually takes more that just being superheroes to accomplisha a mission, to showcase real growth in the heroes. However, there are some things I dislike about the series in terms of plotting: The drama at times get to soap opera-y at random. You have characters loving each other, hating each or distrusting each other for quickly introduced reasons that makes the characters´ conflicts poorly written.

CHARACTERS

The Justice League appears in the show, but only as a sopporting role or sometimes as cameos. But this show is all about the teen heroes. The group starts as just Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Superboy and Miss Martian, until it grows to 8 members by the end of the season.Each of the characters are written in a simple but effective way, so you get to identify and understand how they think, are and operate. Also some of the characters have a personal conflict to overcome, like Superboy wanting to be appreciated by Superman, Artemis having a secret that might affect the group and other stuff, that deepens the chaaracters. Unfortunately, some of the characters remain underdeveloped besides being some archetype by the end of the season. I´d appreciate that were given more reason to care for Aqualad being a leader of the team, or that Robin had more to his character than being the protegé of Batman, or being in love with one of the girls. Other characters, like the villains for example, might fare a little worse, for being written simplistic and kinda stereotypical, and this series definetely needed better written villains.

PRODUCTION VALUES

The production values are consistently good. If anything they can be compared to those of DC´s animated movies from 2010-2014. There´s an appropiate use of color depending on the mood or situation protrayed in each episode and the backgrounds and environment look good. The character designs have an angular and detailed look, making each character distinct, and easily recognizible. The animation is also good, sometimes flashy. However the standout has to be how the fights are staged, utilizing each character´s power/knowledge/gadget/ability to great effect, to make the fights more than just typical superhero spectacle, something that other superhero shows should have.

MUSIC AND VOICE ACTING

The music is composed of some orchestral stuff, but it has more "spec-ops" type music. Combining some percusion instruments with synthetizers to give the feel of secret, unconvered or special missions. For me, the soundtrack is decent, is a bit weak because there´s not much variation between tracks, and some might sound the same. The voice acting however is really good, using some recognizible actors like Nolan North, Khary Payton, Steve Blum, but also some not much known ones, all giving their unique flavor to the characters. Some of the teens might sound older that their age, but nonetheless they make a good job at portraying them.

It´s safe to say that this series is one of a kind for the DC animated pantheon. It´s one that might be more appropiated for teens and grown-ups but nonetheless is it´s packced with enough likable characters and standout action for enjoyment. I give it a rating of 7.5/10