Young Justice No Longer Sidekicks (Nehanda Buczek-Langham)

## Introduction

"I've got nothing to prove. I'm one of a kind." -Artemis Crock (Young Justice)

For decades famous DC Comic heroes have had sidekicks that work with them to fight crime. This dynamic originated in 1940 *Detective Comics* issue 38 with Dick Greyson assuming the role of Batman's partner Robin. His debut as a main sidekick happened only eleven issues after The Batman originally premiered in the series. A notable TV series that included this dynamic duo was *Batman*  starring actor Adam West as Batman back in the 1960's, furthering the push that a hero has a sidekick. By the 1980's the sidekicks of the Justice League and other super powered teens formed a group known as the *Teen Titans* with, Dick Greyson leading the team. This team was supposed to prove that the teens were able to survive on their own as heroes and create their own identities outside of their mentor's shadows. Nearly two decades later in 1998 the series Young Justice, sometimes simplified to YJ among fans, premiered as a second team of sidekicks. Since the Titans series had been running for years and some of those characters were older and becoming their own heroes, new sidekicks that were not yet ready to be on their own came to take their place as members of Young Justice. In this series the sidekicks were training for their day to break away from the Justice League but were still loyal to their mentors and had not separated themselves from their mentors as the members of the Teen Titans did. It was this series that allowed for new and lesser known sidekicks to finally gain some time in the spotlight.

Young Justice brought numerous characters to life in ways that were previously unseen. In most comics prior to this series the characters were either under heavy watch by a hero or they were on their own as a member of the Titans. Young Justice bridged together that gap of character transformation. It is because of this series that now famous characters such as Superboy, Impulse, Robin (Time Drake the 3rd Robin), Wonder Girl, Secret, as well as Arrowette were finally recognized. Arrowette in particular being an interesting character due to her lack of appearances before this series and briefly afterwards in Green Arrow comics nearly ten years later. The series had a skill in bringing characters that would normally be completely forgotten with familiar faces such as Robin and Superboy. As both the Young Justice team and the Teen Titans grew there was an exchange of characters moving from one team to the next, while members of the Young Justice team entered the Teen Titans, Titans became Justice League members. By 2003 the Young Justice comic series came to an end and characters Secret and Arrowette were seldom heard from again while the other main four continued their journey into the Teen Titans.

   It was thought that although the original '98 series was a hit, that there would never be a remake or continuation due to the popularity of the Teen Titans and the fact that most members of the titans were from the Young Justice team. In November of 2010 television channel Cartoon Network began airing an animated series based upon the original 1998 series, however some of the characters were different. In order to have an audience understand what had happened to the characters and who they were the first season of the show worked with members who later became the Teen Titans and left season two to bring in more familiar faces. In season one the main line up of sidekicks were Robin (Dick Greyson), Kid Flash (Later noted as the cousin once removed to Impulse), Superboy, Aqualad, Miss Martian, and Artemis. Aqualad and Miss Martian were characters that were not given deep backstories in the original series and often appeared as Titan members rather than Young Justice. It was for this reason that the writers and producers decided to give these lesser known characters a chance to have a deeper connection with the audience. It is for the same reason that Artemis takes the place of Arrowette. Artemis was another archer and sidekick to Green Arrow however, she was only in a few comics before her gruesome death via volcano in one of the later *Teen Titan* comics. As for what happened to Secret from the original series, she was later shown as a ghost during a Halloween special in which Artemis and Zatanna, the daughter of the Justice League magician Zatarra, try to find the young girl's killer. In that same season Artemis saves a young Arrowette and her father from an assassin while fighting alongside Green Arrow. By season two Impulse, Wonder Girl, and other side characters that were later introduced to the '98 series became new members of the team and train alongside the now adult team from season one. This series had a large fan following spanning numerous countries, however in March of 2013 the series ended on a cliff hanger with the lead character Kid Flash seeming to die. From then Cartoon Network cut the show from its Saturday morning line up and stopped airing repeat of prior episodes. It wasn't until fans came together and demanded the show return that on November 7th, 2016 and 3rd season was confirmed and is now set to release January 4th, 2019.

## Activism

### Cartoon Network VS The Fans

Upon the series initial cancellation in March of 2013, fans rushed to the Cartoon Network website emailing the company as well as creating petitions through the interactive fan site.The goal was for Cartoon Network to see the fans distress over the beloved series and act upon it. The answer was mixed. I took part in the petitions and together thousands of fans worked together to get messages out to the other people on the website. It was a struggle due to our messages continually being taken down by the website's staff monitors. It came to a point where the Cartoon Network site runners removed the ability for fans to post messages because the cry for the show was so intense they would rather not hear the problem then give a yes or no answer to the fans. With this initial setback most fans were not able to connect with each other afterwards unless they were already friends outside of the website, sadly most people were not. This created a break between the fans and the producers, many fans fought back by not participating in anything Cartoon Network did and went on strike against the company.

### Online Petitions

When Cartoon Network closed themselves off to any fans coming together on their website an online petition went around the internet. The fans refused to be silent and were going to make their voices heard. Plato once thought that written language was passive and would not be useful, however it was the written text that proved to be powerful by getting the fans message across to the producers and voice acting cast of the series who saw the petition and the thousands of signatures.

### Contacting producers

After the producers and voice acting cast became aware of the extreme desire by fans to have the show return, producer Greg Wiseman began sending Tweets out to the fan community. He explained to the public that there were a number of things that had happened including a poor toy sale which led to the shows eventual cancellation, however he too wanted the show to return. For months Wiseman would Tweet out updates and do interviews revolving around the topic of season 3 of Young Justice. Talk of a Netflix series was once in the works to get a number count of the people who would watch the series. Voice actors Stephanie Lemelin, voice of Artemis, and Jason Spisak, voice of Kid Flash, even came out with a twenty seven minuet long interview discussing their roles as voice actors and how to promote "binging" Young Justice in order to return the series.  Walter J. Ong once stated that print creates closure, but that was the problem with just fighting for season 3, there was nothing in print stating officially that there would be a season three. Without having anything in print there was a lack of closer for the audience. Once something is in print it is finalized, nothing can be further done to argue it, but we were not receiving that closure. However, after the idea of streaming the series on Netflix died down after over a year of hype it was released that there would officially be a season three through a DC Streaming service.

#### Season 3 January 4th, 2019

As of November 27th, 2018 the official release date and trailer for the series was released. The series is to air January 4th, 2019 on the DC streaming service. So after nearly six years of waiting for the series to return back in March of 2013, the series is finally seeing a season three.

## Remediation

### Editing communities BFLS

During the years where the show was off the air many fans came together to create fan groups based off series. BFLS or Battlefield Love Studios is a group that focused on editing songs to characters from the DC and Marvel comics. After the end of Young Justice there was a higher use of characters from the series as more people around the world began to hear of it's popularity. In January of 2017 I became a member of this group under the YouTube username ArtemisCrock101. Once able to become a member I found areas on our members only web-page that we had section for members to discuss our opinions and predictions for series such as Young Justice. Most people wanted an answer to the cliff hanger we were left with in season 2 and no one believed that the death of a lead character would be finalized after previous faked deaths in the series. From this most editors played out what they wanted to see from the series as if it had never ended through edits. The last year fan fiction drawings have become a huge part of the media used to edit with. We will use images from what people believe should and could happen and edit it to a song in order to create an extended story-line to a series that would have seemed to die out had it not been for the fans fighting to keep it alive. We had no closure of the story due to the mixed messages up until recently and so as fans we chose to push the idea that the series were to continue.

## Knowledge Communities

### Emergency Awesome

Emergency Awesome is a YouTuber who finds leaked information and uses it to inform the public about the newest updates for TV shows. He has a huge focus on the Young Justice series due to it's sudden cancellation and the fight the fans had to revive the series. In his breakdowns of trailers and Tweets referring to the series based on other DC related series as well as what producers and actors have been caught saying in interviews he finds out what the truth is and what fans could be seeing in the near future for the series. Similar to ChillOne who spoiled survivor, Emergency Awesome studies what producers have done in the past and given the amount of popularity a subject has what will occur next in the process of returning the series or what will happen in the next series. Before the entire trailer was released this year Emergency Awesome predicted what some of the scenarios would happen in season three of Young Justice, and he was correct on all of them. His over Two Million subscriber count backs how much fans appreciate his talent and intense studying he does to bring the content he has to YouTube. Had it not been for Emergency Awesome the updates about Young Justice easily would have been lost among false information what had been thrown around by fans during the fight for the series return,

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## References

1. ↑ Cartoon Network Season 2 Young Justice webpage
2. ↑ Young Justice Online Petition form
3. ↑ Plato, "Writing restructures consciousness". Course Readings, Hum212
4. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbQTf8ohUUE Stephanie Lemelin and Jason Spisak interview.
5. ↑ Ong, Walter. "Print , Space, and Closure". Course Reading Hum 211
6. ↑ Young Justice Season Three Trailer
7. ↑ Battlefield Love Studios YouTube page
8. ↑ ArtemisCrock101 YouTube page
9. ↑ Emergency Awesome YouTube webpage
10. ↑ "Spoiling Survivor" Course Readings HUM 211