Netflix Might Renew Young Justice – Here’s Why They Should

Earlier this month, Comic Book Resources and voice actor Khary Payton (Aqualad, Cyborg) reported that Netflix is looking at numbers for Young Justice to see if a third season is a possibility.

And it seriously needs to happen.

Payton and producer Greg Weisman have been asking fans to watch and tweet about Young Justice with #RenewYoungJustice, since now would be an important time to watch the series so Netflix sees just how much we love the show.

This show was a triumph that grew a huge fan base in record time, and yet the network cancelled it after two seasons. Why? I’m still not sure. But the minute it was gone, petitions went up to try to get the show back – to no avail, unfortunately. But here’s our chance! Young Justice now lives on forever through Netflix, so of course they’re the perfect candidate to revive the series. Here are just a few reasons the show deserves renewal.

The animation was fantastic

DC animated films are known for their spectacular animation, and Young Justice tapped into this with fantastic results. Among the art department talent were crew who had worked on previous DC triumphs like Batman: Under the Red Hood, The Flashpoint Paradox, Justice League: Doom, and The Dark Knight Returns. It had a unique style that was ideal for action sequences while also lending to the storytelling, and some interesting new character designs to top everything off.

A callback to Teen Titans while still being something new

For many of us, the original Teen Titans animated series was our first mainstream introduction to DC‘s younger heroes. In the same way Legend of Korra played to the audience that grew up with Avatar: The Last Airbender, Young Justice was essentially a grown up Teen Titans that was willing to go to darker places. Of course, it wasn’t an actual spinoff like with the Avatar universe, but we did see familiar characters in Robin, Beast Boy, Speedy, Bumblebee and a few others. The show also payed tribute to the classic Justice League cartoons by introducing countless League characters, even if only for 12 second scenes. And on that note…

The hero and villain roster was not afraid to expand

When dealing with superhero stories you often have heroes facing off with their usual arch nemesis, while certain teams have their own trademark villains. Young Justice embraced the vastness of DC‘s character roster. The young heroes dealt with a variety of foes like Killer Frost, Klarion, and the Reach as well as villains that are usually associated with specific (often older) heroes, like Batman’s Joker and Clayface or Aquaman’s Black Manta. The Justice League didn’t stick to its 7 original (and most well-known) heroes either, making use of Zatara, several different Green Lanterns, Icon, Red Tornado – characters you don’t always see. Plus, they had some badass ladies and people of colour!

It didn’t underestimate its audience

The divide between Season 1 and 2 jumped across 5 years – that can be a scary thing to do. They were skipping over all that information and change, and then trusting the audience to be able to keep up. As it turns out, we kept up just fine, in fact the
jump made it that much more interesting. For YJ‘s core team, a few members were added over the course of season 1, then in the jump to season 2 we had an entirely new crew. And when adding more characters, they didn’t say “no don’t use Rocket or Impulse, no one will know who that is”, they just rolled with it. Comic book fans were excited to recognize those seldom-used characters, and less familiar fans will see them in action and probably still enjoy them regardless of if they know their entire backstory. Perhaps they’ll even be encouraged to read and learn more about them.

The storytelling was compelling

In general, the show was so incredibly interesting to watch, and the voice talent was unquestionably excellent. Not to mention the high quality sass that came with the writing.  They paid attention to the action and comic book references of course, but the emotional depth was there too. Artemis’ moral dilemma of coming from a family of super villains, Superboy trying to understand a world he’s never known and connect with a father figure who doesn’t necessarily want him, Miss Martian fearing her alien form and underestimating her abilities. They even dove into how Blue Beetle’s powers work, Red Arrow and Cheshire’s relationship, and Dick Grayson’s past in Haley’s Circus. And don’t even talk to me about Kid Flash.

Bottom line: Young Justice was accessible to a large and diverse audience, offering something for everyone from hardcore comic book fans to newbies taking their first steps into the DC universe.