TEEN SPIRIT
Brian Michael Bendis unites DC’s teen heroes in new Young Justice-led imprint Wonder Comics
When Brian Michael Bendis was offered his own pop-up imprint following his move to DC, he originally planned to concentrate on crime. But after wrapping up runs on Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and the Riri Williams-starring Invincible Iron Man, he realised that what DC needed was a home for its younger heroes.
“I thought we could do something like the Ultimate line, which would be a very readerfriendly introduction for people of a certain age,” Bendis tells Red Alert. “So I suggested something along those lines, where we focus on that moment where you’re really filled with the wonder of life, and the wonder of all the things that come with discovering what the world is really like and what your place in it is. The end point of that is Young Justice.”
Bendis and Patrick Gleason’s Young Justice begins the Wonder Comics line, and is based around the nucleus of Connor Kent’s Superboy, Tim Drake’s Robin, Wonder Girl and Impulse. Bendis will also introduce two brand new characters to Young Justice’s ranks in Teen Lantern and Jinny Hex. “It starts with Jonah Hex leaving a trunk of DC secrets to his great-great-granddaughter, who didn’t even know who he was or that she was related to him,” Bendis teases. “Jinny Hex comes from Dripping Springs, Texas, and was raised very differently from everyone else on the team.”
Young Justice’s line-up is completed by Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, whose homeland creates chaos when it merges with Metropolis in #1. “We’re going to discover that Gemworld is affected when things happen on Earth,” explains Bendis. “Every time there was a crisis or some sort of rebirth, it does something to Gemworld. Once [Gemworld ruler] Dark Opal discovers this, the entire Earth becomes an enemy, which gives us an opportunity to bring the entire world of Amethyst to the present with all-new things that relate to what’s going on in comics today.” BC
Young Justice starts its run on 9 January.