Young Justice #6

3 aspects that make this issue awesome, 1) A lot of girl talk, WG Cassie Sandsmark and Arrowette Cissie bond, for the first time, and WW has a little talk with the Girl too. 2) The Fight. The villain they're taking on is one of the toughest aliens Superman or the JLA ever had to face. In fact I have the Breakdowns issues where it took all of the League (JLE or JLU, Guy Gardner, Booster, Beetle, Manhunter, Power Girl, etc.,) AND Lobo to control Despero before he tore up the place. They weren't just taking out Despero, but Despero with Manhunter's powers. 3) This is the issue where they prove to the JLA where they can handle stuff.

And as a special #4 mention to who actually handles the situation, what exactly is Secret?

We'll break the order i've set up and start with the fight, because it takes up most of the issue and is the most significant part. Yes, the villain is Despero, but it's a disembodied Despero. Despero has once taken over L-Ron as well. So Despero is at like.. half power, and is stealing different bodies to battle the kids. They are never as powerful as the actual Despero, because they're just temporary human hosts, but then Despero never gets tired while the kids do. And as YJ often brings up the issue of who the strongest character type is, (Is it the S family? the Bat family? or, maybe, just maybe, a Flash?) and we're given multiple answers simultaneously, (never a true one though) Superboy's Despero's first choice, because as he says, Robin is too ordinary. SB's a SUPER hero, even a Flash (though usually within the "Enhanced human" range and not quite SUPER,) can still do stuff ordinary humans can't. But Batman or Robin, no matter how much they train themselves, has to hit a barrier somewhere. Batman or Robin can never vibrate through stuff. And even if they might be able to lift twice their body weight, they could never catch a falling plane, and hold it. And Despero will be the controller, he will be the driver of whatever body he steals. So he could make an ordinary, average human body do things it's wearer would rarely ever do. The circus strongman he steals could be used to it's highest potential, (ex: top reaction speed, top agility, and Despero's intelligence), so that could become a better vehicle than Robin, even close to, or better than, Batman himself. But what if you use Despero's cunning and intelligence, with either of the other bodies? Grand Prix, waaaay better than Robin.

Impulse is no slouch either, he's a brainiac too. He's a genius scientist dude and even here, as he "thinks on his feet", is able to realize a way to tackle the big M, with a trick no one else realized,

But Robin's leader for a reason (a reason that has more to do with his decisions regarding morality, according to Tornado in the 1st issue, but,) He goes one step further than grabbing by the cape, and to the biggest weakness Manhunter has. Fire. That's a JLA: Doom move he pulled, because he's batman's student. Both moves, the cape toss and lighter, came through prior knowledge, but one was more creative than the other. Bart's was more creative, Robin's was more plain, but sometimes, detectives have to go by facts and plain.

How Despero ended up fighting as the Martian is sort of like what fans do in comic battles, set up a situation so that even the best of friends will get serious and not hold back. However, we could say the boy's win was more plot induced than anything. But Despero WAS disembodied, against the real Despero they may not have done so well? But, the villain was twice amped up, he was Despero, AND a Leaguer, a Martian, at the same time.

Now, to section 2, I think it's adorable how Cassie and Arrowette thought their names matched, and were jealous of each other, and admitted it to each other. I also think Arrowette is a BADASS for yelling at the entire League. Not just Superman alone, not just facing up to the goddamn Batman, but to everyone.

Even Diana and Wonder Girl have a little chat, and she fully endorses Cassie to carry on the WG name, and we find out that Titan alum Donna Troy has done the same.

Topic number 1, and what this issue really is about, the elephant in the room. This isn't the first time the JLA has shown up in YJ comics. Superman and Batman appeared in the original Secret issue which predated the 1st YJ issue itself. By now, we've done some crossovers like "World Without Grownups". But here's the passing of the torch. The big endorsements. Obviously, Batman has accepted Tim as his new main man long ago, and Bart's run with Wally before, and the moment Superman came back from the dead and met his cloned self, he gave the Kid his blessing. But what about GL and Wonder Woman? Aquaman, Manhunter and Wally? Wally has now endorsed the entire team, not just Bart, and so has Superman. (we see Superman, being the nicest dude ever, has more trust in the youngsters than Wally) Although, they haven't passed the test completely, they accepted a challenge (that thy themselves actually put forward, it was SB's idea to let the younger team do it, and Bart's idea to make it 30 minutes) and against greater odds than expected, came out semi-victorious.

Also, I never realized how the heroes of the older generation were somehow ALL only children! or orphans at best. Aquaman had a brother, and Diana had a whole tribe of "sisters". Then again, she was the only kid there, and had to create Donna out of boredom.

So, what exactly is Secret? Now the guys call her Secret because exposing her existence could bring a threat to her life. But I'll tell you why the creators call her Secret, because they wanted a character without a name or origin, that's why. Her episode in the "Secret Origins" 40 paged, is literally her walking up to Tornado and saying she doesn't know where she came from. Her "origin" is that she was broken out of a lab. But no parents, last names, or locations were disclosed. We don't even know her first name.

Apparently, she's the ABYSS! The place of no return. In the issue where the guys rescued her, she assumed the form of a monster to fight the DEO gang (because she's made of gas and gasses are formless) The boys then got to know her as a little girl. But is she? Is she really? Whatever her true form is, she seems to be inertly good because she wanted to go back and bust out her friends from the prison/penitentiary that was masquerading around as the "DEO". But was that actually her plan? or did she want to erase the files in her name, or take revenge on the DEO or something as well? Either way, she at least seems to WANT to be good, through the inspiration of the 3 young boys, SB, Bart, and Robin.

So it's a good thing to have someone like that on your side, rather than the enemy's, BECAUSE THIS LITTLE GIRL CAN SCARE DESPERO. Despero, who can flatten out the JLA with ease, is scared of Secret! One look at her and he's ready to pee his pants. And they might know each other from before as well. Be careful Despero, because sometimes when you look into the Abyss, the Abyss may look back at you. And you do NOT want to blink.

This issue gets all stars presentable because it uses the span of a single ordinary comic to deliver 3 stories wrapped into each other, focusing on all 14 good guy characters, plus Despero. There's a fight inside the fight as we go through the attributes of the boys, like this was a D&D game. SB's a warrior or a berserker, yet he's also a mage with his T.K. (and implanted knowledge? let's not forget he's a walking Encyclopedia) Impulse has agility, but he doesn't lack in intelligence. Generations clash as kids of YJ face the JLA, in it's entirety. There's a soft, sentimental part between the ladies sitting around and having a chat, powerful as they are. And there's Secret gobbling up monsters. And as the previous couple issues did, the story is topped with the icing that is Todd Nauck's beautiful art, so we've already added some points at the beginning itself.