As was expected, the creators of Young Justice made a presentation at DC FanDome, including a new trailer for the fourth season. But what was totally unexpected is that HBO Max has dropped a surprise release of the first two new episodes of the season subtitled Phantoms. That’s right! Young Justice is back!
The first two episodes, “Inhospitable” and “Needful” center on the wedding of Superboy and Miss Martian as they journey to Mars (or rather “M’Arzz” as it’s spelled here) for a religious ceremony. There they, along with Beast Boy (M’Gann’s Earthly adopted brother), experience a world torn apart by a form of Apartheid, where the red Martians rule, the Green are the ethnic majority, and the white– like M’Gann– are the minority. But if there’s anything worse than a white Martian to the Green, it’s a filthy immigrant from Earth!
More excitingly to fans of the comics, Phantoms introduces another timeless team of teen superheroes as teased at the end of Season 3.
In a recent interview, creators Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti spoke about their approach to the newest episodes:
GREG WEISMAN: This season focuses more on individual character dynamics than on League/Team/Outsiders politics. But we will see a bit of each of these squads (among others), and covert action is always an important part of the Young Justice dynamic.
BRANDON VIETTI: Coming clean doesn’t always mean staying clean. We always find reasons for characters to engage in more secrets and lies that complicate both hero life and private life. And it’s through complications and covert actions that we learn the most about our characters and their evolving dynamics with each other.
Obviously, in the two new episodes, the focus is on Superboy, Miss Martian, and Beast Boy, but look for a little more attention paid to Nightwing, Tigress, Aquaman (who had been scarce in the last season), and Zatanna and Rocket, who joined “The Team” at the end of Season 1 but had graduated by Season 2 and appeared very little.
GREG WEISMAN: We expand the cast with every season, always introducing new young heroes. (It’s not called Young Justice for nothing!) But, as always, we don’t attempt to give every character full coverage in every season. The needs of story and the growth of our original core cast of heroes (now going by Nightwing, Aquaman, Superboy, Miss Martian, Tigress, Zatanna and Rocket) dictate which other characters — new and old — we’ll focus on.
New episodes of Young Justice: Phantoms will be released on HBO Max every Thursday!
