Young Justice Season 4 has given us an exciting story structure that still interconnects with what came before. It’s a good change, as the previous season got a lukewarm response from fans who had wanted the show back after so many years of its uncertain fate. The mid-season finale has dropped, and we thought we’d dive into the trauma our characters faced in the first thirteen episodes.
If we’re honest, the structure works much better than Season 3, as it doesn’t spend too much time on the same characters. It allows the audience to breathe and spend time with other characters we haven’t spent much time with.
Since this post covers the arcs of the first thirteen episodes of Season 4, we’re going to break the way the arcs played out:
- Conner, M’gann, and Garfield
- Artemis and Jade
- Zatanna
An Almost Mars Wedding And A Death
A year has passed, and M’Gann and Conner have overcome the obstacles from Season 3. They’re finally ready to walk down that marital aisle. Unfortunately, though, they are not expecting drama in what should be the happiest moment of their lives.
Upon arrival, they’re greeted with a somewhat hostile situation with Mars’ king mysteriously murdered. Also, one of M’gann’s brothers, M’Comm, is a suspect. Not to mention, there is tension between M’gann and her sister, Em’ree. On top of everything, Gar has relationship troubles with Queen Perdita, and past trauma resurfaces involving the death of his mother, Marie.
It’s not until a bomb detonates laced with Kryptonite does M’gann’s trauma of losing the man she loves begins.
Conner’s death is felt throughout the team when the news reaches Earth. It even also affects Conner’s adoptive family, the Kents. His older “brother” Kal-El and his wife Lois have to explain to their toddler son, Jonny, that his uncle is gone.
Elsewhere, Artemis is told of the news by Kaldur and Dick.
Also, Gar, having returned to Earth, begins withdrawing from everyone. He struggles to connect on the set of Space Trek, much to the annoyance of his director. Even the Outsiders start to notice their leader’s withdrawal. It becomes so bad that it causes Perdita travels to Hollywood to try and sort it out. However, she realises that he’s been taking pills and sees that his trauma runs deeper.
Through Wonderland
As Artemis deals with Conner’s death in her way, having seen him as the brother she never had, she also has to deal with her relationship with her sister, Jade. Moreover, she must also determine whether Cassandra Savage or Onyx Adams is a traitor.
At the same time, it makes her look at her relationship with her sister and how much she valued it as they grew up. It makes Jade realise that she is missing out on Lian’s upbringing by keeping herself away from her family. It also showed how Paula could play mediator between her two daughters.
Magic
The third arc focuses on Zatanna and her three protégés, Thirteen, Khalid, and Mary, as they come up against the Lords of Chaos. When Child, a female Chaos Lord, seeks to steal power from Klarion the Witch Boy, Zatanna and her students must fight trauma to preserve the balance of the world.
Meanwhile, Vandal Savage faces personal trauma from the many centuries he’s been alive. He loses several of his children to various conflicts. Moreover, this includes the sinking of Atlantis, which costs his grandson’s life.
Even Zatanna’s father, Zatara, faces the trauma of spending the last decade as the host of Nabu and being Doctor Fate.
