Reactions to Young Justice Season 1, and the first 3 episodes of Season 2

So, with my close buddy nightcrawlerfan, I've finally been able to properly digest the first season of the absurdly hyped up Young Justice animated series, and have now begun the journey through the second season.

I will now give some brief thoughts on the overall show, and how I feel about it.

In the case of Season 1, while I fully understand the appeal the show had, I myself found it to be rather underwhelming. While I did end up enjoying this version of Dick Grayson and Wally West then I imagined, Superboy and M'gaan's character arcs were bogged down by their endless 'Will They, Won't They' ship teasing, Aqualad was completely and utterly useless, and Zatanna only got dropped in the final set of episodes, and therefore really didn't get to have much character development. I liked her a lot though, but I feel she was shafted in favor of more Superboy/Miss Martian shipping, and Superboy's endless wangst about being a Superman clone.

Speaking of Superman, he, and by extension the rest of the JLA were horrifically flat as characters, with barely any purpose beyond being the guys who sent the team on their respective mission, whatever that mission might be. Superman especially got the shaft, with him acting quite un-Superman towards Superboy, and generally being a rather non-charismatic individual. While I understand that the show's focus is going to be on the Young Justice team, that should not mean that the Justice League themselves be reduced to cardboard cut outs of themselves.

The Light itself is about as generic as one can get as evil villain teams go. And since they're behind everything, and always seem to have a backup plan for their backup plans, it means that no matter what the JLA or the Young Justice teams do, The Light wins. Furthermore, their plans are convoluted, and really only work because the JLA has no real presence in this world, and the Young Justice team is spending too much time worrying about their dating life to handle these dorks.

However, character development does happen, and it's good character development, which is good. But still, overall, it was underwhelming, and I felt that Teen Titans had a better handle on it's characters, their motivations, and their respective story arcs, and relied less on the Idiot Ball or Gambit Pileups in order to work.

All these issues however are just compounded and strengthened when we see the beginning of Season 2, which jumps ahead FIVE YEARS in the timeline, and now the entire team dynamic is different, at least 6 new heroes have joined the team, including Tim Drake's Robin, Beast Boy, Batgirl, Bumble Bee, Blue Beetle and Wonder Girl, characters we've either only met in one episode (Beast Boy), or as a walk by role in one episode (Bumble Bee), or are entirely and completely unknown to us (Tim Drake, Blue Beetle, Wonder Girl). This means that I am very, VERY confused watching it, since now I have to figure out the dynamics of an entirely new team, along with a team that has irrecoverably changed in how they act. It feels like an entirely different show, and not the subsequent follow up of the previous season.

It'd be almost like True Detective Season 2 tried to split both the story in LA, with the continuation of the first season's story. If you wanted to almost completely revamp EVERYTHING about the show (such as switching out a good 80% of the cast for new people), then make the series an anthology series, and have each season have it's own iteration of the Young Justice team, with their own, individual myth arcs and plotlines, so that way we're not wondering why we have a Wonder Girl, while simultaneously trying to figure out why Superboy and Miss Martian broke up even though they were totally together at the end of the first season.

Now, I'll admit that I'm only about 3 or 4 episodes into the second season, but I shouldn't be this wildly confused. Each episode feels more like a scene from the middle entry of a sprawling franchise, as if we skipped an entire movie (whatever happened during the five year time skip), and are now starting from the middle of yet another entry in the franchise. It's very frustrating.

But yeah, those are my thoughts. Go figure.