Posted in: HBO, Preview, streaming, TV | Tagged: hbo max, phantoms, season 4, young justice

Young Justice: Weisman & Jones Discuss Earth-16 Post "Phantoms"

Last week saw the season finale S04E26 "Death and Rebirth" hit HBO Max screens, bringing to an end Greg Weisman & Brandon Vietti's Young Justice: Phantoms. Well, kinda. As fans continue to stream the season and talk up the animated series on social media, Weisman & artist Christopher Jones are teaming on the six-issue, digital-first limited series Young Justice: Targets, set to hit on July 26th. Why should YJ fans care? Because the series picks up immediately after the ending of "Phantoms," they're getting some in-canon goodness to enjoy. And along with that, each issue will also have a backup story sharing a previously-unseen YJ adventure from a previous season. And what can fans expect? Here's the overview: "Queen Perdita has been kidnapped! Mysterious armored assailants have snatched the Vlatavan royal out from beneath Bowhunter Security, leaving Green Arrow and Black Canary poisoned and comatose in the process! Now a rallying cry echoes around the globe, and across super-teams, to band together and rescue Perdita!" Now thanks to an excellent interview from My Droll (check it out here), Weisman & Jones offer some insights into how the heroes of Earth-16 are fairing post-"Phantoms" and how that factors into their response to Perdita's abduction.

"I think there's a lot of catharsis for our main cast, and even for a lot of the supporting cast around them. People are generally feeling pretty good. Beast Boy is on the mend. Conner and Megan successfully wed and no super-villains attacked during the ceremony. People are feeling pretty good, so this abduction of Perdita hits hard. There's a big response to it," Weisman shared. "Like, 'We're not going through this again. We lost Connor for months. We thought we'd lost Rocket. We thought we lost Nightwing. We thought we lost a whole bunch of people on Bio-Ship. We thought Miss Martian got her heart pulled out of her chest. We thought all sorts of horrible things, and you know what? None of those are going to stop us. And now you grab Perdita? No, just no.' I think they're starting in a fairly good place, and thus, the response to this is immediate and fairly intense."

"One of the things I really like about the story is that it's not just heroes responding to a crisis, you're also seeing how they respond to it because of personal histories and relationships," Jones explained. "To me, that's one of the defining characteristics of the show. It's as much about the relationships and how they're impacted over time by the adventures that are being had. And that's definitely present in the comic." With Weisman adding, "Right. Perdita is one of their own."

And here's a better look at what Vietti shared:

And here, Weisman offering a quick update on Season 5… in that there isn't any update (one way or another, "good or bad") on if HBO Max is moving forward on a new season or not. But for now? #KeepBingingYJ, and make sure to get a copy (or 12) of Young Justice: Targets…

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!