It’s a world where black market traders in meta-humans are on the rise, where the Justice League has fallen apart due to political pressure from the now Trump-like Lex Luthor to work for him or else, and where friendships between teen heroes are failing due to peer pressure and old loyalties. Welcome home, Young Justice…

It seems to have been ages since we last saw Young Justice, mourning the death of Kid Flash, trying to work out which Red Arrow was real and getting ready to face Darkseid and the forces of Apokolips who were revealed to be allied with series bad guys, The Light and leaving us all on a cliffhanger screaming “What, you can’t end it like that???”

And it has indeed been ages – six looooong years, during which time most of us had come to terms (if never really accepting) that the only true successor to the DC Animation Universe created by Bruce Timm was gone. A slew of other animated series has come and gone in the meantime, none of them coming close to the emotional punch, sophisticated storytelling and quality animation that Young Justice offered.

But now it’s back (taking a two-year story leap since the end of Season 2) with its subtitle of ‘Outsiders’ (another DC group of young – though not teen – heroes). The first three episodes (for that’s how the 26-part series is being delivered, in chunks of three eps per week so far) see a curious blending of familiar Young Justice and Justice League characters alongside Outsider newcomers like Halo and Geo-Force. Sadly, this means that a number of familiar favourites have so far only been seen as cameos (Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Miss Martian, Alanna etc) but hopefully they’ll get their share of the spotlight soon. And if one wants to be nit-picky, it seems odd that G Gordon Godfrey is back on TV, doing his best Bill O’Reilly impersonation when he was part of the Light and last seen alongside Vandal Savage and Darkseid, but maybe that’s a plotline yet to be explored.

Taking this third season of Young Justice up a notch has been the bravery of the creators to make it a tad more… adult is the wrong word, but certainly darker. When Geo-Force’s parents are slaughtered there’s blood. A lot of blood – like an episode’s worth of CSI’s trademark splatter and gunk. Similarly, when Halo gets her head crushed by the burning hands of (a surprisingly short-lived) Plasmus, it ain’t pretty. There’s a grit to the animation that complements the darkness of the writing, and this makes for a very satisfying whole. These first three episodes acts a sort of mini-adventure, focussing on Nightwing, Superboy (and his amazing losing-his-clothing-at-every-opportunity skills), Tigress (although occasionally she’s still called Artemis – huzzah) and Lightning. Whilst these opening eps will clearly have ramifications down the line, the story also neatly tied up and Bedlam – villain of the week – shut down, making a very satisfying watch; with enough threads to guarantee you’ll be hooked for the next 23 episodes.

Verdict: Rarely does a TV show come back from the dead after such a length of time and still satisfy on every count. There is seriously nothing wrong with these first three episodes of Young Justice: Outsiders and frankly, it leaves you desperate for more… Showrunners Weismann, Vietti and Register have done the seemingly impossible and should be applauded. Hourly. Without fail. 10/10

Gary Russell