If there’s one benefit of superhero tales dominating mainstream media, it’s that journalists have gotten a lot savvier about overlaying the deaths of outstanding superheroes as publicity stunts, reasonably than as huge cultural milestones. DC Comics’ 1992 “Loss of life of Superman” arc obtained such widespread mass-media consideration that it launched a fad for killing off main legacy heroes — who inevitably returned in a method or one other as soon as the novelty wore off. In the meantime, longtime comics followers principally snickered, realizing full nicely that superheroes hardly ever keep useless for lengthy. Normally, killing a hero is simply one other gimmick to promote comics, goose gross sales, and shake up the established order — so the 13-episode first half of Young Justice’s fourth season has been a compelling change of tempo.

Quickly useless protagonists in comics are a well-established cliché, which makes it a lot tougher to get emotionally invested in a hero happening for the rely. Even hero deaths that have been initially meant as everlasting — like Captain America’s sidekick Bucky, or the Jason Todd model of Robin — often get reversed when new writers take over. Within the worst circumstances, they’re reversed immediately, as with the X-Males sequence’ Dark Phoenix saga, the place Cyclops is dramatically declared useless within the final-panel cliffhanger for Uncanny X-Males #133, then offhandedly returned to life within the first panel of difficulty #134.

Young Justice, co-created by Brandon Vietti and Greg Weisman, has beforehand killed heroes, villains, and even innocents with out retracting their deaths later. That’s given the present extra credibility and gravitas for its present operating plotline about one of many sequence’ major protagonists dying in motion. It’s at all times appeared apparent that the character was coming again, and even doubtless that he wasn’t useless within the first place. However the sequence hasn’t been in any hurry to get to his resurrection. And within the interim, the writers have explored the perfect causes to quickly kill off a hero — the explanations that aren’t nearly short-term drama and revenue.

[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for season 4 of Young Justice.]

Picture: HBO Max through Polygon

Season 4 of the present, subtitled Young Justice: Phantoms, splits the story into arcs that focus tightly on a small subset of the immense featured forged. Phantoms’ first arc has Miss Martian, aka M’gann M’orzz, returning to her native planet Mars so she and her fiancé Superboy, aka Conner Kent, can have a conventional Martian marriage ceremony.

In the meantime, M’gann’s brother M’comm has turn out to be the chief of a gaggle of radicals making an attempt to combat again towards Martian bigotry by killing off higher-ranked crimson and inexperienced Martians on behalf of the minority white Martians. When M’comm tries to set off a “gene bomb” designed to focus on crimson and inexperienced Martians, Superboy intervenes and disposes of it. However he’s caught within the blast, leaving nothing behind however a vaguely humanoid smear on a stone wall.

On most TV exhibits, that lack of a corpse could be clear proof that Superboy didn’t truly die. And for viewers within the know, the three characters who have been trailing Superboy and M’gann earlier within the arc — three members of DC’s far-future Legion of Tremendous-Heroes, pursuing a secret mission — recommend a time-travel plot that would clarify how Conner survived the Kryptonite-laced gene bomb by getting yoinked into the longer term at a vital second.

However Phantoms isn’t dashing any reveal. Within the remaining second of episode 13, the final installment of Phantoms earlier than a half-season break, magic-wielding hero Zatanna experiences a fleeting imaginative and prescient of a clear, wounded Conner calling out for assist. She thinks she’s listening to his stressed ghost, however he simply as nicely is likely to be reaching out via a time portal, from the Phantom Zone, or via any variety of different magical or super-science-based phenomena. However that’s the primary trace the present has supplied a few doable Superboy resurrection.

Within the meantime, the sequence has been exploring Superboy’s legacy, within the type of the folks he left behind, and the way they address shedding him. That concentrate on shifting on after loss has turn out to be a significant a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the previous few years: The MCU exhibits WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Hawkeye have all dealt intimately with the fallout from 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, and so have the Tom Holland Spider-Man films. However till lately, it was extraordinarily uncommon to see a superhero story put vital time or thought into the method of mourning or the levels of grief.

Young Justice: Phantoms has notably drawn out the consequences of grief on Beast Boy, the shape-changing hero who owes his life to M’Gann. He’s been seen all through the season first battling previous traumas, then being overwhelmed with this newest one. His despair and insomnia have given strategy to erratic sleep patterns and dependency on sleep aids, all of which have include a denial that something’s flawed, a refusal to speak to anybody about his worsening psychological well being, and a bent to lash out at anybody who pushes him to open up.

However the results on Artemis Crock, now working as Tigress, have been simply as sturdy — her personal preliminary despair and misery quickly give strategy to willpower all through her arc within the first half of the season, as she turns into virtually irrationally protecting of her sister, her fellow heroes, and even some turncoat villains. It’s all come at vital threat to her personal security, as she’s put her personal physique on the road each time she’s confronted a alternative between endangering herself, or accepting additional loss. M’Gann, in the meantime, has gone via phases of intense rage and searching for somebody responsible, adopted by detachment, disassociation, and finally a renewed reference to household.

Like different animated sequence which have handled the consequences of trauma and the need to close different folks out whereas coping with it — Steven Universe instantly involves thoughts — Young Justice emphasizes communication and openness as one of the best ways to rebalance after loss. It’s a heat and useful message for youthful viewers specifically. Watching Artemis cry in her automobile, then pull herself collectively to do her job, feels human and relatable in methods which might be uncommon for superheroes. All too typically, heroes aren’t allowed to precise vulnerability onscreen, besides as ache and rage. Letting them really feel the load of Conner’s loss over an extended arc makes them really feel extra like folks, and fewer like interchangeable energy fantasies.

Picture: HBO Max through Polygon

By taking a lot time with the fallout from Conner’s “dying” (if that’s what it’s), Phantoms has additionally reclaimed a few of the sense of menace that superhero tales typically lack, exactly as a result of dying is so hardly ever significant in these tales. Every little thing this season, from the non-public moments to the massive hero-on-villain motion, has include a heightened sense of the characters’ potential mortality, and an consciousness of the way it makes their selections braver and nobler.

However season 4 has additionally emphasised, with out preaching on the topic, that grief appears to be like completely different for various folks, and it doesn’t occur on a predictable timeline. And the writers are exploring how a lot folks might battle once they’re looking for methods to assist somebody who’s hurting, particularly individuals who insist they don’t need assistance.

Not all the season’s ideas on grief have landed nicely. Specifically, the time spent on Superman making an attempt to elucidate dying to his toddler son Jonny feels prefer it’s aimed toward a lot, a lot youthful viewers than a lot of the present. And the give attention to Superman weeping over Conner is an odd divergence for the present, which has by no means spent a lot time with Superman earlier than, as a result of its give attention to youthful and sometimes newer heroes.

However one of many distinctive issues about Young Justice as a sequence has been the way in which it portrays a broad neighborhood of heroes, who all have their very own issues and struggles, however are all affected by one another’s experiences and selections. The sequence has at all times had a refreshing sense of commonality and neighborhood, even amongst heroes who don’t work collectively instantly, or who strongly agree about elementary features of the work they do. Exploring what dying means to that neighborhood — the way it modifications the protagonists’ selections and the tone of their interactions — helps the present’s world really feel a bit of extra natural and lived-in.

Young Justice: Phantoms has jumped round when it comes to arcs and focus, forsaking some fan-favorite characters for not less than the primary half of the season. And as with each season after the large first arc, the writers try to cram in so many factors of view and so many separate arcs that some have essentially gotten shorter shrift. However the season has been taking the time to let what occurred to Conner sink in sufficient to really feel significant. And within the course of, it’s confirmed that dying doesn’t need to be low-cost and clichéd for superheroes — even when Conner is on his approach again later this season.

The primary three seasons of Young Justice and the primary half of Phantoms are at the moment streaming on HBO Max. The second half of Phantoms’ 26-episode season is because of proceed later this spring. No launch date has been introduced but.