Young Justice Season 4 Theory: Doomsday Clock Inspired Metahuman Arms Race (October 2019)

 This is the second post I made on Young Justice Season 4. 

This time the focus is on the more grounded aspects of the show, primarily inspired by the Metahuman Arms Race subplot in Doomsday Clock. 

With Darkseid, time travel and the Legion in the mix, common inspirations for the stories coming could be the Great Darkness Saga and Final Crisis. However, with the strong influence from Rebirth, Doomsday Clock influence is possible too. That subplot is perfect to adapt for the grounded, international politics stuff the show's been dealing with

Since then the title of the season was announced to be "Phantoms". I may make a whole post on this in the future but that and the green color scheme leads me to believe the Spectre, and his history with Vlatava from John Ostrander's run, may be involved.

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SPOILERS FOR SEASON 3 (and the entire show so far)

I. Introduction

From the before season 3, Greg has expressed great admiration for DC Rebirth and has said he wished to take inspiration from it for the upcoming seasons.

As I've pointed out and further discussed in my last theory post (highly recommend reading that before this but it's not necessary), this reflects a lot in season 3 and the foreshadowed parts of season 4.

The most obvious part being having a Legionnaire in the present (likely Saturn Girl):

LoSH's Saturn Girl in Rebirth

A Legion Ring worn by a blonde waiter in S3's final shot

If you follow current DC Comics you'd know that Rebirth is followed up by the Button and Doomsday Clock.

The latter is where the Superman Conspiracy Theory comes in.

II. The Supermen Conspiracy Theory and the Meta Arms Race

The Supermen Conspiracy Theory

The theory states that the reason an incredibly large percentage of metahumans, and meta heroes specifically, are from the U.S., is that a LOT of them were actually created by a secret U.S. government program, under the guise of accidents, with most of the heroes not even knowing initially.

One example is Firestorm. A hero made of 2 humans. Scientist Martin Stein and Ronnie Raymond. Only the former knows the truth and has hidden it from Ronnie this whole time.

Ronnie is shown the Truth

This naturally leads to a lot of controversy, tension in international relations, and of course a metahuman arms race.

Global Metahuman Arms Race

Nations around the world began to focus on making their own meta heroes. They're using LexCorp tech to scan and discover them and recruit them. Other specific events:

• The U.K.'s Knight and Squire, former Batman Inc. members, create Knights Inc.

• Justice League Europe returns

• Countries like Israel, the Russia, China and India make their own hero teams

• Geo-Force makes a new Outsiders team for Markovia with Helga Jace helping

• Black Adam using his position as ruler of Khandaq and mystical champion to take in meta refugees and amass an army of Metas to invade the U.N. and the U.S. after tensions between the countries blow up.

Doomsday Clock concludes with issue 12 this December 18. Until then we won't know how this pans out.

III. How this can inspire what the show will do next:

The Metahuman storyline is a huge part of Young Justice.

Superpowered heroes existed in YJ since their 1940s and came back years before season 1, season 2 finally revealed the metagene's existence to the public, which of course leads to the rise of metahuman trafficking in season 3.

What's the next logical step?

A Metahuman Arms race, with the threat of WW3 and Nuclear Armageddon. Hence, a Doomsday Clock.

Season 3 alone has planted many seeds:

Goode goggles detecting Metas

Amanda Waller's Suicide Squad Weaponizing Metas

Genetically Engineered Metas

Russia's Rocket Reds

Markovian King Brion with Zviad Baazovi and Helga Jace

At the end of the season Jefferson brings up Brion as a fallen hero along with the likes of Vandal, Ra's and even Black Adam. It's possible BA might make a come back in this way. That or they could give his role to Brion which makes sense.

Brion would make Markovia a safe haven for Metahumans with Helga Jace helping out in the creation of his own Outsiders team. As the world gets tenser and tenser, the Light, via Zviad, would manipulate Brion to join in and straight up use his Meta army to wage war.

This storyline will definitely be the central "grounded" or Earth based story. Meanwhile we have Darkseid's Invasion and duel with Vandal, the Legion trying to prevent the future from being erased through time travel and much more.

Season 4 is going to be HUGE.