Why Superboy isn't Dead

I’ve seen this trick before.

And it is a trick–we see the exact same tactic used one episode earlier. Just swap in J’onn for Conner.

Turns out, J’onn’s okay–he teleported to the Watchtower just before the explosion happened.

Hm. I wonder who could whisk Superboy away seconds before he died?

Oh, I don’t know–maybe the superpowered team from the future with a flying time bubble that conveniently flew off-screen right before the events leading up to the explosion?

We don’t see them after that, and in the world of fantasy that leaves plenty of time for them to intervene.

I’m particularly annoyed, though, by the dark outline of Conner’s body.

First of all, I doubt an explosion would have left a perfect outline behind. Even an atomic explosion doesn’t work like that–the silhouettes of people are actually shadows. If you were to be vaporized entirely, there would be no silhouette.

Even if we assume that the explosion produced a bright light, it couldn’t project itself onto any surface in this way because–and this is an integral plot point, one that we stare at for multiple minutes–Conner is over his head in lava.

Lava, in case the viewers and the writers have forgotten, is molten rock.

Explosions tend to rip through bodies and scatter their pieces in the first place. This explosion would have had to go through molten rock… And then… Leave an afterimage… On molten rock.

The rule of cool is typically the law of the land when it comes to creating fiction, but when writers challenge their viewers’ willing suspension if disbelief too often, they make it harder to stay invested.

Now, I’m willing to suspend disbelief during the scene where Conner is destroying the bomb. It doesn’t make sense, but it’s necessary for the narrative–they’re showing the viewer what’s happening instead of telling through dialogue or cutting it short, and I can respect that.

The outline, however, was entirely unnecessary.

Perhaps they’re trying to avoid a repeat of the Wally situation. When Kid Flash “ceased,” fans insisted–and continue to insist–that he didn’t actually die because we didn’t see the body.

The thing is, seeing Wally’s ashes would have made sense. He was essentially vaporized. Even an after-image would have made more sense in that scenario–although only barely, considering that he was going at mach speed.

At any rate, even if the lava had encased Conner in a hard shell, M’gann wouldn’t have been able to see that without seeing through the molten rock.

(M’gann, notably, is not a character with x-ray vision.)

I’ve checked. Lava is not see through.

(…unless you’re talking about Minecraft lava. Apparently you can do that there.)

So there’s no way for the explosion to have actually left an outline of Superboy’s body, we don’t know what the Legion is doing off-camera, the scene is basically a mirror of the one where Miss Martian thought she lost her uncle…

“I can’t feel his mind touch” part two, featuring bootleg YouTube subtitles because I don’t pay for the HBO account I’m using to watch this show

…and the writers expect me to believe that Superboy is actually dead.

I don’t feel sad. I feel emotionally manipulated.

It did work, though. Fans had the hashtag trending on Twitter, and that one scene alone has generated dozens of articles in the past week. (Whoops.)

Don’t get me wrong–I love Young Justice, even after the disappointing treatment of Cyborg last season. It feels like the show I fell in love with again.

I just don’t appreciate the runaround. And the narratives devices involved are hinting that the runaround is exactly what the writers are giving us.

I've seen people compare Connor's death to Wally's, because fans of Wally also insist he's coming back. After all, we didn't see the body.

The thing is, Wally didn't have any of these narrative devices surrounding his death. No mirror. The setup was that of a last goodbye--reconnection with his loved one, a passionate last kiss, a moving speech about how much he cares about everyone.

There's also one key difference that hasn't shown up in the narrative itself:

Connor "died" in the season the chose to call "Phantoms."

I could be wrong. They could be leading us on. But I would bet money that Connor comes back.