The beginning of the panic.

At first glance this tweet seems almost like good news, but to real fans of Young Justice, it was a sign of things to come.  Cartoon Network puts its shows that air new episodes on hiatus during the winter and summer holidays due to reduced ratings which is understandable from a business standpoint. However, a show that has a 157 day break after only nine episodes will cause some impatience in a fandom and a 104 day break after only nine more episodes will really start to piss people off. Luckily for Cartoon Network fans enjoyed the show and received not just the conclusion to season one, but were granted the first seven episodes of season two. At this point we were almost used to hiatus’ and we struggled our way through 110 more days of anger. What did we get in return? A great episode to end the hiatus that was followed by some huge plot develop the week after. The Young Justice fandom was about as excited as it had ever been going into episode three, but things were not as joyous as they appeared.

We now interrupt your regularly scheduled programming…

You may be wondering why I posted a picture that is clearly not related to Young Justice. The reason for this is because about ten hours prior to the time slot for Young Justice Invasion , Cartoon Network swapped in an hour of Dreamwork’s Dragons: Riders of Berk for DC Nation. The move was so sudden that TV guides still had Young Justice scheduled to air and some of the people directly involved in the making of Young Justice were not even informed of the move. For quite some time the fans were confused. We had just gotten out of a 110 day hiatus and now words like “cancelled” were being bandied about. We all held out hope when the new episode leaked to iTunes and was the most bought animated show that week.

Proof that the show is profitable.

However, we got a rude awakening when the show was not only taken down from iTunes, but we were told that we would have to wait until January to see new episodes of our favorite teen heroes. Even after all of this, the fans knew that going through a new hiatus, even one as abrupt as this one, was just a part of the game. I have stayed optimistic, but I recently received some shocking news.

They just won’t stop hurting us.

The tie in comic for Young Justice has been cancelled. This hurt not only because I have been buying this comic series, but because of the omen this news brings with it. We get an abrupt hiatus, the tie in comic gets cancelled, and a large portion of the fandom is older teens and people in their twenties. The issue with that group of people, which includes me,  being a big part of the fan base is that such people usually watch shows like this online for free and do not pay for cable. I do not wish to generalize the 16-30 demographic or offend anyone in it, but watching things online for free does not help out a show that needs money to continue. When you can watch or read things for free and have the knowledge to do so, one will normally wish to hold onto their money. What I am trying to get at is that what we are seeing is scary for anyone that wants to see more Young Justice. Also, before you go thinking that there is no way a successful series on a major network can get cancelled in the middle of major plot development, remember what Cartoon Network did to a very similar series in Teen Titans.

I am really sad right now.