Cold Case

Young Justice #9: "Cold Case" is the tenth issue of the official Young Justice spin-off comic series.

Solicitation
The Team is taking Espionage 101 from Captain Atom. Their class project is to solve a cold case that involves a forty-year-old murder mystery, a military conspiracy and a half-decent chance that none of them will come out alive.

Synopsis
Captain Atom is giving the Team a lecture on espionage, but most of them are bored by all the information. So instead, Captain Atom gives them a cold case from the Vietnam war: the possible framing of Air Force captain Nathaniel Adams, convicted in 1968 for the murder of general Clement Lemar. Captain Atom received a reliable tip that Adams was innocent. The team accepts.

Miss Martian infiltrates the Pentagon in the guise of a JAG lieutenant. She arranges a meeting with Wade Eiling, who was the judge at Adams's trial. Robin infiltrated the Pentagon's ventilation system and spies in on the conversation as Eiling recollects how things went down.


 * Adams blamed Lemar for deliberately sending him and his men into an ambush by Viet Cong. Enraged, he pulled his knife on his commanding officer. When M.P. Sergeant Polk arrived to check in on the noise, Lemar was dead. It was an open and shut case; he was sentenced to life in prison. Adams committed suicide in prison that same year.

Kid Flash and Superboy go to Vegas in civvies to question Henry Yarrow, who was previously Adams's attorney at the trial. He is more than happy to help what he thinks are a couple of journalism students, and tells them how it went down.


 * Adams worked Air Force Intelligence, and had received information on a weapon smuggling ring. He confided with General Lemar, who agreed, and sent him and his squad to Hill 409. The squad was ambushed; only Adams and Yarrow escaped, albeit barely. Adams was convinced Lemar had set him up, and confronted him; but once there, he blacked out. When he came to, Lemar was dead and Sgt. Polk was at the scene to arrest him. Yarrow took Adams's defense in court, but all evidence was stacked against him: prosecutor Lt. Kevin Blankly showed that Lemar was murdered with Adams's knife, and medical examiner Maj. Shirley Mason ruled out Adams's story that he was drugged. The case was clear: Adams was sentenced to life in prison, where he died a year later. Eiling, the judge, married Adams's widow, and raised his two children as his own.

Yarrow was convinced the case was a set-up, but could never prove it to the court.

Following up on Yarrow's story, Robin and Miss Martian investigate Shirley Mason, only to find her dead. They find a photo of her with several military officials on her body, and manage to get out before the police arrive.

Aqualad and Artemis meet with Adams's children, Peggy and Randy. To Randy, it's clear that his biological father was a traitor, and does not like talking about him—his father is Wade Eiling. Peggy agrees with her mother, who was always convinced of Adams's innocence.

Afterward, Artemis and Aqualad discuss the two siblings, and fatherhood in general—Artemis posits that being a biological father doesn't make him the actual father, as honesty and parental skills have not much to do with biology. Aqualad does not listen; his mind is in Atlantis. Artemis asks him about his parents. His mother is Sha'lain'a of Shayeris, while his father is Calvin Durham, originally a spy of Black Manta, genetically engineered to infiltrate Atlantis. The two fell in love, and Durham abandoned his mission. Aqualad is convinced they should remain clear-headed in this case too, and not judge anyone until all the facts are in.

The Team convenes outside General Trang's mansion. Trang, a former North Vietnamese general, was on the photo Major Mason had—the only non-American on that image. Robin's facial recognition program found his data right away. Superboy spots someone beside Trang inside, who is armed with a sword. As Mason was killed by a sword, they reason that this must be the killer. Miss Martian goes in to investigate.

Trang warns his guest, Rako, that he knows what happened to Mason, and knows what he'll do to him. He is disappointed that the boy he raised since he was a child would resort to that. But as he lifts his sword, it flies out of his hand. He uses infrared glasses to find the origin, and quickly spots Miss Martian. He strikes her down, but before he can finish, Superboy bursts in. To the boy's surprise, Rako's sword is able to make a large wound in his chest.

To Be Continued...

Title
A cold case is an unsolved crime that is being looked into decades later. It does not quite fit the issue's story, as the case the Team is working on is not an old case that was never solved, but more of an appeal.

Characters
! colspan="3"| Non-speaking roles
 * colspan="3" | Aqualad
 * colspan="3" | Artemis
 * colspan="2" | Captain Atom
 * colspan="2" | Duk Trang
 * colspan="2" | Henry Yarrow
 * colspan="3" | Kid Flash
 * colspan="3" | Miss Martian
 * colspan="2" | Peggy Eiling
 * colspan="2" | Rako
 * colspan="2" | Randy Eiling
 * colspan="3" | Robin
 * colspan="3" | Superboy
 * colspan="2" | Wade Eiling
 * colspan="3" | Kid Flash
 * colspan="3" | Miss Martian
 * colspan="2" | Peggy Eiling
 * colspan="2" | Rako
 * colspan="2" | Randy Eiling
 * colspan="3" | Robin
 * colspan="3" | Superboy
 * colspan="2" | Wade Eiling
 * colspan="2" | Rako
 * colspan="2" | Randy Eiling
 * colspan="3" | Robin
 * colspan="3" | Superboy
 * colspan="2" | Wade Eiling
 * colspan="3" | Robin
 * colspan="3" | Superboy
 * colspan="2" | Wade Eiling
 * colspan="3" | Superboy
 * colspan="2" | Wade Eiling
 * colspan="2" | Wade Eiling
 * colspan="2" | Alec Rois (photograph)
 * colspan="2" | Clement Lemar
 * colspan="2" | Enos Polk
 * colspan="2" | Kevin Blankly
 * colspan="2" | Shirley Mason
 * colspan="2" | Enos Polk
 * colspan="2" | Kevin Blankly
 * colspan="2" | Shirley Mason
 * colspan="2" | Kevin Blankly
 * colspan="2" | Shirley Mason
 * colspan="2" | Kevin Blankly
 * colspan="2" | Shirley Mason
 * colspan="2" | Shirley Mason
 * colspan="2" | Shirley Mason

Continuity

 * This story continues in the next issue.
 * The croupier asks if Superboy is under 21, at which he answers if it's in weeks or in months. He was 16 weeks on July 4; by August 13, he was in his 21st week.
 * The writing on Aqualad's notepad during the lecture includes a "Tula" in Greek Cyrillic, and in Honolulu, Aqualad's mind drifts to his family. The events of this issue take place two weeks before "Downtime", where his homesickness is revealed.

Trivia

 * This storyline is based on the "Captain Atom: Top Secret" story that appeared in Captain Atom #26-28 (February–April 1989), co-written by Greg Weisman. The court-martial is loosely adapted from Captain Atom #9 (November 1987).

Goofs

 * Captain Adams is identified as Air Force, yet wears an Army uniform on the file photo.
 * The timestamp identifies the city the Pentagon is located in as Washington, D.C., but in reality, it's in Arlington County, Virginia.
 * The timestamp also indicates it is 23:03, near midnight, but the sky is still clear blue.
 * Despite identifying himself as a colonel in 1968, Wade Eiling wears the rank insignia of a major general in the flashbacks.
 * When examining Shirley Mason's murder, Miss Martian says "they're" instead of the correct "their".
 * Aqualad's eyes are green instead of silver.
 * Artemis's eyes are green in the Cave and blue in Honolulu. They should be dark gray.

Cultural references

 * Captain Atom's pose on the cover, as well as the tagline, "Captain Atom wants you to solve a mystery", is a reference to J.M. Flagg's 1917 recruitment post featuring Uncle Sam.
 * Miss Martian poses as a JAG officer. The Judge Advocate General's Corps is the military legal corps, best known from the television series JAG that ran from 1995 to 2005.
 * The casino Henry Yarrow is in is the Flamingo Las Vegas.

Answered questions

 * Why did Captain Atom assign the Team this particular case? (Answer)