Since talking about Cassandra Sandsmark and Young Justice, I’ve been thinking about how the cartoon only lightly touched upon some members and that’s a darn shame. Secret had a Halloween episode but that only made her a ghost story. What’s her story? Let’s find out!
Greta Hayes was a teenager who lived with her parents and her brother, Billy. Billy wanted to be a supervillain. He wanted to be one so badly he was willing to kill to be granted powers by a demon.
A ghost who doesn’t remember her past awakens in a containment cell at the Department of Extranormal Operations. She is freed by the teen team of Young Justice. They call her Suzie and she joins their team with her ghost and other vapor based powers. Eventually it becomes clear what made her who she is.
Billy killed Greta so he could be granted superpowers, the supernatural link to her death caused her to manifest her own super powered ghost. Suzie would eventually learn that she was Greta and her link to Billy, now calling himself Harm. He would be a threat to Young Justice until Billy’s own father killed him to stop his evil son.
Greta would live with Young Justice and became good friends with Cassie and Arrowette especially. Greta would find the Young Justice crew to be her family. She had a crush on Tim Drake and was very protective of him. The team would have many adventures together and Greta would use and grow in her powers.
During a time when Hell was leaking back onto Earth, Billy would appear and Greta and company would once again have to fight him. Like herself, Billy would become some sort of possessing ghost and eventually take over their father unbeknownst to others.
Frequently dealing with the loss of her life and this strange new one would cause her to struggle. Having been able to experience what being an adult would be like during the Sins of Youth even where heroes switched ages, she didn’t want to go back to being stuck forever as a teen but did so to save her everyone else. She’d be mentored by someone with a similar life after death superhero situation in the Spectre who would teach her as well as try and help her reconnect with her father. Sadly, Billy was able to control their dad and trick her into thinking he wanted nothing to do with her.
This helped push her into taking a darker path leading her to Darkseid of Apokolips. She’d go and live on Apokolips to learn more and her father along with Billy possessing him, would die there as well. Tim Drake would help talk her down once again and bring her back to Young Justice. Darkseid being disgusted with her “weakness” stripped her of her powers turning her back into a normal teenager. She was finally human again and would go to school with Cassie and Arrowette, happily retired from superheroics.
We rarely get happy ends to superheroes or any kind of endings really. Greta needed it though. She was alive and had a chance to still lead a full life. She lost a lot along the way but I like to imagine she’s doing alright now. I wonder who we’ll talk about next from Young Justice.
Suggested Reading
Young Justice
Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
