Young Justice 104 Drop Zone Review

This episode of Young Justice introduces Bane, Sportsmaster, Mammoth, Shimmer and Kobra into the series. I’m okay with this because there needs to be a rotation of villains so things don’t get too boring but because of that plus the larger role Batman played in this particular episode as well as The Light we get yet one more episode without Artemis and we have our first episode without Speedy in it. I don’t mind the exclusion of Speedy since he’s only a supporting character but this type of mission really could have used an archer. The real problem is Artemis – I think it would have been much more effective if they left her out of the credits, mid-show bumpers and promotional photos until they introduced her. It’s just odd to have her so visible yet not be in the series yet.

So the main plot here revolves around Kobra creating a super venom that is a mixture of Bane’s Venom and Project Cadmus’ Blockbuster formula. It’s a good concept but I wish they focused a little bit more on how the Cult of the Kobra were able to retrieve the Blockbuster Formula in the first place. The Light show up again having sent Sportsmaster to retrieve the new formula – it’s a nice throw back to the first two episodes but I think that they should focus more on expanding the immediate universe first (focusing on YJ and The Light and Project Cadmus) instead of bringing in other characters just to bring them in and then use them as a way to expand the mythology even though they’re most likely ‘one and done’ characters. I mean sure they might bring back Bane or Kobra maybe even Sportsmaster but I really doubt we’ll see Mammoth or Shimmer again.

They toned down M’gaan a bit which is nice but I really hope they drop the whole ‘duh’ M’gaan thing – that’s only been featured in the past two episodes but I’m already really, really sick of that whole thing. I did like her scenes with Superboy even though there were really cliché but it’s fun watching the two of them try to figure out how to be human together. Aqualad as the leader? Yeah I don’t think I like that – that just means that he’ll be getting a bigger focus and I’m not entirely sold on him as a character yet – but I am hating him less as the episodes progress. The stealth costumes were a nice touch and I hope we see them again.

Rating: B