Young Justice 106 Infiltrator Review

Well we finally got introduced to Artemis and I’m not impressed at all. First off she wasn’t in the first five episodes and there was a brief hint at her arrival with the arrow Robin found in the last episode but personally I think that they really botched her introduction. There was No introduction to her really – she actually joined the team OFF SCREEN. WTF? They feature her heavily in all the promotional spots and bumpers but they don’t have any establishing material other than the arrow from last episode? No random cutaways to her training with Green Arrow? No showing her meet Young Justice – there was nothing she wasn’t there and then she was. I think Wally said it best (and repeatedly): “WHO ARE YOU?”

Actually ‘who are you’ was sort of inadvertently the theme of this episode. There were many characters that I’m not familiar with (aside from Aqualad and Miss Martian) – we seethe League of Shadows that include Black Spider, Professor Ojo, Hook, Cheshire and Sensei. Sensei is working with The Light but we’re not meant to know if the rest of the League of Shadows knows this. Obviously we don’t know anything about Artemis but that’s because we’re not supposed to know. I don’t really feel one way or another about Dr. Roquette but I do get the sense that she’s supposed to be a one and done type of character so I’m okay with that.

I hate to say it but I really loved Cheshire. I don’t know anything about her character in the comic universe but I do remember hearing rumors that she was going to be the real identity of Artemis. Obviously that’s not true – but they do seem to know each other and that they’re working together. My best guess is that they’re sisters (since Artemis is supposed to also be half  Vietnamese like Cheshire) searching for their father (since when I read Cheshire’s Wikipedia page there was a lot of talk of her father)  and the Light is positioning Artemis to think that Green Arrow killed her father because he was an agent of The Light – but I’m thinking that ultimately it will turn out that Artemis (but not Cheshire since at the very best they would only be half sisters) will turn out to be Green Arrow’s illegitimate daughter (replacing Connor Hawke because really there isn’t any room for a 4^th/5^th archer in such a small cast.)

I’m not really sure where they’re going with it but there had to be a reason why Green Arrow took in Artemis and is passing her off as his niece especially considering that Red Arrow (Speedy’s new codename) can prove that she isn’t who she is claiming to be. I’d rather have Roy on the team than Artemis (I’ll still push for Arrowette over both of them though) and I think that will happen eventually. I don’t really see Artemis as a long term character especially considering other recurring characters have gotten much more screen time than her.

I don’t know what to really rate this episode. I like the series as much, if not more than I thought I would. At the same time I dislike Artemis as much, if not more than I thought I would but putting those opposing stances aside for a minute in general as a genre TV fan I really can’t get past Artemis’ introduction.

Oh – almost forgot – the pictures aren’t mine this time; I deleted the episode before I remembered to take stills of it. These come from comicscontinuum.com

Rating: C