Young Justice 108 Downtime Review

This new episode brings us a few new characters: Clayface, Black Manta, Lagoon Boy, Mera (Aquaman’s wife), Garth (the original Aqualad), a little cameo by Starro the Conqueror and we get Tula who is basically this incarnation’s version of Aquagirl. Batman and Aquaman are back. Obviously the main plot of this episode is all about Atlantis and how Aqualad is having a difficult time leading the Young Justice team because his heard is back home.

The little subplot with M’gann and Superboy back at the Justice Cave going about their daily lives was funny. I liked the idea of Superboy staring at the blank tv screen much more than M’gann’s romantic tension with Superboy. I also enjoyed that they showed us Bruce acting like a father figure to Dick who seems to be pushing himself harder than usual was a nice touch. Wally being at home with all of the other incarnations of the Flash was a nod to that character’s history but with all of the characters that are in this episode it’s a little hard to swallow this subplot.

I didn’t really care for all the ‘romantic’ stuff. Sure M’gann and Superboy have been building up for a while, but I really didn’t need the whole Mera being pregnant aspect to the story. Especially since she’s supposedly pregnant and it’s a big deal for there to finally be an heir and yet she’s right in the middle of a heated battle? Really? The whole Garth/Tula/Kaldur triangle didn’t need to be included at all. Especially considering this is the first time we’ve seen Tula and Garth and Kaldur hasn’t mentioned his feelings for Tula in any of the previous seven episodes.

You know that I’m not a fan of Artemis at all but it was odd that they revealed that she’s actually Artemis Crock so soon in the series. Much like the comic counterpart her mother is also Paula but she is a disabled Asian woman instead of her comic counter part. I’m not sure if her father will still be Sportsmaster, but considering she has the last name Crock (Sportsmaster’s real last name) instead of Brooks (her mother’s) I’m betting that’s not going to change. There were a few things that I wish they focused more on, like why/how her mother knows that Artemis is ‘Artemis’ – that reminds me a lot of the whole Arrowette thing. I really hate that the majority of Artemis’ plot is nothing more than retooled Cissie plots. I do like the idea that Bruce granted Artemis the scholarship and I’m willing to bet that it’s so Dick could keep tabs on her because Bruce doesn’t trust her.

 

Maybe if they cut out the ‘romantic’ stuff they could have had time for more than one scene with Wally at home, answered some of those questions about Artemis or even have shown us more than one throw away scene at the end of the episode revealing that Black Manta is also working for The Light.

Rating: B-

Young Justice 107 Denial Review

Well now we have the ‘magic/supernatural’ episode that almost every genre show does and DC is a universe that is filled with many magical characters and we get quite a few of them introduced in this episode. First off we have Kent Nelson, none other than Doctor Fate who travels to New Orleans to visit Madame Xanadu. He asks Madame Zanadu to contact his wife and then quickly outs her as a charlatan but acknowledges that she has true magical potential – not odd considering her role in the DCU. Abra Kadabra kidnaps Doctor Fate and takes him to Klarion (bum bum bum – sorry.. old YJ comic joke) the Witch Boy who are after Doctor Fate’s helmet to basically take over the world.

Robin is MIA for this episode and that actually works because with the FOUR guest characters it is a little crowded, plus it helps to pair the team up differently which actually makes for more fun. I loved the bickering between Artemis and Wally but it does make me wish that they had gone with Cissie and Bart instead because I always had a soft spot for them and their relationship in YJ and Impulse. But I’ll take my fanservice where I can get it. I actually liked Aqualad, Miss Martian and Superboy grouping up, it made M’gann less annoying, but it only helped to make Aqualad more boring.

The idea of playing off of Wally not being able to accept that magic is real is a nice touch, but for it to come this soon in the series it seems a little too rushed for personal growth. I’m a little confused by why M’gann was so willing to accept and believe in the supernatural. I guess some belief can be suspended because of her being Martian and all, but I don’t know much about her character so who knows. Mars could be filled with supernatural beings.

Fate possessing Wally was good and the fact that he’s keeping the helmet until the right person comes along makes me think that maybe if they do decided to do a rotating cast of characters we might get a teenage Doctor Fate. The shelf with all of the masks/helmets of the people they’ve encountered in battle makes me think that once the traitor is outted that their mask if they have one (I’m looking at you little miss generic replacement for Arrowette) will go next to Fate’s helmet.

All in all, the episode was a big improvement over the last one. I just hope the show can keep up this upswing and momentum until there’s another blah episode.

Rating: B

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

Young Justice 105 Schooled Review

Well this will be a short one but at least it will have my own screen caps in it. I managed to watch the most recent episode of Young Justice “Schooled.” I’ve got to admit I wasn’t fully invested in this episode for several reasons but it was still watchable. I do like that they broke up the team a bit and had Dick and Superboy share more scenes together – but I do really wish it was Tim and Kon. The idea of switching up some of the incarnations of the characters is starting to grow on me and I’m starting to try to be objective about Miss Martian. Aqualad isn’t growing on me yet but he doesn’t totally annoy me in this episode.

We get the introduction of Amazo and Professor Ivo. I didn’t really care with the choices of those two characters but I guess its okay. Maybe a different character would have come off better and still suited the plot. I mean come on we all know that the whole purpose of Amazo was to find a way to have Superboy start to accept the team as his friends and that he can’t do everything alone. But therein lies the problem – why is Black Canary training him? I get that the whole idea is that the strongest person doesn’t automatically always win but there should be a powerhouse training Superboy if for no other reason than him being so young and having to deal with this world.

The big missed opportunity here is because they insist on playing up the plot of Superboy desperately wanting to have a relationship with his ‘father’ Superman/Clark. There’s not much longer that they can play this out without having Superman/Clark/Kal-El – I don’t really know what to call him for this because they keep calling Superboy his ‘son’ yet they haven’t even given Superboy the ‘Kon-El’ name let alone gotten as far as making him Connor Kent – come off like a deadbeat father who is rejecting a son he didn’t knowingly create. All that’s missing is a mother running around asking for child support.

This would be the perfect opportunity to bring in Supergirl – I get that the incarnation that DC insists on shoving down our throats is the Kara Zor-El version and that we’d most likely get her over Linda Danvers or even the basic Matrix\Mae incarnation (and we would probably get Kara down the line anyway since she is in the Super Family and we might be getting Cassie/Wonder Girl down the line.) Hell I’d love Kara in this instance – it would be the perfect way to save the idea of Superman if Kara stepped up and had a relationship with Superboy and simply sat down and said ‘hey – Superman wants a family, I’m his cousin – he wants the connection but he needs time to adjust to the idea of having a ‘son’ that was created with the sole purpose of being used to kill him eventually; but we’re family too – lets have a relationship and show Superman that you’re more than the sum of your creation.’

We have yet another episode without Artemis in it but we do have a little bit of a build up to her arrival here. The team finds an arrow after their battle with Amazo and confronts the Justice League and find out that it isn’t Green Arrows – they assume that it belongs to Speedy and that he was looking out for them. So naturally it will end up being Artemis’ arrow and now Roy’s because that’s just the way those types of reveals are done.

Rating: B

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