We’re back for another run of Young Justice and it’s happened again, I did the reviews then lost them, this time thanks to word glitching. I decided to have a go at doing these from memory and whilst the actual plot points are definitely from the episode, they may be a little out of order or condensed.
Private Security
The Meta girl, who we’ll name Violet as she’s called later,
is staying with Artemis and Will, Brion is staying with Superboy and Jefferson
has put Doctor Jace up in a hotel. How he can afford to do that is anyone’s
guess. There’s one question on everyone’s minds, where’s Dick?
Artemis has an appointment to keep with a friend and decides
to bring Violet along with her, hoping to gain some insight. Will, meanwhile, has
founded his own company, likely with some help from one Oliver Queen. Bowhunter
Security is a private security firm. It’s here where Dick finally shows up,
he’s found another metahuman trafficking lab in Star City and his new team
features Jim and Roy and he hopes Will will come along as well.
Interestingly enough, real Roy and Dick did not depart on
the best of terms last season, this bit of information is completely neglected
by this episode, in fact, this is Arsenal’s only appearance this season. Even
Jim gets another cameo.
Will agrees to help, but on the condition that they help him
with a private security job. His employees have stomach upset after some bad
food and he needs the extra help to secure a transport of Goode Goggles. They
all end up in Bowhunter security uniforms and it’s an opportunity for Crispin
Freeman, who voices all 3 of the Harper trio, to cut loose and have some fun
with it.
It’s also an opportunity for Will to get Dick to open his
eyes when it comes to the Markovian trio. But it’s not all fun and games as
Brick and a couple of his thugs plan to steal the shipment in broad daylight.
Back with Artemis and Violet they walk through the park,
where it seems the mania of Goode Goggles is in full swing. They’ve come to
visit a friend, but first they meet Doctor Fate, Artemis asks him to give her a
mystic once-over and he senses an old soul in a very young body. Before any
further questions can be answered, Zatanna arrives. Doctor Fate allows Zatara
one hour every year so they can see each other.
Superboy is making some money by fixing up old bikes,
something he quite enjoys doing but Brion, having lived a life of privilege,
doesn’t really understand it. We’re treated to flashbacks through the episode
of Dick essentially dumping the Markovian trio on them. Superboy takes Brion
because he’s experienced similar anger before.
Doctor Jace and Jefferson have a hotdog and talk about how
she feels responsible for everything that happened with Jefferson trying to
console her. I’m holding off on my thoughts about Jace for later.
Despite the credentials checking out, Will soon realises
that the three truck drivers are not who they’re supposed to be, he recognises
one of them as one of Brick’s thugs and they give chase in an SUV with Brick
following as well. Roy is about to open fire but Will would prefer he doesn’t
dump the merch into the ocean.
Roy instead grapples onto a car behind, with Jim jumping
onto one. Dick and Will manage to destroy Brick’s car but have to ditch their
own to try and shake of Brick, it doesn’t really work.
Back with Artemis, Violet wonders what they’re doing here,
Artemis says they’re not here for this part, they’re hear to pick up the pieces
once time is up and Zatara has to put the helmet of Fate back on.
As Dick and Will fight against Brick, Dick accidentally
calls him Wall, yeah, he’s still feeling moded about Wally West’s death. Will
then uses that as a means to get through to him, keep him honest and tell him
in no uncertain terms he needs to do something with the Markovian kids. During
this they fight and eventually defeat Brick, as they all manage to get their
trucks to stop. Brick and his thugs are arrested and we never actually who
drives the trucks from here on out but let’s assume they drive them off
themselves.
There’s even a hint the Harper trio might go into business.
And by the time of the audio drama, they do. Though where Roy and Jim got the
money to buy in, I have no idea [*cough*OliverQueen*cough*].
One more item of business of course as the quartet
successfully break up the metahuman trafficking lab, we don’t actually see them
do it, just them posing at the end.
It’s a lighter episode, in contrast the heavy ones that
proceeded it but you do eventually need to do that and allow things to breathe.
It’s still got the scene with Zatara which is a plot point we’ll come back to
in the second half of the seasons. And it advances Dick’s character arc as we
see him decide to take on responsibility for it.
Rating 7.5/10
Away Mission
We open on New Genesis, as a group of bugs lead by Mantis with
a young bug Forager among them present an offering to the New God Orion, who’s
backed up by 2 meta-human monsters. Orion refuses to give the bugs what they
wanted and the bugs attack, but the meta-humans are able to defeat them and
Orion escapes with the offering. Forager thought Orion honourable but Mantis has
affirmed his belief that New Gods are all not to be trusted.
We cut to Connor and M’Gann’s place, where their peace is
interrupted by a boomtube and the arrival of Bear of the Forever People, last
seen in season 1. He congratulates the two on their wedding and mumbles that
something interesting is happening between him and Dreamer. But that’s not why
he’s here.
We get some images taken from his mind to explain. They’ve
been exploring incidents of violence between the Bugs and the New Gods, they
were told about the incident with Orion but found no trace of him, just Earth
human DNA. He wants Superboy to come and help, but he’s got other commitments and
asks Miss M to do so in his place. She makes a collect call to the rest of the
team, consisting of Traci Thirteen, Jaime Reyes and Bart Allen, who were
watching Space Trek 3016 together, and Static and Wonder Girl, who are on the
Watchtower with Cassie trying to patch things up with Tim. It’s a phone call,
of course, because heaven forbid, they have an actual on-screen conversation.
Dick, Violet, Jefferson and Artemis arrive and Dick pulls up
Violet’s zeta records to scan to find more information about Violet. Something
Artemis is annoyed Dick hadn’t done earlier. For them it’s time to see what
their powers can do
The team and Bear arrive on New Genesis with Thirteen, in
her excitement, accidentally using her bad luck powers to trip Bear up. Bear’s fine
and takes no umbrage over it. Forager summoned Bear, already earning the ire of
a distrustful Mantis. Bear tells him that Orion is off-world but that doesn’t
bring him around.
They prepare a trap with the bugs offering ‘Food’ to Orion.
Orion arrives and scoffs at the offering, as the team lie in wait. Miss M can
sense a familiar psychic manipulation feeding the bugs anger and attacks
‘Orion.’ The rest of the team fight against the meta-teens.
Back on Earth Violet and Artemis stage a training fight to
have violet switch between auras, she does so, unlocking a third, yellow aura
in the process. This allows her to project a ray blast but it has some recoil
and knocks her backwards. Brion is tasked with precision shots but isn’t having
much luck, his patience expires and he ends up destroying some trees.
He calls it quits on the training, he feels fed up and doesn't know what he
needs. But Superboy does, he needs direction, a clear goal as getting back to
Markovia is largely out of his hands. Dick offers to help him find his lost
sister, which is enough to convince him to stay.
Miss M confronts ‘Orion’ and reveals that he is Miss M’s
brother, M’Comm, or as he prefers to be called now, Ma’alefa’ak. He’s doing this
to help aid a revolution of the oppressed White Martians against the Red and
Green ones on Mars. M’Gann and M’Comm are in psychic battle, as Mantis orders
his hive to attack Bear and the rest of the team, Forager decides to protect
them.
The psychic battle portion of the episode really needed more
time to breathe. How to respond to the abject cruelty on Mars is a meaningful
discussion and whilst Miss M argues that you can choose paths other than hate,
she’s spent 8 years on Earth and has accomplished absolutely nothing for anyone
back on Mars. It needed more time than this episode allows to breathe and
honestly, I’m not sure Miss M is entirely in the right here, though what
M’Comm’s doing with both the meta-kids and New Genesis is clearly wrong.
Miss M ultimately wins the psychic battle but M’Comm
escapes, after killing both the meta-teens, promising vengeance on Forager for bringing them here. Mantis kicks
Forager out of the hive meaning it’s no longer safe for him on New Genesis,
with no-where else to go he’s taken back with the team to Earth.
This episode is hampered by its insanely rushed pacing, it
needed another episode to properly breathe. As it is, it’s the weakest episode
of the series
Rating 6/10
Rescue Op
We open with a guy
named Jaqqar Marlo having some fun times in a club, outside he’s confronted by
Black Spider of the League of Shadows, who’s here to kill him. Jaqqar makes a
run for it and even gives Black Spider the slip, but he’s then crushed by a
giant rock thrown by someone watching from the rooftops
Oracle is wearing a
pair of Goode Goggles and is playing a game, Dick tries to sneak up on her but
fails miserably. I don’t need to tell you that Oracle is Barbara Gordon, right?
We don’t actually find out how she got in the wheelchair but I expect it’s not
dissimilar to the Killing Joke story. She’s found some intriguing intel about the
assassination.
We cut back to
Forager arriving on Earth and being introduced to Brion and Violet, neither
seem to particularly care about his appearance, which is nice and Violet even
displays an unusually high level of knowledge about New Genesis, much to the
confusion of everyone for the moment. With Forager going to move in, they’re
presented with a new living quarters, the bio-ship turns into an RV.
Dick arrives with
the shadows intel, but reveals they need to take time and verify that it is in
fact her before going up against Ra’s al Ghul and his entire army. They know
that the league are based off Infinity Island. Jefferson promised to keep Dr
Jace apprised so makes her formal apologies to the group.
Brion had previously
given Violet an apple, and she offers some to Forager, he now considers them a
part of his hive which is good, as Brion wants to disobey orders and head right
to Infinity Island. And if this setup sounds a little bit familiar, there will
later be more direct call-backs to the original CADMUS arc. Violet uses her
relationship with Sphere to coax it to taking them to Infinity Island.
They arrive but the
Island seems surprisingly empty, in fact the only person they do come across is
the White Ghost, or Sensei as he’s called here. He toys with them a bit but his
ultimate message is clear, Tara is not here. Brion is having none of it and
attacks but Sensei is exceptionally skilled and is able to evade their attacks,
eventually capturing Violet, who’s chosen the codename Halo and snap her neck.
With the help of Ubu and a Red Hooded individual he manages to take down
Sphere, Brion and Forager also.
Superboy, Artemis,
Miss M and Black Lightning soon realise what’s happening and head off after
them, with Superboy commenting how this feels like a role-reversal of the
CADMUS storyline. They had found out through Oracle that Violet’s real name is
Gabrielle Daou and that she was a Quraci refugee who became a servant at the
royal palace. Brion is feeling guilty about his role in getting Violet killed
by Violet’s healing aura activated and restores her to life.
This confuses
Sensei, and intrigues Ra’s al Ghul just as the power is cut as the others come
to the rescue. Sensei, Ubu and the Red Hooded individual block their escape and
the groups fight. The fact that the heroes outnumber the villains significantly
is counterbalanced by their lack of teamwork, shown best when Brion’s lava
attack is so hot, it weakens Miss M forcing her to drop her attack. Still, it’s
not a fight the assassins can win and Ra’s ultimately puts a stop to it.
Ra’s tells Brion in
no uncertain terms that Tara is not here, that he’s no longer the head of the
Shadows and he’s no longer part of the Light. Why this happened I’m not sure,
but it seems as if it were his decision, rather than him being kicked out. That
being said he’s not just gonna tell them who’s running the Shadows now, only
that it isn’t Sportsmaster and being offended by the idea of it being suggested
that it might be Cheshire.
Two interesting
things happen once they leave, Talia shows up, making her first animated
appearance in the show (she had previously shown up in the comics) holding a
baby boy, likely a reference to Damian Wayne, and the Red-Hooded individual
remembers the name Grayson, hinting to Ra’s that his memory may be returning…
Yeah, that’s Jason Todd. Hope you’re happy to play the long game here, because
neither of these plot threads are tugged again for the rest of the season.
On their way home,
the trio understand that what they did was phenomenally stupid and but are
committed to working and Dick promises to find a way to make this work. Violet
rejects her former identity as Gabrielle Daou, embracing her new Halo/Violet
persona
This is a strong
enough episode even if it sets up more plot-threads that ultimately go nowhere this season
Rating 8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment