OK, we’re back with the second half of Young Justice Outsiders and I decided to bite the bullet and buy the episodes individually, after a I got a voucher for some money off them. Part 2 was released a bit differently to part 1, episodes 13-15 were released in one block, episodes 16-23 were released weekly and episodes 24-26 were released as another block. I’m guessing it was trying to keep interest in DC Universe, and it kinda worked. Let’s see what the writers have for us this time
Influence
We open on the planet Thanagar at a destroed facility with a few dead
Thanagarians. Commander Hro Talek is leading the investigation. It doesn’t seem
like an apokolyptan attack, no Parademons and no boomtubes but he has been
scanning the area and found Earthling bio-signs, just not signs of any of the
leaguers, speaking of whom we have Wonder Woman, Superman, Guy Gardner, Hawkman
and Hawkwoman acting for the League here.
The Nth metal stockpile has been stolen and is one of many
rare elements that apokolyptan forces have stolen of late. But whilst Hro is
not particularly interested in doing anything about it, Guy has managed to scan
for an ion trail, meaning they can follow the ship wherever it went.
We cut to the beach just outside Mount Justice as the Squad,
now with Tara and Vic are enjoying breakfast burritos. They offer Halo,
Forrager, Tara and Brion membership to the team, despite Nightwing at this
stage not even being a member. They don’t offer this to Vic because…
We’re reminded that both Troia and Tempest left the hero
side to become UN ambassadors for their respective nations. We’re reminded
quickly that Wally is dead and that neither Dick nor Artemis are entirely over
that.
On the subject of politics though, we see that Aquaman
addresses the public regarding Goode World Studios. He says they acted quickly
to save lives in immediate danger and calls upon the nations of the world to
investigate the company.
But Luthor is a master of spin, his response is that since
the League didn’t co-ordinate with local law enforcement, many of the major
players in the game got away. And G Gordon Godfrey twists the knife further,
revealing that certain governments are threatening sanctions of the League. In what
I find is a weird twist, Commissioner Gordon has disabled the Bat Signal.
He interviews Gretchen Goode, who rather than deflecting
blame away from her company entirely, deflects it onto Jakkar Marlow, the guy
Tara killed way back in episode 6. She has recalled all Goode World Goggles and
will soon be offering a new and improved version. Beast Boy is watching this in
Los Angeles and is clearly not happy.
He leaves and manages to stop a purse-snatching; the victim
gets a photo with him on what I assume is their equivalent to Instagram and it
takes off quickly. This actually excites Gretchen, but Garfield turns it into
an altercation.
Back with the League in a space and a humorous song by Guy, they follow
the ion trail finding an asteroid base, easily twice the size of the Watchtower. On Earth, Miss Martian welcomes her new team members and we see that Halo,
despite her outward appearance does not believe they’re a boy or a girl, it’s
good for all people to have someone to identify with.
Superboy and Tigress are also re-joining the team and so is
Beast Boy, wanting to take down Gretchen. League liaison Catherine Cobert and
Troia are giving another statement, this time about the League needing to
maintain its autonomy. To give an example of how political committee decisions
can be disastrous, Troia brings attention to the still present ruins of the
Hall of Justice. It’s been over 2 years and the deadlock on what to do remains.
G Gordon speaks to Lex Luthor, deflecting their attacks
again. Claiming his stance is just oversight, providing accountability. If
you’re thinking of Marvel’s Civil War (the comic more than the film) there’s a
more direct reference to it later. In the mean-time, Lex reveals he placed
LexCorp in a blind trust to avoid conflicts of interest and his sister now runs
it. Gee, I wonder which relevant politician Luthor is emulating, they’re so
subtle about it.
Back at the satellite, which we see is named ‘The Orphanage’
we find that out that Barda laid the ion trail as a trap, wanting to finally
confront the League. But Granny Goodness isn’t impressed, electrocuting her for
her transgression. Desaad is here too for some reason. He doesn’t have any
lines so…
Back at the RV, Vic states that he’s not the superhero type,
and we cut to the Harper house, where Jefferson Pierce and Doctor Jace are for
some reason. Jace is tired of spending all her time in the hotel, she asks for
a lab claiming to want to help Victor and outside we see that Tara is recording
their conversation.
At the Orphanage we see an interesting stylistic choice. The
battle in space has no sound-effects, they’re going for the no sound in space
idea, it works kinda well. Guy provides the Javelin some protection, whilst the
Javelin fires upon the base, Granny raises the shields but Hawkman fires nth
metal missiles which can do some damage, the impact is used to try and mask
Superman punching his way into the base, with Wonder Woman and Hawkwoman,
though it doesn’t work.
Barda is told to summon the Furies. The League enter a room
with minimal resistance, finding hundreds of captured metahumans, all wearing
inhibitor chips or branded with a Klarion K, more on that later. They find a
device, that’s made up of all the stolen rare elements but are then attacked by
the Furies, Barda, Lashina and Gillotina. But this is Superman, Wonder Woman
and Hawkwoman they’re fighting against so it’s not exactly the fight the furies
can win.
Granny activates the device, and whatever it does it’s
clearly hurting the heroes, Superman is the only one able to escape, taking
Barda with him, much to her confusion. He destroys the controls for the device,
turning it off but as they charge at Granny she boom-tubes them outside, where
they all almost suffocate, Guy saves them with his usual grace. Granny then
boom-tubes the entire station away.
This episode was… a lot, too much really, it’s really
fast-paced though outside of the League mission, not especially exciting. I
know it’s not a Justice League show but it might’ve been a good idea to devote
more of the episode to their subplot, since everything regarding Barda and the Furies is completely glanced over. We don’t see Barda after this episode
either.
Rating 7/10
Leverage
“Space Trek 316 scene 16 take 16” It really should have been
15 since this is the 15th episode of the series, have to wonder if
there was originally another episode planned before this one that got dropped
and didn’t adjust the dialogue. Beast Boy has a good take, but Gretchen orders
another take done. Gar is angry and threatens to quick but the director warns
him that no-only would that harm the rest of the crew, it would give grounds
from Gretchen to sue him for everything for breach of contract.
After a sweet scene with Artemis, Will and Lian. We cut to
the watchtower; Beast Boy had been subject to doing 52 takes of that scene.
With M’Gann needed at the Metahuman Youth Centre, Tigress is assigned leader of
the team’s Gamma Squad. Forrager, Terra, Geo-Force, Halo and Beast Boy. Aquaman
briefs them on the mission, which has to stay covert as the League is not
allowed in Russia.
There’s a base, again with the number 52, weird, they have
intel that says there’s a government sponsored meta-program there. Brion is
angered as Markovia had suffered under the Soviet Union, but Aquaman says it
may be their equivalent to the Metahuman Youth Centre.
Speaking of, we cut to the Youth Centre with the Edwardo Sr
addressing a crowd of metahumans. One of them decides to make a run for it, but
Edwardo Jr stops her with words. The first thing they assure everyone is that they’re not
prisoners here, they can leave whenever they wish and stay as long as they need
to.
Megan Morse and Dinah Lance are serving as councillors to
the teens. Edwardo and Newt are peer councillors, who have been through it.
Their goal is to allow all people to control their powers, which is why they’re
given the option to wear an inhibitor collar, presumably with the shock
function removed.
The team arrive in Russia wearing polar stealth outfits,
Geo-Force opens a path underground, whilst Terra guides them through. Beast Boy
is surveying the situation from above, allowing them an opening, Halo then
using her green aura to render them invisible so they can spy on a
conversation. As it turns out, the programme is the Rocket Red brigade, a
volunteer programme, involving people being surgically bonded to an armoured
suit.
With that knowledge they decide to move out, their mission
complete. It’s not their concern if the people are being modified voluntarily.
But as they move out, a complication arises with Monsieur Mallah, Captain
Boomerang and Black Manta being on site, all 3 of whom should be in Belle
Reeve. Mallah is about to fire a missile but Terra intercepts but the noise
gets the Rockets’ attention, leading to the troop leader being deployed and
volunteer to prepare for bonding with his armour. He chooses not to be put to
sleep for the process.
Boomerang in his debut is surprisingly competent given that
it’s Captain Boomerang and all. Halo is stunned still after Boomerang says
“have I got a proposition for you” not entirely sure why he said that but...
Anyway, he uses the opportunity to kill Halo with a boomerang through the
chest. Halo heals of course and Manta orders them to fall back, just in time
for the Team to encounter the Rockets.
Black Manta is on coms to Amanda Waller, and tells her about
the team being the Justice League’s covert ops unit. I thought the Reach made
that public last season but whatever. Waller has tasked them with eliminating
the Rockets and accessing their technology, and threatens to kill Boomerang
when he objects to facing all of them in battle.
After a brief scene at the Youth centre, Task Force X return
to the fight, easily dispatching the rockets. Halo is able to shield them for a
while but she’s still recovering. But you’ll notice I haven’t mentioned
Forrager, who was waiting in the bio-ship, he provides enough of a distraction
to allow them to split up and start their attack. They manage to take care of
Mallah and Boomerang, whilst the Rockets finish off Manta. The leader of the
Rockets eventually relents on capturing them, not wanting word to get that 2
meta-squads infiltrated their facility.
We cut to the training session at the Youth Centre. Mist and
Livewire were already pretty apt and using their powers. A girl Edwardo Jr had
taken a bit of a shine toward, now naming herself Windfall tries to show off
her powers but accidentally catches Mist in her cyclone, Livewire saves her but
they’re both pissed. Angry and unable to control herself, she begins sucking in
the air, everyone’s only saved when Edwardo Jr teleports her outside. She
breaks down and calls herself a monster.
Manta gets an amusing exchange with Aquaman as he’s put back
in Belle Reeve. Aquaman had asked the warden about it, he’s told someone would
be sent up to explain. Amanda Waller, she’s open and up front about what Task
Force X is but says that she’ll expose the team, again, if Aquaman exposes Task
Force X, or advertises that these criminals escaped Belle Reeve. With the
League’s public perception at a record low, Aquaman relents, much to Beast
Boy’s Chargin.
As we wrap up, Dr Jace is shown a new lab by Batman Inc member
Hardware, Windfall is now wearing an inhibitor collar. Beast Boy is seeing the
likes on the photo continue to increase, Jace is testing one of Violet’s hairs
she got in the mid-season finale. The Harper family are in good spirits but
Halo got a flashback during the fight. Gabrielle took a bribe from Bedlam, she
unlocked the palace so the assassin could get in and kill the Markovian King
and Queen. She decides that they can never know.
The pacing in this episode is still pretty fast but there’s
more action at least. It’s still a solid episode however
Rating 7.5/10
Illusion of Control
We’re at the metahuman Youth Centre as they begin
preparations for Thanksgiving with Bart setting things up. Virgil, Traci and
Jaime arrive by zeta-tube. Connor, Megan and Forrager are preparing their own
celebration whilst Vic is still on his own in the RV and the Harper/Crock
family are preparing their own turkey dinner with Brion, Tera, Violet and guest
Paula Crock, Artemis’ mother. In Dakota City, Doctor Jace finds something when
examining the hair she’s not happy about.
Garfield and Perdita are flown into the event via
Helicopter. Traci is very excited to meet Garfield despite the fact that
they’re both members of the team, so they’ve probably met, also the animation
on her is… really stiff. Virgil relents that he doesn’t have a girlfriend,
especially hearing that Cassie is trying to mend the relationship that’s taking
place almost entirely offscreen. I wouldn’t mind, Tim and Cassie did have a
thing in the comics for a while, but they haven’t held a full conversation
together in the 2 seasons they’ve been in this show, not good enough!
Violets still feeling a bit depressed over last week’s
revelations, and it’s straining the relationship between her and Brion.
Everyone has a partner in the bumper cars at the youth centre except Virgil,
because they want to hammer this point home, the payoff isn’t that good. Also,
are they implying Bart and Ed… Forrager goes to invite Victor into the house.
Ed is still feeling a bit down about what happened with
Windfall last episode. Perdita goes to talk to her and it actually kinda works.
Ed is wishing he could do more, some kinda grand gesture to help the kids here.
Beast Boy is also feeling like joining the team and being covert means being
unable to inspire people, something he feels he needs to do.
But before they can discuss further, everyone falls to the
ground in a weakened state. Perdita is grabbed by ‘Count Vertigo’ except we
don’t hear the usual Count Vertigo sound effects. They’re escaping via whirly
bird which is weird for people who have access to boomtubes. Forrager tries to
get Vic out of his funk but it doesn’t really work.
Thirteen manages to disconnect the whirlybird’s fuel line,
bringing it down slowly. At the Crock-Harper household. Jace not so subtly
tells Paula about Artemis re-joining the team as Tigress, something she didn’t
know about and is rather upset to find out. She even brings up Barbara which is
interesting. We don’t know exactly how Barbara ended up in the wheelchair but
if it’s anything like the Killing Joke, her being a superhero had nothing to do
with it.
Back with Gar and company, they’ve landed in an abandoned
town I guess… Anyway, their searches come up empty but Scarab provides some
insight, some kind of illusion is messing with their perception, so rather than
relying on their sight, Beast Boy transforms into a bear and tracks Perdita’s
scent.
They encounter “Vertigo’s lieutenant” who seems to be immune
to all their attacks. “Vertigo” takes his eye of Perdita for a moment, she
kicks him in the nuts for murdering her father, and the illusion drops. It’s
Psimon and the lieutenant is in fact Devastation, explaining her near
invulnerability. They were luring the heroes away from the Youth Centre, hence
why they used a whirly bird rather than just a boomtube.
Devastation escapes with Psimon, as we see Icicle Jr, Tommy
and Tuppance Terror and the latest addition to onslaught, Holocaust. Given that
he was a villain of Static’s in the comics, it’s a pity we never see the two
fight here. Instead, it’s impulse who takes him down along with Icicle Jr. The
Terror Twins take a bit more of a fight but eventually are taken down.
Paula seems to have left after the argument. When Artemis
says her dog is getting bribed Halo storms out, with Doctor Jace going after
her. Violet tells Jace all she knows then makes a phonecall from someone she
needs help from. Vic eventually decides to come in and join thanksgiving
Dinner.
Beast Boy, Blue Beetle and Impulse make a public statement
to the press after the attack. When a girl expresses interest in them to Virgil,
he claims to be a friend of theirs, finishing the running joke and making
Virgil seem incredibly shallow. It doesn’t work, and it’s never brought up
again. Her name’s Frieda, she lives in Dakota City, just saying.
The pacing in this episode is much better than the previous
two. It didn’t feel like we were being overwhelmed, a common problem this
season.
Rating 8.5/10
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