OK, let’s get back into Young Justice Outsiders and, in the 6th of 8 reviews for the season, finally get to the debut of the titular Outsiders.
First Impression
We open in the Atlantic Ocean where a small ship, a Reach
Bug that wasn’t confiscated by the Green Lanterns, awakens
Beast Boy has called a meeting at the Watchtower. He says
that whilst the League and the Team do important and good work, something’s
missing. A public version of the team, Young Heroes rebelling against the
system to inspire other young heroes. Of course, the argument always was that
the League would handle the public stuff and not put targets on the backs of
minors.
The counter-argument is that the League has been completely
hamstrung and bad guys both in and out of the system are capitalising on it and damaging the League's PR and hence the trust with the people. His
team, not officially affiliated with the League will reach out to the people
they’re protecting in a way the League can no longer do thanks to the
machinations of Luthor. Plus, people are scared of metahumans and it’s good PR
for all parties to see them making a positive difference in the world, as well
as inspiring other meta-teens.
Garfield even uses Superboy’s line from Independence Day (Or
Fireworks if you’re watching the episodes individually) “Get on board or get
out of the way” which gets a minor groan from him. The team will consist of
Beast Boy, Brion, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Blue Beetle and Static. As for if
they’re ready for the spotlight, Kid Flash was never one for secret identities,
Jaime was already exposed by the Reach, Gar has green skin and couldn’t hide,
Brion is already a public figure, whose standing with Markovia could be aided
by this and Wonder Girl and Static… are there too.
Aqualad agrees to this setup as long as this new team still
answers to the League through Miss Martian. One other thing Garfield has prepared is
a headquarters, the Premier Building in Hollywood, serving as both a mission HQ
and a living quarters, much like the cave did back in the day. And all of this
is financed by Gretchen Goode and his acting money. This is a
multi-million-dollar building, and even assuming it’s not the whole building
they’re using, I feel this might be stretching his budget, even for a TV Star.
Doctor Jace offers to move in and act as the Den mother and
her attachment to the kids is getting a little off, we’ll come back to this
later. The only one who is less happy is Forrager, who had a bit of an
attachment to Bio-ship.
We cut to Brooklyn where, they’re doing a version of the
Newsboy Legion, a real comic deep-cut, this time it’s the Newsgirl legion but
what this really is is an excuse for is to get the cast of Scooby Doo: Mystery
Incorporated to do voicework for similar characters on this show. The Reach
Ship attacks, with and footage of the attack soon reaches the ears of the
Outsiders.
Aquaman is already on the scene but despite making a valiant
effort he doges down, not helped by 2 more Warbugs showing up, though if you’ve
seen Kaldur in action before, you might think he went down too easily, and more
on that in a minute. Beast Boy is wearing a special collar that allows him to
speak even when in animal form, similar to the what the Ultra-Humanite wears.
Their plan is simple, they run interference with the Warbugs, allowing Blue Beetle to shut them down. We see brief scenes of their
antics being broadcast across the county, including to the Youth Centre, but
also to a hospital where Jay Garrick, the original Flash, is sitting with his
wife Joan, we’ll get back to that next time.
With all the Warbugs shut down, we cut to Harper-Crock
household, where Artemis says her goodbye to Violet and Tara, after one last
night. As it happens the Warbugs were piloted not by Reach but by humans, in
particular Whisper of Intergang making her obligatory once-per-season cameo. No
Bruno this time, though. But as they’re arrested, one of the War ugs sends a
signal to the larger Reach ship.
The Mayor of the town asks the Sherrif to arrest the
Outsiders, especially after finding out from Aquaman that they’re not members
of the League. Beast Boy orders everyone to stand down, allowing their arrest
as the Reach Ship gets Jaime’s attention. The US army is quickly summoned and
two drones fire upon it, and are quickly destroyed by the Reach ship. Beast Boys
orders the Outsiders to break out so they can stop the reach ship before the US
army bombs the ship and has it crash right on top of the town.
Both Lian and Halo are scared of a thunderstorm, with Tara
and Artemis having to provide them comfort. The Outsiders make it into the ship
but it’s got a target lock on manned jets heading towards them. And Blue can
only deactivate the weapons by deactivating the whole ship. Beast Boy’s plan is
to fly the ship away from the town, then cut the power, a relatively simple
solution but it works.
The Mayor wants them arrested again but the Sheriff has now
memorised a law that allows them to go free. The Newsgirl legion interview
them, officially donning the group The Outsiders. This gets them on social
media and trending. Tara tells Slade that the Outsiders are still stooges for
the League.
At the Batcave, Aquaman reveals that he and Lagoon Boy were
aware of the planned attack by intergang, they captured and arrested Bruno
Manheim but Whisper got away with the Warbugs. Oracle had it tracked to an
auction, and the attack in Brooklyn was meant to be a demonstration. Aquaman,
as you might’ve expected, threw the fight to get the Outsiders all the
attention. We also see that Lagoon Boy was with someone else when the Reach
ship launched, more on him soon.
Whilst Miss Martian doesn’t believe that Beast Boy should be
placed in their anti-light, his mission is a useful tool for their own.
It’s a solid episode, with some nice character work as Beast
Boy takes on a full leadership role for the first time.
Rating 8/10
Early Warning
We get a quick update on the Outsiders by Courtney Whitmore.
Apparently they had a mission in Chicago since the last episode and
#wearealloutsiders has been trending for the last 2 weeks. The Outsiders are
heading to Cuba, to bust a meta-trafficking lab there. The League has been
barred from entering Cuba so it’s down to them.
Tara, Forrager and Violet have awoken early to take the
zeta-tube to Happy Harbour and continue to attend school there. They’re on the West Coast whilst Happy Harbour is on the East so time zones make it all
complicated. Before they leave, Dr Jace has some news for Violet. You may
remember she was testing one of Violet’s hairs, well turns out the motherbox’s
resurrection of Gabrielle’s corpse is imperfect and she’s actually dying. Every
time she resurrects herself, it further deteriorates her overall health and
currently she has only a few months to live.
She’s been talking with her mentor and believes that with
his help they can find a solution to this, and they decide not to mention it to
Brion or Tara. Aquaman talks with Zatanna who is not happy they’ve sent the
Outsiders to Cuba knowing who they’re up against, she’s heading there too but
promises to stay under the radar.
We cut to Cuba and we see it is Klarion and… I know Klarion
is usually bratty and a bit stupid but he’s a bit too much in this episode.
Needing Teekl to remind him of his plan and talking about how fun it is
torturing puppies and children. Speaking of Klarion’s plan, the infamous
project Rutabaga: Use magic to activate the metagene in kidnapped kids, apply a
control brand, we saw someone with that brand in the Orphanage but it seems
Klarion has been morphing a bunch of kidnapped kids into a giant monster.
The Outsiders, minus Bart and Jaime, who are at Joan
Garrick’s funeral, arrive in Bioship on the scene. Their beetle drone is
quickly eaten by the monster. Cuban authorities have decided to pay the place a
visit and they know Klarion will not take kindly to it. The Outsiders move in,
Geo-force creating a lava-moat blocking off the Cuban authorities. Klarion gets
the monster to attack alerting the authorities who in their infinite wisdom
want to kill it, Geo-Force is now having to stop them as well.
Zatanna arrives and sadly she’s basically the dues
ex-machina of the a-plot. Not that the others do nothing but Klarion is well
out of their league and Zatanna does the big things. The fact that any of her
spells are powerful enough to counteract Klarion’s magic, including the control
brand is… interesting. She then summons one of Doctor Fate’s anchors and
transports him to the Tower of Fate.
Klarion quickly finds out where they are and tries to escape
but given the Tower’s unique properties is having trouble escaping. One of the
meta-teens has gills and can’t breathe on Land, Beast Boy gets her into the
water. The school day is over and Fred Bugg and Tara head home to train with
Artemis but Violet has elected to stay in Happy Harbour with Harper Row.
Guess it’s a half day because they’re out of school before
2pm. They’re hanging out at the beach with Harper shooting a gun and them both
drinking alcohol, something that Garbielle, being a Muslim, would not have
done. Harper and Violet kiss and Violet is astonishingly accurate with the gun. Unfortunately the police took notice and arrest them both
There’s still the Outsiders' standoff with the Cuban military, but
one of the kids they rescued was the son of one of the soldiers. The rest head off in
Bioship to get help or go home. Artemis and Tara train and Tara flashes back to
training with Deathstroke. Artemis sympathises, knowing her pre-fightclub
training was likely rough, not dissimilar to her own.
Megan picks up Violet from the police station, they finds
out Harper is stuck in her cell until her father picks her up. At the Youth
Centre, there’s no equipment for water-breathes and alternative arrangements
will have to be made for the gill-girl, they don’t reveal her name and she
changes it in a later episode. Ed decides he wants in on the outsiders, having
talked with Bart and Jamie at the funeral.
And he’s picked a perfect time to, as their little mission
in Cuba has got them international attention and they’re trending bigger than
the Justice League.
Early Warning is a prime example of one of the biggest
issues this show has. The main story was more or less over by the half-way
point of the episode, most of the rest was spent moving characters for
positions for other subplots. The Dolphin stuff, Harper and Violet, the
training scene, all exist purely as setup for something later on and whilst
there’s nothing wrong with that in and of itself but it takes almost half the
episode, whilst the A-plot kinda fizzled out with Zatanna showing up and doing
most of the work.
Rating 6/10
Elder Wisdom
“No, G Gordon, we’re not holding the UN Climate Conference
in Bwundasa simply because my company owns this hotel. I own Hotels in many
cities, many cities”
You sure you can’t see who Luthor’s become an allegory for?
They were invited to host the event by Bwunda’s leader in perpetuity, which is
really a kind way of saying dictator, General M’Barra, likely an ally of the
Light who probably bankrolled a military coup, with Luthor giving it legitimacy
like they did with Qurac.
Whilst Garth and Zviad Bazoovi are having a photo-op with
Luthor, Troia is in the hotel, face-timing Wonder Woman. As the photo
commences, Garth is knocked out by an arrow to the neck. A psychic metahuman
knocks out Troia, with another masked assassin breaking in to make the kill. But
Tara and Halo are waiting for her, with Halo’s illusions hiding them.
The masked attackers say they speak for the Bwundan
independence Front. The outsiders move in to protect Garth and those outside.
M’Barra gives Luthor permission to call in the League. Miss M is quickly
dealing with the psychic outside, but Violet gets her throat slit by the sword-wielder
attacking Troia, she heals quickly. Miss M defeats the telepath and removes the
control ship on her neck. Troia recovers and forces the assassins’ retreat.
Garth recovers and we see him easily able to deal with the
assassins, but it’s the Flash who ends up saving the day. Luthor having called
him in, we even get a cute moment with him and G Gordon interacting, both
characters have been recast with James Arnold Taylor now voicing them. Kid
Flash took an arrow grenade to the face and though he’s fine, Luthor plays it
up that he was badly hurt.
OK, turns out the sword-wielding assassin was Lady Shiva and
Cassandra Savage was among those down on the ground. This was a setup to make
the Outsiders look bad orchestrated, of course, by Lex Luthor. It’s kinda nice
that Luthor’s open for them to ask his questions. Given Violet’s recent actions
and refusal to talk about it, M’Gann decides to bench them from the team.
Speaking of being benched, Edwardo Sr, having seen what happened on the news
expresses concern for his son, rescinding his permission to be part of the
group, and he’s spoken to some of the other parents about doing the same.
Ed gets Halo to boom-tube them away.
“I forgot about Vic”
You’re not alone, Wonder Girl, you’re not alone. More on him
next time. Jace tells Violet that though she’s been calling her mentor, nothing
much has happened. Brion tries to confront Violet but they flash back to their
transgressions, including kissing Harper, and runs off. Jace tells him that
first relationships rarely last.
The Outsiders bonding is interrupted as Helena Sandsmark,
Jay Garrick and Edwardo Sr have zeta’d into the base. But before anything can
happen, they get an alert from Ireland that Ivo’s MONQIs are stealing from a
girl’s father. The girl’s username is @LittleMatchGirl16. Beast Boy’s is ready
to move the team out, but Jay stops them. But since Garfield is emancipated,
and Jaime and Virgil are both legal adults, they don’t care and head out
anyway.
They arrive at the store but the father Matthew Malone,
tells them that @LittleMatchGirl16 has been abducted. He tried to call the
police but mentioning the MONQIs meant he wasn’t believed. We actually don’t
hear the name Matthew Malone at this stage, but lots of Match references. After
some arguing, we cut back to Dublin where they the Outsiders have tracked the
MONQIs to a warehouse filled with Lex Luthor’s spider-bots.
Halo decides to reveal all to Brion and Tara. Brion is
annoyed but Tara is on the verge of having a panic attack. Still, it only
enrages her further, she contacts Deathstroke telling them about the grounding
of the Outsiders. And we also see that budget for this episode clearly didn’t
cover a fight against the MONQIs as that’s done in still frames as each of the
heroes makes their case to their parents, successfully.
The lab blows up and we cut to a news report from G Gordon
Godfrey. He’s speaking to Lex Luthor who’s talking about introducing a
Superhero Registry. Yes, seriously, he’s got that plan in his head. Here’s the
thing though, G Gordon takes him to task, refuting his suggestion that the
parents aren’t authorising it and showing him how the public isn’t taking to
his idea of a superhero registry. Apparently, they had one in the 50s and it
didn’t work.
Behind the scenes, G Gordon tells Lex he knows the lab that
exploded was actually one of his and he lost a fortune. But his attacks on the
Outsiders aren’t working because their brand is about rebelling against the
system. Lex instead has to embrace and co-opt the idea for his own.
We cut to the Anti-Light and yeah, it’s revealed that this
was all a setup to counter the bad attention from Bwunda. Bruce was Matthew
Malone, the daughter was played by Miss Martian and the MONQIs and Ivo droid
were all controlled remotely by Tim Drake. Wonder Woman is rightfully horrified
by this, telling them that this is crossing a line and for once, I agree with
her.
The episode ends with Halo writing a letter.
This episode is pretty good, though it would’ve been nice to
see the actual MONQI fight.
Rating 7.5/10
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