We’re looking at Young Justice Outsiders one last time for the final run of episodes. As I write this the newest season, co-titled Phantoms hasn’t come out yet but it due to soon. [Time of posting the first half of the season has come out, and has its pros and cons]
Terminus
We open at the Orphanage as the Earth Green Lanterns entrap
the base in a construct, preventing them from boomtubing away. On the Javelin is Elongated man,
who honestly would’ve been better kept on Earth in my opinion. It’s not like Guy calling him Flongated man is that funny. Wonder Woman deploys her squad
consisting of her, Martian Manhunter, Icon, Captain Atom and Superman. But
the Orphanage has launched no counter-measures, which they find suspect.
But Granny activates the device she’s been building which I
think expands the ghost dimension, then Halo uses their magic words to enslave
the Leaguers to the anti-life equation. They’re lucky the Lantern construct
providing them air holds out.
We cut to Black Lightning sitting, largely in silence,
thinking about Doctor Jace’s manipulations. Virgil offers him a hotdog, which
he turns down. They just sit together in silence. Yeah, I get the feeling they
couldn’t afford Virgil’s voice actor for this episode. Gretchen is making a
plea on the G Gordon Godfrey show, the team have raided Goode holdings looking
for Violet which Gretchen is using, making her seem like the victim of a
metahuman attack.
They’ve deduced that Halo is likely off world. Dick has a
low-grade fever, and Barbara has only left his bedside as Aquaman has agreed to
watch him. M’Gann tries again to make her case to Superboy, he compares it to
what happened with Artemis back last season and even brings up the mindwipe…
OK, I get his anger over what happened but that’s a low blow. M’Gann being in
the loop entirely avoids situations like what happened to Kaldur, and frankly,
that scheme, despite some complications, was the root cause of a major triumph
against the Light.
Help comes from an unlikely source, Vandal Savage comes
straight to their doorstep, offering them co-ordinates to the Orphanage so they
can boomtube over with Motherbox. His only condition is that they tell Granny
exactly who sent him. No sign of Thirteen so Nightwing is subbing in for her,
with Aquaman coming to back him up, though M’Gann will be leading this
operation.
Geo-Force wants to come too, Superboy warns him he needs to
keep his head on straight, for Violet’s sake. Nightwing spots this and the two
talk, Superboy telling Dick he already is a leader like it or not, and he needs
to consider what kind of leader he’s trying to be. They establish a psychic
link to save on mouth movements as they boomtube into the Orphanage.
Motherbox can detect her but Miss Martian can’t detect them
psychically. Geo-Force is command of Beta Squad, consisting of himself, Forager
and Terra. Alpha Squad: Miss Martian, Superboy, Aquaman, Nightwing and Tigress
prepare to provide a diversion. Aquaman spots the Javelin and fills everyone in
on their mission.
Parademons are about to come in force as Nightwing’s fever
continues. Black Lightning’s scene also feels like an excuse to use old footage.
Forager notices that Mantis is among the people fighting with the Furies,
though Barda is conspicuously missing here. Nightwing’s fever culminates in a
fever dream of Wally West, with models changing to their season 1 versions,
including Nightwing to Robin. Whilst this is cool, I can’t help but feel they
don’t take full advantage of this, with much of the action now happening either
in still frames or chibi-style.
Nightwing hacks the Javelin to get its weapons to defeat the
Parademons. The fever dream hacked the psychic link so they all felt like it.
Artemis hugs him whilst in that pose with the curved spine that only comic
characters can accomplish. Jefferson is at least cheered up a little by his
kids.
Brion attempts to rescue violet but Granny is ready to stop him, they psychically prepare a plan but Martian Manhunter disables their link
and with Superman’s help the 3 are captured. Alpha’s on the move toward them.
They plan, but with the League likely already under Granny’s control, they need
to level the playing field. Aquaman is betting Miss Martian’s psychic strength,
but Superboy points out that a puppet doesn’t need a mind. Aquaman then
suggests she brain-fry everyone, I’m entirely sure how that counters Superboy’s
point but he’s also horrified by what that could mean for M’Gann. M’Gann
counters that if she does nothing, billions will be enslaved, she’s prepared to
sacrifice her soul to save theirs.
Apparently metas are the only ones that will survive the
anti-life process though how is Elongated Man not a meta. Apparently, his
powers come from a fruit or something, but that probably does link back to the
metagene, same with the Flashes. Anyway, that’s why Dick didn’t recover as
easily from the ghost dimension, though for some reason that’s less of an issue
when they’re captured this time, oh yeah, both alpha and beta squad are
captured, Miss Martian’s plan failing, and we see that the anti-life power
begins to spread beyond the Orphanage.
Rating 7.5/10
Into the Breach
We open with the Outsiders, minus Static and Brion (for
obvious reasons) but plus Vic on the bioship. Vic ends up being quite
important to the overall plot. You see, he’s been using his cybernetic
components to search Gretchen Goode’s holdings, similar to Oracle but different
in a vaguely explained manner. But what’s important, as he shows on holograms he's now able to project, is that he’s found a storage facility with no network connectivity.
An on-site storage facility at her movie studio with no network connectivity.
He’s also can sense Apokoliptan signatures.
Unfortunately, they don’t have the element of surprise, as
Overlord warns Gretchen that they’re coming. The Outsiders boomtube into the
building, with Vic wanting to stick around as a favour to Violet. Kid Flash doesn’t see
anything at all but Vic can sense illusions and is able to deactivate it some cloaking revealing a big machine, clearly apokoliptan in origin. But before they can
find out what it is they’re boom-tubed into the x-pit.
Meanwhile, Luthor sees that #InfinityInc is trending, but
not as high as #WeAreAllOutsiders, he makes a call. Meanwhile, Ed sees that the
team is in danger and teleports in to try and help, the Scarab has shut down due
to the previously established incompatibility of Reach and Apokoliptan tech and
since Jaime is the only regular human, he’s feeling it worse than most. Ed
reaches Jaime but is unable to get his bearings and teleport out.
Gretchen cubes Beast Boy and offers him a chance to rescue
the others, a fight between the two of them, winner take all. Beast Boy agrees
and the cube becomes an arena, but what Beast Boy didn’t count on is Gretchen
having strength to overpower his animal forms. Vic awakens in the overlord’s
systems or something. Gretchen’s attacks are brutal.
We see Luthor looking over photos of Infinity Inc going up
against Killer Frost, increasing their popularity. Vic now has to fight Overlord, but has chosen a form without his cybernetics, Overlord stabs him
through the chest. Still, this is a digital battle, and nothing’s exactly real.
Vic reverts to his cybernetic form with that he rather easily defeats Overlord.
This shuts the down the ghost dimension and brings them back to the studio.
Wonder Girl and Kid Flash are now able to join the fight.
Vic and Jaime head to the machine and blow it up, causing
Granny Goodness to disappear, Vic opens a boomtube to follow her and heads off
alone. Kid Flash sums up this fight in a rather depressing fashion, but of
course we’re only 12 minutes into the episode, 10 still to go. We cut back to
the Orphanage where Gretchen and Granny seem to be merging together and it
looks horrifying. Vic notices Halo and gets clued into what’s going on. He
blasts the cerebral leash off of Violet, freeing her from Granny’s control.
As Granny begins to recover, Halo piles on all her auras,
creating a bright aura that destroys the ghost dimension and uses her magic
phrase to free everyone from the anti-life equation. Granny goes on the attack
but Halo contains her. She and the members of the League blast the device to
destroy it, the Lanterns providing them protection when the device explodes.
With this Overlord is shut down for good.
Halo easily can counter Granny now, telling her that since
she can destroy the Ghost dimension, there’s no real point in rebuilding the
device. Superboy then adds that Vandal Savage gave her away and she boomtubes
away. Still, as victories go, it’s a pretty major one, they’ve rescued a good
300 meta-teens. But Superboy and M’Gann have some issues to think about.
M’gann tells Forrager that M’Comm has returned to Mars so
with Mantis now arrested by the Lanterns, he’s free to return to New Genesis.
Granny reports to Darkseid, telling him that Vandal Savage has sabotaged her
efforts. As Beast Boy believes he's defeated until all the good news piles up,
the Team and Vic return home via Boomtube. Vic managed to get proof that
Gretchen Goode is Granny Goodness, which would mean something if the public had
any perception of what was going on at the Orphanage. Whatever, Vic is MVP for
this episode and officially decides to join the Outsiders under the name
Cyborg.
We see that Killer Frost was wearing and control chip and
Infinity Inc works for Luthor, they are now trending higher than the Outsiders.
The end credits show up the Lobo finger has grown a bit.
This episode is… rushed, a common problem with this season
is that it has so many characters to tell stories about, it often rushes them
to a conclusion. We still have 2 episodes left but this one, whilst not bad
felt… anti-climactic.
Rating 8/10
Overwhelmed
In a kind of interesting twist, this episode slows things
right down allowing us to conclude some character stuff.
It seems that G Gordon Godfrey also left Earth when Granny’s
plan failed, as Tod Donner, a character from Weisman’s run with Captain Atom (co-written
by Carry Bates) anyway, the news reports that the League are returning to Earth
having rescued 316 trafficked meta-teens. The metahuman Youth Centre is working
to accommodate this new influx.
With things as they are, Luthor tells the other members of
the Light it’s time to begin their plan. Lian is with Garfield, Vic and Violet,
so Artemis and Will can celebrate Valentines Day. There’s been some hints of
romantic tension between the two all season, the two kiss but Artemis
quickly runs off afterwards, taking a photo of her and Wally and apologising to
it.
Meanwhile we cut to Superboy and Forrager are heading out in
the RV. Forrager likes Earth but feels he can’t be himself here, so finds
himself in quite the dilemma now he can return home. Superboy is taking him in
the Bio-RV to Geranium City. We’re introduced to the Mayor, Dabny Donovan. But
once the town is free of humans, Dabny drops the psychic illusion, revealing
himself to be Dubilex, and the city to be full of genomorphs. Which is interesting
as I thought Ra’s and Queen Bee killed them all. I did say it was unclear but...
It seems a few of the old CADMUS staff work here, including
Jim Harper and Doctor Spence. Cool. Geo-Force is being interviewed on the news
by Todd Donner, and the good press is finally having an impact. Prince Gregor
tells his siblings he can use the good press to bring them back into Markovia.
Tara tells Deathstroke of this development.
You remember the mangrove tree where Zatanna and Zatarra had
their one hour, well, we’re back there as Artemis has a request for Zatanna,
she wants to talk to Wally, and she says if Zatanna doesn’t help her, she’ll
make a Faustian bargain. Yikes. So, Zatanna says she’ll take Artemis’ soul to
limbo, a half-way point where they can meet, but only until the Sun rises. From
their her imagination will dictate everything.
The spell is performed and the two finally meet. Metron
arrives at the tower and takes Violet and Vic with him, unintentionally taking
Lian with her. He calls them his grandchildren, the children of the children of
his intellect. He’s impressed with what they’ve done, and tells them they’ll be
important players in the coming galactic conflict, but that also makes them a
big target for Darkseid. The first time someone who isn’t one of the bad guys
has ever mentioned his name.
I won’t really go over what happens in Limbo, it’s adorable
and sweet and it’s one of the best psychological dives they’ve done since
season 1. With Tara’ message confirming Brion’s out of the country, Luthor
gives the op a go ahead, though it will risk compromising Tara’s cover. In a
Markovburg Prison, a boom tube opens, providing DeLamb and Simon Ecks their
freedom.
Forrager removes his glamour charm and we get a recap of the
events of S1, in still frames of course because can’t waste that animation
budget. Dubilex says the dream is not yet complete, whilst they’re safe,
they’re forced to hide and are segregated from the outside world. Forrager
relates to this, and decides to join the Outsiders and fight in clear view. He
hopes that by doing so he may help the Genomorphs too.
Then Dubilex turns to Superboy. Superboy is not a public
figure and his reluctance to act in public has kept the Genomorphs hidden too.
Superboy wants to step up, but has chosen to help individuals rather than help
as part of a cause.
Artemis eventually comes back to reality, grateful to be
given the chance to say goodbye, but it turns out that Zatanna didn’t actually
do it, it was M’Gann creating a physic playground for the two. This keeps the
door open for a million theories about Wally’s return. Far as I know, Greg
Weisman was unaware of the speed-force when he was writing the show’s original
run, so I’d like to think he’s actually dead for real but I’ll let the show
contradict me if it feels it needs to.
Artemis returns home, grateful to all that has happened but
confesses to Will that he doesn’t think they’re right for each other, which
Will has come to agree with. DeLamb has staged a coup and taken the throne of
Markovia with Luthor, once again, stifling UN action over this. He even says
“there are good people on both sides” you can’t deny who they’re emulating with
that one. With the League benched, it’s time for the Outsiders to return to
Markovia.
The Artemis plotline is by far the best of the episode, but
a lot of good character bits, particularly with Superboy are addressed here. I do
think the Metron bit was unnecessary, but it was thankfully brief.
Rating 8/10
Nevermore
We open with Jefferson Pierce coming to Barbara Gordon,
wanting the inside info as to what’s happening, as he still cares about Brion,
Violet and Tara.
Anyway, M’Gann is leading a group, Gamma Squad, consisting
of Kid Flash, Blue Beetle, Static, Thirteen, Wonder Girl and El Dorado, they’re
crossing the border in the Bioship. Their mission is to stop Simon Ecks
executing those who aren’t loyal to DeLamb.
Beta Squad: Nightwing, Tigress, Superboy, Forrager and Halo
are going to boom-tube straight to Markovburg, flushing out DeLamb for Alpha
Squad: Beast Boy, Geo-Force, Terra and Cyborg. Jeff asks what else he isn’t
being told and Barbara is ready to explain as we cut to LexCorp in Metropolis,
where Lex Luthor and Deathstroke are preparing their gambit.
The plan is for everything to go so wrong that Luthor can use
it to justify the hero registry, Infinity Inc volunteering to do so.
Deathstroke gives his order, Tara is to publicly kill Garfield Logan. Beta
Squad makes their move but are intercepted by Count Vertigo, Alpha squad are
ready though, but DeLamb is no pushover, able to take hits from both Geo-Force,
Beast Boy and Terra. Cyborg is informed by Jeff that he has a new mission.
Beast Boy gets his arm broken.
Gamma has completed their mission, and Nightwing knocks out
Vertigo with an escrima stick to the head. Terra and Geo-Force are able to turn
the tides on DeLamb, trapping him in rock. He surrenders, but Geo-Force is
ready to kill him, barely stopped by Beast Boy. Still, Terra is ready to
complete her mission until Artemis and Halo arrive on the scene and Artemis
reveals she knows that Deathstroke is giving her orders.
So you remember when Batman Inc did a thing, it only
happened once… Batman was spying on Deathstroke from the jungle and overheard
Deathstroke tell Cassandra that Tara washed out, and because he was unmasked,
Batman read his micro-expressions, I’m the guessing the device he was holding
got him a closer look, and could tell he was lying. This doesn’t explain how
Artemis knows since she was neither part of Batman Inc or the anti-light but
whatever. Rather than busting her up front, they chose to let her make her own
choice, something she hasn’t been able to do in a long time.
Artemis does get Tara to relent, and she throws away her
com-link. Cyborg takes the com-link and gives Oracle the means to trace it
back to its source. Of course, the news about Tara does not sit well with Brion, who’s
frustrated he wasn’t made aware of this. And things don’t get better as the
ambassador arrives with a crowd. DeLamb escapes but Brion quickly captures him
again, Brion then deciding to kill him, causing the crowd to cheer his name.
And it gets worse, with the ambassador whispering in his
ear, Brion declares himself King. He offers amnesty to Tara but... yeah, no,
she decides to go back with the others and even more tragically, Violet turns
him down as well. He tells Nightwing to leave and they do so. It’s actually a
not badly handled bait and switch.
Despite this not exactly happening as planned, Luthor’s
pleased with the results, there’s plenty he can use to frame to argument for
the Superhero registry. What he didn’t count on is Cyborg got access to his
files. And now Black Lightning is presenting evidence to the UN that Luthor was
involved in meta-trafficking, ran LexCorp in spite of the conflict of interest
and is the guy behind Infinity Inc.
This has caused protests outside the UN calling for his
resignation. He calls it all “fake news” and calls Black Lightning “Disgraced”
OK, Luthor is Trump confirmed guys, I don’t know what to tell you at this
point. At this point, Superboy steps in, with Superman backing him up. He tells
the UN exactly what he is and is living proof that Luthor illegally created
cloning experiments, he offers anyone to test his DNA to prove it. Garth calls
an immediate vote of no-confidence.
Which he wins, as Lex is now in the middle of a legal
nightmare. Ambassador Troia of all people is now the top candidate as the next
Secretary General. With all these victories, the League’s reputation is on the
up-and-up. Tara was put on trial, but she got probation and she’s officially
joining the Outsiders.
Jace has returned to Markovia and stands before ‘King’
Brion. The Light’s victories in Markovia have overshadowed Lex’s legal woes.
And it turns out Ambassador Bazoovi is in fact the latest member of the Light,
his psychic powers part of the reason why Brion did what he did. Vandal Savage
had gone to Apokolips, argued for a bit with Darkseid before finding common
ground torturing Granny Goodness, and rekindling their partnership, they also
believe Halo could be the key to their final victory.
Nightwing has called a meeting with everyone present. Batman
tells him he commands more respect than he realises. Nightwing decides that
with word spreading, they may as well get it out in the open. They reveal the
anti-light, and say that despite their best intentions it was a mistake. Wonder
Woman, Aquaman and Miss Martian are all stepping down as leaders of their
respective teams. Nightwing nominating Black Lightning as the new Leader of the
League. We find out in an in-continuity podcast episode that Artemis becomes
the new leader of the Team.
Black Lightning asks what happens with ‘Batman Inc’, it’ll
be folded back into the team and the League. Nightwing will also rejoin the
team, bolstering their numbers. So Black Lightning’s speech, I like it, though
it’s dampened slightly by the revelation that Brion was psychically
manipulated. Also, secrets and lies have been more effective against the Light
than open action against them.
Superboy is also officially joining the Outsiders, but
before the episode ends we need to address Connor and Megan one last time.
Superboy apologises from dredging up old wounds and they ultimately rekindle
their romance. Some other bits of wrap-up. Windfall removes her inhibitor
collar, Vic saves Cisco from being hassled, Forrager reveals himself in class,
much to the delight of most of them and Infinity Inc pledge themselves to
Brion.
We finish up at Bibbo’s, where our heroes are having some
downtime, we see one of the servers is wearing a Legion of Super Heroes flight
ring. Yay… more new characters.
The credits stinger shows the thumb of Lobo growing into a
miniature Lobo Clone, before the real Lobo kills it with violence. Yeah, there
was a Lil Lobo in the comics for a while, presumably they wanted to avoid that
clusterfuck.
This is a good finale, but not a great one, once again the
main conflict ends too early and there’s a real noticeable lack of action.
Rating 7.5/10
Young Justice: Outsiders was a good season, but suffered
from a lot of problems that were building in Invasion. It’s nice to have a show
with a broad scope but a lot of the cast got lost in the shuffle, characters
like Batwoman showed up in one episode, did nothing, then just disappeared for
the rest of the season.
The s1 heroes are scattered across up to 4 different teams
at any one time, I’d even struggle to tell you who the main characters are for
the season. Plus, with so many elements to juggle, the pacing was off for a lot
of the season with resolutions to certain main episode conflicts happening
midway through an episode so they can check in with other groups. The animation
was much weaker than previous seasons, it’s clear going to a niche streaming
service like DCUniverse meant a slashing of the budget, maybe now they’re on a
more mainstream one in HBOMax, they got a bit more leeway [note: it sadly doesn't seem like it].
But it’s not without positives, the story still did engross
me, and there were some absolutely spectacular character moments, particularly
with Artemis and I think the bait-and-switch with Tara and Brion was a good
move. And the show managed to balance its tones better than other shows, using
the removal of restrictions to its advantage whilst rarely being excessive.
No comments:
Post a Comment