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Slick’s Nit-Picks: Young Justice Invasion, Episode 206 – “Bloodlines”

Nothing to miss here anyway.

I constantly congratulate the creative team behind the show for excellent writing. I talk with a lot of fans of the show and we are always trying to figure out what happens next (I keep spoilers to a minimum outside of the reviews). The only “problem” is that sometimes the writing is a little bit too good. There are way too many unanswered questions right now and we need some resolution. I get that there is a buildup to keep the fans anxious, but Invasion is five episodes in and things are already more chaotic than all of last season. That is especially true considering one of those plots are from last season. The good thing is that the writers have not let us down as yet. I am sure there will be answers and probably three more questions for each one we get.

Just taking a morning jog with gramps.

FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LINT Black snow, aka volcanic (or nuclear) ash, is never a good sign. We see a young man working on a device and an older man who clearly was a Belle Reve inmate. We flash to the cave and find that the young man was in fact Impulse traveling from the future. He tells Nightwing, Robin and Beast Boy that he is a time tourist and the grandson of Barry Allen, the Flash. His words and actions lead us to believe that he knows more than he lets on. Continuing from the end of Salvage, Cheshire and Red Arrow are in Tibet where she claims to have found the original Roy Harper. In Central City, Impulse joins his family to fight a new enemy that is being controlled by yet another unknown alien race. So much for getting answers.

Lian is OK with having two daddies.

WILL THE REAL ROY HARPER PLEASE STAND UP? Somewhere in the five year time jump, Red Arrow married, impregnated and estranged his wife, Cheshire. She said that they fell apart because of his obsession with finding Roy Harper, but there are allusions to other problems. In the Salvage episode, we can pretty much tell that clone Roy had been on drugs. According to the comics, he was a heroin junkie. Cheshire gives us a clue as to what their other marital problem is. Before they storm the compound in Tibet she gives him a pep talk that ends with the words “assuming you’re ‘up’ for it.” Once again, from the comics, Red Arrow suffers from impotence. The only hard shafts he has are in his quiver. Yes, that was tacky, but she started it.

Feeling FABULOUS!

NOT AS “IMPULSIVE” AS I REMEMBER Bart Allen, aka Impulse was one of the three founding members of the team known as Young Justice in the comics, so it is great to finally see him on the show after only thirty-one other episodes. I am about to go on another one of my rants that will end with “I know, it’s not the same Earth as in the comics.” Still, the old Impulse was more fun and the name does not really fit anymore. In the comics, Batman gave Bart the name Impulse as a warning because he literally acts before thinking. His mentor, Max Mercury, trained him to flip that but it took a long time. This Bart is just as fast as the original, but he thinks first. Based on what we know so far, he is probably the smartest of the original trio (Superboy, Tim Drake and himself). I am not saying the comic version was an idiot, but his actions made him quite the buffoon and he was great comic relief, something the show could use more of.

Doesn't look like too much Justice comes outta there in the future.

DAYS OF FUTURE IMPERFECT Both Bart and the hidden alien pair use a similar slang. Their conversation include words like “meat,” “the mode” and “crash.” Now if you remember, there is one more character that uses the term meat: the Partner. We know Bart is from the future and we know that the guy in the suit is the same guy that helped him get to the past. This would lead me to believe that both the Partner and the aliens controlling Neutron are from the present and have introduced this slang to people in the future. Since neither party seem to be on the up and up, the likelihood is that in the future, they walk freely among us. Either that or they have conquered and rule what is left of us – the nuclear winter does not look very promising for the human race.Neutron also was apparently going to kill Flash with his second explosion, since Impulse cleverly hid that he was trying to prevent that. Neutron and Flash’s death apparently have something to do with the grim future, but apparently Bart still has a lot of work to do.

No one crashes our party and gets away with it!

This is going to be one of those lynchpin episodes. One that you will have to rewatch towards the end of the season and possibly future seasons to put everything together. I have some ideas on what will happen, but these are all speculation. We know that we have (or had) three, possibly four alien races on Earth right now. The first are citizens of Apokolips, who seem to have been here the longest. Next up are the Kroloteans, who may or may not have been wiped off the face of the Earth entirely. The Partner and Blue Beetle are of the Reach and now we have these new aliens whom I have seen some refer to as Kroloteans. They cannot be of that race unless they are some kind of evolutionary offshoot or something. They are too tall and their language sounds totally different; not to mention that these aliens have five digits where Kroloteans only have four. So let me do a quick rundown of where we are:

  • For what purpose did the Light send the JLA into space?
  • What is Darkseid up to (oh yes, he’s in this story somewhere)
  • Are the Kroloteans really gone?
  • Who are these new aliens?
  • What are the Reach up to and why are they collecting humans?
  • Is Aqualad really a traitor?
  • What happened between 2016 and 2056?
  • What heroes are left in the future?

And the only resolution we have is that Roy Harper is alive and rescued. Even that raises questions. Someone once said that patience is a virtue. That person probably caught a very impatient ass whooping.

WHO PUT ME IN THIS CHEAP KNOCK-OFF SAMUS COSTUME?!?