Slick’s Nit-Picks: Young Justice Invasion, Episode 210 – “Before The Dawn”

Nah ese! Get this big roach offa me!

Some glimpses of Impulse’s future have come to pass and others have been averted, at least for the moment. While he prevented the death of his grandfather at the hands of Neutron, we still see that Mount Justice was completely destroyed. As usual with our story we have way more questions than we do answers and the biggest one just got trumped. Since season one, we have wondered exactly what The Light is up to and to this day that question remains largely unanswered. Now we have to wonder exactly what Nightwing and Aqualad’s plans are. With Kaldur having been inducted into The Light, one has to wonder how much longer he will need to keep up this deception. When the time comes, it will be very difficult for he and Artemis to escape. Worst of all is that none of that may even matter once The Reach get their plans into full swing. The team is facing a global threat, bigger than anything they have ever even witnessed, largely on their own. With the heaviest hitters of the Justice League light years away, this may be a losing battle that they fight.

You will never play “got your nose” with us again!

The faces of the pair that experimented with Neutron in Central City are finally revealed. We finally see what I have suggested months ago, that The Reach are the Kroloteans’ competitor. I am not quite sure why they seek the human metagene however. . . .

Not the first thing you wanna see in the morning….or any time of day.

When you have literal monsters like Black Beetle at your disposal, why you would need any other living weapons is beyond me.

Now this is really what you call “rollin’ deep.”

^{REACH DEEP DOWN} Following the destruction of Mount Justice, Nightwing devises a plan to retrieve all of his kidnapped people and the other abducted children. Barbara Gordon, Bumblebee and Tim Drake infiltrate a shipment of “meat” that Tigress is sending to The Light’s partner, who call themselves The Reach. Tigress’ ship is tailed by Miss Martian, Wonder Girl and Nightwing and Superboy has somehow infiltrated her ranks. After M’gann’s “subtle” release of Beast Boy and Impulse triggers an alarm, yet Barbara, Tim and Bumblebee still manage to free everyone except Jaime, thanks to Superboy’s intervention. Impulse locates and frees Jaime and reveals his mission to him as they escape. As M’gann and Garfield make their way back to the docking bay, they encounter Kaldur’ahm. Enraged, M’gann attacks him mentally, which he seems to resist at first but he falls in the end, just as she learns the truth. Tigress sees them and runs to Kaldur’s aid. Mentally, M’gann sees who she is and Artemis looks in disbelief at what she has done. Things look even worse for the others as Beetle traps everyone in the docking bay. Even the might of Superboy and Wonder Girl are no match for his power and Shimmer joins in to help him. Jaime allows his scarab to once again take over and he battles Black Beetle to a stalemate. Everyone escapes, but Kaldur is possibly lobotomized and M’gann is visibly shaken by her actions. Before the Justice League can expose The Reach, the aliens descend upon the U.N. building in New York City and benevolently announce themselves as if they have just now arrived on Earth. With at least forty-two more ships hiding in the Mariana Trench, once again, The Light and now The Reach are one step ahead of the good guys.

Dammit, I forgot to shout “KA-ME-HA-ME-HA!”

^{ONE OF US, RIGHT?} Blue Beetle was kept hidden from Kaldur’ahm during his tour of the Reach vessel and when he questioned the Ambassador, he was told that Jaime is none of his business nor that of The Light. The Scientist works to find out why the Scarab is not operating properly. Interestingly, she, unlike the Ambassador and Black Beetle, seemed unwilling to kill Jaime and reboot his Scarab. Equally puzzling is the behavior of the Scarab aboard the ship. It has always behaved in a malevolent manner, advising Jaime to take the violent way out. One would think that it was trying to get him “on mode” as The Reach would say. However, it made no attempt to gain his compliance aboard the vessel and asked his permission to take control of his body to fight Black Beetle. The Scarab’s only concern this whole time seems to have been to protect Jaime Reyes and his secret identity. With his nightmarish future presented to him, Jaime is going to have to hope things stay that way.

Duh, tell me again about the rabbits, Tigress.

^{THINGS FALL APART} Nightwing’s plan has hit a bit of a road block with Kaldur possibly being a vegetable and all. And big surprise, good ol’ “Hello Megan” is responsible for it all. I mean, Superboy tried to tell her it was wrong when she was mentally assaulting Kroloteans. He even tried to reason with her when they talked about why they broke up. I mean, when someone can fly, shape shift, use telekinesis, use telepathy and read minds, has a cool ship they can control with their mind and has super strength, attacking people’s minds seems like a cop out. It’s ironic that someone that uses their mind for so much does things without thinking. Now she has endangered an important mission, she may have irreparably damaged a good friend’s mind and possibly brought the Earth one step closer to the horrible future Impulse wants to prevent. Let’s vote Miss Martian superhero of the year!

A very clear indication that you should be running away right now.

It seems that finally all the players have stepped into the light, so to speak. Unfortunately, that usually means that there is more to the story hiding in the shadows. This episode prominently featured G. Gordon Godfrey, who is one of Darkseid’s disciples. Even if the team manages to defeat The Reach, there is always the looming threat of Apokolips. That is in the future, however. The team still has plenty on their plate today. For once, The Light is not on top of things for I doubt that even they know about the Reach fleet that lies in wait. As much as I have always had faith in the team to pull it off on their own, they could really use the help of the missing Justice League members right now.

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