It’s been a long summer with no new episodes of Young Justice to enjoy. Last week was no real season premiere because a huge chunk of fans had already seen the “Targets” episode months ago. With the return of new episodes (finally) we have a team that seems to have their act together now. The ability to function both individually and as a unit. The team also may have a new member in who or whatever is inside the metal sphere they retrieved from Bialya. Nothing has been revealed about it as yet other than it having taken a liking to Superboy. In this (hopefully longer) new season there are a lot of questions to answer and knowing this show, said answers will probably raise even more questions still.
PLOT The Justice League take down the “Terror Twins,” Tommy and Tuppence and use Superboy and Miss Martian as their stand ins at Belle Reve Penitentiary. Their goal is to find out why four ice powered supervillains seem to have purposely gotten themselves sent there. Superboy’s attitude problems seem to make him fit in pretty well in prison society. He “befriends” Icicle Jr. and gains the respect of Icicle Sr., who runs things amongst the inmates. The “twins” are tasked with finding out what the ice villains are up to and stopping it if possible. You would have to think that something is awry the moment that you see Dr. Hugo Strange is the prison’s psychiatrist. A prison riot breaks out and Superboy and Miss Martian have to fend for themselves.
THE TERROR TWINS We really do not learn much about these two considering the episode is named after them. All we really find out is that they can jump high (far) and they are really strong. Tommy remarks at how he went toe to toe with Superman. Within the first two minutes, they are replaced by Superboy and Miss Martian. I do not think that we will see too much more of them in the future =. The show seems to be on a dark trend a la Teen Titans, but the light-hearted moments are few and far between. These two do not seem like their brand of trouble would make for a serious episode.
DADDY ISSUES Superboy is still looking for some kind of approval from Superman. This is a rather annoying aspect of his character especially when you consider that his teammates do not look at him as “Superman’s son” or clone. We see in the episode that the moment someone mentions Superman he gets bent out of shape or jumps to conclusions, thinking that they are trying to put him down. Worst part of that is the person he often blows up on is Miss Martian, who is only trying to help him because she likes him and cares about him. Maybe this kid should realize that he is his own worst enemy. You want to be looked at as your own person and be out from under the shadow of Superman, but you have a closet full of black t-shirts with the House of El family crest on them. One would think that a genetically engineered person might be slightly more intelligent.
CONTINUITY The writers of YJ are doing an excellent job of giving viewers a comic book feel. Each episode either has continuity to the last or there are moments that allude to earlier episodes, just like in any comic. You have to pay a bit more attention because there are no editor’s notes on screen. If the home release did that where you could cut to an earlier episode when it is mentioned in a later one, that would be awesome. It would be even more awesome if Cartoon network didn’t take almost a year just to air a season – the show began Thanksgiving weekend 2010 and we’re only on episode eleven. Cartoons have a minimum season length of thirteen episodes (traditionally). Hopefully we get the rest of season one and a full second season before any substantial programming breaks this time.
THE KISS Without spoiling too much, I have to address the culmination of the tension between Conner and M’gann. Conner is an idiot that snaps at M’gann quite often, yet she still likes him and pulls closer to him. He will often realize that he overreacted and make amends, like he did in the “Drop Zone” episode, as well as this one. In the “Downtime” and “Targets” episodes, Conner’s interest in M’gann is clearly more than that of just teammate. All of this brings us back to a situation in this episode where the two kiss…for a good twenty seconds or so – kinda long and passionate for a kids’ show. Don’t expect this relationship to be all sunshine and candy; The team has too much to deal with for this to go smoothly.
THE MOLE The first mention of a possible mole occurred in the aptly titled “Infiltrator” episode, where Cheshire reveals a connection with Artemis and threatens to tell her team about it if captured. In the Targets episode, she even protects said knowledge by pretending to not know her name – “Hey, where are your little friends? They’re always fun to play with. Especially Ar…chery Girl, I like her.” She said this during a conversation with Red Arrow, who already suspects Artemis because Green Arrow and Batman lied about her being Queen’s niece. In fact, (SPOILER ALERT) Sportsmaster is her father and based upon Cheshire’s reaction to him, she is probably her sister (END SPOILER ALERT). But I would not immediately throw Artemis under the bus. First and foremost, Batman and Green Arrow put her on the team and Batman is usually one step ahead of everyone, allies and enemies. Even if she was meant to be a mole, I doubt she will be the traitor. Let’s look at the new lovebirds. Conner is a creation of Project Cadmus and the members of the Light did not seem too worried about the team taking him from them. M’gann (SPOILER ALERT) is neither a real relative of J’onn, nor a real Green Martian (END SPOILER ALERT), and she kind of lets the cat out of the bag on that in class during the “Targets” episode. Aqualad is not above suspicion, despite being the one told about the mole by Sportsmaster. After all, (SPOILER ALERT) Black Manta is his father (END SPOILER ALERT). Robin has been known to turn on his team (see Teen Titans), but I doubt it is him. Even when he has turned, he had his team’s interests in mind. Kid Flash is probably the least likely to be the mole and that alone makes him a possibility (but it is highly doubtful). I guess we will just have to wait and see which of them betrays the others. . . unless it winds up being someone else.
THE LIGHT I am just sick and tired of references to “The Light.” Once again, the show is made to be very much like a comic book in the sense that you have this ever-looming threat that seems to be in control of everything but you have no idea who or what it really is. It is infuriating, as I am sure it is meant to be. I mean Lex Luthor made sense considering that Superboy has his DNA along with Kal-El’s. Anyone that wants to get mad and say that is a spoiler can bite me because that is pretty common knowledge. Why else would a SUPERMAN clone not have all of his abilities, not be as strong and have the temper of, oh I don’t know, LEX LUTHOR? They even revealed that on Smallville, so shut it. In Justice League Unlimited, Cadmus made a Supergirl clone that wore similar clothing to the outfit Conner was found in. Whatever, I just want this damn light mystery to not be a crap payoff because I really dig this show and that is the end of my rant (for today).
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