People should get what they want on their birthdays. The reason I say that is twofold: if they were to get what they actually need there is a fifty-fifty chance that they will not appreciate it and if they get what they deserve, well, a lot of people would get worse than punches for their birthday. That does not really apply to Wally West though. As Kid Flash, he is a loud-mouthed, (wannabe) womanizing jerk, but he has a really good heart. He believes in his teammates and they in him. Bottom line, he does his job. The only people he may complain to are his superiors and even that is only because he does not always get the “fun” missions. A guy like that may need a smack upside the head every once in a while (which Artemis gladly provides), but want need or deserve I cannot see this kid getting a bad birthday present.
BEST BIRTHDAY EVER? November 11, early morning in Central City and Wally West wakes up a year older on his sixteenth birthday. Fully expecting it to be the best day ever, things start off right as his mom makes him a breakfast only a Flash could eat, his aunt wishes him a happy on the news, and YJ, along with (Barry Allen) Flash and Red Tornado throw him a “surprise” party; he’d kinda been asking them for one. The festivities are interrupted by a mission. Batman informs the team that five flying fortresses have blanketed all of North America in snow and ice. The team is pretty excited because the mission is so big they will be assisting the Justice League in the destruction of the fortresses. All except for Kid Flash, who is tasked with getting a donor heart cross country. He is bummed out about it but immediately acknowledges the importance of his mission. So the team is basically tasked with breaking stuff; Wally has a race against time which would be nothing for him save for some really nasty roadblocks in his way.
CUPID’S HARSH ARROW Wally is a bit of a strange fruit when it comes to the ladies. He hits on every, and I do mean every woman that isn’t related to him or that he fears they might kill him for it. From their first meeting, it has been obvious that he likes M’gann, but the one who obviously has a place in his heart is Artemis. M’Gann has gotten in trouble and been hurt before and it has pretty much always been Superboy that ran to her rescue. We see both Wally and Artemis care for one another in Revelations. But we saw a very different Kid during the Failsafe training mission. He went ballistic when he thought Artemis was dead and swore to kill his enemies in return. I don’t think he even realized what he feels for her until Black Canary confronted him with it in therapy. His response was to hit on her and from that point he seems to have buried it by going hard for M’Gann. Artemis seems less afraid of her feelings. She was a bit upset when she learned Conner and M’gann’s Secrets, because she found Conner attractive, but she is more upset in this episode by Wally’s fawning over M’Gann. She took a bit too much pleasure in telling him that the two were a couple. Maybe now, these two stubborn idiots will not only acknowledge their feelings, but let the other one know as well. The question there is: How will Artemis’ secrets affect said relationship? I expect we shall find out soon.
CODE OF HERO A question that has many answers and yet continues to be asked is exactly what makes one a hero. It obviously has nothing to do with super powers, although they help. It really boils down to doing what is right at the right time as well as having the willingness to sacrifice. Kid flash displayed this several times in this episode and did not even realize it until the end. He knew how important his mission was but he could not let Vandal Savage beat the stuffing out of those state troopers. And he got caught up fighting savage because beating the bad guys is fun to him, but then he realized that he was wasting precious time. He lost his will to fight for a moment when he heard that Queen Perdita was dead. He realized that even though he was doing the right thing fighting Savage, that there are things that even he might not be fast enough to accomplish. During the underground garage fight with Vertigo he thought to himself that the only weapon he had left was his big mouth, but it was really his quick thinking. that saved the Queen and himself. In his own words, the best present he could get was seeing that little girl smile. Thinking he’d failed her and in the end she was alright was what it really meant to be a hero. Not because she was a queen, but because she was someone who needed his help and he came through for her.
WE WON. . . RIGHT? It really feels like Wally is the only hero who came out on top in this episode and the worst part is that this is not the first time it has been this way. It is just becoming more apparent to our heroes that perhaps they are not “winning.” All of North America was covered in ice by flying machines that dumped snow and altered the weather. There are only five DC villains that are likely to try something like that and they were all accounted for as inmates in Belle Reve Penitentiary. Just the fact that Hugo Strange is warden there is a red flag (for us, the viewers). Batman has to wonder who was behind this if not one of the five, but at the same time he knows that it was them. Vandal Savage attacks Kid Flash in the middle of an interstate? No one thinks anything is fishy about that? Why would someone of his criminal stature attack a teenage hero? Would he care if Count Vertigo wanted help? I think not. I believe the plan was to get Vertigo into Belle Reve and to do that, you had to get him convicted of a crime against Vlatava so that his diplomatic immunity would be revoked. We first saw him try to off the young Queen in the Green Arrow short that accompanied the Superman/Batman: Apocalypse disc. His plans to off the queen are more elaborate and he would not have been on site to get captured. Add to that his words as he was taken out of the hospital and this mission is another in a long line of losses for our heroes.
The writers of Young Justice have redeemed themselves as I knew they would. After two subpar episodes in a row, we were treated to this one. It had been a while since we had really seen Kid Flash in action so I know Flash fans were loving this story. The Light is getting intentionally sloppy. Their missions as of late involve their actual members. For Vandal Savage to show himself and play the “lackey” for Count Vertigo, their master plan must be nearly ready to execute its final stage. This will not bode well for our young heroes. We still have the possible issue of a mole and both Artemis and Miss Martian have secrets they are hiding. When all falls down, will there be anything left of this team of young heroes?
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