The family we are born into may unfortunately cause others to perceive us in a certain light, but who we are is determined by our own actions. This means everything to the members of the team. Miss Martian, hides her identity as a White Martian because they are looked upon as violent, evil monsters. She wants her friends and the world to see her as a good person so she pretends to be a Green Martian. Lately this has led her down a path that may prove her to be not as heroic as she’d wanted. Superboy now knows that he is Lex Luthor’s “son,” but he chooses to follow the path of his other father, Superman. Robin proves every day that he is much more than a circus performer and Aqualad proves that being the son of a villain does not make him one. So what of Artemis? She is the child of two villains (one reformed) and the sister of one. Will she escape her family tree or a better question might be whether she is even really trying.
GAME SEVEN Artemis is feeling pretty good about herself. Along with Green Arrow, she managed to stop Black Spider from murdering a reporter in front of his young daughter and captured him in the process. Red Arrow watches from the shadows and is not impressed but admits to Green Arrow that Artemis has talent. He is convinced by his former mentor to join the team as a sign of good faith since recent events will have him as a Justice League member soon. Not knowing the full story, Artemis takes the addition of another archer the wrong way and feels that she still has to prove herself. She insists that she be included on a mission to tail and possibly apprehend Sportsmaster. Things start well until she encounters Cheshire and the fighting begins. It’s a family feud that only she knows that she is fighting and Artemis must choose the bonds of blood or friendship. Her secrets may finally be revealed to the team if she is not careful.
FRUITION It is hard to say if it is more tragic or comical to hear Aqualad admit that the team failed this mission. Leadership has been difficult enough for him; if he learned that they have basically failed every mission would crush his confidence. What is more troubling about failure being apparent this time is that it clearly shows The Light’s master plan, whatever it may be, is almost complete. More and more of them are scheming out in the open which means that at this point they don’t care if they are found out. The culmination of past missions is paying off for them. The Fog may have been destroyed, but we already knew that Brain could reverse engineer things. Clearly The Fog is back and being utilized in the Starro remnant stolen from Star Labs. With Klarion’s chaos magic being mixed in (and probably Kobra Venom as well), the box T.O. Morrow had holds something truly terrifying inside and like Aqualad said, they have no clue what they are facing. The Light is ready to shine and the team, the Justice League, the whole world may be blinded by their intensity.
TRIPLE THREAT The Qurac mission has Miss Martian under Queen Bee’s control. On Thanksgiving Day, Superboy came to the unsettling realization that he has Lex Luthor’s DNA within him and that Luthor can control him. Now we have the possibility that Artemis may follow in her parents’ footsteps. The only good news about that is that it proves that she is not the mole. Sportsmaster said it is time for her to switch sides which means he knows his daughter is one of the good guys. The end of the episode is disturbing for several reasons. In the original Young Justice comic, Artemis is the same person in terms of her relation to Sportsmaster (but not Cheshire), but she is one of the bad guys. She was actually taken down by the character she resembles, Arrowette. The other issue is that Arrowette also left the team, never to return. She stayed a good guy, but Cissie King-Jones is not Artemis Crock. I have really come to like this character and I really hope she does not follow her fathers advice.
(side note) If you were paying attention this episode, you will note that the guy that Black Spider was trying to kill at the beginning was Bernell “Bowstring” Jones. He only had one child and her name, you guessed it, was Cissie King Jones, aka Arrowette.
ANATOMICALLY CORRECT A small dose of adult humor is thrown into this otherwise serious episode. Superboy, Miss Martian and Zatanna get a little more than they bargained for when they break into Red Tornado’s apartment. They learn that he is building an android body as a secret identity so that he can walk more freely amongst humans and try to become more human himself. Zatanna uses a spell to convert the shroud that covered the incomplete android into pants. If you cannot guess why then you are officially to young for Young Justice.
HERE KITTY KITTY Cheshire is easily the best villain on the show thus far. She has no problem beating the crap out of her little sister, yet you can tell she still loves her. However, it seems that she is not the only person on the team that she cares for. After her encounter with Red Arrow in Rhelasia, she seems to have taken a liking to him based upon his ability to survive her attacks. I have stated before that in comics, these two have a relationship that even produced a child. I doubt this show will take it that far, but watching Red Arrow try to keep his cool around her is hysterical. Kelly Hu has this role pinned down and I look forward to seeing more of her character in the second season.
This was the biggest episode of the season thus far because Artemis is the wild card in the show. She is the only one that is completely different from her comic book counterpart so it is interesting to see what the writers do with her. If she winds up leaving the team I will be truly disappointed, but the show will still be interesting. Even though the episode was primarily about Artemis, Cheshire pretty much stole the show and I look forward to more interaction between the sisters as well as Cheshire and Red Arrow. Hugo Strange is still running Belle Reve like a resort for bad guys disguised as a prison, which helped make Artemis look bad. Things are going to get difficult for Wally and Artemis no matter what she decides to do and the team still has to deal with whoever the original mole is. Oddly enough, I am now thinking that it could be Robin, as part of some grand scheme Batman has. I could see The Light fooling everyone; but I have a feeling Batman knows about them. He would not miss the theft of the Starro piece at Star Labs. He has to know something is up with Strange running Belle Reve and with Luthor running Cadmus; there is no way all these criminals are fooling him. There are only three episodes left in the season,
Slick’s Nit-Picks: Young Justice, Episode 122 – “Agendas”
Slick’s Nit-Picks: Young Justice, Episode 121 – “Image”
