Young Justice S02E05 – Review

By: Brandon Vietti (story)

The Story: Who says girl groups are dead?

The Review: Obviously, the biggest difference between this and last season is the team’s roster, which has grown a little bigger and a lot more colorful.  The writers have so far kept the focus on the returning characters, though they’ve wisely given the newbies substantial parts to play, getting us used to their presence.  Now seems the right time to get to know the rookies better, as they do represent the future of the team—unless we get another time jump in season three.

Of all the new members, Blue Beetle is a natural to break out.  His versatile power set, bizarre origin story, and racial and urban appeal make for a potent combination, and thanks to a cult-favorite ongoing and a Smallville appearance, he’s perhaps more familiar to us nowadays than you might expect.  But I’d say the biggest factor in his favor is he gives the show access to a whole realm of stories it’s only just now exploring: the socially relevant.

Young Justice Episode 25 – Review

By: Kevin Hopps (writer)

The Story: Feel free to get real with each other, kids—Young Justice is a safe place.

The Review: I’ve spoken critically about this point a few times over the course of the season, but twenty-odd episodes later, I still don’t feel a genuine group chemistry from Young Justice.  While certain pairings have developed among various members, the vibe you get when they’re all together is a friendly coworker dynamic rather than true friendship.  Besides very rare instances, we hardly ever see them interact in non-mission related circumstances.

So even though this episode offers a feel-good plot and conclusion, with all kinds of big emotional moments and characters reaching new understanding of each other, it doesn’t project a spirit of kinship so much as it does a satisfaction from a job well done.  It’s significant that rather than dwelling on the deeper level of trust they’ve achieved, they simply marvel at having yet again averted disaster.

At any rate, this is a very minor criticism, the equivalent of saying the soup tastes good, but not like ma’s.  After all, you get some major character growth in this episode, particularly from the three “outsiders” of the group.  Kudos for the choice of having Superboy, of his own accord, be the first to come clean about his secrets, without any pressure from the plot.  When you consider the rage-ridden, aloof, and stubborn clone he started this series as, this is a huge step for him, proof positive that he’s become his own person.

Young Justice Episode 21 – Review

By: Nicole Dubuc

The Story: Well, this beats watching Sweet Valley High, I guess.

The Review: It’s a pretty old cliché that most people all go through some kind of identity crisis in their teenage years.  Not that there isn’t truth in the notion, but it doesn’t happen in one big, dramatic burst like in movies.  Very rarely does your average high school kid get stricken with a profound, revelation he’ll carry with him for the rest of his life.  More often than not, it’s a slow process of figuring out who he is, one that doesn’t even end once he leaves his teens.

But Young Justice, for all its attempts to rise above the pure entertainment standard for cartoons, remains a fiction.  And so you have about half the team going through the angsty, rage and anxiety driven pangs of ID confusion—literally, as these are superheroes we’re talking about.  Superboy has had one violent incident of inner conflict after another since the pilot; Artemis has a whole mess of a criminal background to worry about; and we’ve seen the whites of Robin’s eyes all of three times, maybe.

This episode reveals that of all the YJers, Miss Martian probably has the most deeply-rooted issues about dealing with who she really is.  Stands to reason; when you can alter your shape at will, you can avoid facing up with your actual face for as long as you want.  But her problems go quite a bit further than that, as she essentially assumed the persona of an Earthling sitcom character—and a rather irritating one at that—long before she ever arrived on Earth.  I imagine she must have caused quite a stir on Mars with that shtick.

In her defense, making herself out as a perky, preppy redhead with freckles probably did beat brooding in her true form.  Anyone with a smidge of familiarity of Martian Manhunter lore knows of the White Martians, but aside from M’gann hinting darkly that “Growing up on Mars was…not a happy time for me,” we don’t know what the exact relationship between the whites and the greens was.  If it was as grim as it is in the comics, then you have to wonder how M’gann developed her relationship with ol’ Uncle J’onn.  A pretense the two of them concocted together to protect her, or something she got him to believe using her superior telepathic powers?