Young Justice S02E18 – Review

By: Peter David (story)

The Story: Jaime practice his pageant wave for a future run of Mr. Young Justice.

The Review: As we get closer and closer to the end—just two more weeks, if you can believe it—it seems only natural that we begin to think wistfully of all that might have been.  One thing strikes me in particular.  I think had the show’s writers known this season was going to be their last, they probably would have tweaked the episodes to focus more equitably on the entire cast, rather than just a handful.  I definitely think Blue Beetle could’ve survived less screen-time.

Given that the big invaders of this season turned out to be the Reach, it makes perfect sense that Blue Beetle would play a major role in the overarching plot.  But the writers sort of went overboard once they inserted this idea that the whole future depends on whether Jaime winds up on the dark side or not.  That’s the real reason why we’ve seen so much of him this season; I don’t think his hapless personality and Spanglish somehow made him a breakout character.

Young Justice S02E12 – Review

By: Paul Giacoppo (story)

The Story: The Earth-Reach conflict leads to the devastation of countless rutabagas.

The Review: After the show added “Invasion” to its moniker, it’s led us on a merry path around discovering the actual invaders.  The Kroloteans served as a pretty good red herring for a while, and the appearance of Godfrey heralded the coming of Apokolips (especially given the constant references of the Fourth World during the show’s first season).  Now that the Reach have started their open “invasion” in full, there’s some questions that have to be answered.

First: why invade?  There are a lot of reasons for conquest—resources, cultural pride, and pure animosity—but none of them seem to apply to the Reach.  This episode shows you they have an admittedly impressive handle on resource management.  For such a highly academic sort of species, cultural pride doesn’t quite fit their personalities.  And if they bore any real ill-will towards the human race, they’d probably be busy destroying everyone right now instead of this elaborate, diplomatic farce.

More likely than not, Earth is just one big scientific experiment to them.  Last episode, Black Canary astutely observed the Reach’s interest in the human meta-gene, and its superpower potential.  This episode, we see that “drawing out an organism’s full potential” is a running theme with these aliens, so I suspect their interest is in discovering powers they can put to their own use.  The danger, of course, is unleashing all these special abilities and finding themselves unable to control all of it.

Does the Scarab represent a solution for that particular problem?  We know that generally, these devices are supposed to assert control over their hosts, but it doesn’t seem as if the Reach can manufacture these things en masse.  Besides, as both Blue Beetle and Green Beetle demonstrate, Scarab control is a little dicier than the Reach would probably like.

And, oh yes, there’s a Green Beetle, perhaps the very first truly original character this show has introduced, and an excellent one at that.  Besides playing into the quirkier parts of YJ’s mythos (“All Martians love television,” Robin informs Arsenal), the very idea of a Martian upgraded with a Scarab’s weapons system is just rife with possibilities, doesn’t it?  True, at any second, B’arzz O’oohm* may reveal himself as a traitor, but I really, really hope not.  The team has already suffered enough and the Earth’s under a lot of pressure; can they please get a break with this guy?

For a long time this show has avoided certain clichés of teen superhero series, most importantly the tendency to fly off the handle and screw up due to youthful impulsiveness.  Obviously, the addition of Impulse challenges that good track record a bit, but surprisingly, it’s Arsenal who proves to be the most unpredictable factor on a mission.  In his defense, it’s not so much adolescent indiscretion but personal animosity that motivates his behavior, but the fact of the matter is he jeopardizes the team’s entire mission and credibility with, as Oliver Sava of A.V. Club so aptly puts it, his “crazy ass.”

Conclusion: More action than real plot development, but the episode does lay down some very interesting threads to pick up for next time.

Grade: B+

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – Everyone loves Nightwing—even the Scarab.

– The Lexcorp rep assures that the only things used to grow their produce is “just water, nutrients, and a little Reach/Lexcorp love.”  Chilling, to say the least.

– “They don’t have pluots in the future,” Bart informs everyone.  Gasp!  He’s right—this monstrosity cannot be allowed to come to pass.

– It’s rather nice that Mr. Kent has such affection for Connor: “And I’ll take any excuse to see one of my boys.”  This show gets characters right on so many levels.

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 S02E04 – Review

By: Greg Weisman (story)

The Story: Roy, we’re your friends, but we feel like we’re losing you.  Come back to us, man!

The Review: Although the finale offered a pretty good wrap-up of the first season’s major storylines, it also left a couple open.  The biggie, of course, is the truth of what happened to the “16 hour” Leaguers while under the Light’s possession, which will undoubtedly form the basis of much of the coming season’s conflicts.  But we also have the issue of Red Arrow being a clone of the original Speedy (who remains MIA), which the show put on the back-burner.

Weisman uses this episode to follow up on that particularly volatile plotline, showing us that in the interim five years, clone-Roy has fallen on hard times, a sad twist for the ex-sidekick who first earned League membership.  Weisman clearly gets his inspiration from the infamous “Snowbirds Don’t Fly” storyline in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85-86, which depicted (the original) Roy as secretly addicted to heroin, a problem he overcame with Black Canary’s help.

Red Robin #24 – Review

By: Fabian Nicieza (writer), Marcus To (penciller), Ray McCarthy (inker), Guy Major (colorist)

The Story: I’m telling you, Tim, she wants you to put a baby inside her!

The Review: When people see a tightly woven, layered plot, they tend to wonder how the writer manages to foresee how little, early details can wind up playing a huge role in the final outcome of a story.  The truth is things usually work the other way around; when it comes time to figure out the big fat middle and ending, a strong writer will usually look to the details they already laid down to help them develop their story.

In this issue, Nicieza takes threads and characters he established from several previous story arcs (Red Robin’s escapade in Russia, his first encounter with Scarab, and most recently the threat on Lucius Fox’s life) and winds them all together into a cohesive storyline, and the twists never stop coming.  Crazy as it sounds, the Assassination Tournament merely serves as a cover for an even more intriguing plot, one with ancient, possibly supernatural roots.

Red Robin has largely been more of a down-to-earth kind of comic, with all its emphasis on technology and fighters using their wits, fists, and weapons to get the job done.  You’ll run into the occasional metahuman, but mostly Nicieza avoids any flashiness in the action department.  When he brings in this apparently otherworldly force to the table, the suspense feels that much tighter as you can’t imagine how Tim’s brains or martial artistry will get him out of this one.

The situation really calls attention to how much fun you get out of seeing Tim think his way through obstacles and enemies.  There’s definitely something very satisfying about seeing him take down an entire mob of Scarabs with the press of a well thought-out button.  But it’s also rather fun to how Tim can be a little too clever by half.  His own foresight winds up losing his target, as the flash mob he sets up to cover his escape actually covers Scarab’s instead.

It reminds us that Tim, for all his experience and prodigiousness, still hasn’t reached the peak of his prowess just yet.  With Batman, it takes a fairly substantial challenge to put him within believable danger, but almost every issue you feel Tim getting in just over his head.  It does credit to his opponents.  These are, after all, trained assassins; you wouldn’t take them too seriously if they can be taken down that easily by a kid whose martial artistry isn’t all there yet.

Red Robin #23 – Review

By: Fabian Nicieza (writer), Marcus To (penciller), Ray McCarthy (inker), Guy Major (colorist)

The Story: Seriously, Tim—what is up with all these women who want you dead?

The Review: The detective aspect in a lot of comics has faded in recent years, having become much harder to write on a lot of levels.  One: science and technology have advanced to the point where you need to put in some serious research to put out a credible mystery.  Two: a true-blooded mystery requires a fairly intense commitment to thoughtful and farsighted plotting.  Three: it’s just plain difficult creating suspense out of detective work in a comic.

In Detective Comics, Scott Snyder generates that suspense by instilling a sense of horror to Dick Grayson’s CSI-type work.  Here in Red Robin, Nicieza goes for a more action-thriller feel, building up the layers of Tim’s more FBI-like operations until they reach Mission Impossible proportions.  Tim’s a one-man unit out to take down whole networks of crime—that’s about as impossible as it gets.

Red Robin’s preference for going it alone really allows us to enjoy how meticulously he plans out everything.  With Batman, you take it for granted that a lot of prep-time is involved, but you actually get to see Tim’s thought processes, a fun mix of gumshoe narration and his own dry sense of humor (“So when I hit the apartment of Jimmy Li…the leader of the Golden Dragons took exception.  And then she took me out the window.”).  He lacks the physicality of the other Bat-guys (as he himself notes looking at Dick’s aerial acrobatics), but his clipping brainwork brings its own kind of excitement.

Tim does tend to handle his dirty work solo most of the time, but that doesn’t prevent Nicieza from using recurring characters as a revolving supporting cast.  As great as it is to see Bruce and Dick following Tim’s lead, even despite their doubts over his questionable decisions, it’s Lynx and her inscrutable loyalties that really spices up Tim’s life: tackling him out a multi-story window and then making out during the free-fall—talk about having it all.

The strength of Red Robin comes mostly from Nicieza’s crafty plotting.  He has a great handle on technology, or at least he makes it seem so to someone as technologically ignorant as me, and can use it to create and develop leads and clues for his story: the issue starts with a website giving backdoor access for kill orders; it ends with the revival of the Assassins Tournament, a kind of hit man’s Iron Chef with international CEOs being the theme ingredient of choice.