Away Mission
Original Airdate – January 11, 2019
A distant conflict sends the team on an away mission, while the Happy Harbor gang decides what to do with Brion Markov and Halo (Zehra Fazal).
Written by Nicole Dubuc
Directed by Mel Zwyer
Review by GregX
Media by Warner Bros. Animation
Review:
Now it’s time for a long overdue dose of Kirby. Considering that the planet Apokolips appears in the introduction of every episode of the season, it was only a matter of time before we returned to the Fourth World.The episode opens with a group of bugs from New Genesis paying tribute to the New God, Orion. But Orion betrays them, fanning the flames of hate and division between the bugs and New Gods of New Genesis. There has long been a divide between the two groups that echoes classicism and bigotry. Only now, the two factions seem to be on the verge of a total race war. One of the bugs, Forager, sends the New God, Bear, to Earth to fetch help after it is discovered that Orion is being assisted by Earthlings.
On Earth, Bear and Superboy get re-acquainted and Miss Martian agrees to lead an expedition of what remains of the team to New Genesis. We get a great moment when the team is summoned and everybody has the “Hello Megan” jingle set as their custom ringtone for Miss Martian. On New Genesis, Miss Martian quickly discovers that the culprit behind all of this is her younger brother, the White Martian, M’Comm M’orr, who has renamed himself after Ma’Alefa’Ak, a legendary beast because Green Martians are “a superstitious and cowardly lot”. I admit that I chuckled at that moment… may the gods some day bless us with a cheesy Broadway musical about Ma’Alefa’Ak, whether it’s shway or shwarbage.
I wasn’t kidding about a race war. Ma’Alefa’Ak is doing what he can to incite a war on New Genesis in exchange for assistant in starting a war on Mars to wipe out all of the Green and Red Martians. I could speculate on who he has allied himself with, but I do not believe that I need to. It’s Darkseid, who else could it be? As far as villains go, Ma’Alefa’Ak is terrifying. A bigoted zealot who believes he is in the right, and it’s almost hard to argue against him because he is a part of a persecuted minority. He’s right that something needs to be done about the bigotry towards White Martians, and maybe even more right that M’Gann is spending so much time on Earth that it’s easy for her to preach and lecture at him. But we’ve seen villains like this before, the villain that has become that which they hate. Ma’Alefa’Ak is a terrorist, no ifs ands or buts about it, and he must be stopped… because the implications of what he could cause are too great. In many versions of DC, the Martian species is extinct, and I worry that we may be about to see the catalyst.
Also, wiping out the Martians, a crazy powerful species judging by Martian Manhunter and Miss Martian’s abilities would bring the Light even closer to an Earth that is the throne world of a galactic empire.
In the ensuing battle, Ma’Alefa’Ak kills his metahuman slaves before escaping. Forager is then banished by Mantis… I’ll talk about Forager more in upcoming reviews, but for now all I’ll say is that he isn’t the obvious choice to join the line-up of this show, but he is a welcome one. There is a charmingly naive innocence to him. Blessed are the peacemakers as they are banished from their homes and threatened with death should they return.
Meanwhile back on Earth, we get more with Prince Brion who shares an interesting dynamic with Superboy. Conner looks at him and sees himself from seven years ago. An angry ball of rage. Now I have seen some people complain about Brion being so angry and while it might seem unorthodox to criticize some of the audience, I think that I will do so anyway. Have a little bit of empathy and put yourself in his shoes. He has very recently been banished from his home, his parents were murdered, and he has these new powers he doesn’t understand. I wouldn’t expect him to be chill. He needs help. And Conner is just the guy to give it to him. He’s been there, he was him. As pointed out by Emily Buza on the “Whelmed” podcast, Conner went from a rageaholic to somebody who spends his time fixing broken things. He was created to be a weapon and he has since become a healer. Prince Brion, while going through an interesting arc in his own right also shows us how far along Conner has come.
Nicole Dubuc, who I have recently learned was a former child actor, turned in a great script. She seems to have a real affinity for Miss Martian as she has written her most significant episodes. I didn’t know about Miss Dubuc’s background when I had written my review for “Image”, but knowledge her background suddenly illuminates that affinity for M’Gann, Marie and Garfield Logan and so on. I’m definitely grateful she brings her perspective to this show and I look forward to what she does next.
Our new team of Outsiders is slowly coming together, and I find myself grateful for the twenty-six episode season that allows our characters and story with more breathing room than the plot-heavy, shortened second season allowed.
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