Usual Suspects
Original Airdate – April 14th, 2012
The team gets a new member and a new mission – a mission that may finally expose all of the team’s secrets … and all of their lies!
Written by Kevin Hopps
Directed by Jay Oliva & Tim Divar
Review by GregX
Media by Warner Bros. Animation and The World’s Finest
Review:
In the early promotion of Young Justice, Greg Weisman said that the theme of the first season was “secrets and lies.” He was not kidding, that theme was a major factor in Young Justice being one of the darkest animated series in a long time. Both this show and The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes premiered around the same time, give or take a few weeks, and I remember my brother and I remarking to each other that it was kind of funny that the series about the adult heroes was bright and rather cheerful with occasional dark moments, while the series about the teen sidekicks was the dark and rather dire with occasional cheerful moments. Well the secrets and lies are out now…But what surprised me was that the none of Superboy, Miss Martian, or Artemis’s secrets and lies were exposed by villains. They confessed them on their own. This by no means a complaint of mine. One thing heroes are defined by is their courage. What can be more courageous than facing your own fears, which each of them did here.
Superboy came clean about his use of the shields, and that Lex Luthor is his other father. Following that, we found out that “Red Sun” was the only bit of programming Cadmus successfully got into his brain before Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad liberated him. And Miss Martian was able to remove the “Red Sun” command from his head.
Artemis came clean about her family connections, and wasn’t shunned by anybody. Her moments were quite cathartic, I think. I did enjoy it when Cheshire saved her life, and even though Cheshire managed to escape, I bet she enjoyed kicking her father in the face at the end. I know I would have.
Miss Martian revealed what she really was to the Team, and they all took it rather well. The big surprise for me being that Superboy knew since the Bialya mission, although in retrospect it shouldn’t have. I still am curious if Martian Manhunter knows this secret or not. Well, if he doesn’t know now, he’ll know soon… if he survives. Honestly, I misjudged her entire relationship with Superboy. In my defense, I was assuming based on what I knew at the time, but I don’t mind being wrong.
I thought the Santa Prisca battle scene was one of the best in the series. Everyone got something to do, and while it was fun to see Bane again, I can already foresee some 90’s fanboys once again complaining. Personally, I never liked Bane, never thought he was worthy to “break the bat” and was happy to see Robin kick his ass. Let’s just say that Christopher Nolan has his work cut out for him to convince me that this character can carry a movie once The Dark Knight Rises hits this summer.
Rocket is the new member of the Team, and… while I’m sure there will be much more to her than just a sassy black chick, this is a Greg Weisman production after all, she hasn’t made an impression on me beyond that yet. But I can’t blame her, this is an episode heavy with lots of material and plot threads coming to a head. I did, however, like her scene at the beginning where she said the other sidekicks were her inspiration.
So, who was the mole?
Red Arrow. Who saw it coming? I didn’t. I probably should have, I did narrow it down to him and Aqualad last week, but I didn’t. I guess I expected the mole to be on the Team, but really all Ra’s al Ghul said was that they had an operative on the inside. Red Arrow was… is friends with Kid Flash, Robin, and Aqualad, so I can easily see them casually mentioning things to him before he tips off the Light. But, considering that Red Arrow had no clue that he was the mole himself, I’m guessing that there is far more to this story… and we’ll find out next week.
And what a cliffhanger to leave us on. Red Arrow places the Starro pieces on each member of the Justice League, then they all bow down to Vandal Savage. I love a good cliffhanger, and right now I’m really wishing that this was an hour long special. Well, a week isn’t that long a time, and the wait will be worth it to see the Team take on their mentors… while the creative team hits us with one last sucker punch for the season.
Personally, I hope Vandal Savage cuts off Superman’s head and chucks it into the nearest red sun, but I doubt that will happen. Aw well, tuning in next week, same bat time, same bat channel.
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