GUIDES – EPISODE REVIEWS – “LEVIATHAN WAKES”
#89 Leviathan Wakes
Original Airdate – April 7, 2022
Kaldur’ahm searches. Atlantis finds.
Written by Khary Payton
Directed by Vinton Heuck
Review by Yojimbo
Media by Warner Bros. Animation
Please note our regular reviewer, “GregX,” is currently on sabbatical.
Review:
Written by Yojimbo, edited by James Harvey
Picking things up, “Leviathan Wakes” sheds some of the pitfalls of the past three episodes and finishes very strong. Like I was hoping, the finale of this arc spent the majority of its run time on Atlantis. The pacing was also welcome change as it shifted into high gear and really helped heighten the tension in the scenes of the high king vote for Arion while intercutting with the truth about the clone caper and culminating in the shocking revelation that was Orm … er, well, the memory ingrams of the original, were in the Arion clone all along. Yet again, it seems the Light has scored another big win but then the Lords of Order throws a curve ball and deep fries the fake in a stunning show of might.
The Lords of Order made a very clear distinction they aren’t BFFs with Vandal after that cosmic conference and they ain’t gonna roll over when it comes to their stuff. As Dr. Fate declares, Atlantis enters into a new era cleansed of Vandal Savage’s grubby mitts. Like the Lords of Order directly intervened and killed a human being. That was something. Some of us where wondering why Vandal and Atlantis’s history had a big part in Zatanna’s arc but with all the interlinking with this arc, it’s now clear why that history lesson came when it did. Does that justify the critiques in that arc, not necessarily, but it’s fine we know why now.
The only real knock I have against the episode is Conner Kent’s sub-plot. It is almost similar in fashion as Beast Boy’s downward spiral season-long arc except it’s more glaring that Connor is running in a cosmic hamster wheel. I think it’s a matter of volume and we’ve seen too much of Conner in the limbo zone so as a result, the lack of his progress in returning home and him going Looney Tunes is not working for me.
While this arc is Aqualad-heavy, I was surprised at the amount of Superboy we’re seeing here. Granted, it’s clear he’s getting more time as we build to the finale, but it can be a little jarring cutting between both stories so frequently. I think Conner’s current sub-plot is best seen sparingly and is one of those things where less is more. For the amount of time and spotlight Conner got in this story arc, it feels like it was stealing time from the main story with not much resolution or progress. The award ceremony speech band music is going off in my head by the time the Lex Luthor hallucination popped up. Let’s wrap this up. But not by mistakenly releasing Zod.
Wait, that’s going to happen, isn’t it?
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