GUIDES – EPISODE REVIEWS – “ENCOUNTER UPON THE RAZOR’S EDGE!”
#91 Encounter Upon the Razor’s Edge!
Original Airdate – April 21, 2022
Rocket misses one conference, while another goes poorly.
Written by Jim Krieg and Giancarlo Volpe
Directed by Christopher Berkeley
Review by Yojimbo
Media by Warner Bros. Animation
Note: Showrunner Greg Weisman confirms Green Lantern: The Animated Series is “Young Justice-adjacent”
Please be advised our regular reviewer, “GregX,” is currently on sabbatical.
Review:
Written by Yojimbo, edited by James Harvey
The recurring theme of accepting the truth in things and seeking help resonates within several people aside from just Rocket. Too distracted by the souring summit, her insecurities, and still being in denial, Rocket won’t make a decision about supporting a one-on-one aide for Amistad. Razer is manipulated into thinking he was getting help from Metron but ends up discovering he shouldn’t completely abandon his anger and past as a Red Lantern to be a Blue Lantern and accepts he is of both worlds. Both Bart Allen and Ma’alefa’ak threaten to rescind their help if they aren’t told the entire truth of their new friends from the future. To complicate matters, it doesn’t look like the New Gods or Green Lantern Corps are going to help the Justice League with their metahuman or Apokoliptian troubles. It seems likely that the threat posed by Lor-Zod may be the galvanizing element needed.
As if last episode’s reveals of Lor-Zod and Dru-Zod weren’t mind blowing enough, this episode lays out the whole truth about why Lor and the Legion are in the past and why Connor Kent was targeted. And as a result, fans are exposed to some big time world building in past pertaining to Krypton. Dru-Zod and his followers staged a coup but Superman’s father and uncle Jor-El and Zor-El stopped him. The mere mention and cameo of Zor-El more so opens the door for Supergirl to potentially make her debut on the show at some point. And of course the cameo of Ursa, I believe Non, and others whose house seals drew a blank with me. And in the future, we get cameos of Lightning Lad and Brainiac-5, insight into a big threat they faced in the team’s early days, and answering why Lor’s meddling turned the 31st century into a galactic disaster: Dru-Zod has taken over the galaxy and the Legion of Super-Heroes no longer exists.
The stakes for this season and the rest of the series are laid bare. With seven episodes to go, we’re feeling the aster already but with so many wild cards in place: Bart helping the Legion, Lor going off script to try and free his people earlier than planned, Conner still being alive, three hero groups being present exactly where Lor is, Superman having a sliver of future knowledge, Ma’al and Mantis being paired with Lor, Metron, and more – we’re on the edge of our seats as to what wild antics, twists, revelations, and angst are still in store for us.
Let’s get to the great mind blowing shocker of the episode: Razer! Jason Spisak reprises the role. Kevin Michael Richardson reprises Kilowog. The episode is written by Jim Krieg and Giancarlo Volpe (very likely the small reunion the latter alluded to during an interview in September 2021). Sam Liu is one of the storyboarders. The flashbacks seemingly build on the premature ending to Green Lantern: The Animated Series. Aya is mentioned. I thought I was having a lucid dream while I was in a coma as I watched this episode unfold. There was no way this was really happening, right? But once I returned to planet Earth, I remembered yes, we did get a similar hat tip on another series that prematurely ended, Justice League Action with Aya starting to remember who she was.
So much in the vein of the DC Showcase: Green Arrow short and Catwoman: Hunted, we can take this episode’s events as proof positive a version of Green Lantern: The Animated Series happens on Earth-16 after the events of Young Justice: Invasion in 2016 as Kilowog scolds Razer for not checking in in the four years since he, Hal, and Razer parted ways. Avid fans of both should immediately recall one difference in the Earth-16 version, Hal already knows Guy and John prior to meeting Razer and the Red Lanterns with Kilowog. And it finally confirms to Young Justice fans that multiple corps do indeed exist as well as a very cool revelation that two rings of different corps can be wielded at the same time and of two polar opposite emotions to boot.
Young Justice: Phantoms continues to keep fans on their collective toes and play the wild card with who can show up on the show, what connections they’ll make, who they’ll reference, when a Hulk quote will pop up when you least suspect it, or when they will expand Earth-16 past, present, and future. While the exposition episodes might not be everybody’s bread and butter, playing that hand when there’s still a good number of episodes left to stream can only mean things are going to go sideways and the season may not end like we think it will.
“Encounter Upon the Razor’s Edge!” walks the tightrope between drowning fans with back story and rewarding fans with solid answers for hanging on this season and even facilitating the progression of a fan favorite character from another show while maintaining Rocket as the core of this arc with her struggles with her duty as a Leaguer, acting as a diplomat, and trying to make a joint decision that could help her son for the better or worst all while the greater machinations of this season are right on her doorstep.
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