Young Justice S01E04 Review: Leadership Woes

Young Justice, Season 1, Episode 4: Drop-Zone

A lot of the earlier episodes of Young Justice showed how the team was relatively fractured -- the previous episode showed how ineffective they were as a team initially, with Miss Martian's relative inexperience and general confusion about this whole superheroing business driving some other heroes mad. But in a team, you need a leader to call the shots. And while anyone who sees the lineup of any Teen-Titans-inspired team would quickly turn to Robin (well, Dick and Tim, at least -- Damian's too much of a sociopath to lead anything), Young Justice opts for actually exploring this process. M'gann and Superboy are too new and inexperienced, so the mantle falls to one of the original trio. Kid Flash has enough of an ego to try and call dibs, but quickly gives up. Robin, meanwhile, is also gung-ho and is easily one of the most experienced among the team, but Robin at this stage of his life is also still a little too overconfident, and the episode shows very well why, really, it's Aqualad, the most mature and level-headed of the team, who should be leader.

The plotline of the episode is also very welcome, and while we get yet another 'oh the happenings of this episode is related to this mysterious Light organization' at the end (more distinct voices and silhouettes are seen here and you can probably make some guesses as to who the robotic voice is, but I will refrain from saying who's part of this until the big reveal). It's always interesting to pit two villainous groups against each other, and here the cult-like organization Kobra has taken over Santa Prisca, challenging the local boss, Bane, to a one-on-one battle. Bane is a figure that's familiar to the most casual superhero fan, and seeing him bulk up with venom is impressive... but then from the side of Kobra comes Mammoth, a slightly more obscure character (though a familiar face for anyone who watched Teen Titans) who dopes up on "Kobra Venom" and is able to trounce Bane.

The Team, meanwhile, has been given an actual black ops mission this time around, and while I'm not a big fan of the all-black stealth suits that the team likes to use I do admit that Kid Flash's at least looks cool. There's the question as to why the League hasn't shut down Santa Prisca if they know it's producing the Venom drug, but hey. The Team is given a responsibility -- call in the League if they need help, but otherwise they're on their own. Batman also leaves picking a leader to the team themselves.

Of course, things go haywire quickly. Superboy and Kid Flash are all for the action, Superboy in a more angry-rage-at-the-world type and Kid Flash in a clumsier manner. M'gann is confused and impressionable, and Robin is grandstanding, doing everything by himself without telling anyone that he's going to do things. Robin and Kid Flash butt heads over who's to be leader, and they end up finding an unlikely ally in Bane -- with the caveat that they kind of knew all along that the alliance isn't going to last long. They find out that Kobra is selling to a mysterious buyer, revealed to be another villain, the Sportsmaster.

Can I take a moment to stop and acknowledge how the motherfucking Sportsmaster ends up being one of the coolest and most competent villains in the show? Even this early on no one really makes fun of his name or his gimmick, and he's treated as being as competent as Bane or Kobra. His design with the body armour and cool-looking hockey mask is also very awesome.

Anyway, the brawl begins, with the Team having Bane on their side. Superboy gets to fight Mammoth and it's awesome, Bane predictably betrays them. Robin ignores all his friends' orders and go on to take down Kobra himself. Aqualad decides he's had enough of all the toxic dick-waving that Robin and Kid Flash is doing, orders M'gann to connect them all telepathically, and starts barking orders to facilitate their retreat. Aqualad notes that while Robin is undoubtedly competent... he's too competent. Two members of the team are new to superheroing, Kid Flash's a bit of a moron and they all don't have experience working together well... whereas Robin hangs out with the hyper-competent and demanding Batman. While no one is questioning Robin's skills, he isn't the ideal leader, and I did like how cool Robin and Aqualad are about the whole arrangement.

Bane gets beaten first by the Team (he apparently wants to kill the sidekicks to drive the Justice League angry and drive the Kobra out), and while Kobra and Sportsmaster escape, the team under Aqualad's direction manages to take down most of the cultists, blow up Kobra's helicopter and blow up the Venom factory.

The day is won -- though not elegantly, as Batman himself berates the team for, but at the same time they managed to adapt on the fly and minimized damage. Half of the villains are caught, and they managed to destroy the Venom factory. It's a decent enough episode, and I do like how the plotline involves multiple factions gunning for different things -- even if I do think that both Bane and Kobra end up being slightly underused. Perhaps with two villain factions instead of three they could've worked better? Superboy's rather enforced trigger-temper is also starting to grate somewhat.

Still, the show has always played hard and fast with regards to introducing aspects of the DC universe, and this isn't as truncated as Project Cadmus was in the pilot. And I'm a big fan on how the episode stands well on its own while still referencing previous episodes, using Mark Desmond's Blockbuster formula from the pilot as well as Bane's Venom from this one in order to create the plot device they're working on... but you don't need to know that to enjoy this episode. It's a nice bit of internal continuity that makes me appreciate this so much. Not the best episode in the season, but still a pretty decent showing.

Roll Call:

• Heroes: Robin, Superboy,  Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Aqualad, Baatman, Red Tornado
• Villains: Bane, Mammoth, Shimmer, Kobra, Sportsmaster, The Light's council

DC Easter Eggs Corner: 

• Bane... does he need an introduction? One of the most popular and iconic Batman enemies, known for being the man who 'broke the bat' in the 90's story arc, and being famously featured in live-action in The Dark Knight Rises and infamously in Batman & Robin, the man known as Bane was a nameless child born in the prison of Santa Prisca due to the sins of a father he does not know. He was subjected to harsh conditions and experimented upon by scientists there, giving him an addiction to the strength-enhancing drug Venom, which, upon usage, would bulk up his muscle mass and strength. 
• Also obviously, Santa Prisca appears in this episode.
• Shimmer & Mammoth, real name Selinda and Baran Flinders, are a pair of siblings that were born with powers and were recruited into the supervillain team Fearsome Five by Dr. Light, a team created to do battle with the Teen Titans. Shimmer has the ability to temporarily transmute any element or compound into another for several minutes, while Mammoth has super strength and durability. Mammoth was famously featured as one of the central members of the H.I.V.E. academy in Teen Titans. Mammoth's a lot younger here, though, being a punk teenager instead of a bearded giant.
• Kobra, a.k.a. Jeffrey Burr, or more accurately, the Kobra Leader, is an international mad terrorist that believes in ushering an age of chaos. He was able to synthesize powerful magics by decoding the formula behind the Lazarus Pits, and while originally a Batman enemy, has expanded his repertoire to fighting Wonder Woman, the Suicide Squad and the Justice Society of America. The cult of Kobra is also depicted in the cartoon series Batman Beyond. (Has nothing to do with the Cobra from G.I. Joe, a completely different terrorist organization, even if the Kobra Leader does dress up like Serpentor)
• Sportsmaster, a.k.a. Lawrence "Crusher" Crock, is an enemy of Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern, as well as Wildcat, and as his name implies, he's an athlete that uses sports-themed weaponry to fight. Yeah. There's actually more to him, but that would be spoiling things. 
• Superboy's line, "no capes, no tights", not only is a reference to his minimalist T-Shirt and jeans getup, but also on the stance taken by the producers of the Smallville TV series who operated on that rule for its earlier seasons.