Young Justice, Season 1, Episode 5: Schooled
I absolutely love how the episode shows just how close Batman and Superman have become. Their friendship has been one of the most defining things that ties Batman and Superman together, with the early issues 2003's Batman/Superman title being some of my favourite material featuring both heroes. Even in the DCAU's stories, after their conflict-filled first encounter, the two grew to trust each other very much, even within the League itself. And here, seeing Batman about to go into superheroing rescue of a bus only to see Superman swoop in, and then trusting his friend to go do his thing, is a neat scene in and of itself. But more telling is the scene in Bibbo's Diner.
But before that, Superman gets to meet Superboy while they both go rescue the same bus. Within the confines of the show, Batman has been a constant presence, looming as the mission control at the beginning and end of many episodes, but Superman himself has been more of a cipher. So seeing Superman and Superboy actually interact is definitely a neat little moment. As Bruce watches from the skyscraper he's on, Superman and Superboy's first team-up is... less than glorious. Superboy's inexperienced usage of his strength is not something Superman likes, while Superboy doesn't appreciate Superman lifting the bus. Of course, though, you probably won't be any less awkward when you literally meet a clone of yourself. Superboy is both in awe and afraid of this god-like symbol of hope and amazingness that is Superman, while Superman just doesn't know what to make of Superboy. Does it strike Superman as callous? Perhaps, but then it's not like there's any protocol as to what to do on this situation.
Superman isn't quite ready to commit to being a 'parent', so to speak, and tries to dodge Superboy's offer of practicing together to find out what Superboy's limits are (unlike Superman, who had years to grow into his powers, Superboy has no idea of when he's not strong enough and when he's too strong) and kind of jumps at the first excuse to bail.
Which leads us to the scene in the diner, with Batman calling Superman to have some dessert. Well, Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent, at least. I do like how different this scene is from most depictions of the two interacting (take note their discussion in Justice League Unlimited "Clash", where their bro-talk happens while they're fighting a bunch of Z-list villains) where they're just sitting and eating their cakes. Clark views Superboy as having a dangerous hero-worship thing going on towards him, when Superboy's nowhere the level of Superman's powers and looking up to Superman too much would lead him to overestimate his own strength. Bruce's answer to that is to tell Clark to be a proper father, pissing Clark off.
Clark leaves in a huff, and boldly enough, the episode doesn't end with Superman arriving and becoming a supportive mentor to Superboy. It does paint Superman as a bit of a dick, but on the other hand I do like how... human this makes Superman feel. He and Superboy do have a bigger episode down the road, but while it does render the man of steel slightly unsympathetic, it's not like you can really blame him all that much -- I just wished that we got some extra Superman scenes between here and there that show the conflict in Superman's head. It also paints Batman in a different light. Sure, he's demanding, he's a huge douchebag, and Robin likes to snark about him all the time, but at the same time Robin clearly holds his adoptive father Bruce in a relatively high regard considering how respectful he is of Batman's rules and the experience they have fighting crime.
Still, this isn't Superman's show. It's Superboy's show, and I've been talking about how Superboy has a bit of a temper problem, and in this episode it's aggravated even further by Superman avoiding him. The day gets worse for Superboy because in a training session, a wounded Black Canary ends up using Superboy's strength to knock him down to the ground. Twice. Black Canary is only human, after all -- her superpowers only involves her scream, but with nothing but a few well-placed techniques she's able to floor both Kid Flash and Superboy, reinforcing the two's inexperience despite their raw metahuman power.
We also get to see a little of what the League is doing behind the scenes, with apparently off-screen some epic battle between eight Justice Leaguers brought down Amazo, a robot created by the psychotic Professor Ivo, and the Team shows up to assist in cleanup duty. (Why don't they just have the Flashes do it instead of relying on courier trucks?) Superboy's problems is aggravated in a conversation with Robin. Superboy wants to be trained by Superman because he believes that he should be trained by someone as strong as he is... but Robin counters that he needs to be trained to take down someone stronger than him, which is part of the superheroing business, also subtly noting that Superboy isn't as strong as Superman.
Superboy's angstiness is at his peak in this episode and thankfully he mellows out somewhat later on, but it's definitely understandable. The dude has a really shitty day! And then the robot monkeys (sorry, MONQI's) attack and overwhelm the Team. I'm... not a big fan of the MONQI's. Kind of despite them, actually -- the action scenes against them aren't especially well done and the damn things ends up being kind of annoying. Though it does alleviate some of the problems that episodes 2 and 4 had, which was 'too many villains that aren't developed satisfactorily'. Here both Amazo and the MONQI's are created by Ivo, and so the only villain here is him. Not that Ivo does much, mind you -- it's still a Superboy centric episode.
Superboy ends up fighting Amazo one-on-one due to ignoring Robin's orders and going after the MONQI's himself, and ends up finding himself in the same situation Black Canary and Robin warned him against -- fighting against an opponent stronger than he is. Amazo has the powers of all the Justice League (though here he has to manually 'switch' from one power to another, which, while not as impressive as traditional depictions of the character, is as cool and tense as hell) and Superman is merely one of them. Truly, Amazo is the definition of outclassing Superboy.
Kid Flash and Robin's arrival barely save Superboy from being killed and are no closer to defeating Amazo -- the fight through the school is far, far more atmospheric and awesome than the silly MONQI business. A cryptic arrow shot (ooo, mystery!) forces Amazo to access the Martian Manhunter's phasing abilities to dodge it, and Superboy manages to use this to his advantage, charging Ivo and spooking him enough to tell Amazo to protect him, upon which Robin and Superboy do a little combo to re-enact the intangibility thing so Superboy can shove his fist into Amazo's head to blow it up.
I also liked how Robin is angry at Batman for having the League 'shadow' them and not trust them to handle their own problems, a sentiment echoed from the first three episodes of the show. But, of course, the mysterious arrow doesn't belong to Green Arrow, and while the title sequences kind of already spoil that there's a sixth member of the team, it's a nice little foreshadowing for the show, and the Team's assumption that it's Speedy (and, after all, Speedy has been built up to be major in the first three episodes) is definitely one that works both in-universe and in a meta sense.
The lesson that Superboy learns here, surprisingly, doesn't solve all his problems. He calms down a little and respects Robin and Black Canary more, and has a valuable lesson in fighting enemies stronger than he is, but he doesn't fix his hero-worship problem with Superman nor does he fix his relationship with his 'parent'. And it's done in a way that doesn't feel like it's needlessly prolonging a conflict -- the two just aren't ready at this point in time, and they acknowledge it. And I do like it, even if it comes at the cost of Clark flying away from his problems. But there's a grain of truth in that. After all, sometimes the person that you fail to connect the most is your own family.
Also I do find it funny that someone on either the League or the Team bothered to sponsor the five members with custom motorcycles and helmets. Even freakin' Kid Flash, who doesn't even need a motorcycle.
Roll Call:
- Heroes: Batman, Superman, Superboy, Aqualad, Robin, Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Martian Manhunter, Black Canary, Red Tornado, the Flash, Captain Atom, Green Arrow,
- Villains: Amazo, MONQI, Professor Ivo
- Others: Bibbo Bibbowski
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- Amazo is one of the Justice League's more iconic supervillains. Despite its rather questionable costume, Amazo is a super-android created by the mad scientist Ivo with the capability to mimic and duplicate the superpowers of any member of the Justice League, and has been featured in various animated adaptations.
- Professor Anthony Ivo is a mad scientist obsessed with prolonging his life, and created the android Amazo using blueprints he stole from an alien ship. Ivo grew more insane and sadistic over the years, becoming disfigured due to his constant experiments to prolong his lifespan. Ivo was adapted into live-action in Arrow's second season as the main villain for that season's flashback stories.
- Ivo is often associated with T.O. Morrow as fellow mad scientist whose modus operandi involves making super-powerful lifelike androids, and Red Tornado briefly mentions T.O. Morrow as possibly being responsible for Amazo's creation.
- Black Canary, a.k.a. Dinah Lance, is an expert martial artist with the metahuman ability to unleash a sonic scream. In the comics, Dinah Lance succeeded her mother, Dinah Drake-Lance, the Golden Age Black Canary (who didn't have the sonic scream), and grew up being trained by her mother's superhero comrades. As the second Black Canary, Dinah is strongly affiliated with her love interest Green Arrow, with the Justice League and Justice Society, as well as the Birds of Prey.
- Superman and Batman have lunch at a diner run by Bo "Bibbo" Bibbowski, who, despite his rough-looking appearance, is a kind soul inspired by Superman and a prominent supporting member of Superman's cast in the 90's and 00's.
- Robin's use of escrima sticks in this episode is a reference to Nightwing's (his post-Robin alter ego) signature weapon.
- Batman pressing a button hidden under a bust to reveal his batsuit is a reference to the 60's Adam West Batman show, where a similar setup would lead to the poles that would allow him access to the Batcave.
- The font on Robin's little wrist-computer thing has the same font as pop-up messages in the Batman: Arkham video game series.
- Superman saving the bus tangled in bridge wires is a reference to a similar scene from Superman: The Movie.
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