Young Justice, Season 1, Episode 7: Denial
Now whether you like this first season Young Justice depends on how much you like the dynamic of the show, and whether you find the characters tolerable or irritating. While Superboy's mellowed out a lot since the last two episodes, it's Kid Flash's time to shine. Or, er, to annoy. Kid Flash is easily the character with the least depth to him in these early episodes, and this is the first episode that tries to do the most with him, spotlighting him and Artemis with a bit of a slap-slap-kiss style of flirting as well as having Kid Flash and Artemis argue the magic-vs-logic stuff. The former worked amazingly well (and honestly considering the ages of these characters very realistically too) and the latter not so much. And I'm afraid I'm just never invested in Kid Flash's anal attempts at trying to explain the magic blasts unleashed by Klarion and Dr. Fate with sciency explanations, especially since around halfway through the episode he seems to be far more insistent at proving Artemis wrong.
Thankfully, though, the story told by this episode is a lot more interesting. It's an episode that revolves around the superhero Dr. Fate, a character that's been featured as a major recurring character in previous works like Justice League Unlimited and Batman: The Brave and the Bold, but we've never actually delved into his backstory in either of them, all we know is that he's a magician with the powers of order, and he has one of the most dope-ass superhero designs ever.
Here we're introduced to Dr. Fate after he's apparently retired. The helmet is floating in space, and Kent Nelson is just wandering around and walking into fortune tellers to try and communicate with his dead wife, exposing poor Madame Xanadu as a fraud (a bit of a twist, considering her comic-book counterpart). It's a bit of a foreshadowing to the silly main Wally/Artemis conflict that dominates the episode, but it's thematically relevant. Of course, supervillain Abra Kadabra shows up to kidnap Kent Nelson, although his staff has enough magic to disappear and warn the Justice League.
Meanwhile, I do like the little references to how the Young Justice team actually has learned a lesson or two from the previous episode. Superboy spars with Aqualad and mentions how he's been training with Black Canary. Artemis is trying to socialize with M'gann, both of whom aren't the best socializers before. Robin is absent for the episode, fighting alongside Batman in Gotham City. The mission debrief about Kent Nelson's kidnapping is done, and Wally instantly latches on to his skepticism about this whole magical helmet of fate thing, and generally acts like a huge dick throughout the episode, but Wally quickly goes hypocrite and calls himself a true believer to impress M'gann, something that pisses off Artemis. And throughout the episode, despite seeing things like keyholes that only appear when Aqualad has 'faith' to thrust the key, Wally keeps insisting that he believes in magic in front of M'gann while off-handedly deriding it, and it gets old very fast. I really don't understand why the entire team needed to have discussions about why Wally doesn't believe in magic, or Wally's own insistence to explain magical portal doors with pocket dimensions and whatnot (what's the difference, really?) and that part of the episode is honestly a bit silly and underwhelming. A stronger script would've made the arguments engaging or at least inoffensive, but here it's just a little bit grating.
Though what follows is a pretty cool adventure through Kent's Tower of Fate, itself having been taken over by Abra Kadabra and his boss, Klarion the Witch Boy, our villains for this episode. Klarion's a fun, hammy villain that, despite being a child, still manages to pull off being a serious sorcerer between throwing the odd tantrum, and this series' unique take on him that turns him into a Lord of Chaos is unexpected but a very welcome twist.. Klarion and Abra Kadabra help to dull the lines between magic and technology, with Abra Kadabra using the same technobabble that Wally rattled off before, whereas Klarion is a true being of magic. Of course, a battle ensues, and it all hinges on Wally being trapped with the helmet, and Kent Nelson, upon his death, telling Wally to 'believe in magic'.
With no other hope because Kadabra and Klarion are overpowering the rest of the team, Wally is forced to put on the helmet, but that's honestly an act of desperation more than faith, yet somehow the helmet recognizes it. Wally meets the ghost of Kent Nelson, who explains how the Dr. Fate thing works -- by putting on the helmet, they're allowing themselves to be taken over by Nabu, the god-like personification of Fate, and they're merely passengers for the ride. Kent and Wally simply watch as Dr. Fate absolutely trounce Klarion (with the neat twist that Teekl the cat is Klarion's anchor to the mortal plane) and Abra.
Nabu, in this incarnation, is a bigger dick than normal, though, for he refuses to let go of Wally's body because 'there's so much he can do'. He's mollified by Kent Nelson's offer that Dr. Fate will be called to arms anytime his assistance is required, and that Kent will keep Nabu company in the helmet. (Also, Kent gives Wally a brief dating advice, which I feel was a bit too shoehorned-in for the Artemis/Wally shipping).
So, yeah, not a good outing for Wally. Honestly I didn't find him that intolerable, but there were moments that I really wish the scripting and voice acting were polished up a bit. I do really like the fresh takes on Klarion and Dr. Fate, though. Klarion as a far more powerful Lord of Chaos (instead of just a random goth wizard) is a welcome change and upgrade to a bit of a forgettable character, and the interpretation of Dr. Fate as this parasitic god-like entity that wants to take over the body of whoever wears the helmet because he can direct the powers of fate to that of the greater good is actually a nice, unique take on the established lore of Nabu. So while Wally's story is pretty weak, the B-story about Dr. Fate is definitely very interesting and the source of why I like this episode so much.
Roll Call:
- Heroes: Dr. Fate/Nabu, Superboy, Aqualad, Miss Martian, Artemis, Kid Flash, Red Tornado,
- Villains: Abra Kadabra, Teekl, Klarion the Witch Boy
- Others: Madame Xanadu, Inza Nelson
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- Dr. Fate is one of DC's oldest superheroes, most famously known for being one of the founders of the Justice Society of America. The first dr. Fate is Kent Nelson, who, in an archaeological dig, found the mysterious Helmet of Fate, once belonging to the Lord of Order Nabu, a mystical godlike entity that governs over order. Nabu taught Kent the ways of magic and he became the sorcerer superhero known as Dr. Fate. Throughout the years, there has been various Dr. Fates (all chosen 'by fate'), among them Eric and Linda Strauss (a mother-and-son pair that merged to become Fate), Inza Nelson (Kent's widow, resurrected by Nabu), Jared Stevens (the edgy version of Dr. Fate), Hector Hall (son of Hawkman and Hawkgirl), Kent V. Nelson (nephew of the original Kent Nelson), Khalid Nassour (grand-nephew of Kent Nelson) and sometimes, Nabu himself.
- Kent Nelson himself has also appeared as a ghost within the helmet of fate to advise his successors, sometimes alongside the ghost of his wife, Inza.
- Dr. Fate is identified as a member of the Justice Society of America. In the post-Crisis continuity, the role of the Justice Society of America tends to be an older predecessor to the Justice League formed by veteran heroes. Various incarnations of Dr. Fate has been part of the Society since its inception.
- Klarion the Witch Boy, in his original comic-book inception, is a practitioner of dark arts from the magical dimension known as the Witchworld. He escaped the world, angered at the adults who rigidly policed how magic should be used, and entered ours alongside with his cat-demon familiar, Teekl. While primarily an enemy of the demonic superhero Etrigan, Klarion has, over the years, clashed with the likes of Batman, the Young Justice team, Zatanna, Superboy, Robin, Wonder Woman, and various other villains. The extent of Klarion's malice and evil varies from writer to writer.
- Abra Kadabra, a.k.a. Citizen (googles) Abhararakadhararbarakh, is one of Flash's more iconic enemies, a conman from the 64th century, a time where technology is so advanced that it seems like magic to us 21st-century primitives. Desiring a career as a magician, he stole a time machine and goes back in time to menace the Flash.
- Madame Xanadu, a.k.a. Nimue Iwundu, is a character from DC's Vertigo imprint that made her way to the mainstream DC superhero continuity. Once the mythological Nimue, younger sister to Morgaine le Fay, Nimue would come to blows with her former lover Merlin, a battle which caused her to wander the Earth as a blind magician thanks to her immortality, eventually adopting the name Madame Xanadu over the history. In the modern day, she acts more like an advisor to younger magicians such as John Constantine and Zatanna, also having close ties to the primal forces of magic, the Spectre and the Phantom Stranger. Here, obviously, Xanadu is nowhere as amazing as her comic book counterpart, what with being a mere charlatan.
- Aqualad refers to Dr. Fate as Earth's Sorcerer Supreme, which is actually a Marvel comics title associated with the superhero Dr. Strange.
- Wally's souvenir rack includes Mister Twister's robotic eye, a Kobra hood, Cheshire's mask and Artemis's arrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment