Young Justice S01E08 Review: Families

Young Justice, Season 1, Episode 8: Downtime

So I'm a big fan of Garth, the original Aqualad -- better known by his post-Aqualad handle, Tempest. But I'm not bitching too much that he's replaced with Kaldur'ahm. Kaldur is a little flat, sure, but he's enjoyable enough as a character that I don't really mind Garth being replaced. And the fact that Garth shows up in this episode is definitely welcome. It's a sign that the series, while interested in telling its own story with the mostly-untapped M'gann, new character Kaldur'ahm and the likewise obscure and heavily-retooled Artemis, is also paying respect to the source material, so seeing Garth show up as Kaldur'ahm's buddy in this episode is defintiely welcome.

The setup for the episode is a little clunky. Aqualad is feeling some homesick blues, and apparently this causes him to lose judgment during a fight with Clayface, forcing Batman to show up and bail out the kids. Batman goes on a one-on-one talk with Aqualad, noting that it's the leader's fault this time around, not the team, and quickly guesses that there's someone in Atlantis and he has to choose between his civilian life in Atlantis, or a superhero in the surface. The duality of superheroing and civilian life is a very common theme in these sort of stories, especially in stories relating to younger heroes. That's what makes someone like Spider-Man so appealing -- the struggles of his double life and his identity search is one that many teenagers have gone through in their life. And it also portrays Batman as a reasonably level-headed mentor who, while probably not someone who works through the whole 'should I be Batman or Bruce Wayne' thing a lot, have probably seen a lot of his fellow superheroes struggle with this identity crisis. And Batman's advice -- go to Atlantis and sort your feelings out -- is surprisingly good.

Atlantis is amazingly portrayed and colourful, with lots of neat cameos and a fun role for Aquaman as a king-mentor. There's a bit of an unsubtle introdump of Kaldur'ahm's backstory by his buddy Topo, and it's quickly clear who the person that distracts Kaldur'ahm so is his old classmate, Tula. Kaldur'ahm fancying Tula isn't really made that much of a secret, but it's also quickly revealed that Tula and Kaldur's best friend Garth are dating in Kaldur's absence, and his attempts to rejoin Queen Mera's water-magic class is not possible due to the fact that both Garth and Tula has advanced so much in Kaldur's absence. Queen Mera is also pregnant, which alienates Aquaman's brother Orm from the succession to the throne, but Orm seems very cool with it -- a neat subversion of how the character usually acts (i.e. rawr evil Ocean Master).

Aquaman is pulled out of Atlantis due to JLA business, but not before imparting some mentor advice to Kaldur'ahm... and Kaldur's big decision to stay in Atlantis because of Tula is met with... well, rejection. The episode portrays both Tula and Garth as nothing but great friends to Kaldur'ahm and it's not so much a betrayal or anything but just, well, Kaldur'ahm not moving that fast enough. Thankfully all the awkwardness has to take a backseat as Kaldur, Garth and Tula are called to defend Atlantis from the attacks of the villainous Black Manta. There's chaos everywhere, as Orm demands that Queen Mera stay in the castle because she's pregnant, Mera unleashes a gigantic magic kraken, Tula gets hurt, and Kaldur telling Garth to stay with Tula while he handles Black Manta.

We end up having a neat team-up between Garth and Kaldur as they try to stop Black Manta's crew of diver-men from stealing a gigantic alien starfish (DC fans will recognize the iconic visage of Starro) sealed within ice. The battle is pretty cool, even if the conflict between Garth and Kaldur really felt underwhelming and neither character really are egoistic enough to really make the conflict work -- they're just buddies! Kaldur and Garth part ways on good terms as he decides to go to the surface world permanently. It's perhaps a bit of a cheap way, where Kaldur doesn't really need to make such a huge choice -- Tula already being in a relationship with Garth is a little too convenient to give Kaldur an excuse to leave Atlantis behind, and the three involved are such pleasant people that there's not much of a conflict.

Of course, Black Manta blew up Starro, and the piece of Starro that was brought up to the surface and all that jazz ends up being a contigency plan for the Light, which is kind of whatever -- the Light can plan out all these things, but one of the biggest weaknesses of Young Justice is that the plans are obviously saved up for the season finale or mid-season finale, so it's not going to matter and it's just another item in the list of "things the Light has obtained". More importantly, I guess the biggest takeaway from the scene is that Orm is  a member of the Light -- something that might not be entirely obvious due to the audio distortion.

The episode might not be the most satisfying character development for Aqualad, but it's defintiely one that gave him a fair bit more depth than just 'competent leader dude'.

The rest of the episode, meanwhile, is one of my favourite montages in all of Young Justice. A collection of small scenes showing the other members of the Team in their downtime. M'gann and Superboy's disastrous attempts at preparing dinner, and Superboy just kind of shrugging off having a crapton of food splashed on top of him is perhaps too obvious of a shipping foreshadowing -- but Red Tornado walking in on the scene of a food-covered Superboy watching TV, and then wordlessly backing out? That's hilarious.

Robin -- or Dick, rather -- being jealous that Batman is talking and mentoring Aqualad is perhaps a little petty, but very realistic, and Bruce stepping in and playing basketball with Dick is an amazingly heartwarming scene, showing that Bruce and Clark's conversation earlier this season about being a good parent isn't just all talk. Wally is in a birthday party with his two mentors, two different flashes -- Jay Garrick and Barry Allen, and their respective families, and they're just goofing around.

But most curious among these fun and heartwarming scenes is Artemis, who gets a fully-paid Wayne Scholarship. Artemis's mother really wants her to go, to get the chance to go to a prestigious school in order to get the opportunities that she never had, and Artemis deciding to accept the scholarship and leave her old school behind is a very tear-jerking scene that helps add another layer of humanity to Artemis, who previously has been simply mysterious and snarky and not much else. (Also, note that Artemis and Green Arrow never shares a scene, showing that she's Green Arrow's sidekick/student in name only.)

Overall, despite the rather oddly weak conflict of Kaldur'ahm's choice between the surface and undersea worlds, it's still a pretty strong episode with a strong emotional core. Yes, the resolution of Kaldur's personal conflict might've been done better, but the montage of family scenes, and Kaldur's own confronting how much things have changed without him and how he's committed to the superheroing cause, is definitely well done.

Roll Call:

• Heroes: Aqualad, Miss Martian, Robin, Superboy, Kid Flash, Batman, Aquaman, Red Tornado, Flash (Barry), Flash (Jay)
• Villains: Clayface, Ocean Master/Prince Orm, Black Manta, Starro, the Light's Council
• Others: Lagoon Boy, Lori Lemaris, Topo, Garth, Tula, Queen Mera, Vulko, Alfred Pennyworth, Iris West-Allen, Joan Garrick, Rudy West, Mary West, Paula Crock

DC Easter Eggs Corner: 

• Garth, a.k.a. Aqualad, and later on Tempest, is, in the comics, the Aqualad instead of Kaldur'ahm. Kaldur and Garth refers to this when they mentioned that Garth could've easily been the one chosen to become Aqualad instead of him. In the comics, Garth was a child born with purple eyes, which was a bad omen thanks to purple eyes being tied to a huge latent magical power, enough power to unleash a great sealed evil in Atlantean history. Thus Garth was abandoned and left to die as an infant, until he was resuced by Aquaman's father. He later grew and became Aquaman's sidekick, and was one of the founding members of the original Teen Titans. He would shed the Aqualad mantle and adopt the moniker Tempest as he grew older and unlocked his full potential of magic and mastery over water. 
• Garth refers to his comic book counterpart's codename when he shouts "I summon the power of the Tempest!" 
• In the comics, whether as Aqualad or Tempest, Garth tended to don maroon-coloured costumes. The 2003 Teen Titans cartoon gave Aqualad a mainly blue-and-black costume, which this version of Garth also used. In the Rebirth reboot of DC comics, the blue costume would finally be adapted into the comic-book version of Tempest. 
• Tula, known in the comics as the superheroine Aquagirl, is yet another one of Aquaman's sidekicks. A young orphaned Atlantean adopted by the royal family, Tula would join Aquaman and the Teen Titans' adventures and be Garth's love interest, though she was famously among the casualties in Crisis on Infinite Earths and has been revived as a zombie too many times in various Teen Titans titles for me to count. Aqualagirl's look here is somewhat based on her Aquagirl costume, but with neon lines added in. 
• Queen Mera, Aquaman's wife, has been in the pages of the comic books for a relatively long time -- I'm not sure there's much to say about her. She hails from the colony of the Aqua Dimension, an ancient Atlantanean colony. She was resqued by Aquaman and began a romance with him. She is a warrior queen, and this version of her is apparently trained in water magic as well. 
• Black Manta, whose real name is never revealed, is one of Aquaman's most iconic enemies, made extra-popular due to his role in the old Hanna-Barbera cartoon Challenge of the Super Friends. A human that built a manta suit, Black Manta commands an army of diver soldiers in order to loot Atlantean technology and sell it at a high price in the black market.
• Prince Orm is better known by his supervillain moniker, the Ocean Master. While various versions of his backstory has been told over the years, Orm is always Aquaman's half-brother. This one seemed to be based on the post-Crisis Ocean Master, as Aquaman's pureblood Atlantanean half-brother who is passed over for the throne for the more competent, albeit outside, Aquaman. While not explicitly stated, Orm seems to be a member of the Light that speaks to Manta at the end of the episode. 
• There has been multiple incarnations of the iconic Batman villain Clayface over the years, but supplementary material would identify this as Matt Hagen, the second Clayface in the tie-in comics to the cartoon, and it drastically revised Clayface's backstory. Whatever the case, Clayface is, well, a human made up of clay, able to transform his body in any way he chooses. 
• Starro isn't named in this episode, but the brief backstory given to it and its appearance makes its identity very obvious. In the comics, Starro is a powerful, ancient starfish-shaped creature with mind-control powers that is famous for being the very first enemy that the Justice League of America fought.
• Various other members of the Atlantean community:
• Topo, in the Silver Age comics, is Aquaman's super-intelligent octopus sidekick/pet. More recent stories have revised him to being a humanoid Atlantaean with octopus body parts, similar to the Cthulhu-esque design he has here, or as a giant Kraken-esque attack dog. 
• Vulko, the old researcher head, is a relatively major recurring ally of Aquaman, tending to advise him in matters of science and politics. Alongside Mera, he's slated for an appearance in the upcoming Aquaman movie. 
• Lagoon Boy is a minor Aquaman supporting character in the nineties, and is one of the more bestial Atlanteans that was allowed entrance into Atlantis under Aquaman's rule. His subsequent roles in Young Justice would be the biggest role the character would have. 
• Lori Lemaris, the mermaid with a red shirt that casted the translation spell, is a Superman supporting character, the third biggest love interest for Superman after Lois and Lana. 
• Jay Garrick is, of course, the Golden Age Flash. His wife Joan, as well as Barry's wife Iris, and Wally's parents Rudy and Mary, all make appearances here.
• The newspaper in Artemis's apartment has a photograph of Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent shaking hands, taken from the Batman: The Animated Series episode 'Pretty Poison'. 
• The establishing shots of Gotham City during the opening scene is taken wholesale from the movie Batman: Under the Red Hood.