Young Justice, Season 1, Episode 17: Disordered
The only nice thing I can say about 'Failsafe' is that it directly leads into this episode, easily one of my favourite episodes of the season. Which I really like to say, it seems, but then I really like Young Justice. So. And it's not even the New Gods stuff, which is cool and handled reasonably well, but not what I'm excited about in this episode. See, as much as I complained about last episode's plotline, it did hvae the effect of putting our heroes through what would be a traumatic experience, as silly Edgy!Fanfiction (tm) as it was. And one of the best character writings I've ever seen in Young Justice comes through the interview sessions with Black Canary, who... who I guess is the only real sane recurring JLA-er that can really handle emotions well?
We start off with the Team milling around, because seeing themselves literally get murdered horribly, experiencing it, isn't easy to get through. We get the most aewsome line from Martian Manhunter, who tells Batman that trauma isn't overcome that easily, as Batman himself probably knows. The scene then breaks shifts over to Canary trying to talk to Superboy, who predictably gets super pissed-off, screams at Canary to leave him alone, and runs off to cool his head. Superboy has been consistently written as having a trigger temper, and while he's certainly mellowed out over the past 16 episodes, his first instinct to an emotional problem is still to snap and yell at people. Leaving his communicator to run off on his own has been something that Superboy did, back when he fought Amazo half-cocked, and I totally believe that, especially considering his unique circumstances he doesn't really know how to deal with extreme emotions. That, of course, ends up leading Superboy to go to the, well, I don't want to say 'A-plot' because the New God stuff, while well done, isn't as engaging as the Canary interviews, but he goes off on his own adventures in Metropolis while Canary interviews the rest of the Team. And I absolutely adore these scenes. Also loved that the interviews happened with our heroes in their civilian shirts, stripping away the colourful costumes and armour and showing the vulnerable teenagers beneath.
Artemis, still the most mysterious member of the team despite what we, the audience, know about her, is the one affected the least due to dying first during the simulation. It did turn the conversation with Black Canary into one that discusses her secrets as well, because Artemis is someone who refuses to open up to her friends, and Canary tries to edge her to try to do so... while inelegantly shoving in a Wally/Artemis shipping bit. It's honestly something that the show has done amazingly well, showing their budding slap-slap-kiss relationship in the background without being overtly obvious about it... and dropping an anvil like this is just silly and inorganic.
Aqualad is second to get interviewed by Black Canary, and here is where all the character analysis after last episode start to get dissected by Canary. Aqualad could be argued as the most boring, most static member of the Young Justice main cast, and I would be inclined to agree with you if moments like this didn't come out. Aqualad's background as a soldier discoloured the choices he makes, and he notes that he isn't fit to be a leader due to the ease that he sacrifices himself without realizing that the Team doesn't have adequate direction after his 'death'. Kaldur'ahm hasn't gotten the spotlight in some time, but as the mature big brother of the team, he's been struggling with leadership in his own way, and after realizing that there are literally no other options (Superboy's too angry, Kid Flash's too silly, Artemis's too new, M'gann's too easily influenced and Robin's too young) he ends up deciding to change himself instead.
Kid Flash is my pick for the most static member of the cast, though, becasue he's silly... and for the majority of the first season, that's all that you get from the character. He's silly, he collects trophies, he's a fun bro to hang out with, and sometimes he gets extra-serious when the situation demands... but whereas Aqualad's resigned and Superboy's lashing out, Kid Flash, as Black Canary notes, is in heavy denial, using humour, wacky positions and popcorn munching to deflect the trauma. Here the Wally/Artemis shipping is integrated a whole lot better, with Canary noting Wally's extremely distraught reaction after Artemis's death, causing him to briefly drop the silly clown act.
Robin is the more surprising one of the bunch, because when he suddenly pours his heart out to Black Canary I thought that it's just a thing he's going to do, tell Black Canary what she needs to hear because, oh, Batman and his proteges are such great at reading people's minds and they're such cold, cocky bastards! But as Aqualad points out earlier, Dick Grayson in Young Justice, despite being trained by the Bat himself, is still young. And Robin's earnest talk about how he always wanted to be leader, but resented the hard choices he had to make in the simulation. Robin talks about how he knew he's going to succeed Batman eventually, but at this moment in time he just doesn't have what it takes to basically be the heartless dark knight that is willing to sacrifice everything for the greater good. It's an admission of weakness for the normally ultra-confident and cocky Robin, it's an absolutely human moment for Robin and I was genuinely taken aback. Robin in Young Justice has had a far more healthy relationship with Batman than Pre-Nightwing!Dick and Bruce traditionally have, so instead of an angry-angsty-get-out-of-Batman's-shadow rebel, here we get to see the Dick who's struggling with the burden of actually embracing that shadow, of eventually succeeding the great man that his adoptive father.
Miss Martian, meanwhile, is the one who feels the most responsibility for the huge cock-up last episode, and both the animation and the voice acting really manages to show a M'gann who is trying so hard to show that she's totally fine and they don't need to worry about her, but clearly she's having huge reserves about using her martian powers, only trusting herself to change her skin colour. Also, note how M'gann freaks the fuck out when Black Canary pointed out that she transformed into 'white'. And Black Canary gives M'gann the same advice she gives Wally, which is not to suppress her true nature, but actually learn to control it. M'gann's withdrawal from her true powers in response to the gigantic fuckup is definitely something that's realistic, and Canary's talk to her really helps her out in, well, basically getting more self-confidence in not repeating this mistake again.
Superboy returns after the whole Forever People storyline, of course, and have mellowed out a little from that adventure, and he reveals that he's traumatized not because he saw all his friends were dead, and the admission that he, more than anything, was happy that he finally knows what it's like to be Superman -- and after the simulation he feels absolutely guilty for that self-serving fantasy. It's something that's unexpectedly deep, and Canary, instead of judging him for that, notes that it's healthy to admit something like that. Again, it is the symptom of something that doesn't plague any of our other heroes, with the best example being M'gann having her uncle to fall back on. Sure, Superboy does have his friends, but they're as traumatized and unstable emotionally as he is, and it's an outsider, a therapist like Canary, that can really help out Superboy. Canary's role as a den mother is a part of the show that's a little understated, but it's this episode that really takes stock of our heroes' emotions and feelings, and really works through it.
Oh, and I suppose we have to talk about the New God stuff, yeah? It's okay. I've always felt that the New Gods were honestly overrated by the DC fandom, but in the same breath really wished DC material did more with them. Part of what made the New God storyline in Young Justice feel so weak is how poorly paced it was, with things like a dozen episodes between every episode with a New God reference in them. The buildup's fine when you're binge-watching Young Justice, but it's honestly a bit unsatisfactory considering the amount of New God material we eventually get at the end of the second season.
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| New 52 Tron Lines! |
Superboy ends up being the voice of reason compared to the far more prideful and Leeroy-Jenkins-ing Bear, which causes the Forever People to be outgunned when Intergang proves to be not just a weak bunch of mortal men and actually armed with weaponry that can actually slow and even hurt the New Gods. The Forever People can apparently combine into the hilariously wacky-looking Infinity Man, who manage to take out almost all of the Intergang minions and Whisper, one of their captains, but quickly discovers via mind-reading that Intergang is working with the forces of Apokolips. After an inelegant introdump about what Apokolips and New Genesis are to people less familiar with this side of the DC lore, they then go to fight Desaad, chief torturer, sycophant and wormy majordomo to Darkseid.
And while the fight scenes are cool enough, incorporating both Wolf the wolf and the Sphere, as well as Desaad briefly turning Inifinity Man evil, Superboy and the Forever People manage to triumph and drive Desaad back. The thing that really bothers me about this storyline is that, as cool as all the New God foreshadowing and world-building are, it doesn't actually explain much about Superboy's change of heart between angrily storming off and refusing to be coddled to sitting down and admitting his shame at being happy for indulging in being Superman, something that really could've been worked into the New God/Intergang plotline if they tried a bit harder, but alas it ended up being a relatively simple 'beat up evil gangsters with space guns' adventure. Still, it's still a highly enjoyable episode to watch nonetheless, and I did love how they used the relatively more obscure Forever People, basically the New Gods' version of Young Justice, as opposed to, say, more prolific New Gods like Orion or Barda.
Roll Call:
- Heroes: Miss Martian, Aqualad, Robin, Kid Flash, Artemis, Red Tornado, Captain Marvel, Martian Manhunter, Batman, Superboy, Black Canary, Vykin, Bear, Dreamer, Serifan, Moonrider, the Sphere, Wolf, Infinity Man
- Villains: Whisper A'Daire, Bruno Mannheim, Desaad
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- The New Gods of New Genesis and Apokolips are, well, super-advanced beings that are the 'New' Gods that will replace the old ones (the generation of Zeus and the rest). Most famous among the New Gods is, of course, Darkseid, DC's go-to crossover villain and one of Superman's most iconic foes. The Forever People also make a brief allusion to the Source, the gigantic wall of energy that the New Gods aren't even able to pierce, which contains knowledge that will break reality itself. Mother Boxes and Boom Tubes, powerful dimension-travelling technology of the New Gods, are also prominently featured here.
- The Forever People are a group of New Gods from New Genesis who were sent to Earth to oppose Darseid's agents, travelling like hippies on the Super-Cycle (which Conner's Sphere transforms into) and able to summon the mighty deity-like figure Infinity-Man, the spirit of Darkseid's dead brother Drax, from their Mother Box.
- Vykin, a.k.a. 'Vykin the Black' (which obviously won't fly today) is one of DC's earliest black superheroes. Vykin is the leader of the Forever People, in charge of the Mother Box they carry and has the ability to manipulate the forces of magnetism.
- Bear, a.k.a. 'Big Bear' in the comics, is the team's boisterous muscle-bound warrior. He's married to Dreamer in the comics.
- Dreamer, named 'Beautiful Dreamer' in the comics, has the ability to create illusions. Young Justice gives her the additional ability of being able to extract information from people's minds. In the comics, she's Big Bear's wife.
- Serifan, in the comics, is likewise a marksman, though the show makes him a lot, lot more cowboy-inspired. Young Justice drops the trick arrows and the telepathic abilities Serifan has for a less overpowered bang-bang space revolver cowboy action.
- Moonrider, a.k.a. 'Mark Moonrider', is the dude with a Tron jacket. He doesn't get any lines in the episode and only shoots energy bolts. In the comics he's actually similarly minor, although his power was an explosive touch instead of energy bolts.
- Speaking of the Super-Cycle, the original Young Justice cartoon had the team travel around in a copy of the Forever People's Super-Cycle, something that Superboy's Sphere turns out to be an adaptation of.
- Desaad, chief torturer and majordomo to the lord of Apokolips, Darkseid, has been featured alongside Darkseid in most of Darkseid's animated appearances (Superman: TAS, Justice League Unlimited, Super Friends and Justice League: War), serving as a vile torturer and toadie that does a lot of Darkseid's dirty work.
- Intergang is, of course, a Metropolis-based criminal organization whose claim to fame is having high-tech technology supplied by agents from Apokolips, to sow chaos and destruction on Earth before Darkseid claims it.
- Bruno "Ugly" Mannheim has been one of the most common frontmen for Intergang in adaptations, starring prominently in Superman: the Animated Series. He mentions that he's bigger than his father, which is a reference to how he succeeded as leader of Intergang from his father, "Boss" Moxie Mannheim.
- Whisper A'Daire in the comics is actually a member of the League of Asssassins and an enemy of Batman, a seductress with the ability to transform into a snake-like form with a serum. She does end up getting briefly associated with Mannheim and Intergang in the '52' maxi-series. As far as I know, she doesn't have laser-whips.
- In the comics, Dick Grayson does become Batman! Eventually.
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