Young Justice S01E18 Review: Creepy Ghost Story

Young Justice, Season 1, Episode 18: Secrets

After the previous emotional roller-coaster of an episode (also Infinity Man fighting a super-powered wolf and an alien bike) we get to 'Secrets', which at the same time has both the most light-hearted storyline that wouldn't feel out of place in a more whimsical show like Teen Titans -- halloween prom night! And at the same time, it also features a psychotic brother who murdered his young sister, causing her to become a vengeful, mute ghost trying to seek justice and get Zee and Artemis to stop her psychotic Satan-worshipping brother.

So, yeah. From the opening part of the episode, where the super-edgy ninja magician Harm shows up to steal some mythological artifact, the Sword of Beowulf, and then with very little ambiguity murder the museum curator and the policemen, the darker themes of the episode is set pretty well. Yes, Young Justice is no stranger to death, but the only other civilian deaths we've seen in the series has been the casualties to Joker's laughing gas in 'Revelations'. Of course, there's the weird handwave that apparently Harm has just apparently been sitting in the corner while policemen are investigating in the hopes that the museum curator would tell him the magic words to activate the sword's powers, as well as the fact that the curator apparently believes that the sword of Beowulf actually does have great magical power... and displays it in a public museum? Old museum curator man, irresponsible people like you are the reason there are so many psychotic supervillains running around in the DC comics world.

Anyway, despite the dubious (even if Harm murdering the policemen is cool) setup, the episode then whiplashes straight to M'gann, Conner and Wally preparing for a halloween prom party thing, with poor Captain Marvel having a really sorry excuse of face-paint and being super-pouty that apparently the party is for 'kids only'. God, I love Captain Marvel. Apparently Artemis is a little upset at seeing M'gann and Conner being a couple, which is a neat little subversion of confused chemistry considering how last episode was leaning so unsubtly at the Artemis/Wally shipping boat. Zatanna and Artemis decide to just change to a different set of costumes and go fight crime.

The prom stuff was pretty fun, harmless stuff. It helps give Conner and M'gann's relatively healthy relationship a lot more screentime without spending entire episodes dedicated to it, and it does give the likes of Mal Duncan, Karen Beecher and the rest of the 'future superhero' cameos some neat brief roles here and there, foreshadowing what they will eventually become in the show's future. It's some neat little fluff with them trying to pull a prank on resident jackass Marvin White, who's trying to scare people with tales of a martian invasion, with M'gann transforming into a gigantic Marvin the Martian (because MARVIN get it hahahaha) to put the fear of god (well, fear of invading martians) into Marvin's soul. It's fun fluff.

There's a smaller C-plot going on, the serious members of the team, Robin and Aqualad, as well as surprisingly, Red Arrow, discussing with Batman and Red Tornado about the mole in the team, and kind of waves off the mole's existence due to everyone helping to fight against the Injustice League (who the cast thinks is the Light at this point). It's a bit of hard to swallow, and what they give us per episode is a little too much like ''hey, remember this mole plotline?" which isn't as well-handled as it should be, but it's better to have little things to remind us instead of ignoring it until an episode where it's relevant. Red Arrow gets a bit more of a screentime, telling us how he doesn't trust Artemis (whether it's jealousy over her new role as Green Arrow's sidekick or something else isn't clear, but probably influences Roy's arguments) because she's lying to the Team about her being Green Arrow's niece. Robin, of course, knows far more than he lets on (which is a neat, hilarious bit). We also get the revelation that M'gann, despite being J'onn's niece, didn't really come into contact to J'onn until the last couple of months, and Batman proposes the idea that Superboy is a sleeper agent without knowing it. Basically it's a nice little recap of the possible suspects, which could either be red herrings and foreshadowings (having watched all the way to the end, it's a bit of both) and a neat little recap of the situation.

The A-plot, meanwhile, centers on Zatanna and Artemis, and this is the point in the show where recurring characters Zatanna and Red Arrow are basically upgraded from 'guest stars' to 'the B-team' of Young Justice's cast, something that I absolutely love. Zatanna and Artemis's little girl's night out, where Artemis expresses her frustrations (is it jealousy at Conner, or simply becuase the one Artemis likes, Wally, isn't returning her affections?) by beating the crap out of robbers and thugs. And then they are attacked by Harm, who decides to hunt them down for sport. Harm is pretty flat of a villain, but between his design, his creepy mannerisms, and his amazing voice he just works so well as this psychotic stalker.


On the way as they try to escape from where they are kidnapped and held hostage by Harm, they are helped by a little mysterious girl who can only say 'secret', and while I'm more well-versed with DC lore and figured out what we're adapting in this episode, it's ambiguous whether Secret is an ally or an enemy, becuase they see pictures of Secret and Harm together, yet Secret seems to be leading them away from Harm... but it turns out that the story's a bit darker than you'd expect, and Secret is the ghost of Harm's sister Greta, killed by him several years ago to 'get rid of the only thing he loved'.

The revelation of the gravestone, and Secret's presence shaking Harm's 'pure evil' heart enough for the Sword of Beowulf to reject him, is perhaps a bit too deus ex machina-y, and I'm definitely disappointed that this didn't lead to Secret joining the team or becoming a recurring character. But regardless, despite the episode's status as a 'filler' episode, having Zatanna and Artemis team up is something I wouldn't have thought to be a logical procession of the character pair-ups considering how little the two interacted in Zee's previous appearances, but I suppose with Zatanna being 'the new girl' and Artemis still having trouble fitting in (in retrospect, her irritation might be to how the other two newcomers, Conner and M'gann, basically finding a deeper bond in each other) they actually would work well together. It's a fun, creepy episode, and one that despite its rather shaky setup is actually one I enjoyed when I watched it.

Roll Call:

• Heroes: Wolf, Superboy, Miss Martian, Kid Flash, Captain Marvel, Zatanna, Artemis, Aqualad, Robin, Red Arrow, Batman, Red Tornado
• Villains: Harm
• Others: Mal Duncan, Karen Beecher, Wendy Harris, Marvin White, Lucas Carr, Secret/Greta Hayes

DC Easter Eggs Corner: 

• Secret, a.k.a. Greta Hayes, is an actual superhero in the comics. She is the ghost of a girl killed by her Satanist brother, and held against her will by the DEO (the same DEO adapted in the Supergirl TV show). She is rescued by Superboy, Robin (Tim Drake) and Impulse, and together with Wonder Girl II, Arrowette and their mentor Red Tornado, would form the very first incarnation of Young Justice, a group of young superheroes even younger than the Teen Titans.
• Harm, a.k.a. William Hayes, is the psychotic brother of Greta Hayes, worshipping the demon Buzz and obtaining great power after murdering his sister. While the epic story of Beowulf has been adapted by DC comics, neither Harm nor Secret's stories ever intersected with Beowulf, nor did Harm's powers come from a magical sword in the comics.
• "Abel's House of Secrets" is a huge reference to DC's mystical stories, among them Sandman and Hellblazer. Abel is a reference to the biblican Cain and Abel, and a recurring character in the Sandman comics, whereas the House of Secrets is a location that has often appeared in various other stories.
• Detective Jim Daniels, the policeman who investigated the museum, is a minor character in Batman and Man-Bat's stories.
• Karen Beecher wears a costume that's basically identical to her comics' alter-ego, Bumblebee. At this point in time, she's not Bumblebee yet.
• Mal Duncan's Superman-inspired costume, meanwhile, resembles Superboy's first costume, except Superboy's original look was a lot scrawnier than the beefy Mal Duncan.
• In addition to various Justice League cosplayers, some other members of the Halloween party dress up as Dorothy, Tin Man and Scarecrow from Wizard of Oz, as well as Shaggy from Scooby-Doo. M'gann's monster-martian form is based on Looney Tunes' Marvin the Martian.