Young Justice S02E08 Review: Snowbirds Don't Fly

Young Justice, Season 2, Episode 8: Satisfaction

Perhaps one of the biggest black marks against Young Justice is its sporadic episode releases, something that probably soured audiences when they have to wait three months between episode 7 and 8 -- it's not something I experienced, of course, having access to the entire season in one go the first time I watched Young Justice, and reviewing it, but it's unfortunate nonetheless to see the problems that plagued the series and presumably prevented it from being as successful as other animated series.

This episode finally tackles the Roy Harper clone drama that was sprung upon us in episode 6, where it's revealed that, hey, the real Roy Harper, a.k.a. Speedy, a.k.a. Arsenal at the end of this episode, is still alive. And while "our" Roy Harper/Red Arrow (I'm going to refer to them with their differentiated superhero names from now on) has had his differences with Green Arrow over how he's pissed off at how he's treated with kid gloves, Arsenal is rightfully angry for being left to the mercies of Lex Luthor for damn near a decade. Again, it's hard to fault Oliver Queen too much in this -- all Oliver knew was that after losing Roy Harper in a mission, he found Roy and didn't question his blessing for managing to come home with his ward. But the bigger problem that Arsenal has isn't just because Oliver didn't realize he was replaced with a clone -- it's the fact that, as far as he knew, Oliver gave him up for dead when it was that very same clone that hunted down where he was held and rescued him for five years. The conversation between Oliver Queen and the two Roy Harpers -- with a lot of justified anger and not really a lot that anyone involved could've conceivably done differently -- is perhaps one of the better written scenes in all of Young Justice.

The scene with the morose Oliver in the chapel is also well-written, building up with the events of the previous episode where Oliver recounts how he's failed every single one of his sidekicks. Artemis is dead, Arsenal hates him for never realizing he's replaced by a clone, and Red Arrow's had his conflict with Oliver throughout the previous season. But Red Arrow at least recognizes that Oliver tries and tells Oliver that Arsenal needs him despite everything. Of course, with nothing but vengeance, anger and distrust riddling the Real Roy Harper, he runs out of prison, goes into one of Green Arrow's equipment cache and uses the resources there to dress back up as Speedy and teleport away, intent on delivering vengeance on the man that ruined his life -- Lex Luthor.

It's gloriously dark, yet it's hard to fault Speedy/Arsenal's hatred and goals. Deep down, in spite of all his anger, Arsenal knows that he can't really blame Oliver, not when everything that's going on is engineered by Lex Luthor and his cronies. We also get a pretty neat, if subtle, transformation from Speedy the Green Arrow sidekick into the independent persona Arsenal, a decision made even more necessary by the fact that Arsenal's single arm means that he can't use a bow and arrow anymore, and have to result to firearms. We get a fun bit where Arsenal launches a bazooka missile straight at Lex Luthor's office, and we get one of my hands-down favourite action scenes in Young Justice with Arsenal fighting against Mercy Graves, Luthor's cyborg bodyguard, in the LexCorp parking lot. The action scenes and the animation of the weaponry involved is pretty well done, with some really fluid movement and action for these two characters.

Add that to Luthor's calm and collected demeanor throughout all this, and we get a pretty badass confrontation. Luthor and the rest of the Light aren't characters that get a lot of spotlight in the grand scheme of things, mostly acting as the mysterious Illuminati lording over the society of lesser villains, but this scene really shows that Young Justice's Luthor is no less shrewd than his other counterparts. Luthor already has armed security guards ready to blow up Arsenal should things go south, and while Luthor notes that, yes, Arsenal would get some fleeting sense of revenge at blowing up Luthor's arm, Luthor is willing to cut a deal. Luthor is always willing to cut a deal, and asks Roy what he truly wants -- revenge or satisfaction. It's a literal deal from the devil as Luthor drops the briefcase he's been carrying around, which is a metal arm similar to what Mercy has, which would allow Arsenal to function, instead of getting shot to death for the fleeting fulfillment of getting Luthor to join the one-armed club.

It's always a dark moment when a previously-idealistic superhero is driven into such a rage that he goes on a murder spree, but the way the conflict was resolved here is definitely well-done. Arsenal announces to Arrows Green and Red that "Speedy died", and officially adopts the moniker Arsenal. No, he's not fighting for the bad guys, but neither is he going to accept Green Arrow's help. He's Arsenal now, and it's easily the most badass superhero name transformation I've seen.

And while the episode ends with Real Roy Harper becoming Arsenal, he's clearly not quite right in the head and a fair bit more volatile than any of the superheroes we've seen before, so it's definitely going to be interesting to see how Arsenal stacks up against the rest of the cast and how he's going to interact with them.

And that is just the A-plot of this episode! Yeah, Young Justice does pack a lot into their episodes, huh? We get a pretty neat scene in Mt. Justice as the members of the Team basically out for Kaldur's blood for killing one of their own -- basically what you'd expect, really. While it's probably smart to keep a deep cover agent's involvement a minimum, it's also not particularly smart to have the rest of your team basically gunning for the head of said deep-cover agent. In another powerful scene, we discover the existence of the Grotto, a hall of fallen heroes with holographic statues where some of the newer heroes are paying their respects to Artemis. We also get the very convenient note of Jaime Reyes looking at his predecessor as the wielder of the Blue Beetle name, and Jaime and Bart Allen get a nice bit of solemn conversation about the heroes fallen in the line of duty. There's a neat conversation on whether the lack of a huge shrine honouring their fallen is because the League doesn't want to advertise their vulnerability and mortality. Jaime also lampshades how out of everyone in the Team, he's the only one who doesn't have a direct mentor, with Ted Kord dying even before Jaime became a superhero -- a neat contrast to the harsh rejection of Green Arrow by Arsenal throughout the episode.

Meanwhile, speaking of mourning characters, we get a brief showcase of Wally West and Artemis's mother Paula visiting Artemis's tombstone at Gotham Cemetery. It's not a scene we linger on for too long, but god damn poor Paula! It's an especially sad gut-punch and you can just add poor Paula onto the pile of people that this undercover-fake-death Artemis is piling up onto, and the guilt in Wally's face is just well-animated. The rest of Artemis's family doesn't quite mourn so sensibly. Jade is quiet and pensive, but Sportsmaster (a.k.a. Worst Dad of the Year) is far, far more angry that despite both Sportsmaster and Black Manta being agents of the Light, Black Manta's kid just killed Sportsmaster's kid without asking for permission. Yep, dad of the year right here. Sportsmaster doesn't really care all that much about Artemis's death, nor is he being stoic -- he genuinely is feeling far more anger at the perceived humiliation and tarnished reputation by being treated like a punk. Yeah, Sportsmaster... not the most pleasant of guys out there. (Also, this whole Sportsmaster/Jade thing ties in, albeit tangentially

Another one in this string of scenes is Conner sitting in a chair at his school. It's his birthday, and the first that he has spent without M'gann celebrating for him -- for all of Superboy's maturity and stability, it's sometimes way too easy to realize that he's an un-aging clone that's a mere six years old. Wendy (of Wonder Twins fame) is all too happy to wish Conner a happy birthday, and despite Conner's tsundere act, he clearly misses all the attention that M'gann used to give him. Wendy even gives Conner some neat realization moment that Conner did enjoy the parties -- if only because they made M'gann happy.

The final side-quest in this bit is the bridal shower for Rocket -- it sort of comes out of nowhere, and poor Rocket's been definitely out of focus when she got shunted to the League in season two. All the women that's not standing trial are present, and it's a pretty fun bit as they acknowledge that while they are grieving for Artemis, she wouldn't want them to ruin Rocket's happy day. There's a hilarious bit where silly bumbling old Captain Cold decide to rob a bank right next door, and ends up facing off against no less than seven superheroes ready to kick ass. After all the heavy drama that this episode have -- whether Artemis or Roy related -- it's definitely a smart move to include this far fluffier subplot.

Overall, "Satisfaction" remains one of my favourite episodes in the second season. Perhaps part of it is because I'm such a sucker for the Roy Harper storyline that ran throughout this entire series (and also a huge sucker for a good Lex Luthor moment), but at the same time it's such a well-written episode that builds up a lot of the subplots that have been established throughout the series.

Roll Call:

• Heroes: Speedy/Arsenal, Green Arrow, Red Arrow, Superboy, Nightwing, Malcolm Duncan, Blue Beetle, Impulse, Robin, Beast Boy, Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Zatanna, Rocket, Batgirl, Wonder Girl, Black Canary
• Villains: Sportsmaster, Cheshire, Lex Luthor, Mercy Graves, Captain Cold, Otis
• Civilians: Paula Crock, Lian Nguyen-Harper, Wendy Harris

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Arsenal is the comic-book Roy Harper's adult moniker after he sheds the Speedy costume. The whole clone storyline isn't from the comics, though Roy did swap monikers from Speedy to Arsenal to Red Arrow, and it's actually a neat bit of cleverness for the show writers to make use of this to differentiate the different Roys. 
• As Arsenal, Roy Harper does tend to use guns and other firearms as often as he uses bows and arrows, and his initial introduction did have him as being fairly more brutal than his compatriots.
• As mentioned in previous episodes that focuses on Roy... Roy Harper and Oliver Queen probably have the most troubled superhero/sidekick relationship among all the superheroes in DC comics, and, again, I have to point at the "Snowbirds Don't Fly" storyline that focuses on Roy falling into drug abuse thanks to Oliver's neglect as a guardian.
• The original Roy asks Oliver when he grew that 'ridiculous goatee', which is a nod to how Green Arrow initially was clean-shaven during the Golden Age until he was given the iconic blond goatee and it stuck. 
• The comics' Teen Titans actually do have a hall of fallen superheroes in their tower. Here, we get to see three members alongside Artemis:
• Robin II/Jason Todd, showing that, yes, while we never saw him in the flesh, Jason Todd does exist in this continuity and died prior to Tim taking over the mantle. In the comics, Jason Todd replaces Dick Grayson as Robin, but was brutally killed by the Joker with a crowbar.
• Aquagirl/Tula, who we know died as part of Aqualad's backstory for this season. In the comics, Aquagirl is one of the deaths that has never really been reverted. 
• Blue Beetle II/Ted Kord, Jaime Reyes' direct predecessor as the Blue Beetle, a technologically-minded superhero that was unable to unlock the mystical (actually alien) powers of the Scarab that gave Blue Beetle I his powers. In the comics, Ted Kord's death happened thanks to the machinations of Maxwell Lord, kickstarting the long Infinite Crisis maxi-event. 
• Lex Luthor's head of security is called Otis. Otis is Luthor's bumbling goon in the live-action Christopher Reeve Superman movies.