Young Justice S02E12 Review: Poisoned Rutabaga

Young Justice: Invasion, Episode 12: True Colors

Another definite winner for Young Justice, as we continue the Reach/Light subplot that's been running throughout the season. We have a definite espionage feel as the League can't move against the Reach openly, not with G. Gordon Godfrey tearing down the JLA's reputation with the public due to all of the shady stuff that the Reach Ambassador "leaked accidentally" in the previous episode. Add that to the fact that the Reach are working with Lex Luthor (who the world still thinks is a squeaky-clean businessman, of course) to help produce food for the poor? Great PR stuff for the Reach and their Light buddies, but bad news for humanity.

We get a brief bit of some fun 'world of adventure' bit as the Atom and Bumblebee shrink down and try to remove the Scarab without killing Jaime, a venture that proves impossible as the Scarab is self-repairing and also is able to shoot out little robots to fight off Atom and Bumblebee. It's mostly just to keep the status quo regarding Blue Beetle constant for a little while, but we did get a full sequence with them fighting little robots in Jaime's bloodstream, before being extracted by a hypodermic syringe, which is pretty unexpected for what's essentially a throwaway scene.

(Also, this whole sequence probably doesn't garner the Scarab any favours. Just saying. )

That said, I'm genuinely not sure about Nightwing's decision to include Blue Beetle in the team he sends to infiltrate the LexCorp farms. "He could've taken over any time in the past" certainly isn't a good reason for someone who's supposed to be well-versed in deep-cover agents, Nightwing! But we do get the pair of Blue Beetle and Impulse again for this episode, led by Robin (who really have been aching for screentime) and, surprisingly, Arsenal, who has been inducted into the group sometime since episode 8. The team infiltrates the LexCorp farm's public tour, which features some delightful cameos from Superman's supporting cast (Pa Kent and Sharon Vance) and we get a token discussion about just how lucrative the LexCorp factories seem -- they wouldn't even put the local hardy farmers out of business!

It's definitely a fun line as the Reach and LexCorp seem to be heroes to the public, supposedly being open to everyone (although no one really questions just what the purple fluid fed to the plants are?), while the League, for the good of everyone, has to send in child soldiers on espionage missions. Robin's little mission goes very successful at first as they get plant samples and the pink fluid, but then Arsenal, predictably, goes off the handle and fucking sets off a goddamn bomb, just because this facility belongs to Lex Luthor. Yeah, that's going to go over well with the Godfrey news, Arsenal.

Luthor knows it all, of course, but mentions to his aide Mercy that this time around, he's content to let the Reach protect their own interests. We get the welcome return of Black Beetle in all his creepy glory, with that badass voice and the indestructible super-soldier hype he's gotten after episode 10. The Team is at a significant disadvantage, though. They're mostly outnumbered, and the only heavy hitter they have is Blue Beetle -- who's unwilling to allow the Scarab to take over, and thus preventing him from being as effective as he was in episode 10. Surprisingly, though, Arsenal's laser is able to burn through Black Beetle's armour, and considering the focus on Luthor's smug face, could this be part of the Light's machinations? To secretly arm at least one member of the superheroes as an insurance if (or when, more like) the Reach betrays them?

At this point it's more flee than fight for the Team, though, and as they run through Smallville's cornfields, they are quickly waylaid by Black Beetle... and another agent of the Reach, this time with green armour, which the Team quickly dubs "Green Beetle" (of course). But, surprising everyone, Green Beetle turns out to be on our side, as he is the Reach's agent that was sent to Mars, and the Scarab there couldn't cope with the martian's shape-shifting physiology. We get some really cool bits with Green Beetle shapeshifting into a serpentine form and doing some fun density-shifting bits, although we also learn that Green Beetle is also weak to fire, like Martians are. The combined efforts of Beetles Blue and Green manage to drive Black Beetle off, though, and we get this brief exposition of B'arzz O'oomm of Mars, a pretty unexpected ally. Green Beetle also offers Blue Beetle an alternative to having the Scarab removed, which is pretty interesting.

And we do get some neat character beats for Robin and Arsenal. Arsenal, obviously, is the team's resident loose cannon. He's their Hulk, so to speak. And Arsenal near damn well kills everyone thanks to his maverick actions. But interestingly, Robin, who's coming to terms with leading teams at the beginning of this season, notes that while Arsenal needs some experience with this whole covert thing, also doesn't really lay much blame on Aresnal. Giving him a chance, perhaps? Or is this a 'ends justifies the means' deal?

Meanwhile, even though they have been decidedly out of focus this entire season, Lex Luthor has a meeting with Vandal Savage as they survey the chaos. The Young Justice Team fails to even touch their real operative -- not fruits, but drinks. It's honestly a bit of an eye-rolling moment of "ha ha, we've got backups" but far more interesting is Luthor noting how effective young operatives are as he hovers over pictures of Static and the other Reach abductees. Again, this episode has a couple of Light-centric scenes throughout its runtime, which is definitely welcome.

The first and perhaps most interesting is the Sportsmaster being the biggest dick in the world and demanding compensation for Artemis's death the stain of his honour. The Light is prepared to compensate him with money, but Sportsmaster just wants an eye for an eye, which means Kaldur'ahm's life. It would have been one thing if Sportsmaster is truly distraught at losing a child, but he's clearly far more into it for the pride deal, so it's definitely fun to see the Light straight-up replace Sportsmaster with the fan-favourite Deathstroke. Who has a weird white ponytail in this incarnation, but no less badass. The scene ends up with Sportsmaster escaping on a helicopter with Cheshire, noting that they're now free to pursue their respective vengeance.

(Also I'll never stop being impressed at how Young Justice managed to make me take a character with the name "Sportsmaster" seriously)

Meanwhile, Vandal Savage lends Psimon for Black Manta to use, because Kaldur'ahm is in a vegetative coma since his unfortunate run-in with M'gann in episode 10, and Savage promises that Psimon will be able to piece together every single memory within Kaldur'ahm's helpless mind. Is this where Artemis and Kaldur have to make a decision to blow their cover? Very interesting complication.

Overall, perhaps not the strongest episode after the series of winners we got. But still a pretty interesting one! I just wished that we got more explanation as to why Nightwing thinks sending Jaime and real!Roy in this mission is a good idea, but eh.

Roll Call:

• Heroes: The Atom, Bumblebee, Blue Beetle, Nightwing, Superboy, Guardian, Impulse,  Lagoon Boy, Robin, Arsenal, Aqualad
• Villains: Lex Luthor, The Reach Ambassador, Sportsmaster, Ra's al Ghul, Queen Bee, Black Manta, Vandal Savage, the Brain, Klarion, Deathstroke, Cheshire, Mercy Graves, Black Beetle, Psimon
• Civilians: Dr. Pieter Cross, G. Gordon Godfrey, Sharon Vance, Jonathan Kent, Green Beetle

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Deathstroke the Terminator, a.k.a. Slade Wilson, is perhaps the most famous adversary of the Teen Titans, the superhero group that Young Justice is inspired upon, although Deathstroke has grown significantly in popularity and does double-duty as a Batman villain these days. Slade Wilson was a soldier who underwent modifications to create a 'super soldier', allowing him to use a higher amount of his brain capacity than normal people, significantly heightening his reflexes, speed and strength. After being exiled from the military, Deathstroke would be an independent mercenary.
• Green Beetle, a.k.a. B'arzz O'oomm, is original to this show, although his real martian name is a reference to Barsoom, the real name of Mars in the John Carter novels.
• B'arzz O'oomm notes that all martians love television, which is definitely true for J'onn J'onzz. 
• Jonathan "Pa" Kent, Superman's father on Earth, is the farmer who talks about how LexCorp will affect the local economy. Just like the comics, some time between seasons 1 and 2, Pa and Ma Kent have adopted Superboy as their second son. 
• The tour guide through the LexCorp farm is Sharon Vance, a childhood friend of Clark Kent from Smallville, and would adopt the identity of the superhero Strange Visitor when a plane crash caused her to manifest electrical powers. 
• Dr. Pieter Cross (a.k.a. the real identity of Dr. Mid-Nite) make a brief non-speaking cameo here! He had a brief speaking role as the doctor that Kid Flash delivers that heart to in the season one episode "Coldhearted".