Young Justice S03E02 Review: Vertigo's Bad Day

Young Justice: Outsiders, Season 3, Episode 2: Royal We

After the pretty hectic season premiere, "Royal We" ends up feeling a lot more focused, basically centering around the quartet of Nightwing, Artemis (Tigress, technically, but no one calls her that), Superboy and Black Lightning as they infiltrate Markovia and attempt to uncover the Bedlam organization. Simultaneously, the Brion Markov storyline continue to progress, and in typical Young Justice fashion, we get a buildup of mysteries. It's not quite as silly as season one sometimes get with "everything is moving according to the Light's plans", though, as we actually feel like our heroes are actually working closer to bringing down Bedlam even if it's just a single episode's worth of events.

After a fun bit of PSA from movie star Beast Boy (a nice nod to the comics!) we get to actually see the UN Assembly with JLA ambassador Catherine Colbert actually doing her job on-screen and basically disavowing whatever actions that Batman and the other heroes that have resigned from the League are going to do. We also get to see Luthor basically talk smack about the "vigilantes", and we get a surprising return of Tempest as ambassador of Atlantis... and the introduction of TROIA! Laying down some sassy smack towards the anti-League ambassadors, no less! While it's a short scene, I really did appreciate this UN debate scene, showing just how the world is taking the news of Batman's departure (Markovia basically goes on lockdown against all superheroes), as well as Luthor's own way of controlling things behind the scenes.

And we basically get this fun little James Bond style setup as Dick and Artemis infiltrate the royal party, while Conner and Jeff do some super-spy work as they investigate the hospital that Simon Ecks works in. We get another repeat of the royal family introdump from the first season, which is probably necessary as a refresher if you're not watching these episodes in bulk. Dick notes that "Bedlam" might actually be a member of the royal family, with Artemis and Dick speculating that it might be Baron Frederick or Prince Gregor, since they stand to profit from the assassination of the current king. Of course, anyone with a passing knowledge of how comic book characters are named can probably guess who Bedlam's civilian identity is at this point, and I'm more than a wee bit familiar with the Outsiders lore, but I definitely appreciate the attempt at keeping up the mystery.

Meanwhile, we get a bit of a conspiracy brewing as dr. Jace introduces Brion to Simon Ecks, and, as we find out at the end of the episode, apparently dr. Jace isn't just a friendly face and is very much involved with the Bedlam organization. Brion ends up getting suckered and goes along with Ecks for what he thinks is just a way to gain meta-human powers for the greater good, but it's honestly hard to blame him for trying.

As all of this is going on, Black Lightning and Superboy find a secret door in the hospital's morgue, that's covered with radio-blocking technology, and has pleasant mad scientist lab stuff like children stuck in tubes and a disassembled Mother Box. It's actually pretty neat that Superboy, who owns a living, sentient Apokoliptan technology and spent an episode in season 1 interacting with a Mother Box, is actually horrified at the disassembled 'corpse'.

And then as Superboy and Black Lightning prepare to go away, we get the glorious return of Count Vertigo... and, my god, I've never actually paid attention to how amazingly awesome Steve Blum's Count Vertigo is. From his stern, slightly-miffed delivery of "that is Count Vertigo, you peasant." to his general demeanor of just someone who has a really bad day at work, it honestly elevates him into what could otherwise be a boring bad-guy-lieutenant to a villain with actual personality without trying too hard to ham it up. Big fan of Vertigo in this episode.

Vertigo has with him Plasmus, and I correctly guessed that it's little boy Otto from the season premiere. And I didn't notice that the Plasmus/Plasma model has the kid's brain and spinal cord visibly hovering in the slime body, which is just an extra layer of body horror above it all. Black Lightning is understandably traumatized, forcing Superboy to basically get the two of them out. Vertigo just really tired of all this shit, and just sends Plasmus to "capture" the two.

Again, while all of this is going on, Artemis (she's technically Tigress, but everyone calls her Artemis anyway) goes and tries to set up her leg of the mission, which involves a pretty spiffy-looking futuristic uni-bike... until she comes across a bunch of Bedlam thugs burying the dead bodies of the people they killed, including the hijab-wearing girl briefly seen in the previous episode that I didn't even realize was actually going to be important! Turns out she's a metahuman that comes back to life and emits a purple glow. The thugs' utterly hilarious response to seeing what's basically a glowing zombie? "SHOVEL FASTER!" Artemis ends up saving this girl after a pretty awesome action scene, and finds out that she's both amnesiac and doesn't particularly have a good grasp on English. The credits call her "Dead Girl", and while I have a vague idea of who she is (albeit probably race-changed) based on my DC knowledge, I'm not going to assume anything.

And there's a theme of "things falling apart" for both Vertigo and Nightwing. Where Artemis succeeds in basically rescuing Dead Girl and present an escaped metahuman and potential witness for Vertigo; Plasmus succeeds in abducting Superboy (Vertigo's actual surprise at Plasmus succeeding is hilarious). And as Team Nightwing regroups to take down the Bedlam organization and save Superboy, Vertigo himself is confronted with Ecks bringing Brion Markov into their facility, which... yeah, Vertigo's not having a good day, huh?

Brion is absolutely outraged, by the way, at the quick realization that Simon Ecks is part of this child trafficking ring that likely got to his sister Tara, and is taken out by a blast from Count Vertigo, who admonishes and threatens Dr. Ecks for bringing Brion into the loop. Ecks claims to be "following orders", hinting at some bigger player. A member of the Light? Or just Bedlam? Or are the two the same? I do love how earlier in the episode, we get a conversation between Brion and Ecks about how the title of 'your highness' is used in Markovia, and we get a subtle nod to that when Vertigo calls his unseen sponsor and addresses him by the same title, implying that it's definitely either Gregor or Frederick. A nice thing that the episode did which the episode didn't really put too much focus on. And despite Vertigo's orders to put Brion in a pod until they decide what to do with him, Helga Jace shows up and 'tars' Brion to turn him into a metahuman, which ends up being the episode cliffhanger.

Also, an interesting observation that I didn't manage to fit anywhere in the episode? Nightwing seems to be keeping his partnership with Oracle a secret from at least Artemis. It seems to be a bit odd that Oracle is completely silent in this episode, communicating with Nightwing only via contact-lens private text messages.

Overall, it's a far stronger, if slower, episode compared to the season opening. The spy movie theme is pretty well done, we get a lot of great worldbuilding, and I do enjoy the themes of both Vertigo and Nightwing experiencing their respective master plans unraveling. Probably not the strongest episode in the season, but a very solid one nonetheless. 

Roll Call:

• Heroes: Beast Boy, Tempest, Troia, Nightwing, Tigress, Black Lightning, Superboy, Sphere
• Villains: Lex Luthor, Dr. Double-X, Count Vertigo, Plasmus, dr. Helga Jace
• Others: Cat Grant, Catherine Cobert, Kaizen Gamorra, Zviad Baazovi, Suman Harjavti, Baron Frederick DeLamb, Gregor Markov, Brion Markov, "Dead Girl"

DC Easter Eggs Corner: 

• Beast Boy is shown to be a celebrity and a movie star, apparently the star of "Space Trek". Beast Boy is actually a child movie star in the comics before joining the Teen Titans, and one of the movies that he canonically starred in is indeed "Space Trek", an obvious riff on Star Trek.
• Speaking of which, Beast Boy's Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go! voice actor, Greg Cipes, replaces Logan Grove in the role of Beast Boy. There are some specific deliveries of the lines that got me to look it up. Not the biggest fan of Go personally, but the voice actors are some of the definitive voices for DC characters in my head, so a small part of me did a happy jig. 
• Troia shows up, making what is probably the most unexpected character appearance in this show. Donna Troy is the very first Wonder Girl, sidekick to Wonder Woman, and while her origin stories vary (it's actually a plot point in the original comics that Donna Troy has multiple origin stories) she is depicted as Wonder Woman's younger sister. Alongside the first Robin, Speedy, Tempest and Kid Flash, she is one of the five founding members of the Teen Titans, and would later adopt the mantle of Troia as she matured.
• Donna Troy was meant to show up in Young Justice's first season, as well as in Teen Titans, (and presumably a bunch of other Teen Titans related projects, too) but legal problems prevented any of the animated teams from using her. Neat to see her show up at last!
• Plasmus makes his first appearance, with Vertigo confirming that, yes, this "Plasmus" is indeed the young boy Otto from the first season. In the comics, Otto Von Furth was an unfortunate miner trapped in a cave-in and exposed to radioactive materials. He was abducted and experimented upon by General Zahl of the Brotherhood of Evil, transforming him into a walking blob of burning radioactivity.  
• All of the ambassadors that aren't Tempest and Troia are actually characters from DC comics!
• Sumaan Harjvati, ambassador of Bialya, is brother of previous president of Bialya, Rumaan Harjavti. In the comics, the Harjavtis are a family ruling Bialya, attempting to manipulate Queen Bee and the Justice League International into fighting each other. 
• Zviad Baazovi, ambassador of Markovia, is better known in the comics as the supervillain Bad Samaritan, a minor Outsiders antagonist that is affiliated with Baron Bedlam, and is actually representing Russia in those comics. 
• Kaizen Gamorra is the dictator of the fictional Asian island of Parousia in the Wildstorm imprint-comics, and an antagonist of Stormwatch. In this series, he's been repurposed as the ambassador for Rhelasia.