Young Justice S03E04 Review: All Harper Mission (ft. Dick The Dick)

Young Justice: Outsiders, Season 3, Episode 4: Private Security

A surprisingly mellow episode that mostly deals with what I assume is the new status quo, basically 'unpacking' the aftermath of the Markovia arc. It is a very touching one, though, featuring the return of a bunch of characters from earlier seasons that had very, very interesting stories but were sort of pushed aside for the respective sleeper agent and Reach invasion plotlines of the first two seasons. It's actually a pleasant surprise that other characters outside the main ones are getting some plot progression, giving me some hope that things like, say, Zatanna's story might get touched upon or even resolved in this season.

The episode opens in a neat way, with the other three members of Nightwing's Outsiders basically back in their respective abodes, each of them taking care of a "stray" Markovian, and asking themselves (or having their family asking them) "where is Dick?" And while it's sort of a tired joke at this point at the expense of Dick's name, I do have to admit that this particular sequence, especially M'gann's delivery of Dick's name, is utterly hilarious.

To wit, we learn that Halo is crashing at the house that Artemis, Will and Lian are living in, hilariously sleep-floating. We also get explicit confirmation that, no, Artemis and Will Harper are not sleeping together, they're just housemates. Brion, meanwhile, is crashing at Superboy's place, mostly because Superboy sees his past self in Brion, something that he and M'gann are quick to admit. Jeff has... somehow ended up going for brunch with dr. Jace, a development that he himself admits he has no clue on how it happened.

So let's go with the other smaller storylines first before tackling the Nightwing one, because this episode is largely a Nightwing-focused episode co-starring the Harper Clone Party. Jeff and Jace's conversation isn't really all that important, all things considered, but basically just affirms that Jace isn't completely evil and feels at least somewhat responsible for the creation of Halo and Geo-Force. I'm not ready to accept that she's entirely good, though -- that scene where she turns Brion into Geo-Force was a bit too scenery-chewing for my liking. But I'll bite. The scene's neat, and I like the line about genetically-modified beef.

We get a brief flashback to the scenes that happen after episode 3, which includes Brion unleashing a lava burst accidentally, and Superboy admitting that, yes, Brion is just like season-one-Superboy, and he's the only one there who's equipped to handle Brion's tantrums. This is a comparison that was built up well, and honestly, Superboy really has mellowed out not just in this season, but in season two as well. The scene where he calmly discusses things over with M'gann is heartwarming, and the scene where he talks about motorcycle repair is pretty neat.

Of course, the huge emotional gut-punch for the non-Dick people is Artemis and Halo. Halo's a lot more coherent now that she's actually remembered English, which is definitely welcome. However, she is still amnesiac... although we do get brief flashes of Halo's life. Some of the scenes we have seen happen or can infer had happened, but there's a last panning shot of Halo's pre-Halo identity running around in a war-torn country where metahumans (Mammoth?) is rampaging in the background. Halo still claims to Artemis that she has no memory of this, though. Also, we also learn that Halo has an "old soul in a young body". It's foreshadowing to a facet of Halo's comic-book backstory I didn't think we're going to cover in this show, so it's neat, even if it has no bearing on this episode on its own.


Most interestingly, though, is the follow-up of a plotline that is one of the more memorable character retoolings in Season One, where this series' incarnation of Dr. Fate is actually the 'fused' form of Nabu and Giovanni Zatara. Nabu basically possesses Zatara's body, and while the show does make it clear that it's a horrible thing, and Zatara's kinda treated as sorta-dead, the emotions all come back when we witness the fact that apparently Zatanna has a standing deal with Nabu to... spend one hour per year with Zatara (who has aged tremendously, too). Which... poor, poor Zatanna is clearly heartbroken, and all the voice actors and animation team involved actually manage to portray this scene amazingly well without overplaying the drama.

Also, Nabu's a huge, huge dick. An even bigger dick than Dick.

We go from that moment to Dick Grayson arriving at Will Harper's newbusiness, where he has apparently opened up a shop called Bowhunter Security, and I find it hilarious that Dick shows up with Roy Harper (Speedy the original, a.k.a. the one-handed edgelord one) and Jim Harper (Guardian, a.k.a. the not-as-prominent one), basically wanting to enlist Will's help to hunt down a metahuman trafficking operation in Star City. It is admittedly a bit dickish on Will's part to basically ignore kidnapped children for a day to basically blackmail Dick and the two other Harpers to help out in a job, but the rest of the episode is pretty light-hearted, so I'll let this one slide as 'rule of funny' more than Will Harper being a sociopath.

Will immediately calls Dick out on ignoring Jace, Halo and Brion in favour of just continuing the fight, and it's actually a bit easy to forget that the "Speedy" that fought alongside Dick throughout a significant portion of season one, as well as presumably all the way to season two, was Will. Sure, he's older, buffer and hairier, but Will is technically the sixth ranger of the original Young Justice Team, something that didn't really sink in until halfway across the episode.

Mostly because the All-Harper Mission (feat. Dick) is pretty damn fun. The middle portion of the episode that has Dick, Will, Roy and Jim dress up as rent-a-cops to protect a shipment of Goode VR  video game has a whole ton of fun dialogue, and throughout the episode, I'm actually very much pleased that Roy/Arsenal has actually mellowed out a fair bit compared to the angsty wild-card edgelord hat he was in season two. Mind you, I did love Arsenal there, but I like him a lot more as a snarky asshole teenager here as opposed to a mission-sabotaging borderline-sociopathic maniac. Again, it really helps to illustrate that a lot of time has passed between season 2 and 3, and the fact that all three Harpers are freely joking around about their status as clones of each other is definitely something that I enjoy.

Plus, y'know, the whole police uniform squad moment with hilariously appropriately-epic music is fun.

Of course, we get a villain of the week in silly old Brick, who tries to hijack the shipment alongside his squad of goons. With the power of Will's trusty clipboard, they realize something is amiss, and then hunt down the trucks. We get a brief car-on-car battle that results in Brick's sports car blowing up, and... and the entire sequence is funny, really. It's well-scripted with lots of great action scenes as the Harpers, Nightwing and Brick jump around from vehicle to vehicle. And it's got a lot of great liners. There's Roy intentionally trolling the others on "can I shoot this guy?", the brief usage of Will's clipboard during the fight against Brick, Brick himself getting thrown off a truck and ran over... but the prize has to go to Brick's line: "Rent-a-cops with grapnels? How much do they pay these guys?" Khary Payton's delivery of that line is just perfect.

Of course, a good chunk of this episode's quality is Will and Dick teaming up on top of the truck, and while fighting Brick, Dick accidentally calls Will "Wall". Will calls Dick out on needing a Wally substitute, because Dick knows -- subconsciously or not -- that he needs someone that knows him and isn't afraid of calling him out on his bullshit. And Will's very first scenes as Speedy in this show? Calling other people out on their bullshit. This sort of mentality, needing someone to course-correct you, is a theme I always loved in Batman stories, and sometimes it definitely bleeds over to Nightwing as well.

Will basically tells Dick off for dropping the ball on handling the Markovian kids, and the fact that the mission will always adapt and change, and Dick must take responsibility. It's a fun little confrontation that really makes Dick stop and think about things without being overly dramatic (a common and valid complaint about character development moments in season one of this show), and I'm definitely a huge fan. The fact that the framing device for this talk is the fight with Brick, done in civvies and ending with the Bowhunter Squad posing like a boss is absolutely great.

Anyway, a more light-hearted and emotional episode. Lots of great funny lines, but a bunch of pretty well-executed emotional bits -- Zatana/Zatara being the highlight, but Roy and Will's argument is definitely a close second. As a side-note, the episode prominently features the Goode VR goggles, which are the super-expensive merchandise the Bowhunters are guarding, and we get a prominent scene of Artemis and Halo meeting some random kid playing with the VR console and tripping on the floor. Kinda obvious that this is foreshadowing something, for sure.

Roll Call:

• Heroes: Tigress, Red Arrow, Halo, Prince Brion Markov, Miss Martian, Superboy, Wolf, Black Lightning, Arsenal, Guardian, Dr. Fate/Zatara, Zatanna, Sphere
• Villains: Brick, Mammoth (flashback)
• Others: Lian Harper, Gregor Markov, Dr. Helga Jace

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Not much in lieu of new Easter Eggs. I guess Halo and Geo-Force finally being called by their comic monikers counts? Continuity-wise, in addition to the previous episode, we get continuity nods to Superboy's difficulty in controlling his super-strength from season one, as well as Zatana/Zatara/Nabu's relationship from season one. As well as the whole Jim/Roy/Will Harper situation from season two. 
• Jefferson calls Metropolis the "City of Tomorrow", which, of course, is one of its most common nicknames in the comics.