​"Young Justice" Episode S03E07 - S03E09 Review

And so we have three more episodes of Young Justice, with four more to end the season next Friday. And ... not much happens. If you thought episodes 4-6 were establishment stuff, then you'll be really disappointed by episodes 7-9. It's ... not exactly filler. It provides some background on various characters, and shows more of the Outsiders. But we still don't get Metamorpho or Katana. In fact, it's more about the villains and wowing the audience with lots of old and new (to Young Justice) DC comic characters.

Let's start with "Evolution". This is basically a story about Vandal Savage. David Kaye takes over the voice role from Miguel Ferrer, who passed away since season 2 of Young Justice and gets an "in memoriam" card at the end of the episode. The episode basically sets out to tell things from Vandal's point of view, via two of his daughters. Vandal fancies himself a hero since he protects Earth from alien menaces. Two of his daughters, Cassandra and Olympia, look on as he battles an unidentified alien fleet using the Warworld mobile planet/weapon platform that was introduced in earlier seasons.

It's a good portrayal of Vandal, far better than Vandal on DC's Legends of Tomorrow. Kudos to Jenifer Lewis, who plays Olympia, the older of the two daughters and is clearly going senile. Meanwhile, we hear about Vandal battling a giant starfish (Starro, from earlier seasons) in ancient Babylonia and before that, allying with Darkseid. In the present, Vandal has a chat with Lex Luthor and discovers Starro is mind-controlling the attacking armada, and turns to Darkseid for help. Vandal teleports into Starro's command ship and defeats the villain. At the end, Vandal snaps Olympia's neck and tells Cassandra to make sure Olympia gets full honors as a daughter of Vandal.

While this has been happening, Dick, Connor, and Artemis are training the Outsiders some more. They hang out on a beach and train and eat s'mores. It's about as exciting as it sounds, not that interesting, and more of a distraction from the "real" story, which is Vandal. You find out how Vandal got his start, and a few incidents with him down through the millennia. It's been long enough since season 2 that I don't recall much of Ferrer's performance, so I wouldn't say that Kaye's performance is better or worse.

"Triptych" is another weird story, as it has writer Peter David (who created Young Justice in the comics) running wild, throwing all kinds of DC characters at the screen. We get Shade, Livewire, Mist, Cheshire, Clayface, Mad Hatter, Brick, Sportsmaster, and Abra Kadabra. We also see a bit more of Batman, Wonder Woman, and the new Aquaman (former Aqualad). We also get the Jason Todd Robin, Spoiler, Arrowette, and Orphan, as well as Nightwing's Outsider team. So it's a pretty full episode.

Although we don't realize it until the end, the episode is told in reverse order via Aquaman reporting to a holographic of Wonder Woman. The remaining League are off-planet on a "good will tour" of the galaxy. First (or last), Shade, Mist, Livewire, and Cheshire break into STAR Labs and steal a piece of Reach technology. Nightwing's team fight them, Artemis and Cheshire have a heart-to-heart about Cheshire's daughter Lian, who is Artemis' niece and who Artemis is currently looking after. Cheshire and Shade escape, teleporting away.

Then we get Robin telling Batman and the audience about a mission in Gotham City. Mad Hatter has taken control of Clayface and is using him as a bodyguard and as a shapeshifting decoy. All while Mad Hatter is working on an unnamed subject, perfecting his mind-controlling nano-tech. Mad Hatter and the subject teleport away.

In the last story, the remaining League members on Earth stop Sportsmaster and Abra Kadabra from helping Brick and an unnamed long-haired prisoner escape. Aquaman, Rocket, Shazam, and Flash stop them but Sportsmaster and the prisoner get away.

At the end, we find out Batman is coordinating six different non-League teams to make sure the League can maintain disavowability. The whole thing is a coordinated effort to take down Simon Stagg, a comic book baddy who has started a new branch of meta-trafficking. The unnamed prisoner was Shade, who is nothing like his character in the comics. Stagg is using Mad Hatter's mind-control to control the meta-humans he coerces to join his organization so he can then sell them off.

Batman, who is a bit of a dick in Young Justice, says he's willing to lie if they're questioned about their activities, and figures Wonder Woman should invoke diplomatic immunity if she's called to testify (by who?). Wonder Woman asks if the others are okay with this, and they all look pensively at each other.

"Triptych" jumps around quite a bit, and provides a lot of the action and superhero stuff that has been absent since "Eminent Threat" five episodes previously. There are some bits of characterization scattered throughout: Mist is very apologetic about having to kill Nightwing, we get a Livewire versus Black Lightning showdown, Dwight Schultz provides the voice of Mad Hatter and it's very... Dwight Schultz-y. Or Mad Dog Murdoch, if you prefer. We do get a bit of Clayface thanking Robin for freeing him from Mad Hatter's mind control. There's a hyper Barry Allen and Billy Batson out of costume posing as transport guards. And Jeff Bennett doing Abra Kadabra, a role that he also did in Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

While "Triptych" checks in on the League, which has been off-screen since the season premiere, and the meta-trafficking ring that was smashed in "Eminent Threat", it really doesn't do anything. It establishes Batman as the secret ringmaster of a covert superhero alliance but it doesn't seem solidly connected to anything that has come before or in the next episode. There's a "Do we have the right to be as underhanded as the bad guys?" context going on, but nothing comes of it. That could change in the last four episodes, but it doesn't change in the next episode, "Home Fires"

"Home Fires" is another off-shoot episode. It revolves primarily around a play date for various spouses of superheroes who get together at Iris Allen-West's house. It's more interesting for what isn't said than what is said. Lois Lane shows up with a baby Jonathan, for instance. So ... she and Superman are married and have a child? Mera shows up with her son Artur, which raises the question of where the original blonde-haired Aquaman is? Karen Beecher, aka Bumblebee is pregnant, and Rocket shows up with her son.

There's also some checking in with the YJ world in general. Bruce Wayne is teaming up with the creator of the Goode Goggles, Gretchen Goode, to fund youth meta-human centers. Gretchen has an interview with obnoxious commentator G. Gordon Godfrey, who notes Gretchen's nickname is "Granny Goodness". If you're not familiar with the comics, Granny Goodness is not a good person to have in your comic book universe.

The alien bounty hunter, Lobo, gets anonymously hired to kill off an Outsider. They're training some more with Nightwing, Connor, and Artemis. Lobo attacks them all but they manage to drive him off after he seemingly kills Forager (Jason Spisak).

Jason Spisak as Forager is pretty much the standout of the team, and arguably the best change from the comics since he wasn't a member of any incarnation of the Outsiders. The Forager in the comics is a human-looking guy of Bug ancestry, while YJ's Forager is an actual bug. Spisak and the creative team give Forager a unique way of speaking and there's lots of fish-out-of-water humor to be mined.

A mysterious person is watching the play date house and is preparing to blow it off the map. However, Lady Shiva arrives and it turns out the watcher is Ocean-Master (hi, Aquaman movie!). Shiva confirms Ocean-Master is going to strike a major blow against the heroes, says that the Light doesn't want anyone to go that far, and kills Ocean-Master. Ouch.

Oh, also Jeff Pierce and Helga Jace have become romantically involved. So she shows up in the episode's training session to apologize to Brion for activating his meta-gene. He more-or-less accepts her apology and starts complaining about why they haven't rescued Tara from the League of Shadows yet. Which is another dangling plot thread from "Rescue Op" that gets some lip service but they haven't done anything with yet.

In the end, we find out the new Light council has planned the whole thing, and hired Lobo to determine that Nightwing has put together a covert team. The new/old Council is... Queen Bee, Vandal Savage, Klarion, Lex Luthor, Ultra-Humanite, and Deathstroke. With Lady Shiva as their new enforcer. Replacing Deathstroke, who replaced Sportsmaster.

So after nine episodes, there's a lot of floating plot lines hanging about, and we still haven't seen the full Outsiders yet based on the promo materials. We have Batman and his covert group, the Light and their covert machinations, Nightwing and his not-so-covert Outsiders, the meta-human trafficking, Vandal Savage doing whatever he's doing on his own and as a member of the Light, the League of Shadows, Prince Gregor and his opening up Markovia to Quaraci refugees, and Granny Goodness who *spoiler alert* has ties to Darkseid and his home planet of Apokolips.

There's also all kinds of little subplots going on. Connor and Megan are having relationship problems. Jeff and Helga have gotten together. Brion seems to have a thing for Halo. We've got various spouses dropping in and out. It's all a grand mélange of plots and subplots. The individual threads are interesting, but I'm still waiting to see if the creative team pulls them together into one big tapestry in the last four episodes. I'm all for world-building, but it sure seems like episodes 7-9 focused mostly on the world-building and less about moving the story forward. I suppose that could be good, since I don't know where they're going with the whole thing. Is it about the Outsiders, or the Light, or the mega-human traffickers, or all of the above?

So I'm curious to see if the creative team pulls it together in the last four episodes, airing next Friday, January 25. And after that, we get Doom Patrol on DC Universe Channel on February 15. Which should be even wackier.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?