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Animation Deliberation Young Justice Season 1 Part 3 (Ep10-17)
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We breakdown Young Justice Season 1 Episodes 10-17 in part 3 of our season coverage!
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Transcript
Exploring Mississippi and Episode Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
You're invited to take a vacation from everybody else's vacation to a place where you can explore cypress swamps and magical gardens and see a 65-foot waterfall that once powered an old mill that you can walk through today. Or just float along the cool rushing waters of an old-fashioned swimming hole. See the places and plan your journey at visitmississippi.org slash outdoor adventure, Mississippi. Wanderers welcome.
Young Justice Season 1, Part 3 Overview
00:00:30
Speaker
On this episode of the Animation Deliberation podcast, J. Scottie St. Clair and Zuhair Ali are back to cover Young Justice season one, part three, episodes 10 through 17. Stay tuned for that and more after these ads we have no control over. One, two, three, let's get ready for animation, deliberation, a conversation and a celebration of our favorite action animated series, yeah.
00:01:01
Speaker
Bye!
00:01:04
Speaker
All right, all right,
Action and Storyline Developments
00:01:05
Speaker
all right. Welcome back to the Animation Deliberation podcast. I'm your host, Jay Scottie St. Clair, and today I am joined by Zuhair Ali to cover the next part of Young Justice season one. We're covering part three, episodes 10 through 17. We're coming hot off of our coverage of the second part, so we're just gonna roll right into it. How's that sound, Zuhair? Are you ready? That sounds great because this arc was filled with lots of action, lots of storyline, and I am very into to talk about it. Sweet, sweet.
00:01:35
Speaker
Kind of following suit of how we covered the previous episode, I will start by just kind of hitting what I think are the big swings. And then Zuhair can come and follow suit and fill in the gaps there. And then he can also provide a little context of why him being the resident young justice expert, give a little context of why he recommended splitting up the episodes the way he did for us to watch and for us to cover for this show.
Red Arrow's Confrontations
00:02:03
Speaker
So I'm just picking up. We are reintroduced to Red Arrow, Roy Harper. In this scenario, he goes up against some members of the Light, chiefly Lex Luthor and Raish Al Ghul, as his name is pronounced in this iteration. I'm one of those people. I tend to pronounce it Ras Al Ghul, but I can certainly adapt to Raish Al Ghul. I think I kind of go back and forth depending on which property and how they pronounce it in that.
00:02:34
Speaker
That's that's that's how you operate as well. Yeah. Yeah, fair enough. It's funny that I think a lot of people that grew up on Batman the animated series, they swear by Rachelle Ghoul and they were offended by Christopher Nolan's pronunciation of Roz. But I'm similar to you. I kind of fluctuate back and forth between the two.
00:02:53
Speaker
But a quick thing I'll throw in there, as I mentioned Lex Luthor and his appearance there, I mentioned it to you, but the second I saw him, I have recently played some of the Hitman games, the recent iterations, and this version of Lex Luthor is Agent 47 to the T. He just needs to swap out that turquoise tie for a red tie, and you got your Agent 47 right there. Slap a barcode on the back of his head.
00:03:21
Speaker
And we're ready to assassinate some people.
Superboy's Identity and Relationships
00:03:23
Speaker
Other than that, we see Superboy. He takes on the mantle of Connor Kent. He grows closer to McGann. They basically go on a covert operation together as well as start to attend school together.
00:03:41
Speaker
We also get ties back to the pilot. We were introduced to an attack on the 4th of July that came from the ICE family. We get some context exactly why that was taking place. We get to visit Bell Reeve, which is often associated with the Suicide Squad. It is probably the biggest penitentiary in the DC universe outside of Arkham Asylum.
Bell Reeve and Narrative Connections
00:04:04
Speaker
Arkham Asylum tends to focus on them the more criminally as saying where as Belle Reeve is just for the the straight-up criminals super criminals I should say
00:04:14
Speaker
Moving on from there, Artemis and Robin are given a good opportunity to work together and save the team. We get some more context to, we don't get the full backstory to Artemis's relationship to Cheshire. We do find out that she is related, it's her sister, and that she was kind of abandoned as a young girl.
Red Tornado's Family Ties
00:04:38
Speaker
But we also get the defection of red tornado
00:04:43
Speaker
the return to his creator Tio Maro as well as his siblings and that's a pretty interesting arc there and it results in the well I'll say that when we get into the the red tornado coverage character coverage there
00:04:58
Speaker
Other than that, we revisit the fact that we've seen all these separate villains that seem to be doing their own thing that are loosely connected by the light. We get some more context as to what their relationship is and what exactly the light is trying
The Light's Intentions and Universal Stakes
00:05:13
Speaker
to do here.
00:05:13
Speaker
We find out that the cobra venom that we saw back in episode four from earlier this season is actually being used on animals first and then plants as well. And then we actually get the introduction of a scapegoat for the secret society which is the light. They give us the injustice society to serve as a scapegoat.
00:05:37
Speaker
And towards the end there, yeah, we get introduced to some of the more otherworldly elements in the residents of New Genesis as well as Apocalypse, and they definitely plant some seeds for some... They definitely plant the seeds for the stakes to be raised significantly, almost on a universe-level ending degree, I would say.
00:06:04
Speaker
That's kind of where I'm coming away from as far as the big swings for the season. Let me know what I miss you here.
Understanding Story Arcs
00:06:13
Speaker
Yeah, so like I said, I've been kind of splitting up these arcs based off of general storyline and general vibes so that it's kind of easier to keep everything relevant to what we're talking about. It's a lot easier to break it down and kind of cover these stories as they affect one another.
00:06:32
Speaker
One of the things that I've mentioned is that my law for Young Justice is probably equivalent to MCU because there isn't anything that gets put in there that doesn't get referenced later on. And The Venom is a huge example of that. This is something from episode 3 or 4, whichever one Bane was in.
00:06:50
Speaker
something very early on that you see becomes a constant factor as a constant reminder there's what any character that comes up there's there's references there's relations there's things that come up uh... so something as big as the venom being as relevant as it is that the injustice league actually managed to cause a global issue the injustice league sorry caused a global issue that caused everybody so many problems to something as simple as
00:07:20
Speaker
the encounters at the school i have to mention the scene because i know when we get into the fight stuff i'm not going to remember it but i geeked out every single time that i've watched this when
00:07:32
Speaker
Artemis goes to Gotham Academy for the first time. Right. And Dick Grayson rums up and take a selfie. We're like, we'll laugh about this someday. Showing that his identity is still very much a secret. Right. Right. Nobody knows who he is on the outside. She's like, it's just some annoying freshman. Don't bother. And then Barbara was Barbara Gordon shows up and she's like, what was that all about? So then it's like, oh, my God, that girl's here.
00:07:55
Speaker
And there's other characters that show up on McGann's and Superboy's first day to that show up later So there's there's no missed opportunities. Okay, they're really into the universe building. Everything is relevant. You'd find like these really nitty-gritty
00:08:14
Speaker
Easter eggs is really what makes this show so good because they don't miss anything. It's very well done. But also the main arc of the show is like they have really established themselves as a team now. They have their maneuvers, maneuver seven being one that they frequently use. Oh, good call.
00:08:33
Speaker
They have an understanding of how they fight with each other, their strengths, their weaknesses. And also the big thing about this is the suspicion of who the mole is. Yes, I realized that was a big thing I left out. So go ahead. There is somebody, whether it be in the league or in the team, that's sabotaging and communicating with the light who we get to see the whole light for the first time, too. Yes.
00:08:58
Speaker
And it's causing problems and they've worked so hard and they've shown so much like how much it matters that they have a solid connection between the team, but there's something, there is a pebble in the shoe that's really causing disruptions and causing issue for this team to like stay focused. Like they found their mojo and this arc really shows the difficulty in maintaining that mojo.
00:09:27
Speaker
Okay, yeah, I would agree with that. Can you give a few examples of
00:09:35
Speaker
some of those instances where it seemed that they had found their groove, but then whoever this mole is, because I'm pretty certain at this point in time we still do not have definitive truth over who the mole is. There was a few episodes there where it seemed like it was pretty likely that it was Red Tornado, but it came out to be that Red Tornado actually was the ultimate hero. He actually feigned
00:10:04
Speaker
falling back into his father, his creator's trappings in terms of, you know, pretending to be a part of his siblings greater scheme. So at this point, it's a creator's name is T.O. Morrow.
00:10:17
Speaker
T. O. Mara, that's what it was. Yeah. And then the other gentleman that, uh, I guess was piloting, uh, Mr. Twister from our previous coverage, his name is Braumstick, which is, I'm not super familiar from that, with that character from the comics, but it's clearly a play on broomstick. So anyway, uh,
00:10:41
Speaker
We're talking about the mole and red tornado there. So red tornado is not the mole. His name gets cleared. But that kind of leads us right back to Aqualad. He is the one that is entrusted with this privileged information. And he gets it from an interesting source. He gets it from Sportsmaster.
00:11:04
Speaker
and that kind of goes back to what i i said in our previous coverage this show has done such a great job of taking these obscure dc characters and actually making you care like before if you would have told me sports character would all right sports character sports sports character i don't even take his name seriously he's just a sports character some tool with a hockey mask yep he's jason voorhees
00:11:30
Speaker
But no. Who makes you different than me? I'm not wearing hockey mask. There you go. There you go. I like that reference. But no, yeah. Had you told me I would have been invested at all in a character called Sports Master, I wouldn't have taken you very seriously. But they do make him a compelling villain and he's got some great action sequences. That episode that
00:11:55
Speaker
The episode is basically another episode where we get to spend a lot of time with Roy Harper and his significant arc in this episode is that he actually learns to respect the Young Justice team and he actually vocalizes that to Aqualad specifically because Aqualad points out that when he gets overwhelmed with, you know, Ra's al Ghul, Ra's al Ghul, and Cheshire,
00:12:25
Speaker
There's... who else is there? I feel like there's another... villain there. Well this was a... that was an episode from the last arc. The one where Aqualad and Red Arrow were working together, that was against Lex Luthor. Right, it was an episode... Lex Luthor, Cheshire, Sportsmaster... was it that Spider-Man looking dude? No, he was the last episode. Maybe it was...
00:12:52
Speaker
You know, it was just red arrow and aqua lighted versus Cheshire, but Cheshire had a couple of accomplices. Okay, it was the accomplices. I just know he got overwhelmed and he knew he needed- One of them was literally Spider-Man.
00:13:10
Speaker
Okay, yeah, that's that's that's what it was. Yeah, it was her accomplices I thought it was somebody more significant for some reason but yeah, so he gets overwhelmed and instead of calling upon green arrow He he calls upon Aqualad and the and the Young Justice League. So
00:13:27
Speaker
Definitely nice to see you you mentioned how he is a character that has earned the right to kind of be that asshole So it's it's cool to see that credence given we talked about how this the team has really come into their own and found their mojo It's cool to see Roy acknowledge that as well It was it was cool to see Lex Luthor acknowledge it. Yeah, that's true. I
00:13:50
Speaker
Because Red Arrow saved him, and a quick point about Lex Luthor before I keep going into this, it's really interesting how highly he's thought of in this universe. Like the world respects him as a businessman, as a tech innovator, and to the point where they're actually having him be the mediator between a diplomatic issue between two countries.
00:14:18
Speaker
And the fact that the world respects him to that level must really make Superman's blood boil. Yeah. There's no way he was watching that coverage going, like, I'm glad I'm not the one who had to go save him. Yeah. Because Red Arrow makes it perfectly clear that Justice League has fought against them before. Right. That he is a bad person, that there is a lot of shady stuff that he's been involved in. So they've established very well that he is
00:14:47
Speaker
A villain. Sure. The world doesn't see him that way. He hasn't shown the he hasn't given the world any reason to to be perceived that way. Right. So for somebody of such high stature who's gone against Superman and Batman, it has to dealt with the Justice League so many times to acknowledge Red Arrow and be like, you did a good job saving me and I want to hire you to make sure that you keep doing that.
00:15:11
Speaker
And he has this wit and charisma of like, I'll pay you. It's like, I'm not interested in working for you. So like, so you'll do it for free. And yeah, he just really has this charm and he's very intelligent, very knowledgeable. Like even working with the two leaders and like talking about like their, their tea culture in this and that like, it's, it's interesting. He really has this charm that gets people
00:15:38
Speaker
to make him believe he's the good guy. Like, he could be stabbing somebody to death right in front of him and be like, oh, look how good he is, putting him out of his misery. He was probably suffering at that point. Yeah. Well, we obviously do get the reveal at the end of this specific episode we're talking about that, you know, Lex Luthor and Rachelle Ghoul were actually in cahoots together in this whole, you know, assassination was basically to get everyone on their side.
00:16:09
Speaker
And that just kind of goes to speak, you were talking about how he's obviously gotten his hands dirty in the past and whatever his misgivings are, he has done a good job of keeping himself clean. But another thing that I thought was kind of cool is we do see this universe's iteration of Mercy Graves, and she's completely an android. She has that moment where- Yeah, she's so cool. Yeah, it was really cool. I love that moment because I didn't see it coming at all. Did she have any lines before that?
00:16:37
Speaker
because i think they did a good yeah they did a good job of just kind of she was there and you say yeah okay that's his that's his his hand that's his handmade and that's pretty much always there i don't know i said handmade and personal assistant is a better i guess i'm thinking pad padme here
00:16:56
Speaker
You've been watching Game of Thrones too much lately. Maybe. Either that or the Handmaidens Tale maybe. But anyway, it was a cool moment and it just goes back to, I've pretty much said it every time, but I'm consistently impressed with how slick and fluid the action is. With a show that is so action-oriented, it's so critical that
00:17:18
Speaker
they sell the action and they do. I'm continually impressed and it's got me on board. It's really a joy to see. It's some of the best interpretations of these characters that you can find in live action, animated, or even in the panel, I dare say.
00:17:40
Speaker
But we can move on from there. We touched on Red Arrow, Lex Luthor, and we alluded to the fact that Aqualad was the one with this privileged information. But there does come a point in time where
00:17:57
Speaker
The rest of the team finds out that he had this information and he kept it close to the vest and didn't tell them. And that was one of the great moments where I thought it did an excellent job of showcasing the fact that these are still teenaged and immature heroes in a lot of ways because rather than understanding why he had to compartmentalize that information. You're invited to take a vacation.
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00:19:16
Speaker
Wally and Robin, specifically, being the youngest members of the group, are really, really kind of jaded at the fact that their original founding member kept this information from them. What did you think about the fallout from there, from that reveal and how Aqualad handled himself? He did have a nice moment with Batman after the fact where
00:19:42
Speaker
It's kind of nice, even though he is the leader, he is still right alongside the rest of his team. He is always getting opportunities to learn how to be a leader.
00:19:50
Speaker
Yeah, um, as I think I've made it pretty clear on the show that I'm a, I'm a Batman fan boy. And I just, I love this, this version of him so much. And I've, I've mentioned in just about every episode that he has this commanding presence that when he says something, you, you shut up and listen, like you don't talk back to Batman. And when Batman's already had encounters with Aqualad of when he was homesick and he was like, you need to be here 100%.
00:20:21
Speaker
Aqua let us show these like I'm here I'm for the team I have my reasons for keeping it a secret Batman being the greatest person as secrets like who else would I talk to about this like
00:20:33
Speaker
I don't know that the King of Atlantis is exactly the same mentor that Batman is in this situation. And it was a perfect fitting for being that leadership status of like, how do I deal with this very, very sensitive material because I'm already struggling to keep them together. And another big factor was the fact that Captain Marvel was talking to him.
00:20:56
Speaker
And Captain Marvel basically said everything that I've been saying these last two episodes of like, yeah, Batman's gotten on my ass a couple of times of like, you need to focus on the mission. It's about the mission. And that conversation between the two of them is what really made Aqualad go, okay, this is the type of stature that I need to get the respect.
00:21:20
Speaker
And when, and Captain Marvel did not chill on like calling him out too, it was like, oh no, you failed on getting the comps ready and getting a plan ready. That wasn't their fault. You're the leader. If Batman says something, we're going to do it. Wisdom of Solomon. Wisdom of Solomon comes in handy. So when they finally established a telepathic link,
00:21:40
Speaker
I was proud of Robin for like a split second because everybody was shit talking Aqualad. He was like, we just got attacked by blah, blah, blah. But I guess you might think that I'm the mole. And I was like, no, you referred it back. I thought you were mission focused. But Aqualad did pull a Batman and just went enough. Yeah.
00:22:00
Speaker
I am your leader. We are at our mission. This is not up for debate. Afterwards, if you want me to step down, I will. But for now, we are on this mission. I was like, that is fucking awesome.
00:22:12
Speaker
You hear his tone just shift and he he demanded That that presence where it's like we are on a mission. I am your leader People's lives that are on stake. You are going to shut the fuck up and do exactly what I say right now and like He nailed that essence of what I like about Batman so well in those couple of sentences Yeah, but the mole really was a factor in in stepping in every like Robin said it at the end of the episode. It's like
00:22:42
Speaker
What you were trying to prevent, like this concept of the mole, like it actually succeeded. Right. Artemis didn't want to talk to... Who is she pissed at? McGann was pissed at Superboy because they almost died with the whole tornado incident. We'll talk about that. Right. McGann was pissed at Superboy, so she was like, all right, Artemis, let's go.
00:23:04
Speaker
Superboy was just pissed off because, surprise, surprise, he has anger issues. In case you guys didn't catch on to that until now. He hates monkeys. Yeah. Gorilla Gorilla is such a fantastic name. Right. Robin and KF were just being buddy-buddy and went off there on way and just poor Billy Batson was like, so is this how your team always operates?
00:23:27
Speaker
It really messed them up good. It caused a lot of trouble in that episode, and had they not gotten it together within that time span, the future events that were to come would have been a lot more difficult to deal with. Yeah. No doubt. No doubt. There are a couple instances in this particular arc we're discussing where Aqua Lad's leadership is not only
00:23:53
Speaker
challenged by outside forces but he he really questions himself whether or not he's he's the right person for the job because after that like you said he's like i'm willing to step down but right now we need to do what we need to do but it is really is poetic justice pardon the pun there that uh he's he's proven right in the in the end yeah he
00:24:14
Speaker
Another thing that sticks out about his character, and I'm surprised I haven't mentioned it yet, but it really is something that makes him super unique among the team, is the way he speaks. He doesn't use any contractions whatsoever. And I guess that's just being an Atlantean, but it really sets him apart and one of the things I like about him.
00:24:34
Speaker
But that feels like a good opportunity to bring up with his privileged information about the Mole. We touched on Red Tornado's arc in the past.
00:24:50
Speaker
One thing we didn't mention is in the wake of his absence, that's basically what provides the opportunity for us to spend more time with these other members of the League. That's the whole reason that Captain Marvel is there in the first place, is because Red Tornado's out of the picture, so we need folks like Zatara... Well, actually, I guess Zatara's there for a different reason. They initially assumed that he's there to be the next, you know,
00:25:16
Speaker
Den mother? Den mother, yeah, that's what they call it. But then that's when we get to spend some time with Zatanna. But one thing I did want to highlight about Captain Marvel real quickly is the character design. I like it, but man, they made the dude wide. He's got a wide skull. I could have stopped looking at his traps. His shoulders were ginormous.
00:25:40
Speaker
It's no surprise that Dwayne Johnson is playing Black Adam in whatever upcoming feature because he definitely got the Shoulder to fit that right right yeah, that'll be interesting to see Man, it's shredded right right and it's it's funny in this episode They did a good job of like it had you never if you were not familiar with Captain Marvel or Shazam You would have been like okay. This guy's a you know
00:26:06
Speaker
Superman stand-in allegory something like that but then you get that nice little capstone at the end of the episode where it is revealed that he is Billy Bats and he goes home to his uncle and has to go to bed and When we see him later on With having that information revealed they kind of just like Embrace the childlike nature of the character much more so it's it's funny to see him bond with with Wally West kid flash over nachos and stuff and
00:26:35
Speaker
Yeah, because they see him as an adult that is supposed to be babysitting when, in fact, he is the youngest person in the team and the Justice League. He's 10 years old. Yeah, yeah.
00:26:46
Speaker
And like he was like, man, this team is so much for fun. They get to do this and do that. Like Wally West was a big brother figure to somebody who goes to tell Superman. Right. That being said, the way that that that mammoth or elephant came in charging and he just went in head first, like he's he's committed. He's ready. He has no health. And that's a Justice League vibe. Sure. That's something that like you see a hesitation or a comment from the team. But like as soon as a threat presented itself, like
00:27:15
Speaker
Boom, he was in there and ready to go. Yeah, that's a great point. One of the other things in this particular episode with them spending time, I believe they're in India when they encounter these mutated animals. But we do get an addition to the team in way of kind of a mascot, if you will, a pet. And it seems like he's super boys specifically, but that's when we get wolf.
00:27:42
Speaker
Yep, the large white alpha male wolf. I guess I'm just now kind of realizing that's why the episodes called alpha male So there's always there's always some nice The the episodes are always really titled really well, I always appreciate that so yeah, despite it being Superboy's pet it was actually a
00:28:06
Speaker
It was more of a connection to Aqualad in stepping up and sharing his position as the Alpha. Yeah, I'm glad you bring that up, yeah. Aqualad barked, everybody else listened. Yeah, that's very true. Very true. But that's not the only companion, I will say, that Superboy picks up along the way. At the very end of the series, we get the...
00:28:32
Speaker
The Sphere? Oh, no, no, I'm getting confused here. Sphere happens first. It was at the end of the last, our last coverage, it was at the, in bereft. That's when we first get introduced to the Sphere. And towards the end of this arc, the Sphere actually starts to behave in different ways. And then it opens, it opens up and Superman basically rides it around like a little hover bike, right?
00:29:00
Speaker
Yeah. Wolf is loving it. He's chilling with his eyes closed and mouth open, just enjoying the fresh air. He's like, I don't need to go for a run right now. I'm chilling. Right. But that is when we actually find out that that sphere
00:29:17
Speaker
And again, it speaks back to what you said. They plant these seeds, they plant these references, and they're there, but they always come back to pay off. And you don't know how, but when they do, it's always really rewarding. So in this instance, when he's going off on the Joyride, it's actually...
00:29:36
Speaker
I guess we should backpedal a little bit to give some context to this episode because it was a really good episode. The episode prior to Superboy meeting the residents of New Genesis, we get a really
00:29:53
Speaker
On a first watch, if you don't know what's going on, I was actually, I had to double check the episode count and make sure I didn't somehow skip ahead to the finale somehow with everything that was happening, especially within the first five minutes. We basically- And I didn't get to share this earlier, but that's another reason that I made this arc the way that it was. Oh, okay. It ended on something really traumatic that the team struggled to deal with. Yeah, that's a great point.
00:30:20
Speaker
Originally I was making this arc. I wanted to stop it at the injustice league, but I was like no like this episode lines up Perfectly to talk about because it was just
00:30:31
Speaker
Yeah, let me hear your experience about watching that episode of the alien invasion. Yeah, so like I said, you know, just you're going along here, you get the the green, the John Stewart and Hal Jordan green lanterns flying head on to face this incoming seed like plant like mothership that's encroaching on the earth. And they are unceremoniously vaporized. And it's kind of like, uh,
00:30:58
Speaker
Did I just see their skeletons for a second before they dissipated? They're dead. Did I see that right? That's when I stop and I'm like, am I on the right episode here? What's going on? Sure enough, one by one, we see the entire league taken out. Red Tornado is the last standing member of the league and he puts out that final distress call to the
00:31:24
Speaker
to the members of Young Justice, you guys are the heroes now. And they basically take up the mantle and it's a, as the situation progresses along, they're doing everything in their power to try and come around it. But it seems like no matter what they do, the obstacles get increasingly severe.
00:31:48
Speaker
So then eventually we find out that Martian Manhunter has not, uh, has not met the fate that we thought, even though we, someone, I don't remember seeing it on screen, but one of the members say that they saw him get vaporized. Correct. Yeah. He was vaporized in the beginning. He was part of the space team because I went to space team and then it became more grounded and they saw him get vaporized. So they were surprised to find him in the hall of justice.
00:32:14
Speaker
I see. And then that was kind of a moment for the lead to remind the audience of what his powers were. It was like, oh, you totally just face through and then your brain just got see added and you end up back at home. Like you expected to be here. Great idea, Marcia. Yeah. Um, yeah, no, wasn't that simple? Right, right, right.
00:32:32
Speaker
But then, as I was kind of mentioning, things go from bad to worse, and as they're trying to make their way to this mother sea ship to take it out, one by one we actually start to lose members of Young Justice first with Artemis, and that hits everyone well.
00:32:53
Speaker
It appears to hit everyone really hard. Um, but primarily I would say McGann and Wally are visibly distressed by, uh, Artemis being taken out, but. Oh yeah. That was that like McGann scream was really hard to watch. Um, and then I believe the next one after her is Aqualad, if I'm not mistaken.
00:33:16
Speaker
Yeah, when he was saving the troops. Yeah, he sacrifices himself to allow Martian Manhunter to escape with the rest. And then after that, it's down to McGann, Martian Manhunter, Wally, and Robin.
00:33:34
Speaker
and they successfully take out the mothership but at the cost of Kid Flash and Robin, correct? Yeah, they had to sacrifice themselves. Right, right. So then McGann is basically left here all on her own and then sees, oh no, no, she's with Martian Manhunter still, and they see a second
00:33:53
Speaker
mothership basically descending right in place and it's like oh my god this is the end it's all over like what are we gonna do and Martian Manhunter just punches her through the chest and she wakes up and we find out this entire thing was Inception uh it was the Matrix we were
00:34:11
Speaker
in the grid, but they immediately let you know the gravity. Even though it was a simulation, there's major fallout from this. It was very real to everybody that was experiencing it because we find out that Martian Manhunter had no idea how powerful a telepath McGann was.
00:34:34
Speaker
I think he says she has the potential to be the most powerful telepath in the universe, if I'm not mistaken, right?
00:34:42
Speaker
Yeah, she's significantly more powerful as a 16 year old that John is currently as a Justice League member. Right, right. And I guess what happened is upon Artemis's death, it felt so real to McGahn that her subconscious kicked in going back to inception. That's why I made that illusion. Her subconscious kicked in and her emotional force was so strong she was able to basically influence the rest of the team. So when they experienced something, it felt just as real to them. So when they died,
00:35:12
Speaker
They actually went into comas, so Artemis was in a coma for a good chunk of time there until John could figure out what to do. And it was only after, I guess he said, once the other members of Young Justice, their telepathic feedback was eliminated, he was able to extrapolate the fact that McGann was the source and regain his memories because her emotional fallout was affecting him just as much.
00:35:39
Speaker
Yeah, poor John like went in just to try to stop it. And he forgot why he was there. He was engulfed into the simulation just as much as everybody else was. And
00:35:51
Speaker
was a canary yeah canary made the point where it's like they weren't supposed to feel anything that they weren't they were emotionless when the league died because they knew they were in a simulation right and as soon as that happened that's when like like you said that the essence of her emotional trauma
00:36:10
Speaker
is what made everybody else think that they were with us. That had the physical repercussions to it. They were in a state of panic when they woke up and they needed therapy, which hats off to Young Justice for putting that on a Cartoon Network show. Yeah, totally. It would be one thing just to focus on all the action
00:36:35
Speaker
and all the fun stuff, but that is part of what makes this series so great. They're not afraid to tackle the more challenging issues of a coming of age story and yeah, your mental health and the fallout of something. Yeah, it's kind of like I was saying, I almost needed therapy after this episode. Yeah, that was one of the things where it's like, man, I wanted it
00:37:02
Speaker
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00:37:35
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:38:20
Speaker
definitely definitely and and like I said like they had been working so hard to like reestablish themselves as a team and then to go through this and be broken and Within so this is episode
00:38:32
Speaker
15. Let's say episode 15 while you confirm that. So in in 15 episodes, like we have so much character development from these people, we understand their backgrounds, we understand their story, we understand each person's way of thinking and to an extent have an understanding of what their move is going to be because we know their personalities. Right. And the fact that
00:38:54
Speaker
they had these one on one therapy sessions, we really got to see that broken down to like, basically, as molecular psychology goes, to see
00:39:07
Speaker
a different angle of those characters in a most vulnerable state of mind. Right. We got to see how they reacted. You know, some people were trying to be the tough guy. Some people were like, this is all my fault. Superboy ran out at the first time again, surprise. Right. Hard headed in case you guys didn't know that.
00:39:28
Speaker
Um, and he had to have the realization to come back and be like, I need to get my shit together. I'm, he felt good when he quote unquote died because he was like, I got to do what Superman does. Like this is, this is what I'm supposed to do. I feel like if I fulfilled something and now being back to where he's at, like he feels like he's going backwards and he has to do it all over again.
00:39:55
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's the last thing we actually see in the episode. Yeah, that's how it wrapped up. Yeah, he basically played hooky from therapy. He went and had fun with the folks from New Genesis and Apocalypse, quote unquote, fun, while everybody else had therapy. And then upon returning, he
00:40:17
Speaker
And it kind of echoes his first schooling with Black Canary. She lets him know, when you're ready, come see me. Black Canary is such an angel in this show. She never, never has the I told you so mindset. She was like, hey, she'll say off screen, kind of in her head, like, hey, you kind of fucked up. But it's like, what can I do to help? Right.
00:40:47
Speaker
And even with, um, not to go too much away from the alien invasion, but even with, um, Zatara, she tries talking to him and convincing him like, Hey, it's okay. Trust them. But you see her eyes kind of go off like, Oh God, what did they do with their daughter, with his daughter? Um, yeah. Black Canary is such an angel. And those, that, that psyche valve of everybody was so amazing to watch. Hmm.
00:41:11
Speaker
I liked how Robin talking about Batman too. Yeah. And then Wally tried to hit on her again. Right. And then McGann had that moment where
00:41:27
Speaker
It was a nice nod to those that have, you know, deeper DC knowledge. But if you know anything about white Martians, it's not a good thing. And McGann turns herself Caucasian and Black Canary's like, oh, you're white. She's like, oh, no. And then she's like, oh, you meant Caucasian. OK, it's all good. Yeah.
00:41:46
Speaker
It's like, what do you mean? I've got one of them. Yeah. But kind of going back to Superboy's little escapade there during the therapy session, as you mentioned, he felt good even though he was seeing his comrades and his effective family fall around him. He mentioned that he got to fulfill his primary purpose, his earliest memory from his time in that Cadmus pod.
00:42:12
Speaker
was that he was supposed to be Superman should Superman fall. He is Superman, so he finally got to live that purpose. And it kind of goes back to what you said. Is he going backwards in that regard? But in terms of the adventure that he has, he meets a very interesting cast of characters.
00:42:32
Speaker
I think you have, sounds like you have a favorite based on our offline conversation of the folks from New Genesis. I don't know why I have such a hard time saying that. New Genesis, I always want to say Geonosis. That's my Star Wars. I think Star Wars is on the mind. You made a Padme reference earlier. Yeah. Well, Star Wars is near and dear to me, so it may just be back there in my subconscious always. I don't know. But you mentioned the character of Bear.
00:43:02
Speaker
Yeah, I can't stop hearing Patrick Star. It's a little problematic. In terms of action, I really like the, I'm sorry I don't remember any of their names except for Bear, but I really like the Gunslinger. He was the only one. It reminded me of Kate Six from Destiny, which is really cool watching that.
00:43:24
Speaker
He was my favorite as well, so he was the only one whose name stuck out to me. I believe it was Serafin, if I'm not mistaken. He was really cool. I feel like the leader, his voice is very distinct too. Yeah, I know he had magnetic abilities, right? Yeah. Let me see if I can find out who that was.
00:43:43
Speaker
I mean, you're the IMDB guy, so. Yeah, I shouldn't. I figured you'd know what else he would be in, because his voice really stood out. I don't know if I want to know if Bear's actually Patrick or not, but that one I was more curious about.
00:43:56
Speaker
Yeah, let me look it up here. For some of these later episodes, unfortunately, I did not have the time to do all the research, but let's find out. So I was correct on Serafin, and he is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, who is definitely a veteran in the industry. Let's see, that character's name was... Was it Vycan? Does that sound correct? V-Y-K-I-N?
00:44:23
Speaker
Sure because the other character was a girl and then there was bear so yeah, and then now that I see the the voice actor This has got to be correct. It's Kevin Michael Richardson who yeah? He just off the top of my head. I know he voiced the Joker in Batman Beyond
00:44:39
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. But, uh, as far as this episode goes, I could not help. I'm sure these, these actually, I'm not super familiar with these particular members of, uh, new Genesis. I am familiar with a lot of the new gods. Um, you know, chiefly somebody like, uh, Scott Freeman comes to mind. Uh, but.
00:45:01
Speaker
they i could not help but uh notice the similarities to some groups that uh do some similar things like the power rangers and voltron yeah where they uh the group is really silly in my opinion i wasn't
00:45:19
Speaker
Like I said how Young Justice kind of dropped some side villains here and there whose names I don't bother remembering I really don't bother remembering this team too much. They're relevant. They show up. There's a huge thing between the New Genesis and Apocalypse, right? And that's the main thing from this storyline understanding the the relationship between mother and father boxes and how they're living computers and how they work together and how sphere is a part of it so they have
00:45:47
Speaker
mother box because like I said that becomes a huge thing later on in the story so this was a great episode to kind of like set up things to calm while addressing the things that happened in the last episode with all the uh the simulation trauma yeah that that's
00:46:03
Speaker
a good point. Now that you bring that up, I'm interested to see how that through line will basically carry through. I'll be honest, that's the first time I've ever heard of a father box. I obviously heard of a mother box, and we got the introduction of Desaad, who I know is a lieutenant of Darkseid.
00:46:26
Speaker
One of the things I want to note about his character design, it's not a knock of it, it's just something that I found interesting. The way he wore his cloak with his hairline, he actually kind of had a hairline not unlike mine, but I could not tell if his hair was black or if he just had like a head that was like concave and like, I think I almost kind of would have preferred if there was like a piece missing of his head and he just kind of had this like concave head that a,
00:46:52
Speaker
a cloak supported anyway, but that's just me kind of, you know, I mean, he was, he was, you know, he looks pretty fleshy. Yeah. Pretty fleshy parts of dangly flesh and exposed. Yeah.
00:47:12
Speaker
I remember his face. It's the hairline that's throwing me off now. Yeah, I mean you couldn't see all of it. He had the black cloak up and then you see kind of a stringy hairline kind of come down to one side. But like I said, it looked a little bit like it could have been like his head was kind of caved in. That's just the way they draw the hairlines.
00:47:29
Speaker
While we're on the subject of that, we kind of glossed over, and I do realize that I mistakenly said, um, injustice society. It actually was the injustice league that served as the, the scapegoat for the light. We do, we get to see a couple of different characters. We also get the return of Dr. Fate, which is really cool. Um,
00:47:50
Speaker
Again, I tend to like to focus on the positive more than negative. I didn't really like this version of the Joker. Coming off of the prison break episode, we got to see their interpretation of the Riddler, where he had the long sideburns and everything like that. I felt like this Joker did not really do anything to stand out too much. I understand there's been so many interpretations of the Joker, you have to do something unique. It didn't feel that unique to me.
00:48:17
Speaker
I'm glad you pointed that out because that was on my note set, too. There is a really high standard for the Joker. So I mean, I didn't hate him, but he wasn't like amazing either. Yeah, it was more of like I liked Robin and Batman's reactions having to deal with the Joker. I like that Joker had his his chaos moment of like, we're not going down like this. We're not getting captured and like, yeah, launched all the spores. So that was just kind of like that was me enjoying a Joker moment. Not so much enjoying Joker.
00:48:45
Speaker
I mean, like I said, I didn't hate him. His lines were definitely forced. Like, oh, how do you keep track of all this? He's like, well, I'm really used to juggling my other personalities. It's like, okay. He's definitely a cringy joker, but there's so many versions of him.
00:49:04
Speaker
I wouldn't want him to be a Heath Ledger either. Right. Right. It worked for what they were doing. The dialogue was forced. I mean, obviously, things like that have when it comes to joking, there's a lot of pressure. Oh, of course. Of doing things right. But he did what he needed to do in that. Yeah, he did. He did. We did get introduced to some other characters I was not familiar with chief among them. I would say the sorcerer was his name, Wu Tan.
00:49:30
Speaker
It's Wotan, but I keep thinking like Wotan. Okay, because I was just like, yeah, Wotan clan. I mean, yeah, that's okay. That's how I try to remember, but it's Wotan. And I like that he has history with Dr. Fate, too. Right, right. Yeah, I thought that was really interesting, too. And I guess it's important to note we mentioned the return of Dr. Fate, but last time it was Wally that donned the helmet. This time around, it's actually Aqualad. And that's much to Wally West's Chagrin initially.
00:50:00
Speaker
But I guess, Dr. Fate, I believe the god's name is Naboo?
00:50:08
Speaker
Nebu, the Nobu, Nebu, Nobu. Okay, yeah, Nobu sounds more accurate. You've watched it a few more times than I have. So I'll defer to your expertise there. Yeah, he agrees to relinquish Aqualad, and it seems again to everyone's surprise, to Aqualad's surprise and to Wally's surprise. So it's always cool to see Dr. Fate in action though.
00:50:36
Speaker
The only real exposure I had ever had to the character outside of some brief comics research was the Game Injustice 2.
00:50:45
Speaker
Yeah, I wasn't a huge fan of those games. This is the first time I've definitely seen Dr. Fate and was a huge fan right off the bat. Oh, yeah. I'm really, I really enjoy Egyptology, too. I think it's so fascinating. So the fact that there's like that's why I'm so excited for the Moon Knight series when it comes out for Marvel. Certainly. But that's why I was so fascinated with this and then just kind of like the psychology of it and everything that happens, like in that little spirit realm of Naboo Nobu.
00:51:13
Speaker
Let's look it up. It's pronounced N-A, it's spelled N-A-B-U. Oh, okay. I don't want to say Naboo. Okay. Maybe Naboo. Naboo, that's what it was. Thank you. Okay. Yeah, so Naboo's communication with Kent Nelson. Yes, Kent Nelson. Also, real quick, I like how Superboy and McGann finally get their human names. Yes. And he's like Connor Kent. He's like, oh, after the late Kent Nelson. Right, right.
00:51:42
Speaker
Yeah, totally wasn't talking about Clark Kent. That's not what I meant. I appreciate that too. So yeah, I love that storyline and how they had to reference it. Like, yeah, if it wasn't for Naboo, then we wouldn't, like, I wouldn't have gotten out. He said, oh, he says hello, by the way. I actually totally forgot that that was plan B too. So when it came out, I was like, oh yeah, we get to see Dr. Fate again. He's so cool.
00:52:06
Speaker
But it really is a constant issue of like Dr. Fate having to see these sorcerers constantly come up and it's really irritating him that he's not more prevalent. They're showing that like Kid Flash is terrified that they're about to lose Aqualad to him. Right. And it really is a recurring issue for the team to have to deal with.
00:52:28
Speaker
Well, I'm definitely looking forward to his future appearances. He seems like one of those ones that as much of an ally he can be.
00:52:43
Speaker
he's almost objective. He's kind of like an otherworldly observer and objective in his purpose to where he might seem a little insensitive, especially to the characters that were so endeared to. So we'll keep an eye out for him. I guess the
00:53:02
Speaker
Other than, I kind of want to circle back to Artemis in terms of like, I guess the episode where it basically ended up being her, she and Robin trying to save the rest of the team from the, the, you know, the red tornado siblings. I believe it was a red harpoon, red torpedo, red torpedo, and originally firebrand who becomes red Inferno. Yeah.
00:53:31
Speaker
Yeah, I like what the doctor said. It's like firebrained with such a ridiculous name. Yeah. Yeah. Um, just real quick before we get to that point, the last thing I want to say about the injustice league before we wrap that part up, of course, is this was really like Batman made it very clear. It's like, you guys are ready for this. The rest of the team was like, they're still kids. Like these are our nemesis nemesis nemesis.
00:53:55
Speaker
Yeah. These are our bad guys. Like you're sending the kids in to go deal with this. It's like, yeah, we have to be on camera. Everyone has to see that we're busy dealing with this. Right. We trust them. We've trained them for this. They're good to go. Yeah. Super big jump in character development for them. It wasn't. Yeah. We can, we know about the Reds. Well, it was a, it was a, almost like a, a Regis Philbin from a who wants to be a billionaire moment because your performance was.
00:54:23
Speaker
He lets it hang for a second. Satisfactory. Yeah. Definitely a good moment. And just goes back to what you brought up. Batman is very much the father figure. We alluded to all these sidekicks. They don't call him that. They don't like to be called that.
00:54:41
Speaker
They have different relationships to their mentor figures But it is really cool. We haven't got to spend as much time with Aquaman obviously or Superman Superman still been pretty absent in this arc so far So I'm still curious to see where where he factors in by choice Yeah, yeah, apparently
00:55:03
Speaker
But yeah, it's definitely nice to see Batman fill that role. We already kind of spoke to what a great mother figure Black Canary's been. And as much as we have spoken about Red Tornado, it really was cool to see him have that moment where not only were the kids learning from him, he actually learned how to be more human from them because he could get more emotion and actual experience of what it's like to be a human than he could from the members of the League. That was a really cool moment.
00:55:33
Speaker
Which between him and Captain Marvel, that's two instances where they're like, we get so caught up in league business, we forget to be human. We forget to live our lives. Aside from Red Tornado saying like, yeah, I have watch duty because Oliver and Black Canary are on a hot date, as they put it. Yes, yeah. I love that Green Arrow continues to be a source of comic relief, even though
00:56:03
Speaker
his appearances are pretty limited. But- Yeah, him and Wally would probably get along pretty well. Oh, definitely. Definitely. But with Green Arrow on the mind, we can kind of circle back to Artemis, as I said. And then the only other thing I think we need to hit is Superboy and McGann's relationship a little bit more.
00:56:19
Speaker
But as far as yeah, I'm excited to talk about the the whole red fiasco cuz that was that was a crazy couple of episodes Oh, yeah without a doubt. Oh, yeah. Well, let's get into it as as we mentioned in this particular episode it basically Opens up amongst chaos. There's an explosion in
00:56:40
Speaker
and uh is it refresh my memory were robin and uh robin and artemis were attending gotham academy is that why they weren't present yeah so it was time for everybody to meet up and they ended up going to the same zeta tube it's like oh what are you doing here in gotham i thought you were in star city that's what it was okay robin just took a selfie with him and in person so he's just like playing dumb of like
00:57:08
Speaker
Oh yeah, I have no idea what you're doing here, but in reality you know Robin was just kind of like hanging out waiting for her to show up at that point just to mess with her. Yeah. So because we know that Artemis is a little shady and has her secrets, she was naturally late and Robin was waiting for her so he was late.
00:57:25
Speaker
Right right and you and you bring up the fact that she is shady and has her secrets and I'm they've done a good job of showcasing the fact that that becomes a bit of a source of anxiety for her not only in the previous coverage that we mentioned how she kind of had to
00:57:41
Speaker
Even though she was perfectly capable of accomplishing the mission, she had to make it appear as though she wasn't. This was a really good opportunity for her to come into her own and it continued that trend. I mentioned it last time, you know, Robin continues his jokes with the prefixes. This time they are both distraught and he is proud of Artemis when she's able to get trot.
00:58:06
Speaker
I love it. Yeah, it was a really good moment for me and basically every member of the league is taken out and eventually Robin is abducted as well and they're basically about to kill him and she's able to land a really nice shot where she completes the electrical charge for the MP and takes them out.
00:58:30
Speaker
Did you have any other, yeah, did you have any other big takeaways for her character that you just kinda mentioned? You're excited to get into this whole reds arc.
00:58:42
Speaker
It's more of them together. I mentioned in the Abalia episode in the desert where you see them with the bare minimum. So not having powers and then not having the tools they need, they are still very capable heroes.
00:59:03
Speaker
and you see you see the mental development of Dick Grayson over Artemis at this point too because she keeps reiterating like how are you so calm like you see Robin like hacking into the computer finding blueprints coming up with solutions find the people staying like staying in combat
00:59:23
Speaker
Yeah. And then moving on to the next thing, and still cracking jokes too. Right. And she's like, how are you joking at a time like this? And she's like, well, I've been dealing with this and that was nine. Like, you don't get emotions from Batman. Mission focused. Yeah. And that line comes up in the therapy session too, where Robin basically says, like, I don't want to be Batman. I can't be just mission oriented. Like, I need to find a way to be my own person. And this episode is a very strong indication of that, that
00:59:51
Speaker
There's a humanity to him that Batman doesn't quite have a hold on or doesn't quite appreciate and he's becoming his own person. He's showing how capable heroes are, despite not having powers like the people without powers are the ones who never got captured.
01:00:08
Speaker
Yeah, I had not made that connection, but that is an excellent connection. They are the two members that do not have any powers. Great call. Kid Flash and Superboy were stuck in the water, and Megan and Aqualat almost died being in that fire prison.
01:00:24
Speaker
Right, right. Sorry to cut you off, but there's been a couple of times where they've made me really, really concerned about Aqualad's hydration levels. Yeah, right? And that was one of them. Water! I need water, Sandy!
01:00:44
Speaker
I understand that. I'm gonna keep an IV for this guy. Robin, despite his age, has become a role model for Artemis because this was a huge thing for Artemis.
01:00:57
Speaker
Not only wanting to be as strong as her sister Cheshire, and being independent and the whole every woman fights for herself mentality, like being able to live on her own, being able to be as much of a badass as she is, and now she sees that a member of her team is just as capable of taking care of himself.
01:01:16
Speaker
despite how harsh the situation is, this is really, really big growing point of Artemis as a person and developing that self confidence of like, right, you know what, I'm a badass too. I got this. I'm a fucking hero. Let's get this job done. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I don't know if I really have anything more I can add. You were you were very eloquent in your analysis of that. You did a better job of capturing some of the nuance that
01:01:46
Speaker
I certainly picked up on, but I was not able to vocalize as well as you were, so thank you for that student analysis there, my friend. After six years, I would hope I'd have something to say about it.
01:01:57
Speaker
That's what's so kind of rewarding about even being able to break it down like this. I've rewatched as many of the episodes as I've been able to, but obviously with some of the later episodes I was only able to get one viewing in, so it really does. I'm looking forward to going back and rewatching that with the context that you just provided. And that goes to speak to the quality of the show, the fact that
01:02:20
Speaker
Some shows, we're all fans of these Marvel and DC properties. And sometimes you feel like an obligation to see everything and watch it all. But it's so nice when a show like this is just, you look forward to watching it. When the episodes are over, it's like, oh yeah, I can't wait to throw on the next one.
01:02:39
Speaker
Yeah, so listeners if you are watching listening to these episodes before watching the show. I don't know what's wrong with you Stop doing that go watch these episodes first Listen to us and then go watch it again because you know you want to yeah, definitely I think we've uh as far as the big swings did you have anything else with the the Reds that you wanted to touch on I
01:03:03
Speaker
Again, I really do appreciate how they kind of showed the history of the league. Okay, so you see red Red torpedo was made first right and you see that they mentioned that he was too human That was a flaw of his yep, but you see him work with Jay Garrick, right?
01:03:21
Speaker
So you see the history of the Flash family, and then they show Red Inferno, I'm just gonna call her that, because the other name is Laman, not worth our memory, and how she's worked with Dr. Fate before, so she has some history, but then she was too much of a hero, and then both of these aspects really do come in when Red Volcano, who is a badass of a character, if I'm being honest.
01:03:46
Speaker
um... was causing chaos and they were just like you see that no matter how much they got reprogrammed and repurposed it was like no we're we're heroes we're here to do our thing and yeah three of them died and retornado was like saved at the very end but that was it was cool seeing the past of it and then how much being a hero and doing the right thing means to this core group of people androids sorcerers like it doesn't matter which category you lie under
01:04:13
Speaker
like when you're it's almost like the whole Hawkeye and Wanda moment in Age of Ultron where it's like you're in or you're or like if you want I'll call your brother to save you you can go back home or you're just fully into this you're an Avenger yeah it's really like that that line is so appropriate to this you're part of the team yeah you're here or you're not
01:04:36
Speaker
Right. Right. And then I appreciated that you brought it up. I appreciate it as well that we got to kind of see little snapshots of, you know, previous iterations of the league as well as the Justice Society. And I can't remember. I want to say it was the image of red tornado with Alan Scott version of Green Lantern.
01:04:55
Speaker
I don't know who Alan Scott is. So it would have been that image of a guy with a cape with a raised collar with a lantern hanging around his chest. That was the first version of Green Lantern. But that's a whole another character primer we could dive down there. But the reason I bring it up is because it just kind of reminded me of another
01:05:19
Speaker
not only graphic novel, but I appreciated the movie. It has its detractors, but Watchmen. Watchmen did a really good job of showing, you know, multiple generations of superheroes, and they kind of did that through the snapshots of the ages. So that was just something that kind of stood out to me when we saw that snapshot of Red Tornado along with Alan Scott. It definitely had... I felt like it was a pretty pointed reference to Watchmen, but I could be mistaken there.
01:05:43
Speaker
Yeah. And like I told you, uh, offline, I'm a huge Zetana fan. I had such a huge crush on her. So she came up and the fact that like Dick Grayson's like super into her and like trying to flirt, but like she's enjoying it and she's flirting back and like that connection between like right off the bat is so cute. Yeah. But she's so observant as well. Like when they were having the psychic link, like she was reading the body language. Like I think she's 13, 14 as well. Yeah. 14 sounds right.
01:06:13
Speaker
Um, which is really weird to say after my last sentence, so please don't judge me for that. Um, uh, so it was, it was, it's, I like how observant she is. Like that chemistry definitely works with Robin and she is like a get shit done type of person. She wasn't like, Oh no, we shouldn't do this. But she's also had that confinement of her father's Atari, who's a sorcerer for the justice league.
01:06:40
Speaker
And you see the whole like protective father of like no she should stay like within my sight like no She shouldn't hang out with those people I don't know then type of thing and she goes out and she gets into a bunch of trouble, but You see that she's developing with her powers as well. She's still learning She's doing the best she can with what she's dealing and she has that progress to go to of having the self-confidence and learning her spells and remembering spells and being able to pull it out in a second's notice and and
01:07:08
Speaker
She's not quite part of the team, but in terms of her appearance with the team in this episode, it was really cool for things to come.
01:07:17
Speaker
Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that she will be appearing later on because the character is Zatanna I am more familiar with than her father. So I mentioned it when we covered the pilot, but they had that magician, sorcerer character pop up and I wasn't super familiar with who he was.
01:07:40
Speaker
It's cool that you get to spend time with characters that aren't necessarily associated with the young versions, that you can spend time with them by way of young justice. Because as long a tenure as Wally West has had as Kid Flash in the comics,
01:08:02
Speaker
More often than not, especially in the Justice League animated series, which this took a lot of inspiration from, Wally West served as the primary Flash rather than Barry Allen for a lot of people. I always appreciate when we can spend more time with these different versions of these characters and it'll be cool to see Zatanna come back.
01:08:25
Speaker
Yeah, I even have it in my notes. What's really impressive about this show is that they address something like you're supposed to know about it.
01:08:34
Speaker
The relationship between Batman and Robin is really cool because Robin has studied up on Batman's cases, so he was like, oh, it's this person? Oh, it's that person? Oh, we're talking about this. It shows the history that the League has with these villains and with these threats. And throughout the episode, they do a really good job of showing the history, sprinkling what's the big deal about them, as opposed to spending a lot of time just talking about them and then it being action. It's divided very well.
01:09:03
Speaker
And they do a really good job of explaining the history and the story and the powers and the struggles of the people of the league without having to give league members the whole episode because they're not as much as I love their characters. They're not the highlight of the show. That's not what the spotlight is supposed to be. So they're giving you a lot of league story, but incorporating it into the team instead of like taking away from the team's attention. Okay. Yeah, I could definitely appreciate that perspective there.
01:09:34
Speaker
I guess the only, they are characters that we have covered kind of separately as we've discussed them. We certainly mentioned the big episode that McGann had as well as some of the adventures Superboy had. But I guess the only thing that we really haven't discussed in great detail in context of this particular arc of the season is that their romantic relationship really comes to fruition. We've had a lot of flirtations and whatnot.
01:10:03
Speaker
So they finally get together, but it's not smooth sailing right off the bat. Superboy has to learn some lessons in the fact that McGann can kind of hold her own, right?
01:10:17
Speaker
Yeah, I mean poor guys only like what four months old and is in a relationship now? Four month old dating a 48 year old? I was just about to say that. It's Queen Cougar right there. That's right. I like how other other members of the team in League have noticed but that's like even Aqualot says like it's not my business to say anything and everyone's like we know a couple right and that's the one person who needs to know Kid Flash still doesn't know yet.
01:10:44
Speaker
Yeah, and as much as it has not been said outright to him, it seems like he may know that she's not interested because it seems like he's diverted his, whether he wants to admit it or not, he's a diverted his interest to Artemis because even Black, or wait, no, no, no, Black Canary calls out Artemis for caring what Wally thinks during the therapy session. I thought it was the other way around for a second, but even that being said, I think it's obvious that they have some
01:11:14
Speaker
number one, affection, just on a friendship level that they would both kind of begrudgingly admit. Um, but I think there's some romantic interest that has been seated there as well. It feels weird to say seated in that context, but, uh, did you have any other big takeaways for this particular set of episodes we're discussing here?
01:11:42
Speaker
No. Okay. No, I think we've been pretty... I'm ready for the finale. Right, right. Yeah, it's been a big buildup. And one of the things I mentioned before, the momentum has been really, really nice and I like the trajectory. So I'm looking forward to seeing how these final episodes really pay off. And they've definitely set them set themselves up for a pretty bombastic finale. Because like I already mentioned, there were a couple of times in the season already where
01:12:07
Speaker
If you didn't know you'd probably think that you were watching the finale so yeah It'll be really interesting to see how they up the ante But with that being said, please tune in next week. Thank you for listening to this episode of the
01:12:23
Speaker
animation deliberation podcast, the podcast where we take action, animation, and cartoon seriously, but not too seriously. My name is J. Scottie St. Clair. You can find me on Twitter at J. Scott for real. That's the number four, and that's R-double-E-L, real. And my Instagram is J. Scottie for real, spelled the same way there, just with a Y on the J. Scottie.
01:12:49
Speaker
And you can find this podcast, obviously, as well as a family of other podcasts on the Stranded Panda podcast network. We've got the Marvel Cinematic Universe podcast, the Star Trek Universe podcast, as well as the Star Wars Universe podcast. So please check out the wonderful things we're doing there. There's a rich community that is active on YouTube, as well as Twitch. Zuhair, any closing words for us?
01:13:18
Speaker
Yeah, if you just want to check out some photography, go to Instagram and go to Z Ali Photography and you will find some of my work over there. So the more you guys follow, the more I'll be motivated to post. So help me out a bit. Sweet. That'll be a real aster for everybody. Be well, folks.
Conclusion and Outro
01:13:39
Speaker
One, two, three. Wait, I gotta say, stay whelmed. There's a highway that stretches across the 93 days of summer where worship isn't offered to the sun, but to the smoking tire, the s-curve, and the spin turn. And if you ride it, make sure you do it in a Dodge Charger, Challenger, or Durango. Because on this highway, the lines being blurred are the ones between drivers.
01:14:07
Speaker
and demons. Welcome to Highway 93. Dodge is a registered trademark. Right here in your neighborhood. Here's a little tale about hard to recycle plastics. Their destinies were changed. Their new lives are fantastic. What once was trash can live on as new things with a program that complements irregular recycling. Because plastics can be so much more. Give this trash the second chance it was more.
01:14:35
Speaker
Your hard to recycle plastics can be so much more. Participate in the hefty energy bag program happening in your neighborhood today.