Going Through Young Justice Part Eight

By the halfway point of season one of Young Justice, the audience learned who the mysterious group called “The Light” were.  But the kids in the Team don’t know that yet, and there are still some things the Team needs to learn about themselves.  Tom has seen the show before and he knows these things already.  Jimmy has not, so he’s still learning, and he’ll learn some more with the episodes “Failsafe” and “Disordered”.

“Failsafe”

The Team finds themselves at the forefront of defending the Earth from an alien invasion when the Justice League falls!

jimmy:  You mean the Justice League wasn’t annihilated 30 seconds into this episode?  Color me shocked!

tomk:  They might have been teleprted.

jimmy:  Or not.

tomk:  So, you never suspected the whole thing was legit?  You’re smart. Have a piece of pie.

jimmy:  I didn’t suspect the training exercise, but I was pretty sure the aliens weren’t dispatching the Justice League with ease.  I figured they were being teleported somewhere.

tomk:  So, you didn’t think it was all an illusion?

I think you need to return that pie.

jimmy:  Too late.

tomk:  Ok, but next time, I let the Moose hold the pie until the judges confirm you deserve it.

jimmy:  Tough but fair.

tomk:  Anyway, did anything else seem weird to you?

jimmy:  Outside of Artemis, they seemed pretty calm about the heroes getting wiped out, but I think Batman explained that one.

tomk:  Yeah, it’s like Wally may have a thing for her.

jimmy:  He had to move on from M’gann.

tomk:  There are other girls in the world.

jimmy:  Not other super hero girls that you see every day and they just drive you crazy!

tomk:  What?  Some blonde Asian teenager with a bare midriff doesn’t come along every day?

jimmy:  Well, not every day.

tomk:  Every other day?

jimmy:  At most once a week.

tomk:  She delivers your mail on weekends. Got it.

jimmy:  We don’t even get mail on weekends, Tom.

tomk:  That’s why it’s at most once a week.

jimmy:  Anyway…Wally might have feelings for Artemis.

tomk:  Is it reciprocated?

jimmy:  Maybe.

tomk:  Wally did react more than the others. Considering he’s usually the one who takes things the least seriously…

jimmy:  That’s very true.

tomk:  Also noteworthy how cold and manipulative Robin was to get Wally to act.

jimmy:  He learned from the best.

tomk:  Jenny?

jimmy:  Jenny hates DC. Except when she doesn’t.

tomk:  So, she’d be down with M’gann being the most powerful psychic?

jimmy:  M’gann’s a female right?

tomk:  Well, she’s a shapeshifter, so who knows?

jimmy:  I suspected that would be your response.

tomk:  You suspected well. Have a bowl of macaroni and cheese.

jimmy:  Just in time for lunch.

tomk:  Bad news then. Unseen invaders just took out the Moose, the Beaver, Captain Picard, Cousin Minka, Inspector Gadget, the Polkaroo, and the old dog from the nuclear plant.

https://youtu.be/vmPqHhasDSw

You might be the best of what’s left.

jimmy:  Without that dog we’re doomed!  Doomed I tells ya!

tomk:  We still have the rest of the GG Universe Team. You know, Captain Jake, Greg, Aquaman’s overweight cousin Mort, that Jenny clone the Jackal made, and Ryan’s kids.

jimmy:  We’ll need them against, oh wait, it was all just a training exercise. A cruel, cruel training exercise.

tomk:  Who knew Batman was a fan of the Kobayashi Maru?

jimmy:  Nice comparison. And that wouldn’t be surprising.

tomk:  That he’d let J’onn fix the ship’s highly radioactive warp core and die?

jimmy:  The needs of the many…

tomk:  Outweigh the needs of the few. Unless Gotham needs me…

jimmy:  Gotham always needs you, Tom.

tomk:  It’s why I live in the Clocktower two floors down from where Barbara Gordon called home when she was Oracle.

jimmy:  Did you ever get mixed up in any virtual training simulations?

tomk:  Me?  Not really. Ryan could only get those Oculus prototypes with the glitchy screens.

jimmy:  …so…you killing Zombie Watson was real?

tomk:  Fraid so.

jimmy:  He had it coming.

tomk:  He was a zombie.

jimmy:  Maybe I missed this or don’t remember, but how did they get The Team into the simulation without them knowing it?

tomk:  They did know it. The simulation made them somewhat forget, but subconsciously, they knew it wasn’t real. That was why Superboy never lost his temper in the simulation.

Also, M’gann was a stronger psychic than they thought.

jimmy:  That can’t make being her boyfriend easy.

tomk:  Wally really dodged a bullet there.

jimmy:  Potentially. Especially the way his mind works, he’s almost an open book as it is. Conner’s a bit more of a blank slate.

tomk:  But if Wally thought very fast, then his thoughts would be so much white noise.

jimmy:  Does he though?

tomk:  He’s never tried.

jimmy:  Doesn’t mean he thinks a mile a minute.

tomk:  You’re right. He might think faster.

jimmy:  I thought you might say that. Either way, a girlfriend that can read your mind at any time sounds like potential trouble.

tomk:  I wouldn’t know.

jimmy:  Not many would.

tomk:  Some men have expressive faces that allow women to just accurately guess. Like Watson.

jimmy:  Being a giant jerk makes prediction easy as well.

tomk:  Well, I think we all learned a valuable lesson.

jimmy:  Reprogram the simulation so the JL survives?

tomk:  Let Watson try it first.

jimmy:  Watson would probably be the ringleader of the aliens.

tomk:  There’s a reason we never saw them.

jimmy:  Batman was too lazy to program them faces?

tomk:  That was the Flash’s job.

jimmy:  He was too busy trying to code Artemis staying alive.

tomk:  Or it’s true what they say. Either do it fast or do it right

jimmy:  Who says that?  Vin Diesel?

tomk:  All of Watson’s dates?

jimmy:  They’ve probably stormed out in disgust before it got that far.

tomk:  I’d rather not think about it. Was there anything left in this episode that you wanted to think out loud about?

jimmy:  Seems like we spent more time talking about Watson than the episode.  I think it turning out to be “fake” in the end, kinda takes the edge off of conversations about how easily the Justice League were dispatched, etc.

tomk:  I do think something like this shows a lot about who these characters are. Superboy can be calm and self-sacrificing when he needs to be. Wally can take things seriously. Dick can motivate others. Artemis will put her life on the line. Aqualad will put the others first. And M’gann is a much more powerful psychic than she appears to be.

jimmy:  I’m guessing that comes up significantly later as you keep reiterating it.

tomk:  It could be important to the development of these characters.

It’s also all I got on M’gann.

jimmy:  Fair enough.

tomk:  But there could be other mysteries to solve.

jimmy:  There always is.

tomk:  Like…what’s up with that sphere?

jimmy:  I have a feeling we’re gonna find out.

tomk:  We can always stop here.

jimmy:  Before we find out?!?!?

tomk:  Well, before you do.

jimmy:  Before I do?!?!?

tomk:  So, ready to learn more?

jimmy:  I am.

tomk:  In that case, let’s learn some secrets.

“Disordered”

As the Team recovers from their experiences, Superboy learns Sphere’s true nature.

jimmy:  I don’t know much about the Forever People. Have they always done that Voltron shtick?

tomk:  Yes, but the Infinity Man is usually not a giant robot.

He’s closer to, say, a powerful being they might just switch places with.

jimmy:  Robots are more hip.

tomk:  I suppose. Jack Kirby might not agree.

jimmy:  I suppose he wouldn’t like Sphere transforming into a bitching 2 seater bike either?

tomk:  That came from the original YJ comic. And it’s the same sort of ride the Forever People already had.

jimmy:  But can their ride turn into a sphere???

tomk:  It’s been a while.  I don’t recall.

Ask Jenny.  She won’t know, but she might sputter out an interesting guess.

jimmy:  She asked what a New God was?

tomk:  See?  Could lead to interesting guesses.

jimmy:  So, I’m guessing those guys were mostly true to their comic roots?

tomk:  I think so, aside from Infinity Man being a giant robot.  The Forever People probably get the least amount of attention of the various Jack Kirby New Gods…so much so, that when DC had Jim Starlin do Death of the New Gods just before Final Crisis, it turned out the Forever People died first but no one noticed right away.

jimmy:  That’s cold.

tomk:  They were Kirby’s idea of what hippies were like.

jimmy:  Flying around in hovercrafts.  Morphing together into a giant fighting being.  Just like hippies.

tomk:  Well, the general appearance and probably the personalities…except the one that liked cowboys.

jimmy:  Which seemed extremely odd.  New Genesis gets a lot of shows in syndication I guess.

tomk:  Western comics were still probably a thing when these guys first appeared.

Plus, some cursory research tells me Infinity Man in the comics is Darkseid’s brother.

jimmy:  A brother?  Well, that’s new to me.

tomk:  He had parents too.

jimmy:  I know they did the whole trading sons thing.

tomk:  That came later.  Darkseid murdered his mother to gain power, or as revenge because she killed the love of his life (Orion’s mother), and Darkseid’s father was trapped in the Source Wall for trying to find out what was on the other side a little too much.

jimmy:  Darkseid killed his own mother because she murdered Orion’s mother?  That’s messed up.

tomk:  You mean the rulers of a planet of evil gods might have some twisted stuff going on?

jimmy:  It’s shocking, I know.

tomk:  I suppose next you’ll tell me how surprising it is that Bruno Mannheim didn’t learn any lessons since Superman the Animated Series killed him.

jimmy:  I was just going to say that.

tomk:  Well, maybe next time.

jimmy:  What did you think of the Canary Sessions interludes?

tomk:  Good character development.  Dick hates what he did, Wally and Artemis seem to care a bit about what the other thinks about him, Kaldur wants to step away from leadership but likewise knows no one else can fill the role, and M’gann…

jimmy:  She’s more powerful then we knew.

tomk:  Well, that was one thing.  Something else, well, that will come out later.

jimmy:  Dick not wanting to be Batman is typical Dick character development.

tomk:  Kaldur’s not wanting to be the leader…well, he’s had his doubts, but he’s a lot more mature than the others.  He knows leadership is a burden as much as anything else.

jimmy:  And had valid reasons why it wasn’t right for anyone else.

tomk:  It sucks being the mature one. The Moose told me that.

jimmy: He certainly wasn’t talking about me.

tomk:  Probably meant the Beaver. Everybody has their own Watson.

jimmy:  Kaldur just needs more confidence on himself. He’s fine as leader.

tomk:  He also has nothing else going on in his life. But we can’t all be Wally.

jimmy:  Nor want to be.

tomk:  Well, Wally still doesn’t know Conner and M’gann are a thing, so he is somehow also the slowest man alive.

jimmy:  It’s like people with the book smarts but not the street smarts.

tomk:  Yeah!  Like those people!

jimmy:  But not like us. We gots the books and the street smarts.

tomk:  Yeah!  So much so, we aren’t fooled when Patrick Starr ditches SpongeBob and calls himself Big Bear!

jimmy:  Uh…yeah!

tomk:  Ok, they can’t all be instantly recognizable guest stars.

jimmy:  I never would have gotten that one.

tomk:  Well, you have it now. And the Forever People didn’t stick around forever after they defeated Ugly Bruno Mannheim and Whisper A’Daire.  

jimmy:  Talk about false advertising.

tomk:  They can be forever somewhere else.

jimmy:  That’s good.

tomk:  But somewhere else is cursed.

jimmy:  That’s bad.

tomk:  But they have plenty of free frogurt.

jimmy:  That’s good.

tomk:  The frogurt is also cursed.

jimmy:  No wonder Sphere wants to stay on Earth.

tomk:  That’s good.

Do you have anything else to add, Jimmy?

jimmy:  I don’t think so.

tomk:  I’ll add that Whisper A’Daire is actually a Greg Rucka creation who started as a Batman foe before joining Intergang in the 52 miniseries.

jimmy:  Not that old then. (Or older than I really want to think about…)

tomk:  She sometimes turns into a snake person.

jimmy:  I had a girlfriend like that.

tomk:  That sounds like an interesting story for a completely different chat.

jimmy:  We don’t talk about The Dark Days. Perhaps a better conversation is waiting with the next episode?

tomk:  You mean one written by the writer of the original Young Justice comic, Peter David, featuring the only appearance to date of one of the comic version’s original members?

jimmy:  Sure. That one. Yeah.

tomk:  It’s also a Halloween episode.

jimmy:  Good timing.

tomk:  Almost. Ready?

jimmy:  Ready.

tomk:  It’s Spooky Time!

Next:  Tom and Jimmy will return soon with chats over the episodes “Secrets” and “Misplaced”.