Back in March I watched all 3 seasons of DC's Young Justice on HBO Max. I had heard of it, I think largely when it was announced a third season was being done for the failed DC Universe service. For better or worse, as the title of the entry says, the show is the most complete DC Universe on a small or big screen. Over the three years it really becomes more of an epic saga that isn't quite generational but does allow characters to grow and change and new characters to come in and develop.
The first season begins on July 4th with Robin (Dick Grayson), Aqualad (Atlantean Kaldur'ahm), Kid Flash (Wally West), and Speedy (Roy Harper) being allowed into the Justice League's main building. But Speedy is dismayed to find they don't have full access because they're still viewed as sidekicks and not actual Justice League members, so he quits and goes off on his own.
After an emergency calls the Justice League away, the other three sidekicks go to the scene of Cadmus Labs where there's a fire. But in investigating, they find that Cadmus has some weird experiments going on, including a teenage clone of Superman! They rescue "Superboy" and bring the evil scientists there to justice. As a reward, the League allows these young heroes to form their own team along with Martian Manhunter's "niece" M'gann (or Megan) and Green Arrow's latest protege Artemis.
Over the first season "The Team" becomes a covert ops division of the Justice League, sent on missions by Batman when the League is too busy or it's a place where actual League involvement is not wise. There are conflicts about who should lead The Team, though Kaldur'ahm is picked because he's more mature and has more combat training. There are also problems integrating Superboy because he has a lot of anger issues, especially because Superman repeatedly makes excuses not to be around his clone--or half-clone because "Conner" as he becomes known is only half-Kryptonian. Like Jurassic Park they filled some gaps in the DNA with human DNA--from Lex Luthor. Meanwhile M'gann develops feelings for Conner while also hides from the Team (and everyone else) that she's really a White Martian, not a green Martian like Martian Manhunter. On Mars the White Martians are an oppressed minority and also a lot scarier-looking than the green ones.
The first season ends with the young heroes fighting a mind-controlled Justice League and saving the planet from "the Light," an alliance of evildoers including Luthor, Ra's al Guhl, Vandal Savage, and Klarion the Boy Witch.
What's confusing about the start of season 2 is the first season ended on New Year's Day and the second season starts on New Year's...but everything's different! Robin has become an adult named Nightwing; Wally and Artemis are a couple and retired from heroing; Aqualad found out he's the son of Black Manta and joined him in evil; M'gann and Conner are broken up and she's dating L'gann, a sort of Creature From the Black Lagoon-looking dude; and there are all new young heroes like Beast Boy, Static Shock, Batgirl, Wonder Girl, and Blue Beetle. The latter is the main focus of the season as an alien race called "The Reach" is working with "The Light" to try to take over the planet. Blue Beetle's tech came from The Reach. We also find out that Kaldur'ahm is just doing a Departed thing and going deep undercover to find out the Light's secrets, though only he, Nightwing, and Kid Flash know about it. Artemis fakes her death and then, disguised as a mercenary called Tigress, joins Kaldur'ahm in Black Manta's crew.
It's a few episodes in before they reveal this second season is 5 years after the first season ended. It was a really confusing jump. I wondered if maybe the episodes on HBO Max were out of order (they weren't) or maybe there was a movie or something I missed--I don't think there is.
At the end of the second season Wally West is killed while helping to save the planet from a Reach Doomsday weapon. Then the third season (made about 6-7 years later) picks up two years later. There aren't as many changes except Barbara Gordon is now paralyzed and become Oracle, M'gann is back with Conner and showing her White Martian heritage, and Beast Boy is a TV star in a Star Trek (or maybe Galaxy Quest is more appropriate) type show. There are new characters introduced like GeoForce, the former prince of Markovia named Brion, and his sister Tara (or Terra) both of whom have earth-controlling powers; Halo, a Muslim girl who was killed but reanimated by a "Mother Box" and has different color auras to give her different powers like shielding, healing, or even a Boom Tube; and there's Forager, a bug from another planet that can roll into a ball to run things over. Cyborg, aka Victor Stone, is also added though doesn't do a lot. Most of the new characters form a team called "the Outsiders" that operates in public while Halo and Forager remain part of the covert team, aka "The Team."
The central issue of Season 3 is that Apokolips, the home of Darkseid, is kidnapping "meta humans" (sort of the DC version of mutants in the Marvel universe) to brainwash them and use them on other planets as living weapons. (Though without the meta human part this was something the alien Taelons did in Earth Final Conflict back in the late 90s-early 2000s, where they abducted humans and programmed them to be foot soldiers on other planets.)
The other issue is the power struggle in Markovia and Tara being a mole in the team run by Deathstroke like in the classic Teen Titans Judas Contract story. Brion and Tara's brother takes over after their parents are killed but in the last few episodes a traitorous uncle deposes their brother. In the last episode Brion takes power while Tara decides not to betray her brother and the team.
Anyway, it is really neat how the young characters grow up so that by season 3 the original cast are a bunch of seasoned veterans bringing along new recruits. Like I said it's not quite a "generational" saga because it's only over the course of 7 years but unlike really anything else DC has going (even for the most part in its comic books) it is a complete universe in that the characters grow up, get married, have kids, and even die. Really it's a lot like the superhero series that I've written, especially the Tales of the Scarlet Knight series where Emma starts off as a naïve 19-year-old genius and by the end is almost 30 with a boyfriend, daughter, and adopted daughter in addition to being a superhero. Most comic books and even animated movies are their own pocket universes where characters don't really get old or change all that much. But the growth of these characters, and the universe they inhabit, is really great--I just wish it had been explained better between seasons. It's the closest DC has to the MCU in terms of a coherent universe that uses bits from almost the entire DC pantheon.
The only problem with this structure is that in the end there wind up being a lot of characters, so as always happens some characters wind up getting less time. It was like the old Transformers or GI Joe shows from the 80s where they'd add in a new batch of characters from the latest wave of toys and most of the ones before that would wind up in the background or only occasionally guest starring. The most important characters like Optimus Prime or Megatron would stick around but a lot of the secondary ones like Prowl, Hound, or Bluestreak who got more screen time in season 1 would hardly appear in season 2. In the same way, characters like Blue Beetle and Kid Flash (the second one) who were a big deal in season 2 barely show up in season 3. Meanwhile, most of the regular Justice League characters are in space for the last two seasons to allow the younger heroes to carry the load in the stories. That doesn't really make the show bad, but if you have a favorite from one season you might be disappointed when that character largely vanishes in the next season.
I don't know if HBO Max is planning to do a season 4 but that would be cool to see what happens next. The Light is still out there, as is Darkseid, so there's plenty of room to continue the story. In the last episode they show someone wearing a Legion of Superheroes ring, so that would probably be something to add into the mix for a season 4. Though like with some of the DC animated movies, it would be nice if they lightened up a bit.
Fun Facts: In season 1 when Conner and Megan go to the local high school they meet Wendy and Marvin, who are updated versions of the kids from the first two seasons of Superfriends. They were replaced in the later seasons by the Wonder Twins, who really would fit this series but don't appear for perhaps licensing reasons.
In one first season episode, Klarion the Boy Witch and some other evil witches cast a spell that splits the world into two universes, one populated by kids and one populated by everyone 18 and over. The concept was a lot like an old sci-fi book I read only in that it was one universe where there were only men and one where there were only women. I forget what it was called, though I know I mentioned it once.
No comments:
Post a Comment