Finister2 writes...

1) Why is Clark Kent not present at the Daily Planet in the implanted memory seen in Issue #6?
2) How is Professor Ivo affiliated with Artemis's father?
3) Why is Batman so concerned what Talia thinks of him?
4) Why did Ocean-Master want to rob Queen Mera of her powers?

Greg Bishansky writes...

Auld Acquaintance

It's hard to believe that we're finally here. "Young Justice" premiered with "Independence Day" on Black Friday, 2010. Finally, on April 21st, 2012, the show's premiere season comes to a close. Twenty-six episodes spread across three separate years. I don't know if this has ever happened before, but it's certainly the longest time I've ever spent watching one season of a television show. But right now, I can think of no better testimony for this series than to point that despite the constant delays in the airing of the series, and even losing some momentum because of it, the show never ceased to be engaging. Sure, in a perfect world, the season would have aired in less than one year, but we do not live in a perfect world. Neither does The Team.

I loved that cold opening. In fact, it almost feels that on any other DC show, Batman would have been so on top of things that they would have stopped Red Arrow, and subdued Vandal Savage. On any other DC show, Batman would have already known that Red Arrow had been compromised as a traitor. Hell, I've seen people demanding to know how Batman missed this after "Usual Suspects" aired last week. Well, Batman might be the world's greatest detective, but he is not omniscient.

The build-up to this episode started as far back as "Independence Day," everything mattered. Every action taken by every character since the pilot has built up to this. Every action had implications and consequences. It was all a slow burn to a boiling pot. Unlike the overrated "Justice League Unlimited" where you were lucky if anything had even short term consequences, and character development was non-existent unless you were named John Stewart or Shayera Hol. What were the long term consequences of the Annihilator armor created for Ares in JLU's horrid "Hawk and Dove" episode? Um, we got a pretty cool Suicide Squad episode where they infiltrated the Watchtower to steal it, and add it to Project Cadmus' arsenal. Quite a lot of build-up and then... Felix Faust took it on a joyride and it got destroyed in an episode that had nothing to do with their Cadmus arc. Not that I much cared for how the Cadmus arc ended... so much great set-up, and then when it got just a touch too nuanced, a convenient bad guy, without the slightest bit of hint or foreshadowing, showed up for them to beat up and no one again questioned whether the League could go rogue because they took down the big gun on the Watchtower (as if that was really the most powerful thing the League had). I, of course, bring all of this up because the acclaimed "Justice League Unlimited" may have attempted a story arc (something its predecessors never tried), but they didn't really succeed at it. They wanted to have their cake and eat it too, which is why nothing really disturbed the precious status quo. Hawkgirl betrays Earth to the Thanagarians (which was a GREAT story, by the way)? Yeah, she takes a sabbatical and comes back to the League, and the only consequences are an "I Hate Hawkgirl" chat room on the internet.

"Young Justice" knew what it was doing from the word go. Yes, there were times when I was frustrated with it, particularly early on, but it was a slow burn. The seeds were being planted. I was wondering how Red Arrow being the traitor was going to work, and in retrospect, boom, it was there since the pilot. There is not a single episode you can take out of the entire season without really losing something. It would be like removing a chapter from a novel, and that's what the first season of "Young Justice" is: an animated novel. While it did take me a while to warm up to some of the characters, hell it took some of the characters a while to warm up to each other, or in some cases warm up to themselves. But, in the end, it all came together beautifully and we got the best DC series since "Batman the Animated Series."

But how does the episode itself stack up? Pretty damn well. It's sidekick against mentor, and some of us discover whether Freud was right. I was wondering how The Team would be able to take on the League and defeat them in a manner that was credible, and they did it... thanks to the Starro Tech taking 0.16 nano-seconds to control the host, long enough for Red Tornado to arrange to save The Team. From there, it's a series of twists and turns, and all those months conducting stealth black-ops missions really would have paid off.

Vandal Savage was in top form here as we learn what his motivation is for all of this. He believes in survival of the fittest, and as the Justice League preserves the status quo, they also slow down the evolution and development of the human race. The truth of the matter is this, he is not wrong. Evolution is come about through conflict. The United States split the atom to end the second world war. The United State went to the moon to beat the the Russians there. With eternal peace, with an eternal status quo, there is no reason to go anywhere. No reason to develop. Vandal Savage has been around for fifty thousand years, he's seen every human accomplishment, and probably had a hand in at least a few. He wants us to become a galactic power, and in a universe where aliens are known to exist, he's not wrong. Weakness can lead one open to invasion (see what I did there?). However none of this makes him the good guy, far from it. What is the price of the strength he wants to give us? Our freedom. But, I think this is a great motivation and plan for Vandal Savage... and much better than the Bond villain with a gimmick from "Justice League" and "Justice League: Doom." The latter especially, where his plan there was to kill off half of the human race, deprive technology to the other half so the survivors would depend on him and make him ruler. I prefer a Vandal Savage who sees the big picture, not one who is short sighted enough to think the plan from "Doom" is a good idea. This guy is the perfect arch-enemy for The Team... an ancient, immortal against young heroes.

Red Arrow? That poor kid. Yes, he may be a clone, he may be biologically eighteen years old, but eighteen is still a kid. He was probably the biggest victim out of anybody. While he was obnoxious and disrespectful at times, he still wanted to be a hero. He still wanted to do the right thing. He couldn't help what he was, what he was programmed to do. On top of all this, he learns that he is not who he thought he was. But he wants to do the right thing, and find the original Speedy. Speaking of whom, that shot where we see the Light clearing out of Cadmus and we see the original Speedy on ice, missing an arm... talk about high octane nightmare fuel. What did the Light do to him.....

... and it really stops to make you think that this is what the Light would have done to Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad in the pilot.

But, this episode is really about The Team, and this was their finest showing to date. They saved the League and handed The Light a real defeat (or did they?). Superboy finally bonded with Superman, and it looks like Superman will finally become the mentor that Superboy needed. Kid Flash and Artemis finally kiss at midnight, and I was even more amused by Zatanna pulling Robin into a kiss.

I will say that if any member of the Team got the short end of the stick, development wise, this season, it was Aqualad. But, we're now at New Year's. Queen Mera is due in February, and Ocean Master/Prince Orm is still at large, as is Black Manta. I suspect Aqualad's real shining moments are yet to come.

I suspected that the Light would survive this season as an organization, and I'm glad they did. Things should get really interesting now that the League and The Team know that the Light exists. But even worse, six of the League members are missing sixteen hours while under Savage's control. What did they do? Whatever it was, even in defeat, the Light accomplished something and I suspect the consequences will be dire... because in all great stories, actions have consequences.

Bring on the invasion!

Finister2 writes...

1) Why did Haly lie to Faraday regarding his troupe's whereabouts?
2) Why did Intergang want to create a black hole in Geneva?
3) Where did Lex Luthor, Queen Bee, and Sportsmaster want to take Superboy, Miss Martian, and Artemis from Santa Prisca?
4) How long ago was Roy Harper cloned?
5) Was the Zeta-Beam portal in Star City in "Insecurity" a deliberate cultural reference to the TARDIS in Doctor Who.

Finister2 writes...

1) Were the ice-villains really behind the snow storm?
2) Why did Queen Bee want to unite Qurac and Bialya?
3) Why were Hal Jordan and John Stewart so adamant to cut short any discussion on Guy Gardner's induction in the Justice League?
4) What happened to Genomorph City after Cadmus found it?
5) Why did Black Spider want to kill Bernell Jones?

Finister2 writes...

1) How is Professor Ivo capable of eluding telepathic probing?
2) Are Harm's scars self-inflicted
3) Were was Wotan held between his arrest and liberation?
4) Why is Artemis not a cat person?
5) What is Vandal Savage's history with Flash?

Finister2 writes...

1) Why did Queen Bee want Robin taken in alive in "Bereft"?
2) What caused strife between Professor Ojo and Icicle Jr.?
3) How did the Riddler manage to escape Belle Reve in "Terrors"?
4) Who assembled the Injustice League personally?
5) Did the real T.O. Morrow act on his own initiative to destroy the Justice Society of America, or did he do it at someone else's behest?

Finister2 writes...

1) What was Wotan's sun blotting distraction for?
2) Are Blockbuster and Mammoth's mutations reversible?
3) How did Ivo fake his death?
4) Why did the Light want to steal Intel form STAR Labs and Wayne Tech?
5) Why did the Ocean-Master attack Aquaman in "Downtime"'s flashback?

Miss Martian writes...

Why couldnt Miss Martian capture Starro on the minds of Batman and RT?

Reaper writes...

In the season 1 finale, Robin said that starro tech could control 4 kinds of aliens. The Justice League has only 3 kinds alien species; a Kryptonian, a Martian, and Thanagarians. And Atlantians don't count because they are from earth. What was the 4th type of alien he was referring to?

Rebel writes...

Okay, here's hoping my post won't be deleted this time. To avoid posting about multiple topics in one post, I'll be leaving out the white martian stuff and just posting about Doctor Fate. This'll be more of a ramble with my thoughts and suspicions followed by some numbered questions.

What I've been curious to find out is more information about the nature of Nabu / Doctor Fate. Specifically, about what Nabu and Kent Nelson's relationship was like back when Kent Nelson was Doctor Fate. In the show, Kent Nelson says something about how it's been 60something years since he put on the helmet. That line, plus the fact that Kent Nelson had a wife, would seem to suggest that he was frequently putting the helmet on and taking it off during his tenure as Doctor Fate, which would suggest that Nabu / Doctor Fate liked Kent Nelson and trusted him not to abandon the helmet. And in "Denial" Nabu says something about the 60 years of the helmet not being put on made him feel isolated. This suggests to me that prior to that 60-year isolation, Nabu trusted humans to put the helmet on and take it off as Doctor Fate was needed. But after that time period, he no longer trusts humans to put the helmet on after it's been taken off, which is why it was so difficult to get Doctor Fate to relinquish control of Wally, Aqualad, and then Zatanna. In a way, there's a sort of mutual trust involved. The human has to trust Nabu to take the helmet off when Doctor Fate is not directly needed. But Nabu has to trust the human to put the helmet back ON and not leave him all alone forever.

Anyway, time for questions.

1. So, what was Nabu and Kent Nelson's relationship like? Did they trust each other? Are my suspicions about their relationship correct?

2. What made Kent Nelson stop wearing the helmet? My suspicion is that something went wrong in their relationship, which is why he ended up wearing the half-helmet that he made. But maybe it's something much less dramatic than that.

3. If it's true that Nabu has lost his faith that humans can be trusted to re-don the helmet from time to time to give him something to do so he can feel useful, do you think this faith can be regained? In other words, do you think Nabu could ever "heal" so to speak?

4. While Nabu is more-or-less one of the "good guys" in the sense that he does heroic acts, that shouldn't justify coercing a member of the Justice League into giving up his freedom, so why hasn't anybody on the Justice League tried to get that helmet off of Zatara?

5. I doubt Nabu really *wants* to enslave anybody but I think his desire to not be left alone and isolated outweighs that. Do you think this is correct? Would Nabu be happiest if he had a partner who would frequently put the helmet back on and take it off, or is he happiest being in constant control of his host?

???? Thanks for your answers Greg! If there's any additional light you'd like to shed on Nabu beyond the scope of my questions, feel free!