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Greg Bishansky writes...

Denial

And with our latest episode, I have realized that I really, really like this show. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the pilot a lot. I didn't much like the third episode, but after that it started getting better and better with every episode. So, now, by episode seven, I can say that I've officially warmed up to "Young Justice." More on this later, now on to the episode itself.

Kid Flash finally receives a much needed episode focusing on him. Okay, we knew he was stubborn, we knew he was a sleaze, but we focus more on these things. His skepticism of the supernatural was front and center. Although, I have seen a lot of people misinterpret what the moral of this episode was. A lot of people saw it as "magic is real" but I disagree, that is a very, very simplistic way of looking at it without putting in any effort to think about it. The lesson of the episode had more to do with being open minded, that there are some things that cannot be explained, and that taking a leap of faith is often necessary. And, once again, I find myself referencing "Babylon 5" with the following quote.

"Faith and reason are the shoes on your feet! You can travel further with both than you can with just one."

And no, that is not about subscribing to a religious belief, hell that quote was written by an Atheist. I myself am Agnostic, I have no actual religious beliefs of my own, I do not subscribe to any, but I still have faith that there are things beyond our understanding out there.

But back to the episode. I will admit to being quite unfamiliar with Dr. Fate. I've seen him on "Justice League" and "Justice League Unlimited" but that's where my knowledge of the character ends. This, however, was an altogether different depiction of him, but I think I liked it a lot more. I loved Ed Asner in the role of Kent Nelson, I loved how affable he was with just about everyone, particularly Madame Xanadu in the teaser.

I also loved Kent's advice to Wally about finding a spitfire of his own. I agree with that one whole heartedly. Again, getting a little personal here, but I am not attracted to women like Miss Martian at all. I don't know why, I'm just not. I've always been attracted to the spitfire types. I love women with fire in them, the type of woman who can and will kick my ass. That's what Artemis seems to be, while Miss Martian (and to be fair, I am probably still underestimating her) is more the type to want to be Superboy's very own June Cleaver. I guess this sums up why I have always preferred Peter Parker with Mary Jane Watson instead of Gwen Stacy (well, Romita's Gwen Stacy).

Okay, on with the rest of the episode.

Doesn't seem like Wally is listening to Kent's advice. But, he's young, he'll grow. One thing that I have seen a lot that does bug me is people saying he has feelings for Miss Martian. Um, no he doesn't. The only feeling for her he has is in his pants. Otherwise he wouldn't have so blatantly hit on Black Canary right in front of Miss Martian (not that she cared) two episodes ago.

Wally wearing Dr. Fate's helm was really, really cool. Although I can't help but wonder about why that thing is on his shelf with his other souvenirs. Shouldn't he have handed that over to the Justice League? And isn't the robotic eye on his shelf a camera feeding images directly back to T.O. Morrow? Doesn't Morrow work for the Light? Yup, there's some pipe laying.

Klarion the Witch Boy was wonderfully creepy as a villain. I've only seen him before in an episode of "Batman" back in the late 90's, when Batman teamed up with Etrigan the Demon. I'll admit, I thought Klarion was quite lame then, and would always change the channel when that episode showed up in re-runs. But I liked him here, he seemed a lot more sinister, and downright creepy. Of course, I also always enjoy hearing Thom Adcox' voice. And, is it just me, but aside from Lexington, he almost always seems to voice bad guys and psychos. Don't get me wrong, he's great at it, but I always think of him as Lexington first... well, I suppose there was evil Lex in "Future Tense." And Thom is kind of a bad boy in real life... ;)

Let's see, in this episode we had Jeff Bennett as Red Tornado and Abra Kadabra; Thom Adcox as Klarion; Cree Summer as Madame Xanadu; and Ed Asner as Kent Nelson. Almost a mini "Gargoyles" cast reunion. Marina Sirtis already confirmed she's appearing down the line as Queen Bee. And I doubt Weisman will resist casting Keith David in this show. So, I'll have my fingers crossed for Jonathan Frakes, Bill Faggerbakke, Salli Richardson, Brigitte Bako, Tom Wilson, Clancy Brown, and... okay, this list is beginning to get comprehensive. You get the idea.

Artemis is really growing on me. I had a feeling I would really like the character before she appeared, and I was right. She's my favorite character on the team. And I love how she is the only one on the team that doesn't let Wally get away with his crap. Hopefully he'll wise up soon and love that too.

This episode hit some personal chords for me, and like I said, finally really warmed me up to this show. Don't get me wrong, I was enjoying it prior to this. But there are shows I enjoy, and shows I warm up to. I enjoy "Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes" but there is nothing really special about it, and it's really, really lowbrow. But I enjoy it. But, after nineteen episodes of that, it's safe to say I'll never warm to it. And I think the big reason why I was hesitant about this series up until now is that I warmed to "Gargoyles" and "Spectacular Spider-Man" right away. I expected the same of this series, but it took longer. Maybe that's because I've spent most of my life as a Marvel Zombie (although Marvel is slowly decapitating this particular zombie). But, at this point, I can safely say that I love this show.

Greg responds...

The robotic eye is non-functional. Give them all a little credit. They'd have checked. And trust me, the League knows where the Helmet is.

Response recorded on April 14, 2011