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Five Thoughts on Young Justice‘s “Drop-Zone”

By | June 7th, 2017
Posted in Television | % Comments

Continuing our fourth week of the Multiversity Summer Binge we have the fourth episode of Young Justice in which the team goes on their first actual mission and the team begins to bond more. “Drop-Zone” showcases the team still coming together and figuring out who they are, what they’re going to be, and ultimately who is going to lead. Let’s get to it!

1. Somebody forgot to check the dates…

So one of the really cool things about this show, that you probably know if you’ve watched it or care enough about it to be reading this article, is that every time the location on the show changes they flash the new location, date and time. So this episode begins on June 19th with the Cult of the Kobra takeover of Bane’s island nation of Santa Prisca. Bane (more on him in a moment) goes mono a mono with a Venomed/Cadmus formula goon and loses and then the team is sent in to investigate why the Venom supply is suddenly not flowing out of the island. They infiltrate on June 22nd per Batman’s orders. That seems pretty innocuous right?

Except, the series began on July 4th (with the aptly titled episode “Independence Day”) and last episode happened in July as well. So did a year just suddenly pass by and the team hasn’t been on a real mission? Or have they been going on missions this is just our initial look into a mission? Why have they not picked a leader yet then? And why do they keep referring to the previous episode’s events like they happened recently if they were months ago? Furthermore, the team gets chewed out by Batman in the cave on August 4th. Over a week after the events of the episode. I get it superheroes are busy. These dates just all seem off.

2. Bane

Bane has gone through a lot of different iterations since he broke Batman’s back in the 90s and this version is no different. Voiced by Danny Trejo (Spy Kids, Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy this Bane is more luchador than anything else, a joke Wally actually makes when the team partners with him. This is no Tom Hardy sounds like a child Bane and not at all the very white, very focused on mommy and his name Bane of Tom King’s current “Batman.” This Bane follows in the pattern of other DCAU adaptions of the character as well as the much maligned Batman and Robin of the late 90s. His intelligence is also downplayed a lot in this episode as he is reckless, and outsmarted by teenagers. He seems like your typical cartoon wrestler. But hey, who doesn’t love Danny Trejo?

3. Robin grows up a bit

This version of Robin, while by name is Dick Grayson, is an amalgam of all the Robin’s that have ever existed. There’s a lot of Jason Todd and Damian Wayne in Robin this episode as he both continues his habits of disappearing in fights and operating like he has Batman with him, and also thinking he is completely in charge and everyone should follow him. So of course at the beginning when he vanishes into the jungle and Wally blows their cover he’s pissed. It takes the whole team almost getting killed for Robin to realize that. Even though he has the most experience out of everyone on the team, according to Kaldur, he lacks the people skills and team dynamics to be able to operate outside of being just Batman’s protege. And thus he relinquishes leadership of the team to…

4. A hero is born!

Aqualad! That’s right the most obvious choice of the oldest and most mature member of the team is held up by everyone else and Kaldur takes the reins, at least until Robin is ready to lead of course. Honestly it makes sense to me that Aqualad gets to lead. He seems the most levelheaded out of everyone and seems the most respectable and meticulous. It only took a whole covert mission going wrong for everyone to finally realize. Just in time for him to tell Batman how the whole thing went wrong!

5. More fun character moments and word play

This episode has some more fun character beats and the first showcase of the stealth mode costumes the team sports on most of its missions. 10/10 on costumes. Also, Miss Martian and Superboy get their flirt on and both start to become a little more human. Wally is still a horndog but its toned down a little (as one would hope since the team is on a dangerous mission). Robin gets in some word play with concerted and disconcerted, and the team “builds character” as Batman says at the end of the episode. They’re starting to become a real team which is awesome.

Check back next week as we answer the question “How do we solve a problem like Superboy?” Superman’s answer is ignore, ignore, ignore. Sound off in the comments below!


//TAGS | 2017 Summer TV Binge | Young Justice

Kevin Gregory

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