Getting a Thanksgiving episode should probably tell me to stop tagging this as “Summer Binge,” but whatever. I’ve neither binged nor no longer am summering, but here we are with what I think is one of the best episodes of this season with the best look at the Justice League so far and Superboy’s Maury moment. Let’s get started.
1.Trinity
We finally get a DC Trinity shot and boy is it a beautiful thing. I have been waiting all season for Wonder Woman, Superman, and Bats to share the screen together. I’ve also been waiting for 22 episodes for Wonder Woman to finally talk and that happens in this episode as well so I think all around this is a win. And also about damn time.
The whole framework of this episode with the League debating on new members is beautiful, and it’s the kind of non-punching events I want from my comics and need. Yeah I just think this is a great open and got me completely jazzed for this whole thing.
2.Bizarro Boy
The other plot set up in this episode is Superboy going back to Cadmus for the first time since episode 1, in another great callback and continuity moment that this show is known for, on request from Lex Luthor after the suspicion of another Super-clone. Superboy gets led around, has a weird interaction with Guardian where you realize he looks exactly like Red Arrow (take note), and ultimately discovers his big bro who then immediately attacks him. This super clone was created to kill Superman, not replace him, and has the opposite color eyes, and burns an S into…oh it’s Bizarro.
Has Superboy ever had a Bizarro? I don’t actually know. I’m sure Nick’ll tell me in the comments (as I’m sure he’s the only one still reading this, Hi Nick). Either way, it’s a cool idea that gets at the heart of Superboy’s whole arc and struggling with his humanity, who he is, freedom, etc. And he gets his ass kicked. Yeesh.
3.The debate of the century
God this whole debate is perfect. Like really perfect. This needs to be a comic. I bet it’s already comic.
The way the debate is framed, how the qualifcations are examined are really cool> All the factors, age, race, gender, maturity, body type, species, experience, it’s all framed really well and each case is examined very closely. Even the questioning of Doctor Fate and Captain Marvel’s League membership is done in a very DC, non-combative way. Plus Batman claiming he knew Bill was a kid is so Batman.
There’s also some great cameos and people. The integration of the Milestone characters Icon and Rocket into this show is a great move. Having both Hal and John claim Guy can’t be in the League is hilarious. Getting some Plas is always good, and then questioning the ability of Red Arrow, Miss M, Robin and the like really cool. And Wonder Woman questioning Batman on why he let Robin start fighting crime at 9 is heartbreaking. I love all of it. That is all.
4.Ethics of cloning
When we get to the parts about Genomorph City and the conversations about the ethics of cloning, and the freedoms the genomorph clones should have, this episode really took a cool Star Trek like turn, dealing with the ethics of freedom and individuality and rights. Superboy is a perfect character to do this with as he represents the exceptional idea of what all the genomorphs hope for. He’s like the Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager in that regard. I think this show tackles a lot of mature themes well, and it’s great to see this side beside with the Justice League’s democratic debate.
5.You’re the father!
So Lex gives Superboy some “shields” in order to cancel out the human half of him and bring out his full Kryptonian DNA to fight his clone brother who is full Kryptonian. This succeeds in really only making him angrier and Hulkier. Then it turns out Lex completely used Superboy which gee no one saw that coming right?
But then we learn that Lex is Connor’s other dad in what I know is a callback to Geoff John’s “Teen Titans” run (see Nick I know comics). I think this is a great move for the character, I think it follows a lot of murky grey character moments for a lot of the characters this season, and I can’t wait for more. Plus the Red Son moment of Lex freezing Superboy is really cool. The Light is really in control.
That’s all for this week folks, or folk, tune in next week as we get closer to the end with four episodes left and enter Starro! Sound off in the comments below!
