It’s that time again as the weather starts to change, you break out the shorts, and Multiversity Comics begins once again it’s Summer TV Binge! I’ll be bringing you 20 weeks of the second season of Young Justice after working my way through season one last summer. This is exciting because it will get all of us ready for the debut of season three, out on the DC Universe service sometime later this year (hopefully after we finish this recap).
For the second season the show retitled itself, Young Justice: Invasion and jumped five years in the future. We get a whole new cast of characters and the return of some warworn old ones as this whole world just keeps expanding and getting bigger and bigger. Let’s dive in!
1. Five Years Later
I spoiled this above, so if you didn’t know . . . well look it’s been six years and that’s like an eternity in geek culture cause Avengers: Infinity War was spoiled within less than a week. We get a flashback to Robin, Batman, and the rest of the Team and the League at the end of season one as they realize Vandal Savage made some members of the League vanish for 16 hours, and then we dive right in. We get Superboy and Miss Martian fighting Clayface in Gotham, and a Robin in the shadows who helps them out before Beast Boy, Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes), and Bumblebee all step out of the shadows, and we realize this Robin isn’t Dick Grayson (it’s Tim Drake). We hear Dick say, “Nightwing out” in the comm before we get the familiar date signature and it’s January 1st like it should be, only five years later.
This is such a cool opening as it plays with all your expectations for where the show should begin after last season. It begins on January 1, which is right where we ended last season, and it doesn’t give away that we have a whole new slew of characters until right at the end. This show drops you in right in the middle of the action, with more questions than you could probably think to ask in such a smart, slick way that makes whatever is coming more exciting.
2. So much has changed . . .
Within the first five minutes of this show we’re introduced to: a new Robin, Blue Beetle, Beast Boy, Lagoon Boy (who I knew nothing about,) Bumblebee, Mal Duncan, Batgirl (Barbara Gordon), and Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark), all new members of the Team (and maybe I’m missing people). We see Dick as Nightwing, Zatanna and Rocket now in the League, Miss M and Superboy no longer together, and no Kaldur, Wally, or Artemis in sight. Also we have G. Gordon Godfrey, notable New Gods villain, stirring up propaganda and alien xenophobia, voiced by none other than Tim fucking Curry. Again there’s so much going on here, the changes that have been made vast, expansive, and numerous and it’s going to be exciting to explore them all. It’s almost an overwhelming amount of difference. But I love it and just love the smart, expansive nature of something like this. This show after one season already felt close to being as populated as the main DCU, and this just breaks that mold even harder. This is Justice League: Unlimted level expansion just in the teenage hero realm. Bring it on.
3. vs. Lobo
Speaking of bring it on, Wonder Girl and Batgirl take on Lobo as he tries to kidnap a Krolotean-disguised member of the U.N. It is really interesting seeing Lobo show up here as a villain as he has been mostly a hero the last few years in the DCU and I forgot he’s a nasty, bastich antihero. He doesn’t really act much like the Lobo I’m familiar with as he’s way more serious and just in and out of their real quick as he nabs his victim. He doesn’t really use any of his familiar words or talk like he is supposed to other than using the word “frag.” Although I’d imagine you can’t say bastich in a show for teens. Anywho, it seemed like a wasted cameo when they could have used any generic space villain, and not a justice to Lobo.
Continued below4. A League of their own
The scenes with part of the Team and part of the League on the Watchtower getting the full scope of the new Krolotean threat was really cool in this episode as it showcased that the League thinks of Miss M, Superboy, and Nightwing on the same level of them, and that the Team is no longer “Junior Justice League,” but truly a black ops force for the main Justice League. This is solidified in Adam Strange telling the League they’re wanted on Rann and in other parts of the galaxy and the callback to the missing 16 hours. We really get the sense from this that we are about to get a huge, expansive, cosmic space opera for a season, especially with the inclusion of a planet like Rann and a less-known character like Strange. This level of respect though that the Justice League has for their proteges is unique in this show, and, even in current Rebirth continuity really seems missing. It’s nice for the interconnectedness of the universe not to be a we need to fight and rival one another, but truly be one of global cooperation. The DC animated shows have continued to be really good about this.
5. Gamma squad
Tim gets his first moment of leading here as he is in charge of Gamma squad with Beetle and Lagoon Boy. This is a call back to Dick’s early desire to lead in the first season, and shows a bit of favoritism the Bat-family has towards one another. Tim clearly doesn’t want to let him down, and it’s nice to see they have that mentor/mentee relationship. I haven’t read a lot of ‘90s or ‘00s DC, but I’d imagine the two also had a similar relationship in that transition era as well.
Anyway, Tim, Beetle, and La’gaan of course end up at the hive or Kroloteans which showcases Tim’s innate leadership abilities, and the beginnings of the coming character development for Jaime as he can talk to the Kroloteans and we already hear him bickering back and forth with the Scarab. It’s cool seeing the hints of what’s to come in Beetle getting ahold of the scarab on his back. That shot with the Justice League descending is beautiful, and to see all the heroes of the world in one place is great to again remembering this world is huge.
That’s all for this week folks, next week come back as Superboy, Beast Boy and Miss M follows Adam Strange to Rann and things begin to get cosmic.
