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Five Thoughts on Young Justice: Outsiders “Another Freak”

By | January 29th, 2019
Posted in Television | % Comments

The last round of Young Justice: Outsiders episodes until June with just three episodes left–this is where we find ourselves with “Another Freak.” This is a bit of a quieter episode, picking up three weeks after the events of last episode. From here on people there will be full spoilers.

We pick up on the Vic Stone subplot this episode and send our burgeoning heroes off to Happy Harbor High School, much like Conner and M’gann had to go back in season one. Things do not go off without a hitch, like they’re wont to do. The two plot points collide, we learn more about Violet’s powers, and the Outsiders gain “another freak,” hence the name. They really hammer that name thing home. Honestly, this is the first episode of the season so far that I was very “Meh,” on. Not a lot happens, Cyborg seems shoed in, and in some ways it seems a waste as we build to the midseason finale. But hey, if one out of eleven is a dud, that’s not too bad. Let’s dive in.

1. The explosion

I questioned last episode why we needed to see the Cyborg origin story again when it seems to be an origin we have been inundated with recently, but we play out the rest of the story this episode. Victor’s pissed cause his dad is working on top secret Justice League business and not watching him become a football star, and Silas proves himself a bad parent. There’s far more anger in this origin than in the Geoff Johns/Jim Lee origin from The New 52 “Justice League.” Victor is so pissed, in Johns’ story he was far more just riddled with disappointment. Silas was also more tolerable. The accident that leads to his transformation too is not so much Vic’s fault in the comics, but here the accident is mostly his fault and his body looks a hell of a lot more disfigured than Jim Lee’s art. It’s far more gross.

What happens after is also far harsher, perhaps because it’s a Father Box and not a Mother Box that transforms Vic in this show. He acts more maliciously towards the people who save him, and I honestly thought he might kill one of them, or Halo which would also have been bad. He didn’t, but he got close. It also doesn’t help that he comes out of the accident looking a lot more like he’s going to look when Doom Patrol airs, way more human, so much less bulky, but still not much like a cyborg. Perhaps we’ll get there. Either way, the incident was way bloodier, much harsher, and the music and lighting for all those portions of the episode were really off-putting to me. I’m 0-2 on the Cyborg stuff.

2. Fred Bugg with two G’s

But Forager is still adorable. Gahd Forager is so adorable. I feel so bad that Dick, Artemis, Will, M’gann, and Conner just gave him no training on how to kind of maybe a little bit be a human? Especially M’gann cause she works at the school! Little guy never stood a chance against those savage teens.

Anyway, Violet and Forager end up at Happy Harbor High together. Forager just can’t not refer to himself as the name Violet gives him: Fred Bugg. She thought he’d love it, and he’s just excited about the two G’s. He’s so excited about having a different name outside of Forager too, but he just keeps calling himself “Fred Bugg with two G’s” to every pour soul he meets. I get the point this episode is making that Halo, Forager, Cyborg, all of them are different. They’re all “freaks” as the self-call them. But Forager and Violet acting with such little preparation (or at least a conversation) for school is just too on the nose for me. It also seems like they should have been warned. But oh well.

3. Meet Harper Rowe

Violet and Forager being treated like weirdoes did lead them meeting another recent extended member of the Bat-family in the comics: Harper Row. Harper was created by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo for Snyder’s Bat run and later assumed the mantle Bluebird during the “Batman Eternal” event and continued to operate through the rest of The New 52. She seemed to have hung her costume up during Rebirth and James Tynion IV’s “Tec” run, but she’s still around waiting to be picked up if someone wanted to. The creators of this show have, and it’s unclear if this is just a fun one-off thing, or if they’re seeding future costumed heroes for future seasons. Either way, it’s good to see that the borrowing of characters and concepts for this season continues to delve into the good aspects of relatively recent comic runs.

Continued below

4. I’ll be ok

The Brion/Dick in this episode seemed to reach a very quick resolution that I was a little confused about. Brion continues to check his phone in this episode, like he has in all the previous ones, reading news article about his brother and Markovia. He, for some reason, doesn’t have to go to school even though I think he’s 17? Whatever. He tries to gain access to the League’s database to learn about the Shadows, Santa Prisca, and the location of his sister and is completely locked out. Dick then arrives on the scene to tell him Tara is no longer with the League of Shadows and he’s pissed and tries to fight Dick.

What happens is, of course, Dick evades and shows he could wipe the floor with Brion and then babbles on about this not really being about Tara, but it about being about Markovia and him living in the past. It seems really callous and unhelpful, and I anticipated it leading to Brion striking out on his own. Yet, by episode’s end the two have reconciled with very little conversation and fanfare. It seems odd that such a big tension that has been present these last eleven episodes is wiped away so easily and so clumsily. Oh well, super angry Brion was getting old, so this is fine.

5. I’m not sure why

Alright, so Halo ends up appearing out of nowhere to save Cyborg, like she’s drawn to him for some reason, like she’s drawn to the Father Box. We know that Halo has some connection to the Fourth World stuff since she had the weird recital of Fourth World facts, and this seems like confirmation. What I don’t understand is why we needed Cyborg for Halo to come to that realization. I don’t understand yet what the purpose of brining him in in such a big way is. I don’t understand where his arc goes from here. I’m not quite sure why he so easily leaves his dad to go with Halo. I’m not sure where we go from here. And I don’t say that in the, “I’m excited or interested about where this is going” way, but more in the, “I don’t get why this exists,” way. I hope it’s not that Vic is being set up as another love interest for Halo to draw tension with Brion, cause that would be problematic. However, if both of them become key players in the war with Darkseid, and it seems sort of organic, well, then I’ll be alright.

That’s all for this installment folks! Sound off in the comments below and we will you see you Thursday for the penultimate episode!


//TAGS | Young Justice

Kevin Gregory

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