Young Justice Downtime Review
This week’s Young Justice is called “Downtime,” and focuses on what the team does when not actually fighting. This is a largely Aqualad focused tale. We not only see Aquaman, who I expected, but Mera, Garth (the first Aqualad), and Tula (the first Aquagirl). There was also some time with Superboy and Miss Martian together at Mount Justice, as they’re calling the Justice Cave.
SE 1: Episode 8 “Downtime”
While most of the action takes place in Atlantis, Posideonis specifically, there are lots of other good scenes: Dick training, and then playing basketball with Bruce (yep, this isn’t the main Earth), and the Flash family: Wally, his parents, Barry and Iris, even Jay and Joan.
Atlantis comes under attack from Black Manta and his mercenaries, giving Aqualad a no doubt welcome chance to vent after learning that Tula and Garth are together now. There are lots of other plot set ups here: Black Manta is after what appears to be Starro, Mera is pregnant, and during the battle, Garth invokes the power of the “Tempest,” the name he took on the main Earth after his time as Aqualad. Also of note, Aquaman’s brother Orm is in this one, who many fans know is the secret ID of long time Aquaman foe Ocean Master.
Intriguingly, we also see Artemis in a small aprtnemnt in Gotham City. Her mother is Asian and in a wheelchair, and brings her news that she was accepted into the Gotham Academy under a full Wayne Foundation scholarship. I’m really not sure who this Artemis is supposed to be, the Asian mom tends to throw out the theory that she is the daughter of Sportsmaster and Huntress. Mom, whoever she is, insists on Artemis taking the scholarship to “better her life,” a chance she never had.
Garth and Aqualad (that feels odd to write) drive off Manta, although Starro is freed from its’ crystal, and starts regenerating from a small piece. Also interestingly, Manta reports what happened to a branch of the Light, this conspiracy behind the scenes. The one he addressees is the outline with three points on it’s head, which makes me think that is, in fact, Ocean Master.
What I liked and what I didn’t:
It was nice to see everyone in their own lives. The focus on Aqualad was good, and this Atlantis is interesting. They even included long time Aquaman supporting character Vulko. And another nice touch was Aquaman and Aqualad speaking to each other in Atlantean. It is nice to see that some of the main Earth stuff is going on here- Mera being both Aquaman’s wife and very powerful, Garth and Tula, Orm as Ocean Master. The Flash family and the Dick/Bruce scene were great.
Personally, I could happily live without ever seeing Starro again. In any form. Anywhere. The possesses everyone starfish has always stuck me as silly. I also hope that with the pregnancy reveal being so close to a Black Manta attack, that history doesn’t repeat- on the main Earth, Black Manta killed their son. I also thought it was a bit sad that everyone seems to have someone except Superboy and Miss Martian. That actually doesn’t make sense to me- I know Superman seems hell-bent on ignoring Superboy, but Meggan and J’Onn are supposed to be related. And she did that stupid “Hello, Meggan” thing again.
The Light continue to interest me. I am slowly working out who many of them are, and have theories on others. So far, I’m fairly sure of Luthor, the Brain, and Ocean Master. As to the rest… well, that will be another article. I really like what they appear to be doing with Ocean Master, that he is an established foe of Aquaman, but they don’t seem to know he’s Orm yet (or they’ve changed that for this Earth).
A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATING
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| a lot of good character and set up scenes | Starro, more Hello Meggan |
| Rating |
Episode 2: Fireworks
Episode 3: Welcome to Happy Harbor
Episode 8: Downtime
7 Comments
About Artemis… it seems “Artemis” is not as much of a secret name as everyone thought… if you look at the letter she got in this episode, it shows her name as ARTEMIS CROCK… a quick wiki search will reveal that Artemis Crock, in the DC Universe, is one of the few women who has held the mantle of Tigress. This leads the assumption that the asisan lady is the previous Tigress who trained her in the comics. Its no longer a mystery who she is… now its just a mystery as to why they a) decided to use her instead of Mia (who fits as Roy’s replacement) or even Arrowette (who was actually in the Young Justice comics), and b) why the hell are BAtman and GA bringing her into the team at all? Anyway… aside from that sidenote (that you must have just missed when they showed the letter), I mostly agree with your review.
That’s who I thought she was at first, but in the main histories at least, the prior Tigress was a white woman. I guess I keep letting my guesses be effected by prior history that doesn’t necesarily apply on this Earth.
When they showed off Justice League action figures at the recent toy fair, the let slip a little on the Light. There were two as-yet unseen villains making debuts in toy form, both of which are A-list enough to be part of the Light. The first was Ra’s al Ghul. This makes perfect sense from what we saw in “Infiltraitor” with Sensei running the league of shadows, but still reporting to the Light. The Second was Vandal Savage. I have not seen any in-show clues that he is part of the Light. But it makes perfect sense that if an orginization like that existed he would be a member.
Yep, this isn’t the main earth if Bruce is playing basketball with Dick. DC Comics has done a lot to promote the new series; I just hope they continue with it. I just ran across this site and have to say that Young Justice is a breath of fresh air for TV. I have been a fan since I watched the first episode. Now that I have Sling technology with DISH Network, I never miss any of the shows. I live a very busy life and I use my iPhone to see his shows while on my lunch break at work. Being that I am a customer/employee of DISH I can’t recommend the TV Everywhere feature enough to anyone with a busy lifestyle.
Actually, if you watch the amazo episode “schooled”, there’s a shot of a trophy case at Robin’s school with a plaque pretty distinctly made out to Dick Grayson….now whether that’s the current robin or not, is another mystery!
Actually, it’s not really a mystery. In interviews and in promotional material, the Robin in this series has been identified several times as Dick Grayson, just as Wally West is this Kid-Flash.
Yeah, it’s Dick. Both on the site’s Wiki page and on Cartoon Network’s page he’s listed as Dick Grayson. Like Wayland said, same with Wally West. I think if it were Jason or Tim we would have seen Nightwing-Dick Grayson by now.