Sterling: So what do you call this, the Arrow Boat?
Red Arrow: I call it a rental.

Artemis: [after being telepathically linked by Miss Martian] This is weird!
Sterling: And distracting. Coding a distributed algorithm virus on a kiddie computer with less RAM than a wrist watch is hard enough. Now I have to have teen-think in my skull!!

Aqualad: Stop it – both of you!
Kid Flash & Artemis: WHAT?
Aqualad: I can hear you glaring.

Previously: Speedy had stormed out of the Hall of Justice after the induction of Aqualad, Kid Flash, Robin, and himself into the Justice League was revealed to be less than he expected (“Independence Day”). The other three, along with Miss Martian and Superboy, later formed a new group under Batman’s direction. However, Speedy was dismissive and refused to have anything to do with them (“Welcome to Happy Harbor”). Nevertheless, Amazo’s attack on Kid Flash was stopped by an arrow fired by an unknown ally (“Schooled”).

August 7th - It is dark as Red Arrow (the sidekick formerly known as Speedy) sneaks into the League of Shadow’s heavily guarded base on Infinity Island. He takes out masked gunmen and security cameras until he reaches the workshop of Dr Sterling Roquette – a young scientist who is being held prisoner on the Island until she finishes her secret project. Roquette is worried about leaving her work behind, but Red Arrow says he only has time to save her or her work, not both. She decides to leave with him and they escape down a zip line to a camouflaged speedboat he left by the shore. Behind them Professor Ojo tells his master, the Sensei, that she had completed her project.

August 8th – Wally West (Kid Flash) has to endure the first day back at school in Central City while the rest of his team relax with a BBQ on the beach behind their Cave headquarters. The Kid is all ready to join in the after school fun, but discovers that everybody is gathered in the Cave’s hub. Green Arrow is introducing them to Artemis – his “niece” and new protege and their new team-mate – moments before Red Arrow teleports in. He tells them he’s now working solo as Red Arrow, but questions Green Arrow’s speed at replacing him.

Red Arrow has come to them about Roquette’s kidnapping. Two weeks ago the League of Shadows kidnapped her from Royal University in Star City and forced her to create a weapon called the Utility Fog, a swarm of thousands of minuscule robots called Infiltrators. They can disassemble just about anything and can copy any digital data in the machines they destroy. They are the perfect weapon for blackmail and espionage. The mysterious Artemis knows about the Shadows leading Kid Flash to more than once shout “Who are you?!”

Red Arrow has hidden Dr Roquette at Happy Harbour High School where she is now working on a computer virus to disable the Infiltrators. He had sought Young Justice’s help in protecting her, but leaves after Green Arrow makes it clear that Artemis’s presence is non-negotiable. Roquette’s protection will now be their responsibility with out Red Arrow’s help. Young Justice fan out around the school grounds and Miss Martian links them telepathically as to provide silent communication. However, the constant snipping between Kid Flash and Artemis is distracting everybody.

At Aqualad’s request Roquette goes online and traces the Fog to an aeroplane near Philadelphia. Miss Martian reconfigures her bio-ship so that Robin and Superboy can pursue it while the rest of them remain behind to protect Dr Roquette. She still needs their protection as the same tracking signal which allowed them to trace the Fog will also allow the Shadows to get a fix on her location. This news is relayed to the Sensei who orders the closest Shadow operative to Happy Harbour to attack.

Miss Martian and Artemis are patrolling the outside of the School, but are unaware that they are being watched by Cheshire (a cat-masked assassin from the League of Shadows). She sneaks past them unnoticed and then lures Kid Flash into trap which leaves him floating unconscious in the school swimming pool. Her next attack is direct and Aqualad takes the poisoned throwing stars meant for Roquette. He duels with Cheshire as he sends a telepathic alert to his team-mates. Miss Martian pauses to pick up the unconscious Kid Flash as Artemis runs to the computer labs. The assassin deflects all of Artemis’s arrows, but vanishes using a smoke-bomb after the others turn up.

Kid Flash blames Artemis for Cheshire’s escape, but Miss Martian argues that she’s still new to being a sidekick. Robin and Superboy report that they were too late to stop the Infiltrator swarm from consuming STAR Labs Philadelphia. The Fog’s next target is a WayneTech facility, but Robin is alarmed that they won’t be able to evacuate the 24-hour work force in time. Aqualad moves Roquette to a nearby shop in an attempt to distract the League, but Cheshire returns with two accomplices. They knock out Aqualad and then burst into the shop where they discover that this Roquette is actually Miss Martian in disguise. The real Roquette is at nearby internet cafe working on the anti-Fog computer virus. She works quickly to finish the virus, but Cheshire has their scent and is being chased by Artemis while Miss Martian and Kid Flash fight Cheshire’s allies.

Artemis thinks she has gassed Cheshire, but it’s a feint and she is herself knocked-out. The assassin uses a massive dose of jelly-fish poison to drop Aqualad, leaving Roquette defenceless. However, her computer virus has already been uploaded to Robin in Philadelphia. He uses the check out in the cafeteria to upload Roquette’s virus into the WayneTech mainframe from where it is downloaded by the Infiltrators. The virus rapidly spreads through the entire swarm causing the little robots to self-destruct. Professor Ojo, the Shadow operative overseeing the swarm, is knocked out by Superboy.

In Happy Harbour, Cheshire stops her attack. Her orders were to kill Roquette before she sent the virus, but that reason is now moot and the League no longer has a reason to kill her (beyond “the entertainment value”). However, Cheshire threatens Roquette that one day “the Shadows may find another use for you.” Artemis stops Cheshire with explosive arrows as she leaves the Internet Cafe. Artemis recognises the woman beneath Cheshire’s mask and allows her to escape rather than let her reveal her own secrets to her new team-mates. The rest of Young Justice are unaware of this and finally accept Artemis as a team member.

August 9th – Artemis teleports to Gotham City, but is met by Red Arrow. He tells her that he knows her cover story about being Green Arrow’s niece is a lie and warns her about hurting his friends. Elsewhere, the Sensei reports to the Light that they stole the STAR Labs data, but were stopped from acquiring the requested WayneTech data. One of Light then comments that it is good that they now have an operative inside the heroes camp.

• Red Arrow’s rescue of Dr Roquette takes place on August 7th. The attack on her by the League of Shadows happens mainly on the 8th and Red Arrow’s warning to Artemis happens on the 9th.
• Wally goes to Keystone High School in Central City.
• Speedy has split from Green Arrow and has changed his codename to Red Arrow. His teleporter code is P06.
• The Happy Harbour swim team is called the Happy Harbour Hornets.
• “Atlantean skin is quite dense.” Aqualad has a natural immunity to jelly-fish poison.
• Miss Martian has twelve sisters back on Mars.

Sterling Roquette

Sterling Roquette was created by Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett for Superboy (vol. 3) #56 during the time that Project Cadmus was working with the good guys. She was a science prodigy who was brought into the Project after it was organised by Micky Cannon. Superboy was working for Cadmus as a field agent at the time and she was potential love interest for him. Sterling had a passion for old things from the 1950s and 1960s.

Red Arrow

The comic book Roy Harper hasn’t really worked as Green Arrow’s side for a long time now. Harper developed a drug problem, kicked that, set out on his own, took the name Arsenal, worked as a government agent, and had a daughter called Lian with a supervillain called Cheshire (yeah, that Cheshire – we’ll get back to her). After all that Roy remained clean and often worked with the Titans. He was eventually recognised by the Justice League and brought on to the main team when writer Brad Meltzer took over. He marked his membership by changing his codename to Red Arrow in recognition of his mentor. It’s that identity which is picked up her.

Unfortunately things fell apart pretty rapidly after that for the comic book Red Arrow as he became the victim of one of the worst storylines in modern Justice League history. His daughter was killed by the same super villain that ripped his arm off, his drug addiction relapsed, and he joined a group of supervillains. The single-parent Roy Harper was one of DCs most unique and fun characters. The armless-druggie Roy Harper is the poster child for the bone-headed belief at DC that character development has to equate to massive-personal-disaster.

Cheshire

In the comics Cheshire (real name Jade Nguyen) was an independent assassin with a speciality in poisons, she was unconnected with the League of Assassins. Roy Harper (Red Arrow) was working undercover for the US Government when he fell in love with and had an affair with Cheshire. He left her rather than turn her in, but he was unaware that she was pregnant with his child – a daughter called Lian.

Cheshire gets a creator credit for Marv Wolfman and George Perez. She was created by them for New Teen Titans Annual #2 (1983) and has been a long running foe of the Teen Titans in one form or another. In this episode Cheshire is named after the Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – not so much for its smiling, but for its ability to disappear at will after vexing its opponent. The mask she wears closely resembles the one she wore in the Teen Titans cartoon.

Cheshire is voiced by Tara Strong. Her first DC credit was as Batgirl for Batman The New Adventures, but her big connection to these characters is that she was Raven in Teen Titans. Strong may be most famous for voicing the character of Bubbles from the Powerpuff Girls.

Artemis

We knew that Artemis was an established character from the comic books – that much had been revealed at conventions and during interviews – but we didn’t know who as every suggestion had been shot down by the Producers. The original Artemis was the Ancient Greek goddess of the hunt and has given her name to several comic book characters over the years. The most famous DC Comics Artemis is probably the one that replaced Diana as Wonder Woman for a short time during the 1990s. However, neither of them are the Young Justice Artemis.

Throughout this episode there are pieces of evidence that start making sense given the above notes on Red Arrow and Cheshire. The rehearsed line about her being Green Arrow’s “niece” implies she’s not and this is later confirmed by Red Arrow. The yellow hair then suggests that she’s actually Green Arrow’s daughter. The comic book Green Arrow has a number of illegitimate sons including Conner Hawke (who once succeeded him as Green Arrow) and Robert (a son via Shado).

However, this is an adaptation of those stories and things often get shuffled and spliced together. Artemis is “she’s half-Caucasian, half-Vietnamese” according to Greg Weisman (Ask Greg Jan 13). We are shown Cheshire’s face to prove that she is of the same ethnicity as Artemis. The big hints make it seem that Artemis is the daughter of Cheshire and Green Arrow. If so, it would mean that Artemis’ comic book equivalent is actually Lian Harper, the daughter of Cheshire and Roy Harper (Red Arrow). The oriental parentage and being the hero daughter of a League of Assassins/Shadow member also has a parallel in Cassandra Kane (a former Batgirl).

Artemis is voiced by Stephanie Lemelin. Ironically the last character to be included in the main cast was the first one we heard about as Lemelin prematurely blogged about her casting before the show had been publically announced.

The League of Shadows

The name is from Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins which incorporated them into Batman’s origin as a secret society of murderous vigilantes directed by the mysterious Ra’s Al Ghul. Batman The Animated Series called them the Society of Shadows. What the adaptations are dancing around is the name of the original group, which was known as the League of Assassins. It appears that assassins, with the implicit murder element doesn’t play well with focus groups.

The League of Assassins and was created by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams for their seminal late 1960s/early 1970s run on Batman. Their group is a secret brotherhood of assassins and mercenaries who are meant to be Ra’s Al Ghul’s bodyguard and agents. To Ra’s the League were always an instrument to an end and were not his primary concern. They were usually run by one of his allies, but they had a habit of turning on him and using the League for their own purposes.

The League’s first collision with Batman occurred because it’s head – Ebeneezer Darrk – had kidnapped Ra’s daughter Talia and Batman’s sidekick Robin. It eventually turned out to an elaborate hoax designed to test Batman’s worthiness to marry Talia and succeed Ra’s as the head of his criminal empire. Needless to say Batman declined, but Ra’s remains one of Batman’s toughest opponents.

Darrk was succeeded by his second-in-command, a nearly – and often completely loopy – oriental martial arts master called the Sensei. His activities often pitted him against DC’s master martial artist Richard Dragon and the ghostly Deadman. The Sensei shown in Young Justice appears younger and decidedly more muscle than the scrawny, old man shown in the comics. He is voiced by Keone Young who played The Monkey in Teen Titans. His lieutenant Professor Ojo is voiced by Nolan North (Superboy). Ojo was a blind mastermind who use an electronic eye on a helmet to see.

Cheshire’s accomplices aren’t named in on screen, but they seem to be the Black Spider (an existing character, but an obvious nod to Spider-Man) and the Hook. The comic hook Hook is a rather more subtle character and was responsible for killing Boston Brand – the circus acrobat who became the ghost called Deadman. In this incarnation he has more in common with Trap-Jaw from the Masters of the Universe. Neither the Black Spider or the Hook speak.

By coincidence, this group were the enemy for “Sidekicks Assemble!” the episode of Batman: Brave and the Bold which featured the Teen Titans.

References

• Infinity Island was the name of story in Batman #334 (April 1981) which featured Batman, Catwoman, Robin, and King Faraday held prisoner on a mysterious volcanic island controlled by Ra’s Al Ghul.
• The circular computer seen in the computer room on Infinity Island is a Cray.
• Arrow Boat – There really was an arrow boat along with an Arrow Car and Arrow Cave. It seems Green Arrow had a bad case of bat-envy.
• Green Girl in a bikini – any body else thinking of Star Trek?
• Wally West goes to Keystone High School in Central City – in the comics Keystone City and Central City are twin cities on opposite banks of a river.
• Arrow tells them that Artemis is his niece which leads robin to comment “another niece?” It has already been established that Miss Martian is the Martian Manhunter’s niece. Nieces and nephews – the convenient explanation for younger relatives when you don’t want to imply that you hero is an absent parent.

Misc.

• Kid Flash’s diet: Candy bar in the school computer room.
• Kid Flash appears to be developing something of a trophy collection. Last episode he snagged Artemis’s arrow, now he’s picked up Cheshire’s mask.
• Trick Arrows: Video camera hacking arrow, tazer arrow, gas arrow, exploding arrow, and grapple line arrow

Highlights

Sterling Roquette’s character. She’d make a great reoccurring character if they ever need a scientist.

Oddities

Okay so by now the Light must have a pretty good idea where Young Justice are based as this is the second of their plans to be conveniently thwarted in or near Happy Harbour (e.g. the Mister Twister android and Roquette’s botched assassination).

First Impressions

There is a lot going on under the surface of this episode. We have a new character who is implied to be the secret daughter of Green Arrow and Cheshire. The Light hint that they have their own infiltrator within Young Justice. That, however, is a growing list of candidates. It could potentially be Artemis (her mother is in the League of Shadows), Superboy (the Light said in the pilot that they hadn’t finished with him), or even Red Tornado (T.O. Morrow was trying to reprogram him).

One thing that makes Young Justice stand apart from some other shows is their use of computer “lighting” and computer models. These models were only experimental during the Justice League’s second season and were introduced as the solution to the problem of animating solid objects. Its use in Young Justice is almost unnoticeable and is a testament to how far the technique has come. The Photoshop lighting is a new effect and can give the scenes a greater depth of tone than simple flat colouring. So far they haven’t gone overboard with it. That said, some of these episodes are really dark (in terms of light not content) and are giving Batman The Animated Series a run for its colour palette.

I wanted to give this episode a higher rating, but it felt like we were repeating the “girl proves herself worthy of the guys” plotline from “Welcome to Happy Harbor” and the repartee wasn’t quite as sharp as last episode. Red Arrow/Speedy’s return was welcome. The age difference between him and Robin works well as it stops the two non-powered sidekicks from appearing too similar. I also liked the use of Happy Harbour and the work that’s been put in to give the town a real world feel.

The Verdict