Black Canary: Did anybody see what he [Kid Flash] did wrong?
Robin: Oh. Oh. He hit on teacher and got served!
Kid Flash: Dude!

Superboy: I HATE monkeys!

For time reasons Screen Shots and Graphics will follow later in the week, but for now here is the text of my review.

August 3rd - A busy rush hour in Metropolis is thrown into chaos as cracks appear in one of the city’s massive suspension bridges. Superman welds repairs with his heat vision. Superboy arrives moments later and lands heavily on the bridge deck. He starts pulling cars back from the edge of the bridge and is just pulling a school bus to safety when Superman scoops it up and sets it down. Superman castigated his young clone for his heavy landing which could have destabilized the bridge. He tells Superboy that “we don’t yet know the limits of your powers”, but when Superboy asks for help figuring that out Superman hurriedly tells him that “Batman’s got that covered” and ducks out to answer an emergency call from Green Arrow. Batman, who had watched the entire encounter though binoculars, radios Superman and tells him “we need to talk!”

The frustrated Superboy returns to Mount Justice, but refuses to acknowledge his team-mates. Black Canary and the Martian Manhunter then arrive. The Manhunter wanted to check how Miss Martian was doing. Superboy sees them hug and is reminded just how distant he and Superman are. Black Canary tells him to stick around as she’s about to start a training session. A cocky Kid Flash volunteers to be her first sparring partner, but his hormones get cut down to size as she instantly floors him. Superboy proclaims that his powers mean that he doesn’t need her training and she challenges him to prove it. He gets angry and she floors him twice. Superboy is about to stomp off when Batman contacts the Cave.

The emergency that Green Arrow had called Superman to was the appearance an android which could duplicate the abilities of any superhuman it encountered. Each new Leaguer who showed up to fight it up only made it more powerful. It took eight Justice Leaguers four hours to defeat the android and dismantle it. They’ve ruled out T.O. Morrow as its creator and Batman’s suspects that it was created by Professor Ivo (despite the League believing him to be dead). In order to stop Ivo regaining control of his android the League has split its parts into shipments which will be sent to two separate STAR Labs facilities.

Young Justice are to split into two teams and covertly escort the trucks to their destinations. They arrive at Litchfield County where they find STAR Labs personnel loading the android’s remains into six trucks – four are decoys and two are real. The trucks split into two convoys heading towards Star Labs Manhattan and STAR Labs Boston. Robin and Superboy follows one convoy while Miss Martian, Superboy, and Aqualad follow the other. In order to keep their anonymity the teen heroes are on motorcycles. As the rest of the Justice League move off Batman puts his hand on Superman’s shoulder and says “I told you we need to talk.”

Robin tries to break the tension with his usual levity, but Superboy is still wound up from the sparring session with Black Canary. He can’t see the need for extra-training when he was Superman’s powers. On the other team Miss Martian is worried about Superboy. However, both groups ruminations are cut short when their trucks are attacked by a flocks of flying monkey-like robots. Superboy’s arrogance gets almost gets him blinded by the robots. The weight of robot monkey numbers keeps the teams distracted while the robots cut a hole in the trucks and escape with the boxes containing the android’s components. Superboy, whose vision is still blurry, leaves Robin behind and follows the robot monkeys by listening to their distinctive chatter with his superhearing.

Aqualad contacts Superboy to ask if he needs any help, but Superboy throws his commutator away. It is imperative that they recover the android’s parts before its reassembled. However, with Superboy off-comms, they’ve got no way of tracking Ivo’s robot monkeys. Robin realises that the android’s parts must have broadcast a signal for the robot monkeys to follow. He hacks a broken robot and discovers that the two flocks of monkey robots are converging on Gotham City. Robin is close enough that can reach Gotham in time, but Aqualad’s team is too far away for him or Miss Martian to make it. Only Kid Flash can rendezvous with Robin at superspeed.

Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent meet in Bibbo’s Diner, Metropolis to discuss Superman’s attitude to Superboy. Bruce tells Clark “this boy needs his father” to which Clark protests that he’s “not his father” and then leaves. Meanwhile Superboy has followed the robot monkeys to a train approaching Gotham City. Superboy confronts Professor Ivo in one of the rail cars, but he isn’t impressed with the Professor or his robots. Ivo then reveals that he’s already repaired the android (the Amazing Amazo). Superboy tries attacking it, but it has Superman’s strength and can easily withstands his strong bunches blows. The Android beats-ups Superboy, much to Ivo’s amusement, and them throws him off the train.

The limp Superboy crashes into an unoccupied High School just as Robin and Kid Flash approach Gotham City. By chance it happens to be Robin’s High School that Amazo threw Superboy at. Ivo then sends Amazo to finish-off Superboy. It throws him around the hall, through the science labs, and into the sports hall, but Superboy is unable to mount any significant resistance. Ivo is so pleased with the opportunity of seeing Superman’s son killed that he takes up a seat on the benches to watch. Luckily Kid Flash pulls the weakened Superboy to safety at very last moment, but even the three of them are no more able to hand Amazo than Superboy was on his own.

Kid Flash escapes Amazo’s grapple when it turns insubstantial to avoid an incoming arrow demonstrating that Amazo can only duplicate one ability at a time. Ivo tells them that he hasn’t even bothered telling Amazo to duplicate their abilities as they are such poor knock offs of the originals. Superboy then realises that Amazo’s power switching is actually his weak point. He switches tactics and starts attacking Ivo. This forces Amazo to start protecting Ivo and gives Robin, Kid Flash, and Superboy enough breathing time for a coordinated attack. Amazo turns insubstantial to avoid Robin’s throwing disc as Superboy pushes his fist into the space where Amazo’s head was. Then, when android turns solid again, Superboy’s fist is where Amazo’s head should be and it explodes. Amazo is defeated, but Ivo escaped while their backs were turned.

August 4th - It’s early in the morning when Young Justice return to the Cave. Green Arrow shows them that he didn’t fire the arrow at Amazo leading Robin and Kid Flash to assume that Speedy must have been there in secret. Amazo has finally been disassembled and taken to the two separate STAR labs, but Batman tells them that hunting down Ivo will be a League priority. He also tells them, and Superboy in particular, that the League were impressed with how they handled themselves. Superboy is still angling for Superman’s approval, but Batman tells him to give it time as all kryptonians are equally hard-headed. Nevertheless, Superboy has relaxed and accepts Black Canary’s offer to train with him.

• This episode takes place on August 3rd into August 4th, one month after the events of the first episode.
• Earth-16 Firsts: Bruce Wayne out of costume, Superman referred to as “Clark.” First appearance of Metropolis.
• The Justice League and Young Justice have earpiece communicators.
• Superboy’s teleport code is P04. He really doesn’t like monkeys.
• Miss Martian calls the Martian Manhunter “Uncle J’onn”.
• Robin goes to school at the Gotham City Academy.

Black Canary

Black Canary is one of DC Comics’ prime legacy heroes. The original Black Canary (Dinah Drake) , her mother, appeared towards the tail end of the Golden Age of comics in Flash Comics #86 (August 1947) as a masked crime fighter who posed as a criminal to get closer to her targets. She quickly lost the mask, became more conventional, and joined the Justice Society (the forerunner of the Justice League). Her daughter (Dinah Laurel Lance) grew-up around the members of the Justice Society and heard from them about her mother’s exploits. Then when she was old enough the younger Dinah borrowed her mother’s costumed identity (stole it really) and became a second generation Black Canary. The younger Canary did have an advantage however. Her mother was just a good fighter, but Canary II possessed a “canary cry”, an ultrasonic scream that could stun bad guys or shatter concrete.

Black Canary has remained popular because… well because she’s a blond in fish nets and a leather jacket. For years Canary II was the on/off girlfriend Oliver Queen (the Green Arrow), but Queen’s wandering eye would often drive a wedge between them. Canary was on her own and at a low ebb when she was recruited by Oracle (Barbara Gordon – Commissioner Gordon’s daughter, the former Batgirl) to become the first operative of something called the “Birds of Prey”. This is a loose association of female superheroes and crime fighters who Oracle calls upon to undertake covert Mission Impossible style missions. The concept was adapted for the short lived Birds of Prey TV series with Rachel Skarsten playing the younger Black Canary. More recently Alaina Huffman has been playing Black Canary in Smallville.

This Black Canary is Young Justice’s trainer. In her opening speech she alludes to her own mentors which would, if we’re following normal DC canon, be a reference to the Justice Society. She is voiced by Vanessa Marshall who played Wonder Woman in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths and Huntress in Justice League Heroes. Just like Black Canary’s mother, Marshall’s mother is in the same business – she’s Joan Van Ark who voiced Spider-Woman in the 1979 Marvel cartoon (admittedly that one of her smaller roles). This makes for interesting casting possibilities is they ever need to cast the senior Canary.

Amazo

Amazo is not called the One Man Justice League without reason. Depictions of Amazo swing back and forth between it being sentient and it being mindless. The ultimate extension of the former was in Justice League Unlimited where Amazo became almost godlike as its consciousness and power expanded. In left the Earth to explore the universe. This Amazo is decidedly less cosmic.

Professor Ivo

This is a rather different version of Ivo that we’ve seen before. The comic book Ivo was obsessed with immortality and only built the Amazo android as a slave to gather the components he needed. It was an obcession that eventually turned Ivo into the scaly form helping Maxwell Lord in Justice League: Generation Lost. This Ivo with his green tank-top and red-bow tie looks more like the 1950s conception of a nerd – think old school Jimmy Olsen or even high school Peter Parker.

Ivo, Amazo, and the MONKIs are all voiced by Peter MacNicol who played Chronos in Justice League and Kirk Langstrom in The Batman.

The location of Gotham City

Batman shows Young Justice a map showing the route that the STAR Labs trucks will be taking to Boston and Manhattan. Also included on the map is the location of the fictional Gotham City in the Young Justice universe. It’s shown in Connecticut on I95 somewhere between Stamford and Bridgeport.

References

• First Lex Luthor reference: it’s a Lexcorp truck that slams into the school bus.
• Bruce Wayne’s reveal of his folded Batman costume is a direct reference to how, in the 1960s Batman TV series, Adam West would open the secret entrance to the Batcave with a button concealed in a bust of Shakespeare.
• The training surface and the soccer tables resemble Microsoft’s Surface, a touch based interface developed for use in bar tops and on conference tables.
• Ivo M.O.N.K.I.s, the flying robots, have the head of the Iron Giant and the body of a flying monkey. And any flying monkey is automatically a reference to Wicked Witch’s flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz.
• Miss Martian grows multiple arms while fighting the MONKIs. It’s a neat trick for any shapeshifter, but when a Martian does it the writers are referencing, whether deliberately or not, the John Carter books of Edgar Rice Burroughs which featured a race of four armed Martians.
• Robin uses twin eskrima fighting sticks. When Dick Grayson gets older he leaves Batman’s tutelage and sets up his own identity as Nightwing. The twin eskrima sticks are Nightwing’s signature weapon.
• Bibbo’s Diner in Metropolis is a reference to Bibbo from the Superman comics. He was a dock hand who bore more than a passing resemblance to Popeye. His bar, the Ace ‘o Clubs, has appeared a few times in Superman adaptations and made it into Superman: Returns where Jack Larson, Jimmy Olsen from The Adventures of Superman, played the bartender.
• Robin’s school, Gotham City Academy, may have first appeared as Brentwood Academy in the comics of Tim Drake (his successor as Robin).

Misc

• This episode was written by Nicole Dubuc. She has a strong writing CV in animation, but may be known to some as one of the daughters in the 1990s sitcom Major Dad.
• Kid Flash’s diet: A banana whilst playing Aqualad at table soccer.
• Oddly Geoff Johns and Tony Daniel (the writer and the artist) both a creator credits for Miss Martian, but only Gardner Fox (the writer) gets a creator credit for Amazo – what about Mike Sekowsky who drew Amazo’s first appearance.
• Professor Ivo: “After all the trouble I went through finding an acronym for monkey.” – As a scientist I can say that yes, we often think of the acronym first and then try to fit a meaning to it.
• We are given the location of Gotham City in Earth-16. I’ll post up a screen grab when I do the rest of the screen shots.

Highlights

Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne in Bibbo’s Diner.

Oddities

Super Speed Plot Holes: Why doesn’t Superman or the Flash just carry every piece of the android to a separate city. They could get that done in a split second without the danger of moving large parts of it at once. (Super speed is to superhero shows that the cell phone is a police procedural. Both of them will completely kibosh any suspense in your plot unless you ignore them or disable them at the first possible opportunity).

First Impressions

Well isn’t Superboy a regular little hulk bouncing around the countryside with all his anger and rage – I almost expected him to tell his friends that they “wouldn’t like me when I’m angry”. That said, it’s nice to see this subplot addressed early in the season before his brooding becomes overblown. The scene in the diner was revealing as Superman’s personality so closely matches that of his clone. Neither of these men are very good at relating to others and that’s just magnified when it’s effectively their self that they are trying to relate to. The parallel is nicely brought out by Nolan North’s consistent portrayal of both characters.

I really liked this episode. I’m obviously a Justice League fan first and a Teen Titans/Young Justice fan second so I really liked the high frequency of Justice Leaguers in this episode. However, they didn’t over balance it and turn it into a Justice League show. The set-up with foes who are reoccurring to the heroes, but new to us was handled nicely and as I’ve said before really helps to give the show depth. What I find interesting about Young Justice is that they are subservient to the Justice League, they are definitely the junior party here, whereas the Teen Titans have always been an independent group (the only adults in Cartoon Network’s Teen Titans were villains). Whether they rebel or remain the junior partners will be interesting.

As an aside: I watched this on Amazon’s Video on Demand service ($2.99 for a HD episode isn’t bad, but it could mount up quick I think) for the first time and rather enjoyed the experience without all the Cartoon Network pop-ups and advert breaks. It also meant I could read the darn credits for once.

The Verdict

• 2011-02-08 – Added screenshots