Red Arrow: I may, possibly, be in over my head.

Previously on Young Justice: Aqualad, Robin, and Kid Flash cooperated to liberate a young clone of Superman called Superboy from the clutches of a laboratory run by a sinister cabal called the Light (“Independence Day”). Batman and the Justice League decided to add Miss Martian to the teen team and use them as a covert strike force that can go where the famous Justice League would otherwise be recognised (“Fireworks”). Roy Harper, Green Arrow’s former sidekick, refused to take part and left to found his own solo identity as the Red Arrow, but he was forced to ask the Team for help in defending a scientist from the assassin Cheshire and the League of Shadows. Red Arrow walked away again after discovering that Green Arrow’s mysterious new sidekick, Artemis, has been added to the team (“Infiltrator”).

September 7th – International media attention is focused on the Taiwanese capital of Taipei where delegations from the divided country of Rhelasia are meeting for a peace summit. Security is tight as the North Rhelasian delegation (led by General Singh Manh Li) and the South Rhelasian delegation (led by Prime Minister Tseng) await the arrival of the secret negotiator who they hope will break the deadlock between them. Troops from each side are massing on their shared border and there is a very real danger of all out war if this summit fails.

Red Arrow is undercover in the crowd searching for the international assassin Cheshire. He radios Aqualad at Mount Justice and ask for a physical description of her, but he cuts Aqualad off once he has the information. Red Arrow spots Cheshire and spoils her attempt to blow up the negotiator’s car. They wrestle long enough to be surrounded by armed police and for Cheshire to be captured. To everybody’s surprise the secret negotiator is revealed as the multi-billionaire business-man Lex Luthor!

Luthor recognises Red Arrow as Green Arrow’s former sidekick and vouches for him with the local police. He is obviously useful to Luthor as a bodyguard, but Arrow tells Luthor that he knows who he really is (Superman’s arch-enemy). Luthor replies that “I don’t pretend to be an angel, but it just so happens that this time I am on the side of the angels.” The assassination attempt has only worsened tempers between the two delegations and Luthor’s presence is more important that ever. He offers to hire Red Arrow as a bodyguard for the duration on the summit, but Arrow refuses the money and ends up doing the job anyway.

Meanwhile at Mount Justice, the ball rescued by Superboy from Bialya (“Bereft”) appears jealous that he and Miss Martian are about to start their first term at Happy Harbour High-School. While Miss Martian changes her skin colour to pass as earth girl (“Megan Morse”) Superboy is confused by the adoption of a secret identity. The Martian Manhunter shows him his own identity as John Jones and says he suggested the Red Tornado’s secret identity of John Smith. Megan suggest Conner as a name for Superboy and her uncle adds that last name of Kent. Megan thinks this is in memory of the late Kent Nelson (“Denial”) as neither she nor Superboy yet know Superman’s secret identity.

Red Arrow tries to question Cheshire, but she won’t tell him anything more than her already known connection to the League of Shadows. She’s flirting with him when the Sportsmaster blows a hole in the wall. Arrow follows their rooftop escape and fires a grappling-line at their helicopter. However, Cheshire cuts his rope sending him, plunging him towards the rooftops before. Red Arrow quickly gives himself a safe, if sticky landing, with a foam arrow. The other end of his grapple-line – the end still attached to the helicopter – contained a tracer which he follows to the League of Shadows’ base. Arrow overhears Ra’s Al Ghul, the leader of the League of Shadows, berate Cheshire for her failure. However, Ra’s spots him and orders Cheshire and Sportsmaster to kill him. They corner Red Arrow on the rooftop and he dives into the moat to escape them. The assassins leave believing they’ve killed him.

After changing his own t-shirt to hide his identity Superboy is slightly annoyed to find that it was unnecessary as every other student at Happy Harbour High is wearing a t-shirt with one or other emblem of the Justice League on it. He collides with a skater called Marvin White and quickly ends up in a stare down with a larger boy called Mal Duncan. Luckily their teacher Mr (Lucas) Carr orders the class inside before anything happens. Marvin and his girlfriend Wendy Harris then introduce themselves and she invites Megan to try out for the Bumblebees – the school cheer-leading squad. The entire episode is exasperating and more than a little confusing for “Conner”. He awkwardness is compounded when, in class, he relates the history of Rhelasia machine-like in response to a question (a gift from Cadmus’s telepathic programming).

An exhausted Red Arrow pulls himself out of the water and finally realises that he need backup. He reports back to Lex Luthor that it’s Ra’s Al Ghul who wants him dead. Luthor describes Ra’s as “a competitor”, but the peace summit will nevertheless continue. Luthor attempts to use the Rhelasian Tea Ceremony as common ground between the two leaders, but the tea is delivered by Cheshire. Finding her path blocked by Aqualad, who has come to aid Red Arrow, Cheshire sets off her bomb. Aqualad uses every ounce water in the room to create a defensive screen shielding the delegates. The Sportsmaster and his League of Shadow assassins arrive as Cheshire’s backup. Aqualad then takes on Sportsmaster as Red Arrow takes Cheshire.

Megan performs her try out cheer for the Bumblebees (Happy Harbour’s football team is the Hornets and their cheerleaders are the Bumblebees). It looks like Megan may have flunked the audition when the other girls drench her in water. Megan has to telepathically shout at Conner not to attack them as he doesn’t understand, but in his attempt to rein in his anger he trips and bumps down the bleachers. It was all an initiation stunt for Megan’s acceptance into the squad – they like her even if her boyfriend is a bit odd. Conner gives his jacket to the dripping wet Megan and picks up her books (“What? You want them to get wet?”). She is happy to have him carry her books, but he is oblivious to the symbolism.

Back in Taipei the Sportsmaster mentions Santa Prisca and Bialya to Aqualad and hints that he has an inside source on the Team. Red Arrow then spots the sprinkler system and shouts to Aqualad to “end this!”. Aqualad uses the torrent of water to create a serpent which washes away the League’s assassins. A lone assassin gets through the deluge, but he is shot down by a blast from Mercy’s cybernetic arm (Luthor’s ever-present assistant). Despite all they hard work it’s the Lexcorp hardware that Mercy showed off which interests the delegates and breaks the ice between them.

Later, as the North and South Rhelasian delegates sign a new treaty, Arrow and Aqualad discuss Sportmaster’s claim to have a mole on the Team. Aqualad refuses to rule out the possibility and says he’ll investigate “quietly”. Arrow says that the Team has his respect and says he’ll be there if they need him. Even later, Lex Luthor and Ra’s Al Ghul toast the success of the peace summit and how they have caused both sides to clamour for Lexcorp technology. The reunified country will be using Lexcorp technological and be under their political sway. Ra’s says that yet another corner of the world has seen “the Light.”

• This episode takes place on September 7th.
• Several secret identity are revealed including John Jones (Martian Manhunter), John Smith (Red Tornado), Megan Morse (Miss Martian), and Conner Kent (Superboy).
• Conner and Megan’s High-School classmates include Karen Beecher, Mal Duncan, Marvin White, and Wendy Harris. Their teacher is Lucas Carr.
• Robin, Kid Flash, and Artemis do not appear in this episode.

Lex Luthor

Lex Luthor has been Superman’s principal nemesis since the 1940s. He first appeared in Action Comics #23 (April 1940) as a mad scientist (with a full head of red hair) who is trying to provoke war in Europe. Luthor lost his hair after a couple of appearances – possibly as an artistic error – and has remained bald ever since. A personal connection between Superman and Lex Luthor was created in the 1950s when it was explained that Luthor had lost his hair whilst trying to create a cure for Kryptonite poisoning. They had been friends, but Luthor convinced himself that the young Superman had sabotagued the experiment because he couldn’t bare Luthor succeeding where he had failed. The Lex Luthor in Young Justice is the Luthor introduced by John Byrne and Marv Wolfman in 1986. Before their Man of Steel reboot of the Superman franchise Lex Luthor had been a career criminal, a genius scientist who had dedicated his life to destroying Superman. Byrne and Wolfman reinvented Lex Luthor as a billionaire business man who hid his arms smuggling and illegal activities behind a facade of philanthropy and civic works.

Lex Luthor is voiced by Mark Rolston. He was previously credited in “Fireworks” as L-3, the mysterious third member of the Light. He has previously voiced Firefly for Justice League “Only A Dream” and in two episodes of Batman The Animated Series. Luthor’s presence in this series was foreshadowed in “Schooled” when a Lexcorp truck was seen in the Metropolis sequence.

Lex Luthor’s assistant, Mercy, first appeared in Superman: The Animated Series as Lex Luthor’s valet, but later made the transition to the comic books where she was teamed with another woman called Hope. The robotic Mercy parallel’s a recent Action Comics storyline by Paul Cornell which featured a robot Lois Lane who operated as Lex Luthor’s confidant and bodyguard until it was taken over by Brainiac. However, co-producer Greg Weisman has confirmed that this Mercy  is a cyborg.

Ra’s Al Ghul

Ra’s Al Ghul is a classic Batman villain introduced in Batman (vol. 1) #232 (June 1971) by writer Denny O’Neil and artist Neal Adams. He is Batman’s Professor Moriarty. His name is usually pronounced is “raych-al-ghul”, but Batman Begins went with the phonetic “raz-al-ghul”. The name is derived from Arabic and is meant to mean “the Demons Head”. This is an allusion to his position as an international criminal mastermind and head of the League of Assassins (the group that is called the League of Shadows in this continuity and in Batman Begins). His agenda is an ecological one and is influenced from the 1970s concerns over run away population increase. Ra’s believes that the world’s population is too large and that it is his duty to cull the human herd in order to save the Earth’s biosphere.

In appearance he is a latter-day Fu Manchu or Arab prince, but his ethnicity is usually suitably indistinct that almost anything can be applied. The Batman Begins film series used him as a cipher that was merged with another character called Henry Ducard. Ra’s is virtually immortal as he has access to the Lazarus Pit, an alchemical spring that can regenerate a dying or dead body at the expense of temporary insanity.

Ra’s is voiced by Oded Fehr. He was previously credited in “Infiltrator” as L-2, the mysterious second member of the Light. Fehr has previously voiced Equinox from Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Doctor Fate from Justice League Unlimited.

Happy Harbour High-School

The town of Happy Harbour was first shown in “Welcome to Happy Harbor” and the night-time High School was shown in “Infiltrator” as the place where Red Arrow stashed the scientist Sterling Roquette. In this episode we see Superboy and Miss Martian taken on civilian identities so they can start High School. The five characters who are identified as being their class-mates and teacher all share a connection as sidekicks/mascots of superhero teams in the comic book continuity.

Snapper Carr

The poster-child for the super-team team-mascot is “Snapper Carr” who here appears as their teacher. When he first appears we just see his fingers snapping – an allusion to his comic book origin. He first appeared back in Brave and the Bold #28 (Feb-March 1960) as a teenager called “Snapper” Carr — he got his nickname because he incessantly snapped his fingers. The character was based on the teen-icons of the late 1950s and was added to the Justice League’s adventures as DC management still thought that a teen sidekick was a requirement.

Snapper separated from the League after he accidentally betrayed the location of their HQ to the Joker. That story was adapted/hinted at in a two-part storyline in Young Justice (vol. 2) #1 (April 2011) and Young Justice (vol. 2) #2 (May 2011). This version of Snapper has already shown-up in the cartoon. There is a sequence in “Welcome to Happy Harbor” where we see him watch the Red Tornado fly overhead. The comic book version even replaced the Red Tornado as Young Justice’s mentor for a time.

Character designer Jerome Moore designed Snapper:

When I learned that Carr would be a schoolteacher, I designed him after a character I saw actor Noah Wyle play in the film, “Donnie Darko.”

Wendy and Marvin

When the Justice League was adapted into a mid-1970s Saturday-morning cartoon it was refashioned as the more inclusive, less confrontational Super Friends. The original Super Friends sidekicks were a pair of teenagers called Wendy Harris and Marvin White and their suspiciously Scooby-Doo looking Wonder Dog. They also appeared in the spin-off Super Friends comic book where it was explained that the two kids where children of friends of the Justice Leaguers. Neither of them had superpowers, but Marvin did at least try to dress as hero with his own logo and cape. It’s the same logo that’s shown on his t-shirt here. Wendy and Marvin were around for the first two seasons, but were replaced by the alien Wonder Twins when the show became The All-New Super Friends.

Wendy and Marvin did show up in the modern comics as a pair of genius twins who served as the caretakers of the Teen Titan’s HQ before they inexplicably adopted a Hell Hound that killed Marvin and left Wendy in a wheelchair. They were also revealed to be the children of a super-villain called the Calculator. However, that’s all been junked in the latest comic-book reboot.

When it came to designing Marvin and Wendy Jerome Moore followed a Scooby-Doo inspiration:

Marvin always resembled Shaggy, from SCOOBY-DOO, so I preserved elements of that look for this version. Wendy seemed to take after Daphne, consistently striking a sexy stance in default position.

Scooby-Doo was of course produced by Hanna-Barbera, the same production house that handled the Super Friends.

Mal Duncan and Karen Beecher

Where as the other three characters were non-powered team mascots Mal and Karen were actually super-powered members of their team. Mal Duncan first appeared in Teen Titans #26 (March-April 1970) as a local youth who saved the undercover Titans from a gang. Karen Beecher first appeared in Teen Titans #45 (December 1976) as Mal’s girlfriend. They hung around the Titans as friends and were (significantly) the same age as the Titans (unlike Snapper and the JLA). Duncan was one of DC’s first African-American characters and he has adopted a series of costumed identities over the years. The most prominent of these is as the Herald. Karen has also used the costumed alias of the Bumblebee.

The Mal and Karen that appear in Young Justice don’t have superpowers (that we know of) and Mal is significantly heavier-set than in the comics. The name of the School’s cheerleading squad (the Bumblebees) is a reference to Karen’s costumed identity in the comics. A version of Bumblebee appeared as a reoccurring character in the Teen Titans cartoon. This Karen was designed by Moore as shown in his Deviant Art page.

Karen and Wendy are voiced by Masasa Moyo. She has voiced a string of cartoon and video game characters including an incidental character in Justice League “Tablua Rasa”. Mal is voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson (the Martian Manhunter) and Marvin is voiced by Nolan North (Superboy/Superman). Snapper Carr is voiced by the show’s co-producer Greg Weisman.

Cat Grant

The character of Catherine Grant first appeared in Adventures of Superman #424 (Jan 1987) during the 1980s Superman reboot. She was as a romantic foil for Clark Kent and a further complication to the Lois/Clark/Superman triangle. She was a West Coast showbiz reporter who was hired by the east coast Daily Planet in an effort to boost sales. She was Kent and Lane’s source into the inner workings of the crime syndicate Intergang. Cat has seen tough times since then with her son being killed by a rogue Toyman robot and her career crashing into sensationalism. A vampish Cat was memorably played by Tracy Scoggins in Lois and Clark.

The character is voiced in this episode by Masasa Moyo. The Earth-16 Cat Grant character previously appeared in Young Justice (vol. 2) #4 (July 2011), but was not named.

Misc.

• The two countries of South and North Rhelasia are thinly veiled parallels of South and North Korea – even down to the militaristic nature of the North Rhelasian/Korean leader. Conner relates some of its history “modern Rhelasia was created in 1855 and ruled by the Bokown Dynasty until it was divided by the Great Powers into North and South Rhelasia after the Second World War.”
• The Martian Manhunter shows his John Jones alter ego for the first time which, in common with his most recent appearances on Smallville, is portrayed as an African America. The Martian Manhunter notes that it is he who suggested the secret identity of John Smith for the Red Tornado. This may be something of an in-joke as both names (“John Jones” and “John Smith”) are rather generic.
• The distinctive tower seen in the opening shot of this episode is a real building called the Taipei 101 (after its number of floors). It was the worlds tallest building between 2004 and 2010 before being superseeded by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Highlights

Conner in High-School. I know its meant to be the b-plot, but its a great character sequence.

Oddities

Loo seat amid the wreckage of Cheshire’s cell.

Open Questions

• That’s two hits for two that Cheshire has failed. How long before the League of Shadows consider her surplus to requirements.
• How much did Luthor/Ra’s al Ghul set-up and how much just worked out their way? Cheshire was sent to kill Luthor, but she appears to have believed the mission was real. Did Luthor and al Ghul therefore know that Red Arrow was at the meeting? Maybe they deliberately led him there after all it isn’t explained how he knew about the hit.
• Who is the mole that Sportsmaster alludes to? He mentions Santa Prisca, but Artemis hadn’t joined the team at that point and he’d hardly be boosting about a mole to the mole so that rules out Aqualad.

My thoughts

It’s been a long wait for Targets, but it delivers a compelling arc episode that revisits the Red Arrow, Cheshire, League of Shadows, the Happy Harbour School beats from Infiltrator as well as the growing Superboy/Miss Martian romance subplot from Bereft. The relationships around Cheshire are teased as she tells the Sportsmaster (“it had to be you”) and asks Red Arrow about Artemis – readers of the comic book will know that its implied that she and Artemis are sisters.

I really like the way that these characters are animated with a sense of individuality – nobody else moves like Cheshire does and the Sportsmaster’s sports related weapons are never commented upon (they’re just there, part of the rich furniture). The martial arts – and even Aqualad’s backflip – gives this episode a real kung fu vibe.

As for the b-plot, I must say I rather liked the material with Conner and Megan at High-School. There has always been this sitcom/clown stuff with the bumbling Kents and I’ve never much taken to it. However, Andrew Robinson and the gang manage to walk a deft line between slapstick and genuine social discomfort. Conner plays the James Dean character (it must be that jacket) who we all know is really the coolest of the entire bunch, but his attempts to reign in his strength and anger puts him at odds with his more relaxed class-mates. Conner and Megan make a cute couple, but you have to wonder how long it’ll be before Kid Flash notices or gets warned off by Conner.

The Verdict

Type	Site	Reviewer	Rating	Equivalent
	Grand Average		80%
Character Site	The Captain's Justice League Homepage	Jason Kirk	4/5