Robin(s)

You gotta love an army of me!

Dec 30th. The Justice League gathers before the Hall of Justice to announce their enlargement to the gathered media. Superman takes the podium to commend the five new Justice Leaguers — Doctor Fate, Plastic Man, the Atom, Icon, and Red Arrow. The League’s covert Team watch the coverage from inside the Hall where they are joined by Rocket, Icon’s sidekick and their newest team-mate. Superman hands out membership cards to the new Leaguers starting with Doctor Fate. It’s hard for Zatanna to watch as Fate is still in control of her father’s body. Green Arrow personally welcomes Red Arrow to the League and the Team are happy that their friend has finally graduated. Black Canary and Batman conduct the new Leaguers back into the Hall of Justice, but discover that the Team has already left.

Robin picked up an emergency alert which takes the Team to the Smoky Mountains. Security footage from the Ashfield Regional Airport has detected Cheshire carrying the brief case the Team failed to retrieve in New Orleans (“Insecurity”). Artemis confirms Cheshire identity although her team-mates are still not aware that the two women are sisters. They are all shocked to find Cheshire’s jet crashed and abandoned. The Team investigate more closely before Home Land Security and the NTSB turn up (Robin hacked the Watchtower’s sensors to get the alert before Batman does). Aqualad calls Cheshire and the case she was carrying the Team’s “unfinished business”.

Superboy’s observation that there are no bodies in the crash draws Cheshire out of hiding. The Light can no longer tolerate the Team’s interference so they have been draw into an ambush by the Riddler, Shimmer, Mammoth, Cheshire, and a platoon of League of Shadows goons. The badguys hope to stop them escaping with an energy shield, but Zatanna blankets the interior with a snow storm negating the badguy’s advantage. Aqualad orders Superboy to attack the pylons creating the energy shield so he uses his last of his power boosting s-shield patches. However, Superboy is attacked by Mammoth and loses control of his temper. His onslaught against Mammoth causes a landslide that almost buries Artemis. Cheshire pushes her out-of-the-way before admitting that she doesn’t actually want her dead. Cheshire then vanishes leaving the other bad guys to their fates.

The Team return to the Hall of Justice with the retrieved brief case. Batman once again takes them to task for hacking Justice League computers before congratulating them on their victory. By capturing Shimmer and Mammoth, criminals who are still listed as prisoners of Belle Reve, they’ve proven that Warden Hugo Strange is dirty. The brief case contains small biotechology devices which are integrated with some form of nano-technology. Batman takes the devices to the Watchtower for further study. After the Leaguers are gone, Robin points out that the Team were set-up and there may still be a mole on the Team. Aqualad questions Superboy about his recent behaviour – his loss of control and his new powers – Superboy is about to walk away when hears a hypersonic signal from Lex Luthor. Superboy then tells the Team that there is something that he needs to do.

Superboy takes the Super-Cycle and Wolf to Santa Prisca where he meets Lex Luthor, Queen Bee, and Mercy (Luthor’s bodyguard). They are then joined by the Sportsmaster, Blockbuster, and Bane who has given his permission for the Light to use the Island. Lex Luthor accepts Superboy’s suggestion that they have been behind everything since the beginning, but adds that he has many friends. A helicopter then joins them carrying Cheshire and Artemis who go to stand beside their father, the Sportsmaster. They are then joined by Miss Martian who is assured by the Queen Bee that her secret is still safe. Superboy tells Luthor he’ll join the conspiracy in return for more s-shields, but Luthor calls him a “terrible liar” and shuts him down with the “red sun” codeword. Artemis then stands forward and asks, “What do you want us to do?”

Flashback to hours earlier — as Superboy tells the Team how he went back to Cadmus (“Agendas”). They are as shocked as he was to find out that his biological “father”/human-DNA-donar is Lex Luthor. Superboy then says that Luthor has summoned him to Santa Prisca. Artemis then confesses that Superboy is not the only person suffering from bad DNA and reveals that the Sportsmaster is her father and Cheshire is her sister. Cheshire has been sent to fly her to Santa Prisca too. Following Superboy and Artemis’s revelations Kid Flash jokes “Who’s next?”, but he apologizes after Miss Martian says she is. The Queen Bee has been blackmailing her about her true Martian form. Her true appearance causes many of them to gasp and step back (with the exception of Aqualad and Superboy). Superboy takes Megan’s hand and tells her that he’s known since they mind melded in the Bialyian Desert and that it doesn’t make a difference to him.

Each of the Light’s attempts to blackmail or corrupt the Team has failed and they’ve come to Santa Prisca to stage their own ambush. The Sportsmaster tells Artemis and Miss Martian to follow him while Queen Bee and Lex Luthor reprogram Superboy. Blockbuster is about to bring Superboy along when Artemis shows her own colours. She stops Blockbuster dead with a calcifying foam arrow and then calls to her father that she won’t let them mess with Superboy’s head. The Queen Bee telepathically orders Miss Martian to take Artemis down, but she instead uses her telekinesis to lift her friend out of harms way. Miss Martian telekinetically knocks out the Queen Bee preventing her from messing with Superboy’s mind.

Luthor realises that the three teens are not joining him and orders his allies to attack. Superboy is overpowered by Blockbuster and Bane’s fighters lay down an impressive field of fire with Intergang weaponry before the Super-Cycle responds. Sportsmaster and Cheshire turn on Artemis and he bats aside her arrows. It’s then that Miss Martian telepathically calls in the other members of the Team. Luthor picks up the unconscious Queen Bee and announces that it’s time to go. Aqualad blocks their path, but Mercy’s cybernetic canon stuns him. Luthor’s helicopter takes off and Rocket eagerly flies after it. However, a barrage of missiles drives her back and Aqualad signals that she’s needed on the ground.

Zatanna creates the illusion of a flock of Robins, the teen crime-fighters confuses Bane until the real one can get close enough to tazer him through his venom-port. Superboy is still slugging it out with Blockbuster when Miss Martian comes to his aid. Aqualad and Rocket then use Apokoliptian weaponry confiscated from Bane’s fighters to stun and immobilize Blockbuster. The Sportsmaster’s relentless pursuit of Artemis through the Santa Priscan jungle ends in the same way as Aqualad immobilizes him. The villain shouts to Cheshire for help, but she sees the way he’s turned on Artemis and leaves him to his fate. Artemis then gives his mask to Kid Flash as a souvenir. With the badguys defeated of fled, Aqualad tells the Team that it has been a good day.

Meanwhile at the Watchtower, Batman is studying the biotech-chips the Team liberated from Riddler’s gang. He describes the bio-circuitry as “disturbingly sophisticated”. He doesn’t pay much attention to Red Arrow until he places one of the chips on Batman’s neck. It instantly sinks under his cowl and Batman’s eyes go wide. Batman and Red Arrow then join the rest of the Justice League in the central hall. They are all stood to attention. Batman overrides the League’s zeta-tune security and allows Vandal Savage to beam aboard. The entire League, with the exception of Red Arrow, then drop to their knees. Red Arrow reaches to his own head as whatever command is controlling him lifts. The stunned hero asks out loud “I… I was the mole?!” Savage replies that “Yes, yes you were.”

• This episode takes place on December 30th, the day before New Year’s Eve.
• Superman states that the Justice League’s mission is deal with threats too powerful for any one of them to face alone and to uphold the values of “truth, liberty, and justice”.
• Doctor Fate, Plastic Man, the Atom, Icon and Red Arrow are inducted into the Justice League. Captain Marvel retains his membership following the revelation of Billy Batson’s age. Doctor Fate “inherits” Zatara’s membership. The Atom is member number 18. Black Canary’s code is 13.
• Atlantis is not part of the United Nations (question from one of the TV reporters).
• Being a White Martian causes Megan to suffer constant rejection growing up amongst the Green Martians on Mars.

Call Backs

The Young Justice series has really established its own set of tropes, rules, and subplots. This episode brings many of those strands together as we finally get to see schemes come to fruition – some dramatically successful, others averted by the heroes.

• The Justice League expands via a public induction of new members, followed by the sick kicks vanishing — the tag of this episode and the opening sequence of “Independence Day”, the very first episode. The discussion over who is inducted was teased in “Agendas” and Red Arrow was told of the results in “Insecurity”
• Cheshire, a member of the League of Shadows is picked up by facial recognition software just as Sportsmaster, her father, was in “Insecurity”.
• Shimmer gets taken down before she can do anything — every single appearance.
• The League of Shadows use Apokoliptian weaponry first seen in the hands of Intergang in “Disordered” and then used by the Bialyian Military in “Image”. It’s then used by Bane fighters who were first seen in “Drop-Zone”.
• The Light sacrifice a decoy — the Riddler and co are sacrificed to place the Starro Tech chips in the Justice League’s hands where Red Arrow can reach them on the watchtower — compare with the sacrifice of the Injustice League to divert attention from the Light in “Revelations”.
• The biotechnology/nano-circuitary chips from “Insecurity” reappear. These were based on the Starro tentacle discovered in “Downtime” and stolen by Riddler and Sportsmaster from STAR Labs in “Misplaced”. They are infused with nano-technology from the Utility Fog developed in “Infiltrator”.
• Hugo Strange is revealed as a criminal accomplice after he replaced Amanda Waller as Warden of Belle Reve in “Terrors”
• Lex Luthor contacts Superboy via a hypersonic signal just as he first did in “Agendas”. The “red sun” codeword was also shown in that episode.
• Artemis’s family and her relationship with Cheshire had been hinted at in “Infiltrator” before the Sportsmaster finally appeared to convinced her to side with him in “Insecurity”.
• The Queen Bee blackmails Megan after learning her true appearance in “Image”. Superboy referring to having already seen that appearance when they mind-melded in “Bereft”. Megan mentioned the persecution of the White Martians in “Targets”.
• Subtle thing to notice when Megan transforms into a White Martian is what while most of the Team gasp and take a step backwards. Superboy (her boyfriend) and Aqualad don’t. Aqualad is from Atlantis where, as shown in “Downtime”, there are a wide range of body types are normal. It then makes sense that he wouldn’t be phased on her appearance.
• Artemis takes down Blockbuster with the same calcifying foam arrow that Red Arrow (then Speedy) used against Brick in “Welcome to Happy Harbor”.
• Zatanna uses a duplication spell was first seen in “Humanity”.
• Kid Flash’s diet is an apple while watching the League inductions. His souvenir is Sportsmaster’s mask.

Rocket and Icon

Icon and Rocket were a product of the same 1990s company that created Static of Static Shock fame. Back then comics were going through a massive resurgence in popularity driven by the formation of Image Comics and the 1990s speculator bubble. However, most of the mainstream superhero characters remained white, heterosexual, male, and middle class. Dwayne McDuffie and a group of like-minded comic book creators set out to change that and founded Milestone Media. They retained the ownership and editorial control of their characters, but the comics were published and sold via a licensing deal with DC Comics. That on-again/off-again deal with DC has lasted until today and has seen Milestone’s breakout character Static appear in a successful Cartoon Network cartoon series.

Icon and Rocket first appeared in Icon #1 (May 1993), one of Milestone’s launch books. It was written by McDuffie and illustrated by M.D. Bright. Icon was a Superman-parallel, a super-powered alien living on Earth. However, Icon had been trapped on Earth for almost two-centuries and spent most of his time in isolation disguised as Augustus Freeman, a conservative lawyer. Freeman was discovered by a girl called Raquel Ervin who convinced him to end his solitude and use his powers to become a superhero. She aided him as Rocket using an inertia belt that gave her the ability to absorb and then manipulate kinetic energy.

Icon and Rocket’s first flight (Icon #1; art M.D. Bright)

While Icon was the senior hero and the title was named after him, Rocket was really its focus and point of view character. Her liberal beliefs clash with those of her conservative 150+ year old mentor and the title wasn’t afraid to tackle contentious issues, including Rocket’s own teen pregnancy. The title lasted until 1997 before it and Milestone were victims of the collapse of the 1990s comics bubble. They have reappeared a couple of time since then after DC Comics integrated the Milestone characters completely into their normal universe.

Rocket in Young Justice “Revelation”

We’ve seen Rocket teased through the season with blink and you’ll miss them appearances in “Revelations” where she helped combat the Injustice Gang’s vine in Paris and in “Misplaced” where she saved a falling school bus. Rocket also appear in “Failsafe” telepathic scenario. Icon was suggested for League membership by Superman in “Agendas” with Wonder Woman also citing Rocket as potential League material. In this episode Rocket is voiced by a voice actress called Kittie (a.k.a. Miss Kittie or Kari Troy), she’s also voiced Taranee Cook in W.I.T.C.H. and presents a national radio music show.

Producers Comments

Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti address the addition of Rocket and Zatanna in an online video:

We had been telling a very complicated story over 24 episodes and it helped to have a character who was not in on it. So she could ask “what’s going on here” and the other characters could tell her. We could get some exposition across in a fairly naturalistic way.

On his Ask Greg forum, Greg Weisman addressed the issue of whether the addition of Rocket was an homage to Dwayne McDuffie, her creator who passed away while Young Justice was on the air.

Just to be clear, I was a huge fan of Dwayne’s work – and specifically of Icon and Rocket . Denys Cowan and I developed an Icon & Rocket series for DreamWorks back in the late nineties, but we weren’t able to sell it. But from a timing standpoint, the decision to include Icon and Rocket in YJ came LONG BEFORE Dwayne’s sudden passing. In hindsight, it was a tribute. But at the time, we just loved the characters, which is another kind of tribute in and of itself.

Other details revealed include:

• Rocket was always designed to be the ninth Team member, hence why she was seeded in the earlier episodes. (Ask Greg #15595).
• “Her backstory is fundamentally the same as the comic book Rocket” (Ask Greg #15120)
• The Martian Manhunter always knew that Megan was a White Martian, he just “didn’t think it was a big deal”. (Ask Greg #15385)
• Zatanna’s teleport code is B-08, Rocket’s is B-09. (Ask Greg #16083)

Highlights

• Smoky Mountains. Strange amid such a great episode I know, but I thought those matt paintings are beautiful.

Oddities

• Nothing that I can think of.

My Thoughts