A sad truth for guys like me is that
most cartoons, outside of Anime, are designed for kids. Kids lessons, kid
characters, and kid stakes. It’s especially irritating for fans of Superhero
content, since until recently this was the main form that comic book heroes
appeared in. Granted, in the last few years we’ve had a few animated shows from
the US of A that, while appearing to be kid orientated, do have darker themes
and a more grown up storyline than one would expect. Remember Avatar: The Last Airbender? The Nickelodeon show that
while marketed towards kids, still dealt with topics like genocide, global war,
and self-sacrifice? Most adult kid show ever. Seriously, if you haven’t seen
it, check it out. Give it… five episodes, if you aren’t hooked by then, I apologize
for wasting your time. Back on task, another such show, marketed towards kids
but with a darker edge then one might have expected was the show Young Justice which premiered on the
Cartoon Network from 2010 - 2013. What could have just been a clone of the Teen Titans from a few years earlier (a
mix of serious and comedic elements) turned out to be a very serious drama that
was very much akin to the Comics the show was based off of. Let’s dive into the
meat, shall we?
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| A pretty diverse group, actually. Two aliens, a black fish person, and a half Vietnamese. It's a good group. |
Things go well, until Green Arrow’s
sidekick, Speedy, realizes that they’re just being shown around the Hall of
Justice. This is rather infuriating for him, because of the four sidekicks he
is the only one that knew that the Hall is just a tourist trap. The JL’s real
base, the orbiting station called the Watchtower, was what he’d assumed they’d
get a look at. When this assumption is proven wrong, and when he realizes that
the other three are content with the Hall, Speedy storms off in a huff.
A moment later the JL is called to
stop a sorcerer from blotting out the sun. Typical day at the office. Kid
Flash, Robin, and Aqualad discuss their frustrations at being left out of the
big mission, and decide to investigate a fire at Project Cadmus. A mission that
the League blew off, despite Batman’s suspicions about the place, because,
well, you know, sorcerer blotting out the sun does seem a little more
important.
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| Now there's a face only a mother could love. Shame Double X doesn't have one... |
Once at the lab, the three
heroes-in-training quickly stop the fire before going further into the lab to
investigate. They’re led to an elevator by a strange horned creature. A quick
scan tells Robin that the elevator is a high speed express elevator, something
that a two story building really doesn’t need. After descending into the bowls
of the building, they discover massive monsters patrolling giant corridors.
They explore the complex, find a computer for Robin to hack, and start learning
about Cadmus. The facility breeds creatures called Genomorphs, genetic weapons
and power supplies, and that Cadmus is working on a Project Kr, an experiment
so secret that Robin can’t hack the file. After a quick throw down with a few
Wolverine style Genomorphs, and an obviously mind controlled Hero known as Guardian,
the boys go farther in to find out what the heck Project Kr is.
In the deepest level of Project
Cadmus, a place that looks more like a mining operation than a laboratory, they
run into a Telekinetic Genomorph that tries to crush then who, inadvertently I’m
sure, leads them down the hallway to Project Kr. Project Kr, as it turns out,
is clone of Superman dubbed Superboy. Superboy was grown in just under four
months and received an accelerated education from the Genomorphs. Realizing how
big the potential “it” storm is, the young heroes try to contact the JL, but
being 52 levels of unspecified size underground is just awful for cell
reception.
Dr. Desmund, the chief scientist at
Project Cadmus, has the Genomorphs surrounding Superboy “activate” him and have
the young Kryptonian rip through the three heroes. They boy’s put up a good
fight but in the end a teenage Superman is more destructive than 95% of
organisms. Few creatures could last. Dr. Desmund then contacts the Cadmus Board
of Directors, an organization that calls itself The Light, for advice on how to
handle the situation. The Board decides to have the young heroes killed and
replaced with clones. An okay plan, but somehow I doubt they’d get the time
necessary to finish it. Does anyone else think it’d take Batman more than… oh,
five minutes to figure out where the sidekicks went? If the cloning process
takes 16 weeks, Cadmus is screwed.
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| A few examples of Genomorphs. Ugly suckers, aren't they? |
Back on task. The young heroes are
awoken by a telepathic message. They see the Superboy staring at them. They do their
best to convince Superboy to free them. Superboy states that his whole reason
for being is to quote “Replace [the Superman] should he perish, to destroy him
should he turn from the Light.” It’s only after promising to show him to Superman
that Superboy agrees to help. They’re delayed a few minutes by Genomorph’s
meddling, but Superboy breaks through the mental control and does what
Kryptonian’s do best, break stuff.
The now four man team makes a run
for it, dodging Genomorph’s as they go. Well, the original three dodge,
Superboy smacks them around. Once they make it to the elevator they do make the
troubling discovery that Superboy can’t fly, a problem that will be revisited a
few times in the first season. They use their combined skills to make it all
the way to Sublevel 1, before being stopped by an army of Genomorphs, the
telepathic G-Gnomes disable everyone but Superboy. It is then revealed by a
Genomorph called Double X that he’d personally created the fire and lured the
team to Project Kr to free Superboy. Good… sort of guy Double X.
Dr. Desmund takes a swing of what
he calls Project Blockbuster. The formula gives him a lot of muscle, so much so
that his skin rips off. In a berserker’s rage he tries to rip the team to
pieces. The young heroes work together to overpower the Blockbuster before the
League shows up to clean up the mess. After being chastised for, well, being
teenagers, Batman decides to take them all seriously and organizes them into a
covert ops team to handle secret missions for the JL.
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| They kind of...broke Cadmus. |
Over the next few episodes they
recruit the two main female members of the Team, real creative name Robin, Miss
Martian and Artemis. As the series progresses they add more members, a lot
more, and the jobs get bigger, but Kid Flash, Aqualad, Robin, Superboy, Miss
Martian and Artemis are the central figures for about 90% of the episodes.
The episode follow a pretty simple
formula of; get mission, start mission, learn that it’s way more complicated
than what Batman or anyone else thought, complete mission despite complication,
then we the audience learning that all they did was slow down the Light’s
plans. Seriously, in the 46 episodes of this show I think they had like five
actual, significant victories. Not the best record, kids, but it does make for
an interesting show.
I’ll cover the various characters
and my overall impression in part two.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_Young_Justice_%28TV_series%29
http://youngjustice.wikia.com/wiki/Dubbilex
youngjustice.wikia.com/wiki/Dubbilex
http://justiciajoven.wikia.com/wiki/Archivo:Images4.jpg
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