Aliens once again threaten the Earth, but with the Justice League split and scattered, only Earth's first and greatest hero can save us!
Tropes:
- Arc Welding: Several plot points from previous media — the Helmet of Fate, Marduk's defeat of Tiamat, Starro — are all wrapped up into Vandal Savage's life story.
- Ascended Meme: The Light is working on something called "Project: Rutabaga". Someone on the writing staff clearly heard about the memetic status of Season 2's "Now that's a rutabaga!" Comes full circle in "Early Warning", but not in an especially amusing way...
- Atrocious Alias: Dick and Artemis crack up when Brion suggests "Hot Lava" as a codename.
- Bears Are Bad News: In Cassandra's narration, Vandal Savage goes up against a giant, vicious cave bear. This fight gave him his distinctive facial scarring.
- Call-Back:
- After defeating Starro in ancient Babylon, Vandal has its corpse dumped into a frozen ocean, explaining how it was discovered in a block of ice back in Season One, as well as how he later knew it could potentially be utilized for mind-control tech. Starro's minions are also responsible for the death of Nabu's mortal body, who is depicted as wearing the helmet that would become iconic of Doctor Fate.
- Both Mongul and Despero are STILL imprisoned in the stasis pods aboard the War World.
- Campfire Character Exploration: The newbies and older members chat among themselves over a campfire with s'mores. Brion, in particular expands a bit on his background and his relation with his siblings.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Vandal Savage (when he was Genghis Khan) once battled against Darkseid... and was swiftly and brutally defeated. He only managed to save the planet (temporarily) because Darkseid was impressed by his brazenness and saw potential in Earth's meta-human genes as a future investment.
- Deus Exit Machina: Given that Klarion could probably wipe out the alien armada with ease, he is absent from this episode, with Vandal explaining that he’s working on other projects.
- Doppleganger Spin: Halo gains a new green aura which creates holographic copies of herself.
- Evil Versus Evil: Occurs several times in the episode, with all good-guys being relegated to a separate, light-hearted Breather Episode side plot.
- The episode opens with Vandal Savage being forced to deal with an inbound invading armada himself, along with his retinue, armed with the War World.
- When the fleet is revealed to be under the control of Starro, who has sent another armada in from the undefended side of the solar system, Vandal contacts Darkseid and convinces him to send an armada to help, led by Kalibak.
- In flashbacks, Vandal is seen leading armies against both Starro's previous invasion and Darkseid's own army.
- And lastly, Darkseid and Vandal both know that once the latter succeeds they'll have one last battle for dominance.
- Exposed Extraterrestrials: Forager lampshades this about himself when Nightwing is giving out costumes.
- Foreshadowing:
- Halo plays with a starfish on the beach. The one responsible for the inbound alien fleet is none other than Starro the Conqueror.
- The reason for Klarion's absence is stated to be that he's busy with Project Rutabaga. This would become relevant in "Early Warning".
- Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Lampshaded by Brion, who comments that of course the super-suits Nightwing gives them are form-fitting like superheroes prefer.
- Gone Horribly Right: The Light's efforts to hamstring the League and the Green Lantern Corps have been so effective that when an alien armada shows up to attack Earth, Savage has to personally intervene because he's rendered Earth practically defenseless. Lex Luthor pretty much lampshades that they've done too good a job at dividing the League.
- Historical In-Joke: The immortal Vandal Savage was once known as Genghis Khan. Not only has his cause of death been lost to history, but he specified that he be buried in an unknown location, in an unmarked grave. The fact that one in 200 men are theorized to be direct descendants of his is also relevant, as this episode suggests that humanity's metagene mutation originated with him, and that his offspring passed it down to their descendants.
- History Repeats: Vandal Savage wages a war against a race of Starfish Aliens alongside his daughter — once in ancient Babylon, and once in the modern day.
- Hypocritical Humor: Artemis criticizes Brion's first choice of name, "Hot Lava", as a stripper name. Dick immediately points out she goes by "Tigress".
- I Have Many Names: Vandal Savage was also Genghis Khan and Marduk, the Babylonian demigod hero who supposedly sacrificed himself to defeat Tiamat and gave Aquagirl the idea to sacrifice herself in Young Justice: Legacy.
- Mercy Kill: Cassandra rationalizes Savage killing Olympia as this, as she had become senile in her old age and got to die happy.
- Mythology Gag:
- Conner listens to a sports channel which talks about an up-and-coming high school football player named Victor Stone from Henry Heywood High.
- Fire is name-dropped as a member of the Justice League, and the designer of Brion's new suit. Her counterpart, Ice, was shown fighting alongside the League in the season premier.
- Offing the Offspring: Vandal Savage breaks his elderly daughter's neck, because her advanced age and dementia pose a threat to his plans remaining secret.
- Oh, Crap!: Vandal is legitimately surprised to learn that the invaders are under the control of his old adversary, Starro.
- Origins Episode: The episode place focus on the origin of Vandal Savage, the Light, and their partnership with Darkseid.
- Person of Mass Destruction: The meta Kalibak launches at the second fleet releases an energy burst which completely decimates the fleet.
- Related in the Adaptation: This episode suggests that Nabu, the original Doctor Fate, is Vandal Savage's son.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Vandal's daughter Olympia is now an elderly woman, and as Cassandra notes, her mind has been deteriorating. She asks Cassandra three times if she's read the same story, and Vandal's dialogue implies that he's told her multiple times not to record his life story.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness:Nightwing: Tonight, you choose your cryptonym. Your nom de guerre.
Tigress: Yeah, those are Dick's fancy words for "code names." - She Knows Too Much: Part of the reason Savage kills Olympia is because her senility makes her a liability. She keeps recording his life story despite repeatedly being told not to, and his plans have yet to come to fruition.
- Starfish Aliens: Quite literally — the aliens Vandal Savage faces are being controlled by Starro.
- Take That!: The infamous hypothetical scenario of who would win in a fight between Batman and Superman is brought up by Brion. The rival has been depicted in many media but, here, Dick, Conner, and Artemis quickly dismiss the idea as stupid and unlikely to happen in real life.
- Unreliable Narrator: Possibly. It's worth noting the source for Vandal Savage's backstory is his daughter, who clearly worships him. While many of the details are likely accurate, some of it could've been exaggerated, such as Darkseid thinking of Vandal Savage as his 'equal', something that seems rather out of Darkseid's usual depictions (who normally would never consider anyone his equal). It's possible Darkseid in this version is different, of course.
- Villain Episode: The episode's A plot revolves almost entirely around Vandal Savage and his retinue, retelling his origin story and even having him and Darkseid be responsible for saving the Earth, with the heroes apparently oblivious to how narrowly they avoided a devastating invasion from Starro's minions.
- Villain Takes an Interest: Darkseid is working with Vandal Savage because the meta-gene potential of humanity could be a useful tool in solving the anti-life equation. Darkseid also seems impressed by how brazen Savage is in the face of overwhelming might.
- Wham Shot: One of the alien invader's corpses spins around to reveal its face... and attached to it is Starro.
- Zerg Rush: Starro sends two massive armadas to invade Earth, one to distract War World while the other attacks Earth from the opposite side of the solar system. Savage actually has to resort to asking Darkseid for help because even War World doesn't have the firepower to neutralize the first armada before the second devastates Earth.
