Young Justice

The racial stuff is a bit on the nose, but I honestly don't mind it here.

Just finished the two episodes. The racism/xenophobia metaphor is not so much on the nose as it is “they take the microphone the used to record the in-universe Dear White People podcast and beat you on the head with it” but it was otherwise a fairly strongly plotted premiere with good worldbuilding. As has been observed to death the show is much better when it doesn’t try to juggle 30 characters.

More specific thoughts:

• I also hope that they’re Not His Sled-ding the Martian genocide.
• I hope whatever the Legion is plotting doesn’t get in the way of Superboy’s nuptials!
• The Stinger of both eps were rather good. The first one came off like an Author's Saving Throw for the mishandling of the Violet/Gabrielle Islam situation. While the second one was a great character beat with just enough S3 follow up/future plot tease.

New ep is out.

Though I just realized something. The entire premise of this film is the Justice League running a Black Ops team of Child Soldiers on life or death (and often outright illegal) missions. Now before you point out the whole "suspension of disbelief/it's fiction" here, the concept of an age of consent has been brought up multiple times in-universe as has the team being used as a way to get around a legally binding agreement the JL signed. Both these things get brought up in isolation but really no one brings up the whole Kony-ness of the whole thing? Especially given the team has had multiple casualties? It seems kinda messed up that the JL will have an entire meeting on how no one under 18 can join, but then send the kids they admit are immature and undeveloped against hostile foreign agents and living wmds.

A note I watched only the later half of season 3 so of this comes up in the first part of S3 (which I am back tracking through) feel free to enlighten me.

Edited by NotGrantMorrison on Oct 21st 2021 at 4:14:13 AM

They brought back the Season 1 theme for the opening. I notice Wolf is still kicking around. I remember Greg saying at some point, in regards to last season, that Wolf was very old by wolf standards and has a limited life span, so I was expecting him to have died during the time skip, but here he is looking even more robust than last season.

x2. Yyyeah, here’s the thing that you kind of missed:

1) In-Universe plenty of characters thinks the Team are essentially just a strike team of child soldiers for the Justice League. Plenty of characters acknowledge that reality and called it out including Wonder Woman, Black Lightning, Barbara Gordon and even villains like Luthor and Waller. And the show paint it clear regarding the moral ambiguity of such strike force, hence why they aren’t publicly known as like the Outsiders.

2) Despite a lot of the questionable practice, the teens joined of their own voliation. They wanted to take part in dangerous mission to make a difference as heroes; all the League did was decide on what mission they should take part of that would not only lead to the most success but also ensure their safety. After all, in the first episode the team were planning on being a solo group without any of the League involment; the JLA just came up with a compromise which will allow them to make sure they don’t actually get killed.

Starting episode 3, I'm done with Beast Boy's shit.

Oooof the PTSD is strong in Beast Boy.

x2 The episode does pull the saving throw that he is that way due to the psychic assault damaging him mentally and his own well established traumatic fear of losing people he care for.

Yeah the show plays up the team as morally grey but I think a major narrative flaw is it has the heroes do this grey stuff but doesn't have many moral consequences. Season 2's ending was so strong because it had the team get a "win" where they actually hurt the light for once but it cost them a butt load of psychological trauma. But the JL itself never really has seemed to answer for in universe the moral questionability of the team. It's one thing for The Batman to not point out how messed up it is to send children into battle since that was never part of it's tone, but since YJ constantly hammers home the child exploitation angle (Especially with s3's human trafficking theme) I really wish we had like someone in the league go What the Hell, Hero? and quit in protest.

The only time that actually happened was so Batman and friend could do MORE black ops stuff and even that was all part of a keikaku.

Basically the JL constantly do sketchy stuff but the bad stuff that happens to them is because of The Bad Guys, as opposed to the consequences of their own actions.

A key point is that in Season 2 the League is hated on due to mind control and Godfrey Propaganda (coloring the criticism of them as evil plots and therefore not valid.) But not the actually messed up stuff they do. The closest is when the Reach leaked the Watchtower existing but that reveal was muted compared to GGG being Faux News.

Contrast this with the Cadmus Arc where the whole idea was the League was going too far, people having valid if extreme reactions to that and the JL responding to those reactions.

Roy says the JL is full of shit, BL says the League is full of shit, Diana says the League is full of shit (and does like nothing about it), Black Canary says Batman and Ollie are full of shit. Goddamn Amanda Waller is able to mutually blackmail them because they are basically doing the same thing she is... But for the most part they get away with it.

The constant pointing out of the JL doing messed up stuff just makes it more glaring when they just keep going on in universe like they're the super friends.

Once again I have seen the whole show except for the first half of season 3, so if that shows up there more my concerns are a bit less extreme but the show strikes me as being this weird half deconstruction when it comes to the League.

(And also now that I am thinking about it, this shows tone is really REALLY dark. Season One was the most optimistic but season 2 ended with a a major bittersweet ending that was heavy on the bitter , Season 3 is bordering on a full on crapsack world that ends in a Revenge of the Sith esque turn and season 4 opens up with two leads dealing with their extreme PTSD for three episodes. Later YJ may be one of the most dour DC products. Like I am putting it under Watchmen and above the Nolan Films and TDKR)

Edited by NotGrantMorrison on Oct 21st 2021 at 8:28:34 AM

Okay so with this new episode I have to say whatever the story is trying to do with M'gann as a trans-metaphor or something close to that is kind of... no, for me. I don't even mind the racial stuff, but that aspect of her character has always bothered me.

Season 3 actually saw a more significant defeat for the Light. Their attempt to discredit the team failed (and their mole plan failed) and Lex's political career was shattered (with him getting replaced by a league ally.)

Even the gains they did get were a "shit we have to improvise" moment.

I liked the world building of mars and am glad the white martians aren't just chaotic evil monsters.

Edited by LordYAM on Oct 21st 2021 at 11:07:35 AM

The shoe seems to have purposely cast them as am ethnic minority because we the viewers think of them as monsters.

Basically using meta aspects to interested ourselves into the character biases.

We kinda did get that in the previous season at least, the team getting involved in another country's power struggle blew up on them spectacularly.

Edited by Cortez on Oct 23rd 2021 at 3:43:38 PM

There's also the constant infighting.

Megan lobotomized Kaldur for shit's sake and a bunch of Leaguer's quit under the order's of Batman to form his own personal squad.

Trust is a rare currency in this series.

Lulz at ep 3's credits. And thank fuck for Beast Boy getting healed because dear god was he getting grating as all hell

The TEAM gets consequences a lot but the JL tends to get off pretty easy (which is some kind of twisted endorsement of the whole idea.)

I think the closet direct consequence the League got for something they actually did (as opposed to Light Propaganda or a 5D Chess plan) was when the Watchtower existing got leaked. And that got skimmed over almost immediately to focus on the wider reach plot.

Batman and his team splitting off was a secret League Plan where they could have yet ANOTHER off the books illegal team, but in this case one whose actions they could publicly deny while security supporting. They just didn't tell the League at whole any of this which kinda prooves my point about the whole "JL getting away with messed up stuff" thing.

Edited by NotGrantMorrison on Oct 24th 2021 at 9:36:32 AM

Finally was able to watch the first three episodes:

Agreed that it's nice to see Jerkass Gar get the hell out of the plot. Also, I get the feeling Saturn Girl's actions here will be helpful later on.

So, any guesses on who the Legion is hunting?

The only major Legion villain I know (besides that one sorcerer guy and the Fatal Five) is the Time Trapper. Which... might work, but that feels too obvious.

The Controller maybe?

My choices are either the Controller, Time Trapper, Tharok or possibly the Monitor if they decided to set up their own Crisis on Infinite Earths

It could be Darkseid, given that he was the Big Bad of the Legion storyline "The Great Darkness Saga".

I'm betting Darkseid if only because he's the threat that terrifies even Vandal.

I doubt Darkseid would personally be on Mars directly doing it. It seems beneath him, and I don't think he personally would rely on subterfuge like this, as he simply does not need to. I can see him sending a minion to do something like this however.

Edited by Envyus on Oct 24th 2021 at 12:35:02 PM

So, is a month travel time from Earth to Mars a lot? That seems like that's about how long it would take us to get there in real life. Which then makes me ask, where did the Javelin come from? Cuz that has an FTL drive.

Getting a ship to Mars currently takes Six to Eight Months.