The team goes to brave new worlds…

One of the few problems with Young Justice is that, thanks to the big time jumps between seasons, the cast has gotten huge without us really getting to know all of them. The show started off focusing on six young heroes, but those days are long gone. Now, there are so many characters that we spend this episode with two different teams and still don’t get to see even close to everyone. Or even most. As if things weren’t complicated enough on Earth, some of our heroes end up in deep space, which definitely qualifies as an “Away Mission.”

The show starts off on New Genesis, home of the New Gods, the counterparts to the forces of Darkseid’s Apocolypse. While the place is often portrayed as a paradise, things are definitely not all well between the “bugs” and a few foes led by a very out-of-character Orion. Things don’t go well, and Forager, looking very different from his comic book form, starts to wonder what’s going on. Things are also not calm back in Happy Harbor, as we see the unlikely gathering of Superboy, Miss Martian, Lucas “Snapper” Carr, and a very annoyed Brion Markov, arguing with his brother on the phone about coming home. This gets interrupted by the sudden arrival of Big Bear, Boom Tubing in from New Genesis, asking for help. Shortly, there’s a shuffling of teams and tasks, and Megan calls up her assigned team for a mission to space. Amusingly, some of the heroes were watching Space Trek, both setting the sci-fi tone and tying in to things from earlier in the season.

Miss Martian isn’t happy, but understands, when Superboy stays behind, and their arrival gets followed up by Traci Thirteen, a new arrival who apparently has magical jinx powers. Also along for the ride are Static, Wonder Girl, Blue Beetle, and Kid-Flash II. Back home, Superboy and Brion are joined by Halo, Dick Grayson, Tigress, and the still-civilian Jefferson Pierce, for now retired from being Black Lightning. Halo is impressed with Dick’s assembled file on her, while Tigress is less impressed with Dick’s letting some things fall through the cracks. He is a busy guy, and maybe needs an assistant. Or to delegate. I wonder where Oracle is in all this? On New Genesis, the team confronts some of the locals, and apparently there are some troubles with at least two of the power couples.

In Happy Harbor, there are assorted different tensions, as Halo’s odd nature grates on Brion, and Superboy expresses some opinions about Dr. Jace that Black Lightning objects to. Lucas talks about his major error when he was the Justice League “mascot,” which refers to a classic comic book storyline. Brion experiments with some of his powers, and Dick offers to help. Things are still ugly on New Genesis, and then things take a thoroughly unexpected turn when the fake Orion shows up and Miss Martian gets irritated and suddenly flies off with him, leaving the rest of her team, and the bugs, puzzled. A powers test goes wrong in various unexpected ways for both Halo and Prince Brion, which I suspect leads to Lucas wondering if hosting various powered people is such a good idea. In the comics, Lucas Carr eventually gets powers of his own, but I’ve seen no sign of that here so far.

While Miss Martian deals with a surprise revelation, Halo demonstrates a useful automatic power. Brion is on the verge of leaving (although where he thinks he’s going to go, I have no idea) when both Superboy and Dick make some comments that have him reconsider. This clearly pleases one of the group, which seems to echo an storyline from early in the original Outsiders run. Things wrap up on New Genesis after some fighting, an exile, and Megan taking in another stray. Their place is going to get really crowded at this rate.

What I liked: The quality of this show continues to impress me. I’ve always liked the occasional downtime story, and that’s what at least half of this episode was. The Halo/Geo-Force power test was entertaining in different ways. Megan has a big heart and the power and experience to back that up now. Lucas Carr was an interesting addition to the crew, and I completely understand Superboy’s reluctance to trust Dr. Jace.

What I didn’t: I hope Jefferson’s withdrawal from the hero scene doesn’t last too long. I get upping the drama, but it seemed like both Wonder Girl and Blue Beetle were really low-powered in their fight. The cast is arguably too big at this point. Are we ever going to find out what Batman’s splinter team is up to?

All in all, this was another well-done episode. I’ll give it a high 3.5 out of 5. I wonder how the stuff on New Genesis is going to fit in with the larger story, because I’m sure it will.