DC NATION (SEP 29, 2012)

It's been a long summer, but 'DC Nation' is finally, finally airing new episodes of both Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Young Justice. I'm just going to go ahead and pick up where I left off and do reviews for both shows each week in this DC NATION column. Sound good?

Green Lantern: The Animated Series
Season 1, Episode 14
"The New Guy"

The first 13 episodes of GL:TAS are a mixed bag. Some of them are dynamite examples of how well the Green Lantern universe can be adapted to TV, and some are just lame excuses at character development by way of making them ringless. I hated the episodes where Hal and Kilowog's rings wouldn't function - the whole idea behind Green Lantern is the power ring, and when you take it away as many times as this series did, it starts to get really annoying. Fortunately, Bruce Timm and this production staff must have realized this quickly, as episodes 10-13 were generally the best of the series as they focused on the invasion of Oan space by the Red Lanterns.


Now, I'm really excited for the rest of this first season going forward. Especially after "The New Guy", which is a double entendre referring not only to Earth's newest Green Lantern, but also to that GL's name, Guy Gardner. Voiced by the masterful Diedrich Bader, Guy was chosen to the the new GL of Sector 2814 while Hal was stuck in the far reaches of the universe stopping Atrocitus and his rage-filled soliders. Guy is a favorite on Oa, loved by the Guardians and other Lanterns alike, which is a huge departure from the hard-nosed stubborn Guy from the comic books. And while this show often stumbles in it's attempts at humor, the constant reign of compliments on Guy after Hal gets chewed out time and time again is very, very amusing.

While Guy is the focus of this episode, the real revelation is that the Anitmonitor has come to destroy the universe! Comic book fans know the Antimonitor as the catalyst for the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover in the 80s that streamlined DC continuity by merging different timelines and multiverse dimensions. In GL: TAS, the Antimonitor has sent a universe-wide signal to all of the Guardians' old Manhunter robots, reactivating them to slaughter any and all sentient life. It's a big, complex, and somewhat terrifying concept for a children's show, and I applaud DC, Warner Bros., and Cartoon Network for allowing such a bleak arc to be produced. It shows how much faith these companies all have in Bruce Timm's amazing ability to bring superheroes into animated form.

GRADE: A

Young Justice
Season 2, Episode 14
"Satisfaction"

While Green Lantern: The Animated Series keeps things more evenly balanced between the action and humor, Young Justice has been heavy on the story, trading in laughs for constant plot growth. Before the summer break, it was revealed that Aqualad had indeed not gone AWOL, but is instead working undercover to take down Black Manta's organization from the inside - as Manta's son, it made getting in all the easier. In tandem to Aqualad's position as a double agent, Artemis faked her own death so she could aid Aqualad in learning more about The Light, the still-unmasked big bad of the entire Young Justice series thus far. Oh, and Clone Roy finds Real Roy finally! Yes, "Satisfaction" has a lot of work to do.

Brooding is as brooding does.

Fortunately, the writers and producers are sticking to their guns and rolling out their story little by little each episode. For instance, Aqualad and Artemis are nowhere to be seen this week, Superboy gets to flirting while on a college campus, and the female members of the Team (as well as Black Canary) take on Captain Cold. But none of this comes even close to the main story, about a revived Roy Harper seeking answers about his missing arm, the other Roy Harper, and his life after being cryogenically frozen. Green Arrow tells Roy everything - from Lex Luthor's involvement, to the amount of time Roy's been frozen, as well as the fact that Ollie and the other Leaguers gave up looking after a relatively short amount of time. One-Armed Roy (which sounds like an awesome cowboy name) has a bit of a mental breakdown and sets off to take revenge against Lex Luthor.

Most of the episode is taken up by a fight between the handicapped Roy and Lex's bodyguard, the robotic Mercy, but near the end, the true meaning of this episode is revealed. Even though Luthor kidnapped Roy, cut off his arm for DNA supply purposes, kept Roy frozen for eight years, then tried to have him killed, Roy accepts the gifted offered by Luthor because at the end of the day, revenge is about making up for something lost. Usually, that something lost is totally irreplacable, meaning that taking revenge is the only option. In Roy's case, a bio-mechanical, weapons-infused arm is a new option that quickly becomes more favorable that killing one of the most powerful and influential people in the world.

GRADE: A

(DC NATION) JUNE 2, 2012

Young Justice
Season 2, Episode 6
"Bloodlines"

"Your name is Tim? And yours is...Dick?" -- Beast Boy

The writers saturated "Happy New Year!" with a host of new characters. Since then, they've been slowly building up these characters - including Blue Beetle, Wonder Girl, Batgirl, Tim Drake Robin, Lagoon Boy, and others - while not really introducing any new ones. That changes this week with the arrival of Bart Allen, a.k.a. Impulse.

That's right: IMPULSE! AND HE'S VOICED BY JASON MARSDEN!

Impulse was Barry Allen's descendent and one of the founding members of Young Justice in the comics who came from the 30th century to meet his ancestor and make a name for himself in the past. Young Justice edits this backstory a bit - Bart is now Barry's grandson from a post-apocalyptic world 40 years in the future. It's some pretty heavy stuff. And if that wasn't enough, the writers finally tie up the 'Real Roy Harper' storyline. The inclusion of Impulse to the Team's lineup shows that the writers intend to stock this show full of characters - old and new - that represent the idea behind 'Young Justice'. It's not a show strictly about the team from the comics, and it's not a rehash of the Teen Titans, no matter how much it may have seemed throughout the first season. Also, Bart reveals Nightwing and Robins' secret identities to Beast Boy, who responds with the quote at the top of the review.

While Impulse might be the focus of "Bloodlines", this really is a Flash-centric episode. When mysterious new villain Neutron attacks Central City, Flash is forced to team up with Impulse and Kid Flash - coming out of early retirement for his in-costume season two debut - and later on Jay Garrick doning the iconic tin helmet and blue pants. Until the final few minutes of the episode, Neutron is your basic faceless villain in place only to get these heroes together. He wears a power suit that shoots energy, but also emits cascading rings of energy - one after the other and overlapped - so the Flashes cant run up to him. It's a pretty far-fetched premise, even for a comic book series like this. There must have been an easier way to get the speedsters working together without crazy pseudo-science. How do the energy waves dissipate?

Flash and Impulse end of creating a funnel to stop the energy waves and Neutron overloads and explodes. But his body reconstructs itself into a confused and scared man who has no idea who he is and can't control his radiation. Bart ends up curing the man of his 'metagene' affliction using science from the future before anyone can see, chalking it up to coincidence when asked about what happened by the others.

On the Red Arrow side of things, 'Ray' Harper and Cheshire are in Tibet to follow their final lead to find the read Roy Harper. The unfortunate thing about this B-story is that it's pretty small considering the amount of time dedicated to Impulse's origin story. Red Arrow and Cheshire's plot all probably takes place within a ten minute window (in YJ-universe time), while the Central City plot takes the better part of an hour or two. So while they RA/Cheshire scenes are shorter and less abundant than the Flashes, it doesn't feel like we're missing much. The duo (with their dumb baby) end of actually finding Roy Harper, missing arm and everything. It's a little anti-climactic, but there's no doubt that next week's episode will be the fallout of Roy's return.

The big 'whoa' moment of the episode was the flashback to Bart Allen's future where the world has been burned and ash fills the skies. Like I mentioned earlier, it's pretty dark. Fortunately, the writers do a little full-circle action and reveal that Neutron knows Bart in the future and it was Neutron himself - who'd rather be called Nathaniel - who supplied Bart with the means to take away his powers as Neutron.

I wrote this review extra-long this week because Green Lantern: The Animated Series has ended it's first season and there is no announcement even for a second. I'm sure there will be, as Cartoon Network plans of releasing the season one DVD, inferring that there will be more seasons. Until then, I'll keep things going with Young Justice.

GRADE:

A

(COMIC) RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #8

STORY: Scott Lobdell
ART: Kenneth Rocafort

Welcome to the first post of coverage for Red Hood and The Outlaws. Like many titles I don't regularly cover here, I've been reading about Jason Todd, Roy Harper, and Koriand'r since DC's 'New 52' relaunch. When I originally made decisions about what to cover for "The Endless Reel", I decided against RHatO because it technically stands as a Batman-related title, and I didn't want to overload myself - or readers - with Bat-related material. Of course, after seven months of reading the increasing odd exploits of these three non-team-members, it's pretty obvious Jason's connection to Batman simply serves to set a base for his personality and place in the world. And so - coincidentally enough - does this issue of Red Hood and The Outlaws serve as a set-up t next month's tie-in to the "Night of the Owls" event.

Scott Lobdell's work on RHatO is similar in both style and scope to Dan Abnett's Resurrection Man. Both titles are about fun, comic book-y issues that (may) eventually tie together, but mostly stand on their own as well. This month, Jason, Roy, and Kori go after Suzie Su, a new character created by Lobdell who has a history with Jason that ended with Jason killing everyone in her father's gang. Seeking revenge, Suzie wakes up out of the coma Jason put her in years earlier and takes a wing of the hospital hostage until the Red Hood shows himself.

Suzie is being treated in a hospital in Gotham, so when she wakes up and takes hostages, Jason & Co. are forced to travel to Gotham as well, giving them a reason for being in Bruce Wayne's city on the night that the Talons attack. It's definitely a little forced, having the Outlaws show up just in time to help Batman and the others contain the Talon insurgence. But seeing how far removed Red Hood and The Outlaws is from the regular Bat-canon, it makes sense to use a rather unsubtle means to bring Jason and his team to Gotham.

The flashback cameo from Red Robin was great and was a fantastic way for Lobdell to create a more cohesive world between Teen Titans, Superboy and Red Hood and The Outlaws. In events that took place about a month prior to the confrontation with Suzie Su, Jason and Tim meet to bring each other information. Jason informs Tim about "Wonder Girl", and Tim give Jason the info about smugglers coming into Miami (from RHatO #1!). Seeing Lobdell make connections between his three titles for the 'New 52' is awesome, and it's something DC has needed for a while.

Next month, I'm sure I'll have a whole lot more to write about than a 'prelude' issue, so don't miss out on the coverage for "Night of the Owls".

GRADE:

B-

(DC NATION) APRIL 8th, 2012

Young Justice
Season 1, Episode 24
"Performance"

I've been consistently impressed with Young Justice since I started watching it last fall. In what I dreaded was a precursor to cancellation, Cartoon Network put the series on indefinite hiatus lasting over four months. Now it's obvious that they simply wanted to save episodes to air during 'DC Nation', but that would have been much more useful information to disappointed fanboys like myself last November. During the hiatus, I re-watched every episode and started picking up on connecting clues. With Young Justice winding down it's first, stellar season, it's time to start looking at the series as a whole forest more so than at it's individual trees (or episodes, as it were).

"Performance" deals with a deeply personal issues for Robin; Haly's Circus. The show is touring Europe, yet each city on the circuit is experiencing criminal activity tied to power plants and the like. Mr. Haly himself is under scrutiny from Interpol, and Robin insists Batman sent them to figure out what exactly is going on. DC animated shows are not know for their subtly, and blatantly asking Robin if their mission is legitimate is a real big tip-off that something isn't right. Nonetheless, Dick's connection to Haly's isn't about revealing some plot twist; it's about showing that Robin has an emotional core that exists outside Batman's shadowy dogma. The team infiltrates the circus as a family of trapeze artists who magically showed up knowing all the same moves and techniques as the Grayson's did, all those years ago.

The b-story revolves around Superboy's continued use of Lex Luthor's 'Shields' that suppress Conner's human DNA, allowing him access to all his Kryptonian powers. After three episodes where Conner sneaks around behind the team's back to use his Shields, it's starting to feel a lot like an after-school special. He's basically freebasing drugs and getting away with 'roiding out and totally messing up Robin's plan to stop the Parasite. It's pretty obvious that Conner's heroine Shield addiction is going to get worse then there's going to be some intervention, possibly as the season finale.

GRADE:
B+

Green Lantern: The Animated Series

Season 1, Episode 6

"Lost Planet"

At this point in Green Lantern, the actual 'Green Lantern' aspect of the premise has become somewhat of an off-screen persona. The Corps exists mostly to give Hal and Kilowog a reason for acting and not much else. It's like a sitcom about a family, oh, and the dad works at a bank. Their status and Green Lanterns is talked about a whole lot, but it is rarely ever seen, which is surprising for an ANIMATED TELEVISION PROGRAM. Green Lantern on a screen doesn't seem to work. 2011's live-action version was a pile of poop, and the DC Universe Animated Original Movies starring GL have only sold modestly compared to other titles. Green Lantern: The Animated Series makes a cardinal sin when adapting a work of print; it doesn't keep the essence of the source. Without regular, consistent ring use, Green Lantern ceases to be interesting. I understand the cost associated with CGI ring constructs, and the desire to characterize Hal and Kilowog (and Razer, at this point...I guess) as much as possible for a younger audience. Cartoon Network has sacrificed quality of program for simplicity of content and that's just unfortunate.

This episode is called "Lost Planet" and it's about how Hal and Kilowog use up all their ring energy (grrrrroooooaaannnnn) trying to slow down an asteroid heading for a planet with a potential new Green Lantern living on it. Instead of re-directing the asteroid's trajectory, the boys in green try to slow...it...down. Why would competent, trained SPACE police not understand this concept? It's mind-boggling how frustratingly condescending this show is, and how much it insults it's viewers' intelligence. So Hal, Kilowog, and Razer are forced to walk around the planet looking for the new GL. Let's remember that Razer is a Red Lantern and his ring (or battery) is in no way drained, so there's no reason for him to schlep in the trenches with the other two. So. Stupid.

The Christmas-colored lanterns go down to try and rescue a small group of crash-landees who have (maybe) been living on the planet (surface, underground?) since they became stuck. This loose affiliation of three random aliens is never more concretely explained, so it's infuriating when Hal and Kilowog just go off with some of them without a second question! They could be evil! They could want to hurt Hal and Kilowog! Turns out, they are evil and totally want to hurt them all!

Then it turns out the new Green Lantern is the planet itself and Bruce Timm just repurposed Mogo's origins. THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING. Mogo is one of the coolest Green Lantern's ever. He's been around for thousands of years, and he creates the actual rings. It's totally disrespectful to downgrade the distinguished planet-lantern to one of Hal Jordan's recruits.

GRADE:

D

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

- How much older is Roy Harper from the rest of the Young Justice team? It's a bit weird.

- The only reason Green Lantern didn't score an 'F' - Saint Walker makes an appearance! While not wielding the Blue Lantern ring, he easily parries Razer's persistent attacks without batting an eye. I'm sure he'll be back later on and that's actually something to look forward to in this dismal show.

- I found out Robin is voiced by teen heartthrob Jesse McCartney, so that is actually real. Also, Winnie Cooper voices Ms. Martian. Whoa.

- Is Razer going to become a Green Lantern eventually? Because if so, bleh. No redemption stories for shallow characters needed here, thank you very much.

(DC NATION) MARCH 31st, 2012

Young Justice
Season 1, Episode 23
"Insecurity"

"Insecurity", like many Young Justice episodes, gives audiences a general idea of what the story will be about with the title. Artemis begins to doubt her worth on 'the Team' when a second archer, Green Arrow's old sidekick, Red Arrow, joins the ranks, so she begins to act out. The writers of Young Justice are doing a fine job incorporating teenage melodrama into the thick of superhero action. While careful not to overpower the hero-oriented story, teen 'issues' are rarely handled subtly (and even in this episode, there are some real clunkers), so it's refreshing to see a show that can effortlessly combine action and drama without seeming too preachy or cheesy.

"I wear my sunglasses at night."

Young Justice seems to be getting better each week. Even though I somewhat disliked this Earth-16 version of Cheshire, she's grown on me and this episode, she shines without stealing the spotlight from agitated Artemis. Another dollop of teen drama comes into play when Artemis' mom admits she spoke with the League before coming to Artemis about joining 'the Team'. It's a little unnecessary in the grander scheme of things, but it succeeds in establishing more characterization between Artemis and her mom, who used to be Huntress.

Of course, this week's big reveal is that Sportsmaster is Artemis' American father. Honestly, I've found it weird that a third-tier villain like Sportsmaster has been so prominently featured among higher-caliber names like Hugo Strange, Anthony Ivo, and Lex Luthor. Either way, this revelation finally shows why Artemis has been so jumpy around 'the Team'.

GRADE:
A

Green Lantern: The Animated Series

Season 1, Episode 5

"Heir Apparent"

Another weak episode of Green Lantern: TAS. Yes, I said another weak episode. Last week, I went on a small rant about the non-use of power rings in a show about characters who wield power rings. Well, things get no better this week, even when the writers lifted a story straight out of the comics! Hal and Kilowog travel down to an alien planet to recruit a Frontier GL in the fight against the Red Lanterns. 

"Seriously, use your ring, dude."

Upon reaching the planet, Hal and Kilowog become entangled in the local politics of the monarchy, and soon, Hal is wearing armor and fighting the planet's mightiest warrior to save the Queen's hand from a loveless marriage. It get's super wacky super fast. And with NO RING USE. I'm sorry if I sound like a broken record, but if Batman didn't ever use his gadget's or Superman never used his powers, fans would be pissed. There needs to be more ring use or this show doesn't make any sense, from a logistical or biased point of view.

The story descends into a murder mystery when the planet's GL turns up dead. Soon, Kilowog falls over, apparently poisoned, and his rings flies to the weird, GL-loving Prince of the planet whose greatest dream is to be a Green Lantern. It was the Prince who killed his world's GL so the ring would be his, and it was the Prince who poisoned Kilowog when the other ring flew away. Of course, Hal and Kilowog set a trap and 'Wog was just fine in the end. Turns out the Queen of the planet became the new Lantern after the Prince killed the old one. See - didn't even need to use names or places to explain this episode! That's how disconnected it feels.

With all ring use apparently sidelined (except for flight and force fields), Green Lantern: TAS is little more than a CGI cartoon about space travel. You could honestly re-color their uniforms and give them a name like the Dinosaur Squad and the show would be no different.

GRADE:

D