Young Justice Episode 3

Welcome back to Young Justice. Last time, Aqua-Lad, Robin and Kid Flash rescued Superboy from Project Cadmus and, as a result, were set up by the Justice League as a covert ops team, which was also to include Ms. Martian, the Martian Manhunter’s niece.

Our episode opens with the team, aided by Speedy, taking down a team of crooks down by the docks in Star City. After the bad guys are stopped, Robin asks Speedy if he’s interested in joining the team, but he refuses, seeing the team as a way for the league to keep their “sidekicks” busy, pacified and out of the league’s way.

Back at Mt. Justice, the team’s new headquarters, as Kid Flash ineptly tries to flirt with Ms. Martian, Robin is itching for a new assignment, but Red Tornado, the team’s Justice League appointed Supervisor, says he’ll just have to wait. Ms. Martian tries to read Tornado’s mind, forgetting he’s a machine and thus, immune to telepathy.

As the team bonds, we finally learn the team’s civilian names, which is good, because now I don’t have to guess which Robin and Kid Flash we’re dealing with anymore. Robin is Dick Grayson (despite his personality reminding me a lot more of Tim Drake), Kid Flash is Wally West, Aqualad is a character named Kaldur, who may or may not be an original character made specifically for the show, and Ms. Martian is M’gann M’orzz, or Megan for simplicity’s sake. However, when Superboy appears visibly annoyed by the fact that he doesn’t have an actual name, Ms. Martian telepathically offers her sympathies. Superboy, having spent the majority of his existence being brainwashed by Cadmus, doesn’t react well to having someone else’s voice in his head and blows up at Megan before brooding in the corner.

Later on, Megan takes the others for a ride in her spaceship, when Red Tornado informs them of an emergency at a power plant. Said emergency was apparently caused by a villain called Mr. Twister. The team tries to take down Twister, but his tornado powers seem to be able to counter anything that the team can throw at him. When Megan tries to read Mr. Twister’s mind, she gets nothing, meaning that he’s a machine. The fact that they’re fighting a red-clad robot with tornado powers is too big a coincidence for Megan and she concludes that this is actually Red Tornado in disguise, putting the team through some sort of test. Hearing this, the rest of the team refuses to play this perceived game and stands down, and Mr. Twister, who is not Red Tornado, nearly destroys them while their guard is down.

After Megan manages to get the team to safety, Superboy and the others berate her for her mistake, claiming she’s not ready for field work. I hate this scene. While it’s true, Megan made a rookie mistake, it was hardly a mistake that anyone else would not have easily made. I mean seriously, what are the odds, even in comic books, that there are two completely unrelated robots out there who both happen to have tornado powers? But the team is acting like Megan made the worst mistake possible and worse yet, like she did so on purpose. And let’s not forget, the girl you ingrates are blaming for all this is the same person is also the one who just saved all your asses.

Anyway, the team goes off to fight Mr. Twister alone, but they’re intercepted by the real Red Torndao who challenges Twister one-on-one. Twister clearly has the upper hand, and knocks Tornado down, but when he tries to finish him off, “Tornado” reveals himself to be Megan using her shape-shifting powers and, with the help of the rest of the team, Twister is destroyed. Elsewhere, the one who built Mr. Twister is lamenting his failure, but his partner, who weirdly enough bares a resemblance to Tony Stark says that even failure can be a learning experience and that they have learned a great deal about this new team.

The episode ends with an epilogue back at Mt. Justice where Superboy apologizes to Megan. This episode is a by the numbers kind of episode for any show of this nature. The team has their first mission and they have a tough time working together, fairly standard stuff. However, I feel that that plot-line could have been executed much better.