A personal side mission for Robin enters the picture as some of the team comes to his aid.
What They Say:
Performance
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As Young Justice moves along, it’s getting to introduce some fun new characters, including that of King Farady from Interpol here as he’s investigating something going on with Haly’s Circus. The troupe has been associated with a series of high tech weapon company break-ins over the last few months as every town they perform in where there is one, it ends up with that happening. So Robin puts together his small crew to go in and deal with it, though Red Arrow gets himself involved as well since he’s still hunting the mole within the group and looks askew at everyone. Which continues to really drag on the morale problem that the group has been having for awhile because of all of this.
The investigation of the Circus has pretty much everyone getting exposed to Arrow’s paranoia, which is getting to be a problem. While he will do what is needed during the actual mission, such as prioritizing saving Robin when he starts to falter from an illness that’s hitting him, there’s no hesitation at all. For Robin, watching all of this unfold is a serious problem for him because of his past with this particular circus and its owner. He knows he’s not being objective which is why Kid Flash was left behind but it’s fun to watch him trying to not question himself but to question everything else that’s going on, including pushing back on his friends since they’re quicker to make the leaps to who may involved. Of course, it goes in a completely different direction with the truth.
What I really loved here is that they utilized the Parasite in a truly good way overall and made him visually appealing, something that has long been a problem for the character both in comics and other interpretations over the years. While the episode is weak in its leadup, overly convoluted in trying to get things across, once it makes the reveal and works from there it goes for the strong, physical action side of things. Parasite has some big draws here with Superboy and Miss Martian to suckle from and he has no hesitation in doing so. Of course, Superboy can power up quickly again with what he got from Lex but that’s proving to be an unwelcome subplot for the show at this stage, as it’s just going in expected directions and you know what the resolution will be overall.
In Summary:
Young Justice has been going good overall but it still manages to have some episodes where it has a convoluted opening before it gets to the point. It’s not a bad thing to do once in awhile, but its execution has left me not feeling the show quite so much as it gets going each week. Thankfully, when it does hit its stride within each episode, it does so with ease and keeps me thoroughly entertained since it has such a variety of characters to work with. And while the Superboy subplot annoys me, it’s not the only plot running here as it tackles the other characters well enough, giving them enough time to make an impact without being forced even if they aren’t the key character to the show. It continues to work the ensemble format very well while adding more to the larger storyline as well that has been weaving its way throughout the season.
Grade: B
