What They Say:
Intervention – The team tries to free Blue Beetle.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Young Justice Invasion spent a lot of time with Warworld in the previous episode and it worked nicely overall to bring a lot of people back together at long last. But it also provided for a split as well as Roy took to his own after feeling manipulated once again and just outside of the team that never realized they had been infiltrated. Of course, his attempt to hook up with a few of the other kids that showed up proved fruitless as well since he discovered there were being backed by Lex Luthor. And there’s no love lost between those two considering what they’ve been involved with each other over across the years.
The big problem this time around is the understanding everyone has over the fact that Blue Beetle is now the bad guy, though Impulse at least continually makes it clear that Beetle has been controlled for awhile, similar to how several of them have experienced similar things. There aren’t exactly divisions among the heroes on what needs to be done, but there’s different layers of feelings about how they think of Beetle because of what’s happened. Beetle, for his part, is continuing a strong public relations campaign that’s keeping his name across the news, from receiving an award for what he did on Warworld that the press is aware of to a simpler and more comical things such as taking down Toyman. You have to feel for Jaime as he’s stuck just watching from the inside and trying to get the Scarab to do the right thing. But it’s been fixed in such a way that it’s just not happening at this rate.
While he can’t do much, his friends do want to help him and the leads to a pretty good plan that’s put into motion to take him down and get him the help he needs. With The Reach manipulating him directly, telling him it’s time for him to make his first real kills, which is hugely painful for Jaime to see close to happening. What proves to be interesting is that while the Scarab is quite powerful and can accomplish a lot as an ultimate weapon, it can’t handle certain combinations that come up. Bringing to the forefront a combination of Batgirl and Impulse is unusual to begin with, but it builds on it with the arrival of Rocket and Zatanna, which brings its own flair of power and cooperation to the game and makes for a great moment as Beetles attacks just strengthens his captivity.
Bringing in more of the team in their attempt to free him, we do see that the team does have something of a plan, but it’s rooted in magic because of Zatanna’s heightened profile here in trying to deal with the Scarab itself directly, going back to its time from four thousand years prior and the Egyptian aspects of it all. It takes on a very big tone here and has some really great sequences, including what Impulse manages to pull off when it comes to utilizing Green Beetle. The show has worked a good arc for Jaime and the Scarab for awhile now and bringing it to a resolution here, along with a great little twist for Green Beetle, that makes you wonder if there’s similar to be had with Black Beetle as well, even if you feel deep down that there likely isn’t. With some good bits of background brought into it, we get a clearer look at what’s been going on behind the scenes. It’s still surprising to see so much attention focused on Blue Beetle, but it’s made for some really great scenes across the last half dozen episodes.
In Summary:
Young Justice: Invasion has worked some lengthy stories across both seasons with what it wants to do and it’s managed to, against all odds, make me a Blue Beetle fan. I’ve been one of those Ted Kord fans since the 80’s and could just never get into Jaime Reyes and what he brought to the table in the comics. But through the animated version here with Young Justice, they’ve made me a fan. This episode brings to resolution events that have been scattered throughout the season that became bigger as it went along, resulting in a couple of good action sequences, some solid background material that causes you to re-evaluate certain actions and piece of dialogue and it sets us on the path for the next couple of episodes that will bring the season, and series, to a close. The high notes are already in place and it’s reaching the time for it all to go out with a bang, something I’m entirely confident that they’ll pull off.
Grade: B+
