Just Don't call them "Sidekicks"

I was sort of skeptical of the new Young Justice cartoon back when I first heard of its impending release. Now that I've seen it, I can barely remember what I was so worried about... 


Young Justice starts off with the foremost sidekicks of the Justice League's mainstays being invited to finally enter the hallowed Hall of Justice, only to feel disrespected by having only superficial clearance. After the Justice League is called away on a seemingly more serious mission, the kids check out a fire at the mysterious Project: Cadmus, stumbling right into Superboy's origin.

DC has been doing a great job with its straight-to-video animated films and its Justice League Unlimited show, and Young Justice offers more of what you've come to expect. The animation, character and set design are all fabulous. Continuing the tradition of d-list cameos, the Guardian makes an appearance as the chief security officer at Project:Cadmus, although he doesn't do much but stand around and talk tough. The debut clocks in at about 45 minutes (once commercials are edited out), and moves briskly enough to have a nice plot, but slowly enough to allow for nice characterization.
Kid Flash is impatient and speaks without thinking. Robin is a rule-breaking, authority-shrugging hacker. Superboy is a hothead. Aqualad is the voice of reason, and seems to be the natural leader of the group. I liked that they are leaning away from portraying Robin as essentially a clone of Batman, and giving him a real personality, without the show getting into secret identities... I actually hope they take a nod from Teen Titans Go! and just stick to the kids' in-costume activities, like they did in this debut feature.
Of course, the show bore all of Justice League Unlimited's flaws as well as its strengths. I have built up an immunity to these cats' tendency to treat all superheroes like they are equal in power level. You will have to excuse the multiple times Robin takes a body blow from someone with super-strength without consequence, and a Kid Flash (and Flash when he appears) that doesn't seem anywhere near as fast as he should be. I would also have loved to see more from the ghastly goon squad at Cadmus, but I would have preferred a 90 minute debut over a 45 minute one... but I'm not paying the bills, am I? All the inconsistencies can easily be explained away, or better yet, just ignored.
All in all, the show was very enjoyable, and all the little teaser materials they dropped into the episode have hooked me into wanting to watch the show, so mission accomplished! After the smoke from the episode clears, and the status quo for the show is established, it looks like it's gonna be dope!
peep the whole episode via megavideo below, if you missed it on CN!

2 comments:

Joe Woods said...

I also like the fact that robin punches a wall and it cracks and Kid Flash is really dumbed down in terms of speed. but over all the show is hot!

Samax said...

Right. When the original Justice League show first came out, I was seriously annoyed by that kinda stuff. Since then, I have learned to just let it slide.

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