Invasion #2.8 "Satisfaction"

[nate-dog1701d]

"M'gann! You shouldn't have."
"Actually, it's..it's from Artemis too. We..bought it together."

What a downer. Also, the toast: "To absent friends." I laughed at that as well. Even though the bridal shower segment had nothing to do with the A story, it was the source of good comedy.

My general impression of this episode was negative on my first viewing. I think a lot of that has to do with my attempt to explain the show's entire continuity to my uninitiated friend (who just wanted to watch Clone Wars). I just watched it again (albeit in a mirrored version), and I liked it a lot more. It's greatly unfortunate that this fell almost four months after the previous episode. It absolutely kills the pacing. This show's serialized nature is not at all conducive to Cartoon Network's erratic scheduling.

So, in three weeks, Roy has somehow recovered enough from both an amputation and being frozen for eight years to operate highly efficiently. Really? Aside from that, I liked how his rebellion and confrontation with Luthor went. I hope they handle this mechanical arm deal better than they did the krypto-slappers Lex gave to Superboy. Like Mbruno pointed out, it's cool to have both Arsenal and Red Arrow.

Things I didn't like:
-On-the-nose dialogue and spelling everything out through exaggerated statements.
-The fact that the bridal shower and fallen heroes segments had no real point.
-Captain Cold having a case of the giggles.

[j03superbat]

Not really, maybe in age, since the other girls were all like younger and she is older

Well the age gap was my point. I really don't know how old she was when she was mentoring them, but she's five years older than that now. And as far as I could tell (I didn't really get investigative about it), everyone else is the same age. And I think it stuck out even more to me because I remember finding a Black Canary scene from the first season ridiculous because she was giving therapy sessions in her outfit. The one with fishnets.

I'm not saying it's inconcievable that Black Canary could ever be invited to a bridal shower by a group of friends probably ten years younger than her; it certainly could happen in a tight-knit, superpowered community. But had they gone an extra step and acknowledged the generation gap with a small wink or nod, I would've laughed myself silly. I realize that's hard to do in a 22-minute animated show where all adult characters look the same age.

And Batgirl was there, it was more like "birds of prey" reunion.

I don't think that's what they were going for, given that Huntress was no where in sight, and there were several other, non-BOF affiliated female superheroes.

[Mbruno]

Things I didn't like:
-On-the-nose dialogue and spelling everything out through exaggerated statements.
-The fact that the bridal shower and fallen heroes segments had no real point.

I'm not sure yet, but I suspect that the "fallen heroes" segment had two purposes:

1) First, to introduce Jason Todd, who may turn out to be an important character in the show, especially if they decide to bring him back as Red Hood. I assume we may learn more about Jason's backstory in future episodes.

2) Second, to show some bonding between Bart and Jaime and, perhaps, to hint that Bart may know something about Jaime's future which he's not telling anyone.

As for the "bridal shower segment", in addition to the tie-in with the Conner/Wendy scene, it served to let the audience know that Raquel is getting married. Maybe that will be also relevant for some unknown reason in the future.

[vantheman77]

After a four-month hiatus, we are returned with a new episode that introduces us to the real Roy Harper, who meets his clone Red Arrow for the first time and how he's taking it. He decides to get revenge on the one responsible in Lex Luthor, who showed us why he is Superman's arch-nemesis and a top DCU villain. For having one arm, Roy is holding up well against Mercy Graves as she showed us what she's capable of.

The other storyline is the developing friendship between Impulse and Blue Beetle, who have mentor issues. Through them we see memorials of Tula, Artemis, Blue Beetle Ted Kord, and Robin, but this could be either Jason Todd or Dick's old pesona reflecting his change.

Superboy is celebrating his birthday and he's not one for birthday celebrations as Wendy tries to cheer him up. Meanwhile, the superheroines come together to take on Captain Cold. Overall, a great episode to return with.

[Kal-ed]

i didn't even know it was back. I'm just a bit overwhelm over all the characters on this series. I mean take how many arrows there are now or formal arrows there are. And then the different mentors/side-kicks. You can almost build separate series on each of those pairs.

thank you!!!

although I did like the fact that they adressed one of my issues with this season, about not having any downtime or friendly interaction between characters, too bad they went the Jamie/Bart way, I wish they had added Tim Drake and Connor to that scene.

Theyīr continously putting Superboy on the side, as if to make him a loner, lets see where that takes them. Oh and please just have Cassie and Connor hook up or at least say hi to each other, forget about this Wendy chic.

[Kal26]

thank you!!!

although I did like the fact that they adressed one of my issues with this season, about not having any downtime or friendly interaction between characters, too bad they went the Jamie/Bart way, I wish they had added Tim Drake and Connor to that scene.

Theyīr continously putting Superboy on the side, as if to make him a loner, lets see where that takes them. Oh and please just have Cassie and Connor hook up or at least say hi to each other, forget about this Wendy chic.

Amen to the Conner/Cassie comment!

[nate-dog1701d]

I'm not sure yet, but I suspect that the "fallen heroes" segment had two purposes:

1) First, to introduce Jason Todd, who may turn out to be an important character in the show, especially if they decide to bring him back as Red Hood. I assume we may learn more about Jason's backstory in future episodes.

2) Second, to show some bonding between Bart and Jaime and, perhaps, to hint that Bart may know something about Jaime's future which he's not telling anyone.

As for the "bridal shower segment", in addition to the tie-in with the Conner/Wendy scene, it served to let the audience know that Raquel is getting married. Maybe that will be also relevant for some unknown reason in the future.

I don't dispute your assertions, except that I have a hard time imagining Red Hood showing up (though, at this point, I guess I shouldn't doubt this show's willingness to show every character possible). Sure, Bart and Jaime had a nice scene together, and we were told that Raquel is getting married.* My problem is that nothing outside of the Roy story had any actual story substance. I'm all for seeing the heroes in their civilian identities, but something has to happen that remotely resembles a plot. They could have taken any one of these ideas (Bart/Jaime, bridal shower, Conner) and formed a suitable B story, but they didn't. It felt like filler material that could have been utilized in a different episode.

I liken the bridal shower stuff to the scenes in one episode of season one where the League discussed recruiting new members. There were some funny moments, but, at the end of the day, it was empty.

*This was actually a wtf moment for me. For one thing, it took me a moment to recognize that it was Rocket, as it's about the fourth time she's shown up. For another, I had absolutely no idea her name was Raquel. Lastly, it's laughable that I should care about this at all because, as mentioned, it's about her fourth appearance, and she's never been featured prominently. She was slapped on the team in the penultimate episode of season one with no introduction and has essentially still had none. This is all kind of beside my point, so that's why this is a footnote.

[Backward Galaxy]

I took the bridal shower as just a cooldown moment about showing that Artemis' death is acknowledged by the others and then to provide a little bit of comic relief with Captain Cold (which I found to be hilarious). I liked it for what it was.

[Kal-ed]

I don't dispute your assertions, except that I have a hard time imagining Red Hood showing up (though, at this point, I guess I shouldn't doubt this show's willingness to show every character possible). Sure, Bart and Jaime had a nice scene together, and we were told that Raquel is getting married.* My problem is that nothing outside of the Roy story had any actual story substance. I'm all for seeing the heroes in their civilian identities, but something has to happen that remotely resembles a plot. They could have taken any one of these ideas (Bart/Jaime, bridal shower, Conner) and formed a suitable B story, but they didn't. It felt like filler material that could have been utilized in a different episode.

I liken the bridal shower stuff to the scenes in one episode of season one where the League discussed recruiting new members. There were some funny moments, but, at the end of the day, it was empty.

*This was actually a wtf moment for me. For one thing, it took me a moment to recognize that it was Rocket, as it's about the fourth time she's shown up. For another, I had absolutely no idea her name was Raquel. Lastly, it's laughable that I should care about this at all because, as mentioned, it's about her fourth appearance, and she's never been featured prominently. She was slapped on the team in the penultimate episode of season one with no introduction and has essentially still had none. This is all kind of beside my point, so that's why this is a footnote.

See, thatīs my biggest biff, with so many characters, a lot of them undeveloped, its hard for things becoming anything more than footnotes.

[nate-dog1701d]

I have to throw my hat in the ring with Kal-ed. If the cast were more focused, I could imagine being more pleased with these scenes. I like the large cast, but they need to emphasize some and relegate the others to supporting players. It seems clear that they can't all share the spotlight.

[Kal-ed]

Yup, Its common sense, the more you have to juggle with, the less likely you are to juggle properly. There is such a thing as too many characters. Quality over quantity any day of the week.

[mbozzo]

'Satisfaction' is a good episode. The original Roy goes after Lex Luthor, in revenge for his lost arm and his lost years. Luthor only gave him that gift of a new arm to keep himself alive. Roy might end up wishing that he didn't accept that gift. Only future episodes can tell us that.