After an almost five month hiatus, Young Justice is finally back on the screen!
Official Synopsis:
“When every adult on the planet disappears, only the team, Zatanna and Billy Batson are left to defeat the five most powerful sorcerers on earth…”
Recap:
Klarion the Witch Boy, Wizard, Wotan, Felix Faust, and Blackbriar Thorn gather around to put their evil plan into action – making every adult in the world disappear, which also means bad news for our superheroes from the Justice League. All around the world, adults are MIA, which puts the team of our younger heroes in charge of protecting the children and becoming their beacon of hope around the world. One of the children, Billy Batson a.k.a. Captain Marvel realizes that if he transforms into his older self, then he will disappear as well, so he tries to get to the bottom of the situation as Billy Batson.
Eventually when he does transform into Captain Marvel, he figures out that whoever is responsible for the disappearances of the adults has split the world into two dimensions – the other being one where all the adults disappears but all kids are missing. That makes him the only one who can zap between the two dimensions. While the adult-missing dimension is stable, the kid-missing dimension is not as the adults’ concern start turning into chaos – and it’s revealed that something else is going on as two men are leaving Star Labs with something stolen. When both the League and the younger team is informed through Billy/Captain Marvel, that the attack has split up into two dimensions, they decide to make an simultaneously attack against the sorcerers, when they have at this point located the source of the disappearances thanks to Zatanna.
The younger heroes locate Klarion, and the battle begins while at the other dimension, Batman, Zatara and Captain Marvel locate the four elder sorcerers. Zatanna’s father Zatara realizes that the gem in the magical circle is the source of the two dimension’s existence – with Zatanna realizing that her level of magic isn’t enough to defeat Klarion, she makes a dangerous decision by putting on the Helmet of Nabu – inhabiting the power of Doctor Fate but at the same time, she gets trap inside the helmet. Zatara and Zatanna/Doctor Fate eventually put an end to the dividing dimensions, merging it back into one – Klarion however manages to escape. However, it’s not over as Doctor Fate refuses to release Zatanna. It’s also revealed that the spirit of Kent Nelson is no longer able to help as Nabu released his spirit to the afterlife. Zatara who doesn’t want to see Zatanna trapped by Nabu, offers himself as a host for Nabu, in exchange for Zatanna’s freedom. Nabu accepts and the helmet goes over to Zatara, who dons the helmet and leaves his daughter devastated. The team members return to their respective homes and reunites with their families. Zatanna decides to move in at Mount Justice with Superboy and Miss Martian.
While everything is back to normal, at a secret location where the Brain and the rest of the secret society are gathered, it’s revealed that Klarion’s plan was nothing else than a distraction for Sportsmaster and The Riddler (who were the two mysterious men from Star Labs) to get a starfish creature, which according to the Brain will soon be brought into “the light.”
Review:
To start off, I must say that it’s so wonderful that Young Justice is back. I just hope that they won’t do another long hiatus again. To begin with, I found the story itself to be interesting but it felt at the same somewhat repeated – one plan that is just a distraction while the so called “real plan” can take place; it was almost like the situation in “Revelation” where one “secret society” of members of the Injustice League were used as a fall guy in order to keep the real Secret Society hidden. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing, only that it felt repeated. “Denial” and “Secrets” are also two episodes that has been focused on sorcery and magic related stories, which I have enjoyed, but when I saw this episode, I felt annoyed that magic was once again the villain of the week; however, when I gave it a second thought, I realized that it made perfect sense as Klarion is part of the real Secret Society. After the long hiatus forgot that he was part of it. That is the negative part of having breaks that are too long — your viewers can potentially forget events from previous episodes and that can mean a decrease of interest in the show.
I was especially interested in the role that Doctor Fate keeps playing in the show – because I was introduced to Doctor Fate through Smallville, I never saw the Helmet of Nabu as a strict magical force that almost wants to keep the hosts as hostages, but I guess this is perhaps something that fans that has followed Doctor Fate better than I have are familiar with. I find it interesting that the teens have for a third time had to use the power of the helmet when their own powers and forces aren’t enough. It also shows to me as a viewer that this team still has a lot to learn, about themselves and each other, in addition to developing their powers. The sacrifice that Zatara makes will surely set up the conflicts and emotions that we will probably see within Zatanna in the coming episodes. This series does a good job of showing teenage heroes that are not only struggling with taking responsibility as superheroes but also regular and normal issues that teenagers are dealing with today; in this case, absence from a parent.
Dividing the situation into two dimensions was and unexpected twist and having Captain Marvel as the only person that could zap between them in order to save the day, was also unexpected. The cliffhanger of this episode, with the starfish creature, presumably Starro, was interesting to see. Overall, “Misplaced” was a great episode to kick off with for the final run and I’m looking forward seeing what else is in store of this season.
