Young Justice #1.22 “Agendas” Recap & Review

Synopsis:

“Superboy returns to Project Cadmus, where he learns the top-secret genetic lab may have created another Super Clone. Meanwhile, the Justice League convenes at the Watchtower to discuss an important matter.”

Recap:

The Justice League has gathered at the Watchtower to talk about recruiting more superheroes to the JLA. At Mount Justice, Miss Martian and Zatanna are preparing for Thanksgiving. It is emotional for Zatanna since this is her first Thanksgiving without her dad. Meanwhile, Superboy hears a voice that want to meet him alone in Washington, D.C. and he leaves for the city right away. When he gets to D.C., a car arrives and Lex Luthor steps out, informing Superboy that Cadmus has created a new super-clone.

Superboy finds Guardian, who tells him that there is no other super-clone. He shows Superboy around in a more improved and kinder Cadmus. Dubbilex speaks telepathically with Superboy, who asks him what would happen when and if he found another super-clone.

He eventually finds a clone and it IS another super-clone. Superboy decides to release the clone, who believes that Superboy is Superman. A battle between the two of them takes place and the clone has the ability to fly, which surprises Superboy. When the clone defeats Superboy, he burns an “S” on his chest before he starts hearing a screeching noise inside his head – which Lex was observing until the camera cuts out. Back at Watchtower, the Justice League are talks about recruitment – including the notions of bringing in Red Arrow to the possibility of bringing in Kid Flash and Aqulad which Doctor Fate personally recommends. It leads to a discussion why Doctor Fate is still in the League after all the cruelty that he put the younger heroes through.

Back at Cadmus, Superboy wakes up in the very same pod that he was once stored in and also in the same white uniform. He breaks out and the alarm is triggered – Guardian, Dubbilex and Dr. Spence walk in. Dr. Spence informs him that he was put in the pod only because it was the fastest way to heal his injuries. A very angry Superboy refuses to believe her, but Guardian tries to convince him that she really didn’t know about the new super-clone. Before Guardian and Dubbilex leave, Superboy is informed that the super-clone escaped right after their battle. Through a transmission, Lex reveals everything that he knows about Project Match and the reason why Superboy doesn’t have heat vision or the ability to fly is revealed to him – his DNA is comprised of both Kryptonian and human DNA, while Project Match has full Kryptonian DNA but he is unstable. Lex tells him that with the unstable mind that Match has, Superboy has to put a stop to him and gives him a “gift” – a box with shields that will suppress the human DNA inside him for one hour, making him equally as powerful as Match.

He starts to investigate before Dubbilex informs him that Match was the first clone that Cadmus created. Match was so unstable that he couldn’t be controlled, he was frozen and “they” tried to do it again. When Superboy asks who “they” are, it’s revealed that it was Dr. Desmond and his superior who was also the founder of Project Cadmus: Lex Luthor. Dubbilex leads Superboy to Genomorph City where all the missing genomorphs had escaped to. He was the one who was responsible for their disappearances. It’s revealed that Match hadn’t escaped after their battle; he had been taken by Dubbilex and was being held captured by genomorphs who were controlling his mind.  When Match sees that Superboy is here, he breaks out and begins to fight Superboy again and Dubbilex as well. After being tossed around and brutally attacked by Match, Superboy has no choice but to put on the shield patch so that he could fight on equal ground against Match. He manages to defeat Match, but continues to attack him even though Match is defeated; Guardian arrives in time to put an end to Superboy’s punching before Match gets frozen again.

Superboy confronts Lex about being responsible for Project Cadmus and Match. Lex started it in order to create an opponent that could stand a chance versus Superman. He also reveals something even bigger to Superboy: the human DNA that was used to create Superboy came from Lex himself and therefore making Superboy a clone with half of Superman’s DNA while the other half is Lex’s DNA. Superboy gets upset and Lex somehow manages to “shut” him down with two words and disappears. Superboy is frightened about what he has just learned, and now wonders what else Lex could make him do.

Review:

Just like “Cold Hearted” and “Image”, this week’s episode was focused on an individual main character – this time it was Conner Kent/Superboy. I knew as soon as I read the official description for this episode that this would by the end of the episode be one of my favorite episodes. Superboy is my favorite character not only because of the role that he plays in the Superman mythos, but also because he is such a complex character. I’m so grateful that after all this time since the show’s very first episode, they finally brought back Cadmus which also tied up how Superboy came to be. As the big Superman geek that I am, it wasn’t a surprise to find out that Lex’s DNA was used to create Superboy, but it was still so incredibly awesome at the end when he revealed it to Superboy.

It really also ties in well with the ongoing theme all of the young heroes have faced – they’re all holding secrets from their other teammates. It makes him the third person in the team that now carries a big secret. Whether or not the remaining four will be dealing with secrets remains to be seen in the upcoming episodes. I loved that the reason why he couldn’t fly was because of Luthor’s DNA, and also I loved the fact that Lex was right in a way. Conner can be a lot like Lex and I think as soon as he put on the shield patch, he really suppressed his human part. He became almost as brutal as Le. It was as if the Superman part in him just vanished but it just really proves how evil Lex is. Those shields were perhaps helpful for giving him all the abilities of a Kryptonian but it almost made him forget about what he stood for.

As cruel as Lex is, he was right about one thing. Superman hasn’t been there for Conner at all and that is something I seriously want to see. This season we have seen so many members of the Justice League being there for the team, but Superman barely has been there. I want to see the relationship between Superman and Superboy develop at some point – father-and-son, brother-and-brother; I’m fine with either one of them, as long as they actually start interacting with each other more. Aside from that, I feel that Conner was really used well for his solo episode. The complexity in his character was explored so well and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to tie the Lex factor into the show.

There was only one thing that really bothered me – the Justice League was really useless in this episode. Their part really failed to tie in with the A-plot of this episode and the only way that the younger heroes was related to the subject was about recruiting some of them to the League. Other than that, I would have been fine with just having that discussion taking place in Offscreenville. I usually love the part that the JLA plays in the show as mentors and so on, but I felt that the conversation about who they thought should get to be part of the JLA was so unnecessary because it just didn’t connect with what Conner was doing in this episode. One thing that I liked and that deserves to be pointed out – Wonder Woman voiced by Nikita’s very own Maggie Q. She did a good job of voicing the Amazon Princess.