Young Justice: "Earthlings" Review

Full superhero sidekick spoilers follow.

O.K. then, everyone who was worried that all the questions raised by last week's five-year time jump would go unanswered can rest easy. For the most part. If "Earthlings," this week's episode of Young Justice, is any indication, the show hasn't completely abandoned these matters.

With the bigger plot business of this season set up last week -- the whole Justice League as galactic outlaws and alien invasion is imminent thing -- we can pause to catch our breath, if only slightly, with a fleshing out of what exactly went wrong between Miss Martian and Superboy during the previous five years.

- Warner Bros./Cartoon Network

The answer: Well, technically we still don't know! But Conner does fill Adam Strange's girlfriend Alanna in -- and by extension, us -- with some vague details. It seems that Superboy was designed to not physically age past his current appearance, and as Alanna notes, a shapeshifter could be the perfect partner for such a person. But Megan apparently left Conner "no choice" but to break up with her at some point… Is it because she likes to mind-wipe folks nowadays, as she did to that poor Krolotean sucker at the end of "Earthlings"? Alien drool for the win… I guess.

Meanwhile, it's pretty cool seeing
Adam Strange come into his own as a superhero type this episode. When we met him last week, he was just a lab coat, but give a guy a jetpack and a sweet wardrobe and it'll do wonders. I'm no Adam Strange expert, but I liked what I saw here, including a typical Young Justice redesign of his costume. It actually makes sense that the guy would wear such a thing.

- Warner Bros./Cartoon Network

And then there's
Beast Boy, a fan favorite character of course who I really took to this week. Not only is he kinda funny, but it turns out he can really kick some ass when need be. The climactic action scene when he (in gorilla form) and Superboy (in Superboy form) were tearing that alien ship apart from the inside was pretty great. Also, we got a better sense of his origin and connection to the team this time out as a quick psionic flashback revealed that his mom (last seen in "Image") is no longer with us, the result of some nasty business orchestrated by Queen Bee. But before that happened, Megan was adopted into their family (either legally or in spirit; in either case, Garfield calls her "sis" and the two have obviously forged a strong bond in the intervening years since they first met).

(Though by the way, is that a violation of Garfield's privacy when she probes his mind to see what's upsetting him at the lake? Just saying…)

Ultimately, it's a relief that we got semblance of character and back story in this episode, but it all still feels outweighed by the heavy action and plotting. And we're left with a few of question marks as well -- what did Megan do to that Krolotean, and has this become a common trick for her these days? Is her darker White Martian side coming out? And what did she learn this week about the Justice League's missing 16 hours?

- Warner Bros./Cartoon Network

Some notes: Does the team's setting out to bomb the Krolotean facility's Zeta tubes equate with the planned murder of said Kroloteans? That's what bombs do, right? Kill people? Looks like Beast Boy has picked up where Wally left off, and is now in charge of collecting the team's souvenirs. Makes sense. And speaking of which, no sign (or mention) of Kid Flash, Aqualad, Roy or Artemis again. Give it time, I think. Oh, and are we getting a Bat Family episode next week?!


Source : http://tv.ign.com/articles/122/1224447p1.html