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nebroadweSo the first season of Young Justice ended and rolled right into the second off a mild cliffhanger of a grand finale, so I must admit my first thought about the season two opener was, "Five year timeskip? Confound you, Greg Weisman!" My second thought was that it made sense of the way all the personal landmines set up over season one* blew up just prior to its finale -- I had been expecting at least one or two of them either to enable the escape of a villain or villains or to persist and blow up somewhere in season two. I do feel slightly vindicated by the apparent rift between Superboy and Miss Martian, since I'd been predicting the death of their relationship FOR GREAT DRAMA since it got underway (seemed like it resolved the Will They/Won't They too early, so I was expecting a resounding But They Can't). Dagnabit, though, season one turned me into an unrepentant Wally/Artemis shipper and if that New Year's Eve kiss was the end of narrative interest in their relationship, I'm going to be very annoyed. That said, I like the idea that it takes time to set up an alien invasion and, after an initial rush of "Where are all the characters I loved so well?" I got quite fond of Team Gamma (go, Blue Beetle!). The new female principals, however ... I suppose you could make Batgirl dull and Wonder Girl annoying, but I don't know why you'd choose to (especially given the range of engaging female personalities we had in season one: Artemis, Miss Martian, Zatanna, Rocket ...) Even bigger sigh. Still, by the end I was highly interested in the plot problem and willing to give everyone a chance to settle in. Will tune in next week.
I also caught this week's Green Lantern, which was one of the weirdest mixed bags of character derailment (Kilowog), cringe-inducing sexual politics (an entire society built on seduction in a kids' show? good luck with that!), and disjointed, telegraphic narrative (honestly, with the whole "turning your true loves into Star Sapphires so they can trap you" thing shoehorned in, this needed to be a two-parter just to explain a) why the women go through with it; and b) why Carol doesn't -- not to mention her entire cartload of legitimate mixed feelings about Hal -- but I'm not sure I could have stood another half-hour of clumsily implied sexual temptation, ugh) they've put together yet. And a note to the production staff: if you're going to have your characters kiss, do it in long shot or get yourself some more render time. The animation of subtle or gentle emotional moments has been getting better since the opening episodes, but it's still pretty crude compared to the rage, desperation and snark they do so well. That said, the idea of Star Sapphires made my goddaughter L, who's been ignoring Green Lantern in favor of Transformers Prime, Young Justice (she mourns the possible passing of Jesse Macartney's Robin laugh in the timeskip, by the way), and Legend of Korra, perk up and actually watch the episode with me. Mr. Timm, take note: more female heroism in your show might gain you more viewers. Also, we both think Razer's character arc is the most interesting thing the show has going for it right now.]
*I don't consider Red Arrow being the mole to have been one of these -- while his earlier behavior was recontextualized by it, we weren't asked to read him in that light until quite late in the game. Compare the clue-dropping for Miss Martian's big secret or Artemis's family.
I also caught this week's Green Lantern, which was one of the weirdest mixed bags of character derailment (Kilowog), cringe-inducing sexual politics (an entire society built on seduction in a kids' show? good luck with that!), and disjointed, telegraphic narrative (honestly, with the whole "turning your true loves into Star Sapphires so they can trap you" thing shoehorned in, this needed to be a two-parter just to explain a) why the women go through with it; and b) why Carol doesn't -- not to mention her entire cartload of legitimate mixed feelings about Hal -- but I'm not sure I could have stood another half-hour of clumsily implied sexual temptation, ugh) they've put together yet. And a note to the production staff: if you're going to have your characters kiss, do it in long shot or get yourself some more render time. The animation of subtle or gentle emotional moments has been getting better since the opening episodes, but it's still pretty crude compared to the rage, desperation and snark they do so well. That said, the idea of Star Sapphires made my goddaughter L, who's been ignoring Green Lantern in favor of Transformers Prime, Young Justice (she mourns the possible passing of Jesse Macartney's Robin laugh in the timeskip, by the way), and Legend of Korra, perk up and actually watch the episode with me. Mr. Timm, take note: more female heroism in your show might gain you more viewers. Also, we both think Razer's character arc is the most interesting thing the show has going for it right now.]
*I don't consider Red Arrow being the mole to have been one of these -- while his earlier behavior was recontextualized by it, we weren't asked to read him in that light until quite late in the game. Compare the clue-dropping for Miss Martian's big secret or Artemis's family.
