Stew’s Young Justice Retrospective: Season 2, Episodes 11 – 12

Too Many Beetles! A Young Justice Retrospective, S2 E11-12

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Episode 11

Image Credit: Warner Bros. Animation

Episode 11 starts off in “The Milky Way”, so thanks for really narrowing that one down for me. A three-eyed monster who KIND OF looks like Despero is on its way to Earth to fight a champion to add to its trophy collection!

G. Gordon Godfrey lambastes a meeting between Captain Atom and the Ambassador of The Reach where the former offers to have a private meeting with the latter. Godfrey hates privacy!

Hey, I just realized… is Godfrey going to end up being part of The Reach? Or is he just a tool? I feel like I can see him being Scooby-Doo unmasked as an alien at this season’s end.

Moving on over to Star Labs, we see the kids that were abducted–including Beast Boy, Blue Beetle, Impulse, and Lagoon Boy–are all meeting with Black Canary. And hey! The Static Shock thing I was excited about last episode is either true, or they are doubling down and also calling him Virgil. He refers to the tests as starting out as small, “little static shocks”. Oh man, now you’re just getting heavy-handed. But I still called it when there was less to go on!

Nightwing, Mal, Superboy, Megan, Wolf, and Super-Cycle set up a new headquarters in a warehouse in Bludhaven, and Mal is unimpressed by it.

When they all head back to the Hall Of Justice to pick up their possessions, the three-eyed monster strikes, kicking Captain Marvel through a window and starting his Cage Match by powering up a pyramid of energy around the Hall. It turns out he is Despero after all, which… I wasn’t positive.

At Godfrey’s much-despised private meeting, The Reach makes Captain Atom look bad before the head of the United Nations As things are getting rocky, Cap gets a call about the goings-on at the Hall Of Justice.

At the fight, Miss Martian is too freaked out to use her telepathy, even on Despero. Shazam tries to hit Despero with his lightning, but it doesn’t even bother him, and that leaves the fight to Superboy after he stuns Billy Batson.

Impulse’s therapy session with Canary is over, and he reassures Jaime that he has no desire to tell the Justice League about what he knows of Beetle’s future. His rationale is that telling the League MAY be what causes Blue to turn heel, so… he won’t tell them. That seems… counterintuitive to me! He has no idea what makes Blue Beetle a villain, so THAT’S what he’s going to “do” to try to help? I guess it IS a very Bart rationale to have. So I’ll allow it!

Superboy is doing real bad at the fight with Despero, but Megan still won’t do anything because she’s all traumatized from fucking up Aqualad last episode. Jeez, you make ONE mistake, and then you are useless, M’Gann! Conner warned you about this, and now HE’S paying for it! That might be dramatic irony.

Right as Despero is about to crush Bumblebee and pull off Conner’s head, Mal shows up wearing Guardian’s costume and declaring himself Earth’s champion. This stalls for long enough for Megan to wake up Zatanna, allowing her to paralyze Despero for Superboy to wail on.

In the final battle, Despero is defeated (I guess? We never really see it other than Conner punching him a few times while the alien is paralyzed by Zatanna), and the Hall Of Justice collapses after Despero’s robot minion explodes. Headquarters blowing up all over the place these days!

In the aftermath, the Ambassador of The Reach removes the energy cage from around the ruined Hall and reveals the fact that the League’s true HQ is the Watchtower, which of course makes Godfrey go apoplectic on his show. The League is spying on Earth! They have a hidden base! Only The Reach are honorable! This guy’s a fruitcake. I actually really hope he’s just a moron and not sinister.

Megan moves into J’onn’s Earth apartment since he isn’t using it. She rejects a phone call from Lagoon Boy, then lets Superboy in when he shows up at her door to talk about what’s going on with her.

The episode ends with Jaime rejecting Bart’s idea and telling the League what Impulse told him about the future. He wants the scarab off of him by any means necessary.

Episode 12

Image Credit: Warner Bros. Animation

You know what MAY be the first movie I ever saw in theaters? Innerspace. I’m not entirely sure it was, but I definitely remember seeing it, and it came out in 1987, when I was only six years old. Do you have any idea what the first movie you saw in cinema was? Let us know in the comments!

I reference this because episode 12 starts off with Bumblebee and The Atom inside Jaime Reyes, trying to figure out how to get the scarab off of him. They find a tendril and begin removing it, but it defends and repairs itself, chasing them off.

Just like the movie InnerSpace! Maybe. I don’t really recall any scarabs in that movie.

And we’re back to G. Gordon Godfrey, who is getting way too much airtime this season to not just be a villain, right? Like, half of Young Justice has been on the show less than he has! Anyway, he points out that LexCorp and The Reach are going in together in the field of… farming?

Cut to the team, who just hates the idea that Lex and The Reach are working together, but… didn’t they know this already? They knew The Reach was working with The Light through their dealings with Black Manta.

Man, I’d be a great member of Young Justice. I pay attention to the plot from episode to episode, and I know Static Shock is coming!

Nightwing sends the team in to investigate these farms. The Alpha Squad assembled is Robin, Blue Beetle, Impulse, and Arsenal. This season is REALLY just The Blue Beetle show, right? No one is getting his amount of screen time, and the team has, like, 20 members.

All Blue Beetle & G. Gordon Godfrey All The Time!

In Mongolia, Sportsmaster wants Aqualad’s head in payback for the death of Artemis, but The Light refuses. Sportsmaster attacks Manta himself, but is thwarted by Deathstroke. Realizing he has already been replaced, Sportsmaster and Cheshire escape via helicopter.

At the Lexcorp Farm, the heroes see The Reach adding some pink crystals to the water they are feeding into the fruit and veggies, so Robin steals some of it to examine. Arsenal blows up part of the Reach’s lab, bringing Black Beetle down on them!

Manta and Vandal Savage visit the vegetative Kaldur, and Savage has brought along Psi-Mon. The evil telepath gets a reveal by taking down his hood. Big show for a guy who constantly gets his ass whipped by Megan. Psi-Mon is going to repair Kaldur’s mind, which will also make him privy to all of his secrets. Uh-oh!

As the heroes are escaping Black Beetle, they come across an entirely new Beetle: a green one! The Green Beetle attacks Black, though. Bart notes there is no record of a Green Beetle in his future, and Green’s power set quickly unveils him as a Martian.

With Blue Beetle and Martian Beetle working together, they knock out the Black Beetle so the good guys can escape to the Kents’ farm for a breather. While talking there, Green Beetle tells Jaime there is another way to be safe from the scarab besides removing it…

You know what we haven’t had in a few episodes? A good ol’ “The heroes didn’t actually win” epilogue. So we get one here with Vandal Savage and Lex Luthor! It turns out The Reach is making Gatorade, and the kids missed that part of the farm entirely. The Light also planned on the kids getting their hands on the farming additive. Lex shows Savage photos of Virgil, Ty, and the other abducted kids, and he notes the bad guys should have their own junior team.