Young Justice (The Animated Series) Discussion Thread

Episode 1 "Inhospitable", sees M'gann, Connor, Gar, and J'onn heading to Mars on a three month trip. A month there, a month on planet, and a month returning back to Earth. They're going to Mars to get married in a traditional Martian ceremony. We meet M'gann's sister, M'ree M'orrz, who's changed her name to Em'ree J'onzz because she was ashamed to have White Martian relatives in her own mother, sister, and brother. We also meet M'gann's parents, J'ann and M'att. M'att is voiced by longtime Martian Manhunter voice actor Carl Lumbly which I love. We see first hand the hostilities that M'gann dealt with as a kid growing up for being a White Martian in a mostly Green society, and we also kind of humorously learn that M'gann running around like Marie Logan's Megan character from TV is basically just permanent Cosplay since we see a lot of Martians running around like Superboy, Stargirl, Geo-Force, and a few other Outsiders. It's really kind of funny.

Episode 2 "Needful" deals with the cliffhanger of the first episode, the new Zeta-Tube exploding and seemingly killing J'onn. J'onn was working with Em'ree to build it, in order to cut down on the time to get to Mars and Earth if something happens on either planet. He's alive as the transport happened before the Tube exploded, leaving him stranded back on the Watchtower waiting for the Javelin to return to Earth with Steel. We're introduced to Prince J'emm, a Red Martian that wants to find out who killed his father and why. He enlists Connor and Gar to help him, and they willingly accept. While Connor and Gar are investigating the kind's death, M'gann is dealing with her brother, M'comm, who we were introduced to last season as sort of a terrorist who thinks Whites should be the only Martian race. They talk and M'comm admitted taht he was jealous of M'gann being able to leave and that he looked up to his sister, saying she abandoned him.

After all of that, Connor, M'gann, and Gar meet with S'yra S'tixx, the single Y'ellown Martian. She's sort of a spiritual leader/wedding officiator, so she helps get them ready for upcoming wedding. In the middle of it, though, and explosion rocks the cave that they're sailing down, and M'gann goes to investigate what happened after picking up on a psychic mind-touch. The touch was Saturn Girl from the Legion of Superheroes. She, along with Chameleon Boy and Phantom Girl, have been watching M'gann and Connor, trying to stop "Something". THat "SOmething" turns out to be a gene bomb given to M'comm by DeSaad and Darkseid as payment for "Services rendered on Orion" last season.

Episode 3, "Volatile", has M'gann, Em'ree, J'ann, and S'yra working to build a canopy out of crystals for the wedding. The four women get it done, but in the middle of transport, M"gann and Em'ree start to argue, causing it to shatter. M'gann calls her sister out for treating her and M'comm different, and M'gann admitted taht her normal Martian form was never who she felt like on the inside, telling her sister that Em'ree didn't care enough about her because she wanted to stay popular with the other Greens. J'ann admits that when M'gann shapeshifted back into her natural form, that it felt "Psychically false" just like all the times that M'gann changed her appearance to look Green were false, and that the form M'gann's taken now, the one on the posters, is her true Martian form because that's how she feels more comfortable. I like that M'gann's struggle with her identity is sort of similar to a trans story, the person you are on the outside isn't who you know you are inside. And it's handled amazingly over the course of the series as a whole, with M'gann being afraid to share that she's a White Martian in the first season to slowly accepting it in the second, to full acceptance of her "true self" in season 3 with just the White skin in her hero form.

Connor, Gar, M'att, and Prince J'emm, along with B'arrz O'oom, the Green Beetle from season 2, work to create the "Altar" for the wedding by using stones from the lava flows under the city. Garfield, unfortunately, keeps seeing images of Geo-Force threatening to kill them. It's because of all of the psychic attacks they took in the first episode, leaving mental bruising that took it's toll on Gar. He runs off with Connor, having though Geo-Force was trying to kill him, and takes off for the surface. The other three men find Connor unconscious since his oxygen tank was punctured and he couldn't breathe, and J'emm takes off to find Gar. Gar's basicially having a mental breakdown thanks to all of the attacks, and someone he thinks was M'gann steps in to heal his mind. It wasn't M'gann, though. It was Saturn Girl, breaking the "don't interfere" clause the Legion deals with. We find out it's basically because Gar's been under so much stress and loss, between his mom, Rita Farr (Elastigirl), Wally's "Death", and now heading the Outsiders as his new family, and Geo-Force betraying that family, and Gar finally had enough and it nearly caused a lot of problems.

I'm really enjoying how these season's going so far. We've also got little end-credits scenes that flesh out and fill in more characters taht aren't the focus. Episode 1 gave us a counseling session with Halo, Harper, and Black Canary where Halo admits they need to find out who they truly are and that it's probably time to stop acting like Gabrielle can influence them. (BTW I love Halo. They're my favorite character out of last season, and they're another journey I've had fun exploring.) THe second episode had a voice-mail from Perdita, telling Gar everything that's happened and that she needs him back to help because she's stressed out and overwhelmed. 3 gave us a funny one with Superman talking to Lois on the phone about Jon, who would be about a year or so old at this point, and that she thinks his powers are kicking in. THe last thing we hear is "Are his eyes glowing? Lois! CYBORG I NEED A BOOM TUBE NOW!" as he flies off.