Synopsis
Conner Kent and Prince Brion Markov are in the clutches of Count Vertigo, leaving Dick Grayson, Artemis Crock and an emotionally damaged Jefferson Pierce to save them and put an end to the Bedlam Syndicate.
Review
After two episodes of setup it was time for Young Justice: Outsiders to get down to the nitty gritty of its story. I’m not knocking the previous episodes, both worked their magic on revitalising the series for 2019. But with audiences more fickle than ever it needed to grab us and get down to business.
Once again we get an episode which focusses mostly on the team in Markovia forsaking the rest of the huge cast of characters. Seeing the preview images from the next few episodes it seems they’ll all be back soon though.
“Eminent Threat” features by far the most action of these first three episodes. There’s a mix of small scale and larger fight scenes which play to the strengths of the episodes cast but also the animation style of the show. The scenes on the beach also ramp up the new edgier side of Young Justice. It’s the first time I’ve ever watched this show and grimaced at the sight of charred corpse.
I’m really impressed by how this latest season has been able to ramp up the emotional stakes as well as the action. Moving away from being part-funded by toy companies has really done wonders for the show.
A strong example of how the show understands the emotions of its characters is in the scenes between Superboy and Brion. With the latter experience their metahuman powers for the first time he was drastically in need of guidance.
With Black Lightning on the team it would be easy to put Jefferson in to this role. As an educator and mentor to other heroes he was best placed to guide the newly powered prince. Instead the show chooses to mirror the experience of Superboy in the opening episodes of season one. It allows the two to share an emotional connection which ties back to Conner’s first experiences having been liberated from Cadmus.
We’re very quietly seeing the formation of the Outsiders. We’ve now met Halo, Geoforce and Black Lightning but we’ve also seen Batman and Katanna. The team is there but they’re yet to come together. It’s been done in such a subtle way that if you weren’t familiar it is completely imperceptible.
We’ve hit our stride now and I cannot wait to see where the season goes from here.
Verdict
“Eminent Threat” is a quintessential episode of Young Justice. It’s packed with story and strong action sequences. But at its core it’s still driven by compelling characters.
After two very solid episodes “Eminent Threat” cements Young Justice as the crown of the modern DC animated era.
8/10
Young Justice stars Jesse McCartney, Nolan North, Stephanie Lemelin, Khary Payton, Zehra Fazal, Troy Baker and Jason Spisak. The series is directed by Christopher Berkeley and Mel Zwyer and producers by Sam Register, Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti.
The series premieres new episodes weekly via the DC Universe streaming service.
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