Synopsis
With no news on his sister, Brion is growing more and more impatient, but Batman’s on the case.
Review
I’m beginning to think that Young Justice needs to re-brand itself as DC Universe: The Animated Series. This episode chooses to focus on the adventures of Batman, Katanna and Metamorpho and forego many of the younger characters.
Yes it services the overall arc of the season. There’s method in the madness but I can’t help feeling like the show has gotten a little lost in trying to tell a very ambitious story.
The young’uns aren’t totally absent from this episode either. There’s still time to catch up with Brion, Halo and Forager of course. We also get the beginnings of an origin for Cyborg.
But back to Batman and his team for a minute. The Outsiders as they will come to be known are checking in on Santa Prisca in the hope of finding Tara Markov. The sequence gives the opportunity to see Batman at his stealthy best.
For many these scenes will also be an introduction to Katanna and Metamorpho. But mixed in with some heavy action there’s a low key fart joke. Given that this show has focussed so much on growing up it feels incredibly juvenile to distract League of Shadows guards with a fart joke.
This is the portion of the episode which moves on the overall story of the season. Scenes featuring Nightwing’s team and the Cyborg origin are outliers which will no doubt become important later.
Victor Stone’s scene very much lay the ground work for the next episode. We get a great glimpse at his burgeoning football career and an insight in to the poor relationship he has with his father. There’s even time for a cameo by a young Cisco Ramon.
It lays the groundwork perfectly for his transformation in to Cyborg. Kudos to the writers for keeping the story close to its comic book origins here whilst managing to contemporise it for a new audience.
Nightwing is on ANOTHER training exercise with his new team in this episode. It feels a little like these characters are in a Groundhog Day situation, only they are so totally aware of it. Brion is becoming increasingly frustrated with the situation and tensions are beginning to boil over.
Once again the episode feels a little fractures. Batman and his team showcase strong action, Night and his team showcase the complex emotions of the characters and Victor Stone brings the prerequisite world building.
It’s not overly cohesive but once again makes for incredibly entertaining viewing.
Verdict
“Exceptional Human Beings” is another solid episode of Young Justice. It benefits from focussing much less on world building and more on the story at hand given there are only three episode remaining this first block of episodes.
6/10
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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