When cities throughout the world are attacked by giant plant creatures, the team is eager to join the Justice League in their fight to take them down. Batman however has different plans for the team, sending them to take out the source of the plants – the Injustice League. With the Injustice League consisting of Count Vertigo, Black Adam, Wotan, Poison Ivy, Ultra-Humanite, Atomic Skull and Joker this will prove to be the team’s toughest mission yet.
When the team goes after the Injustice League they are quickly detected and Miss Martian’s ship is attacked and disabled. After going down, Aqualad tells Robin and Miss Martian to continue on the mission while the rest of the team takes on Wotan, Black Adam and Count Vertigo. The team puts on their best effort but is captured as Robin and Miss Martian make their way through the forest. As they are caged and carried off, Miss Martian’s ship is back up and running and manages to free Aqualad, Superboy, Artemis and Wolf. It quickly becomes a battle royale between the two teams, with Robin and Miss Martian being able to sneak off and foil the plans of the Injustice League by destroying the main plant. Determined to take revenge, the Injustice League makes it their priority to get rid of the team.
I’m not familiar with DC comics; my knowledge of DC characters and stories consists of what I have seen on television and read on Wikipedia. That being said, I am a fan of superheroes and thoroughly enjoyed the likes of Justice League, Justice League Unlimited and Teen Titans, and I have also recently started to watch Superman: The Animated Series and The Batman. Naturally I figured Young Justice would be a fun series, and so far this assumption has proven right.
While I have thought every episode to be pretty awesome, “Revelation” finally had a conclusion that did not seem rushed. Twenty-some minutes isn’t a lot of time to fully detail the team missions, and the limitation is aggravating even though it’s expected for things to be nicely tied up at the end. But “Revelation” managed to avoid this deficiency, and for the first time I felt fully satisfied by the storyline in a Young Justice episode.
Speaking of storylines, Young Justice has managed to weave an intricate web of plotlines and they are finally all coming together. Despite being a kid’s show, the writing for Young Justice is intelligent and elaborate. While each episode moves the plot forward, it also draws on previous episodes to do so. I felt that it was very appropriate to bring back Doctor Fate (Nabu) in this episode. Aqualad knew they were going into a mission that was dangerous, so bringing on a Lord of Order is pretty smart. Sure, there is the possibility that he may have never given up Aqualad’s body, but that is better than being killed by the Injustice League.
I really liked that the team used quite a bit of teamwork during this episode, with everyone helping each other to complete the mission and survive. Sometimes a team has to break before they can become strong, and it seems the last episode was the key to bringing them all together. I specifically thought Artemis and Kid Flash worked well together, and even had a little chemistry brewing. Meanwhile the Injustice League, despite being composed of formidable villains, crumbles due to its lack of teamwork. As they all rush to take down the kids, nobody is left to protect the source of the plants. I thought the Joker’s design was “slimy” and appropriate, and was especially fitting as he rushed Robin with two knives. Ivy on the other hand looked kind of odd, as though roots were growing out of her skin. I’m not all that familiar with the other members, but I am a fan of the mystic arts so Wotan proved to be a nice addition to the Injustice League. All in all, I thought the battle dynamics between the team and the Injustice League were appropriate. They made for an exciting episode where I wasn’t sure which side would end up victorious.
As an extra bonus, this episode featured a few moments with the actual Justice League and how they dealt with the plant crisis. It was a nice highlight of their various abilities, and it revealed heroes that were previously not seen or mentioned. When the league showed up at the end to help the team, it did not come across as a cop-out. Like the Fate helmet, it made sense for them to assist the team once the plant situation was under control. Of course, the Joker isn’t just one to give up and pulls one last trick from his sleeve.
“Revelation” certainly had several revelations, with the biggest happening right at the end: the identity of “The Light.” The twists and turns in this episode made it difficult to anticipate what was coming next and resulted in an action-packed, well written episode. I can only hope future episodes take note of the pacing in this episode, and strive to avoid rushed, “clean” endings. I also look forward to seeing “The Light” take a more direct role in the series and how the team will play a role in taking them down.