Last week, after a six-year hiatus, Young Justice debuted the first 3 episodes of the long-awaited third season. While the first three episodes were good, they had initially given me a reason to pause and have reservations about the season as it lacked the personality and charm that made the show what it was. However, I am glad to report that all those reservations have been put to bed with the most recent episodes released on the DC Universe streaming app.
Where the first three episodes lacked the charm and character interactions that became the staple of this show, episodes 4,5, and 6 are driven by those things at there core. These episodes show what I had been hoping for from the start, these characters have grown, but they are still the characters we fell in love with. Probably the strongest example of this is the fourth episode, Private Security. The fourth episode focuses primarily on Dick who is asking Red Arrow (Roy Harper's clone that now goes by Will) for help shutting down a Metahuman trafficking ring in Star City. Dick has assembled a team of Harpers with Roy Harper (Arsenal) and Jim Harper (the original Guardian) to help him convince Will to help. Will reluctantly agrees to help so long as there is a bit of quid pro quo and Dick helps Will out on a job for Will's private security company. This leads to probably my favorite moment in any Young Justice season as epic music plays as the group walk out in private security uniforms that make them look like Mall Cops. The look of sheer self-disgust on Dick Grayson's face at that moment made me laugh harder than I have laughed in a very long time. The contract is to provide security to a shipment of new VR tech goggles, and they get hijacked by Brick so the team of Harper and Grayson go after them. During this chase, Will and Dick have a fantastic conversation about Dick distancing himself from people since the death of Wally West, and convincing Dick to take responsibility for a team again. It's just a very solid episode, and we get another fantastic moment at the end where they've taken down the trafficking ring, and you see the team in costume (Red Arrow, Arsenal, Guardian, and Nightwing), to which Will states that he thinks they looked better in his uniforms, and Dick immediately shut that down with a cold "no we did not," and again joy surged through my heart.
These three episodes are packed with great character interactions that made this show great. Zatanna getting to spend an hour with her father before he returns to being the host of Dr. Fate, M'gan trying to get some alone time with Connor after their recent engagement, but being frustratingly thwarted by Dick Grayson needing Connor to be around, and probably another one of my favorites was when Dick Grayson is talking about how reckless the new heroes were being by sneaking off on their own, only to be reminded by Superboy of how reckless Dick, Wally, and Kald'r had been breaking into Cadmus (which in turn led to Dick Grayson letting out an existential sigh and saying: "I hate being a grown up). However, as great as seeing all this was, what made me even happier was that in the 6th episode the show sets up a lot of things that promise that this cannot be the last season of Young Justice and that we have quite the future in store for the Team.
Episode 6, Rescue Op, Has the new heroes: Halo, Forager, and Brion Markoff (Geo-Force) going off to Infinity Island to track down Rhas Al Ghul and find Brion's sister Terra who has been missing since the beginning of the series. They do this despite being given explicit orders not to do so, and it goes about as well as you can expect for a team that has not worked together ever and has yet to really learn how to use their abilities. They get captured and so it's up to Dick, Connor, M'gan, and Black Lightning (essentially the original YJ team, minus Wally and Kald'r, and a stand-in). The team rescues The Outsiders, and eventually have a confrontation with the Demon's Head himself, Rhas Al Ghul. This confrontation gives a whole bunch of reveals, such as the fact that Rhas is no longer the leader of the Shadows, and that he is no longer a part of the Light. That being said, these reveals are minor compared to the ones we get after Dick and his companions leave. During the confrontation, a ninja in all red is introduced, and upon Dick's departure, the ninja recognizes him. Rhas congratulates the ninja on beginning to retain his memories, and then the hood is pulled back to reveal the unmistakable hair cut of Jason Todd, the second Robin, and anti-hero Red Hood. As big of a reveal as this is, it's trumped by the reveal of Talia Lurking around with a dark-haired baby that is unmistakably Damien Wayne.
When you piece this together with Darkseid's confirmation in Season 2, and his role in this season, along with the character arc Dick is going through presently, it's very clear where things are headed. While I have little doubt we will see Jason don the Red Hood moniker by the end of this season, the endgame is much larger as we now have all the Robins in play, I feel that we are going to see the death of Batman from Final Crisis, Battle for the Cowl, and the resolution with Dick Grayson accepting the mantle of the Batman and taking Damien under his wing. It may not all go down exactly the way it does in the books, but, this is where I see the show headed in the future. I think the biggest evidence foreshadowing this is actively at the end of the 6th episode where Nightwing is chastising this new group of heroes: The Outsiders, on their reckless behavior that is damn near identical to the lecture the original team received from Batman after the Cadmus mission the team did against their mentors' explicit order in season 1. Ultimately, this is the only direction I see Dick's character arc moving to. It's something that Dick has been running from since the training session from the first season where everyone "died." Either way, it's going to be very exciting to see where the Young Justice team takes us throughout the rest of this season and beyond!
If you haven't yet watched Young Justice, I highly recommend it and there has never been a better time to start than now as the full series is available for streaming on the DC Universe app! I hope you all have enjoyed and We will see you again soon!
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