Young Justice: Invasion – "The Hunt"

Director: Doug Murphy
Writer: Brandon Vietti

On May 27, 6:36 UTC (one day after the defeat of Mongul and the betrayal of Blue Beetle), the Warworld is still orbiting Earth. The Reach has the crystal key, but the Justice League is guarding the key chamber, preventing them from taking control of the battle station. The Reach also have taken Mongul into captivity, placing him in a red cell that keeps him completely immobilized, right next to Despero, Superboy, Wolf, Batgirl, Impulse, Bumblebee, Wonder Girl, Guardian, Robin and Beast Boy. Arsenal, however, remains on the run, being hunted by Reach soldiers throughout Warworld.

In Taos on May 29, 20:08 MDT, we see the four teens the Reach experimented on have formed their own team of sorts. There's the electricity-wielding Virgil Hawkins, the energy-blasting Asami Koizumi, the teleporting Eduardo Dorado Jr. and Jaime's old friend, Tye Longshadow, who can create a giant psychic projection of himself (as seen in the screenshot). They mostly spend their time destroying billboards and advertisements for the Reach and Blue Beetle ... until Lex Luthor gives them a father box, explaining that it can teleport them inside Warworld and lead them to Superboy, so they'll be able to rescue the captured heroes.

On May 30, 3:36 UTC, Nightwing and Miss Martian have decided to take a break after spending hours flying around the Warworld in the bio-ship and failing to locate any of the missing heroes telepathically. Nightwing decides to return to the scene of Blue Beetle's betrayal, kicking himself for not spotting the evidence of Blue's defection. Miss Martian blames herself for not actually probing Green Beetle's mind, saying she was too scared to do so after her incident with Aqualad. Nightwing admits that she wouldn't have done that if he just trusted her with the secret that Aqualad was a double agent. But M'gann refuses to blame Dick, further absolving him of facing any consequences for his disastrous decisions. Suddenly, Sphere returns to the Warworld and prepares to help Nightwing and Miss Martian find their teammates.

The four teens are the first to find our captive heroes, but they're soon greeted by Black Beetle. Naturally, they don't stand a chance, but Arsenal soon joins them and helps even the odds by freeing Mongul. During the fight, Deathstroke arrives via his own father box and steals the crystal key. By the time Nightwing and Miss Martian arrive, all our heroes have been freed. They decide to let Black Beetle and Mongul continue fighting each other and load everyone on the bio-ship.

Nightwing offers the four teens a spot on the Team, but Arsenal interrupts to talk about Blue Beetle's betrayal. Bumblebee points out how they wouldn't have been captured if Arsenal didn't blow the airlock, so Nightwing finally does the responsible thing by kicking Arsenal off the Team. The four teens see this as a grave injustice, considering how Arsenal helped them rescue everybody, so in protest, the five of them teleport back to Earth via their father box.




This is the second time this season Impulse has been kidnapped by the Reach, and it's getting kind of ridiculous. At least this time it was only a couple of days instead of a whole week, but still. Anyway, this was still a fun episode. It was great watching the beginnings of Static Shock and several updated members of the old Super Friends show, including El Dorado, who will play a bigger role in the next season. I'm glad that somebody finally called Arsenal out on his recklessness. But I'm quite upset that Nightwing continues to magically avoid all blame for basically causing all the problems our heroes have faced on this show. What, is he just too cute and charming for anyone to be mad at?

Next time, we'll return to the obnoxiously titled The Fury of Firestorm the Nuclear Man.