Young Justice: Invasion – "True Colors"

Director: Mel Zwyer
Writer: Paul Giacoppo

In Ivy Town on April 7 at 23:24 EDT (about five days after Jaime asked the Justice League to take the scarab off him), the Atom (also voiced by Jason Marsden) and Bumblebee have shrunk down inside Jaime's body to remove the scarab at a microscopic level. However, the scarab aggressively defends itself and almost kills Atom and Bumblebee. Bart (dressed in scrubs) made sure to be by Jaime's side during the procedure, and when Atom and Bumblebee order a hasty extraction, Bart asks them what happened. Ray Palmer regretfully tells Jaime he doesn't think the scarab can come off him while he's a live, and the scarab basically tells Jaime, "I told you so."

In Blüdhaven on April 8 at 9:02 EDT, Bart and Jaime made sure to get up bright (despite their late night) and meet in the Team's temporary headquarters to receive a new mission from Nightwing. He puts Robin in charge of Alpha, tasked with investigating Lexcorp's relationship with the Reach. Tim Drake is surprised to be given this responsibility, but he accepts. Blue Beetle, however, is even more surprised to learn he's been named to Alpha, objecting that he should not be in the field, in case his scarab betrays them all.

But Nightwing reasons that the scarab has had multiple opportunities to betray them, but hasn't. And he says right now the scarab's connection to the Reach might be their best chance at identifying what they're up to. The scarab agrees with the Nightwing's "flawless logic," but before Jaime can protest further, Impulse runs in front of him, declaring that if Blue's going, then he's going, too. Nightwing had assumed as much, and he also names Arsenal (the original Roy Harper) to round out Alpha. Arsenal is armed with a massive gun on his back, so Nightwing warns him that he can't carry anything that won't fit under civilian clothes on this mission. Arsenal angrily asks why they're meeting in this dump instead of on the Watchtower. Nightwing explains that the Watchtower is only for Justice League members and senior members of the Team, and Arsenal doesn't qualify. Arsenal coldly says he's glad to know where he stands, and unfortunately his bad attitude apparently wasn't bad enough to prevent him from joining this mission.

In Smallville on April 8 at 16:38 CDT, Tim, Bart, Jaime and Roy have joined an official tour of a Lexcorp greenhouse. Jonathan Kent is also on the tour, but he doesn't appear to be connected with our heroes. The tour group is given free samples of Reach-grown produce, which our heroes surreptitiously conceal in plastic baggies — except for Bart, who just eats his apple. When Jaime glares at him, Bart insists he's maintaining cover. As the tour moves on to a pluot orchard, Tim announces it's time for them to take a "bathroom break." Bart says he went before they left and happily heads towards the pluots. Jaime pulls Bart away, who protests that they don't have the fruit in the future.

Our heroes literally did go to the bathroom to change into their uniforms and wait in the stalls until everyone has gone home for the day. Naturally, Impulse is the most impatient one, so at his behest, Robin finally agrees to start the mission. As they emerge from the bathroom stalls, Robin tells Impulse he's in the wrong mode. Bart confidently says he crashes all modes, but Jaime clarifies that Robin was referring to his stealth mode outfit. Bart begins looking for the right spot to press, so Jaime speeds things up by roughly elbowing Impulse, turning his red-and-white suite into pure black.

Robin and Arsenal take care of the security cameras, and they all sneak down into the main lab, where some Reach aliens are working. Blue Beetle translates the Reach's language for our heroes and identifies the alien additive the Reach is using in its food. Robin steals a sample of the additive and tells Alpha they have what they came for and it's time to leave. But Arsenal sabotages their escape attempt by setting off a bomb in the lab. Robin demands to know what he was thinking for ruining their covert mission, and Arsenal reasons that he doesn't want to let the Reach continue poisoning the world just because they don't know exactly what the poison is. But Arsenal also admits that he just wants to make Lex Luthor miserable.

Luthor, meanwhile, was watching all this from his office, easily able to override Robin's hacks on the security cameras. However, Luthor chooses not to send in additional security, saying it would be "redundant." Impulse knocks out two guards to clear the way, and Robin starts to hack into the door's keypad, continuing to lecture Arsenal while working. Suddenly, Black Beetle arrives and slams down into the ground, scattering Alpha.

Robin is the first to attack Black Beetle, but is promptly thrown into some produce stands. Impulse gets in a couple of hits, but Black Beetle is able to track Bart's movements and sends him flying into a bunch of tomatoes. He boasts that even though he can't move as fast as Impulse, his scarab can process faster than Impulse can run, let alone think. Arsenal shoots a small explosive at Black Beetle's back to draw him away from Impulse, and Impulse returns the favor by tossing the tomatoes at Black Beetle, who laments the waste of good fruit.

Arsenal tries hitting Black with a laser, followed by a blast of plasma from Blue Beetle. Black laughs this off as a calming "bath" to clean off the tomato stains. Blue tries another attack, but Black mockingly says the fruit hurt more. Impulse begins running around Black, sucking away his oxygen, but Black says he doesn't really need oxygen. Robin asks Blue why he's struggling so much against Black this time, so Jaime explains that he let the scarab take control last time — something he refuses to risk now with Bart's prophecy hanging over his head.

Impulse continues to run around Black Beetle, creating a whirlwind that actually does begin to lift him off the ground. So Black counters by blasting a large staple (for lack of a better word) that pins Bart to the wall. This knocks Bart out for a second, and when he wakes up, he sees Robin placing a handful of explosives on the wall. Bart asks if it's time to go, and Tim tells him to do his "thing" — vibrate through the wall. Robin's bombs go off right after, and as our heroes head out through the hole, Arsenal manages to slow down Black Beetle just a bit with an arrow of quickly solidifying foam.

Robin orders Impulse to do a quick recon to find the best escape route, but Bart says there's nothing but cornfields around them. So Robin leads Alpha into the corn. Bart asks Jaime why he doesn't just fly away, but Jaime points out that Bart could run 1,000 miles before Black Beetle could even blink. So he offers to carry Arsenal if Bart carries Robin, but Bart says he's "fast, not strong." Jaime says Alpha never leaves a man behind, so he refuses to take off.

Black Beetle catches up to our heroes at a clearing, causing Jaime to nervously back up right into a Green Beetle that mysteriously appeared. With our heroes positioned between the two Beetles, Impulse asks how many colors these guys come in and Robin courageously tells his teammates that if they're going to go down, they'll go down fighting. But the Green Beetle shocks them all by attacking the Black Beetle.

Even Black is surprised by this, calling Green another scarab "reject" that defies the Reach. Green says he'd rather be a reject than a slave. Bart tells the others that the Green Beetle is not in the history books, and they all stand in awe as he battles Black, displaying all the powers of a Martian. Green then establishes a telepathic link with Alpha and asks them to help coordinate an attack. Arsenal is the only one not thrilled by the idea of this "Green Beetle of Mars" and suggests they leave the two Beetles to fight it out themselves. But when Black lights the corn around Green on fire, Robin springs into action, telling Impulse to put out the flames and for the rest of them to distract Black.

Once Green Beetle is back on his feet, he tells Jaime how to form a combined attack with him that actually knocks out Black Beetle. But they all realize Black won't stay out for long, so Green Beetle leads Alpha on a retreat, flying away with Robin and Arsenal in tow telekinetically. Jaime picks up Bart, who complains that he could get anywhere they're going first  — although he does acknowledge he doesn't know where they're going.

Our heroes retreated to the Kent farm, where they meet up with Nightwing and Superboy. Dick Grayson explains that they can't risk taking Green Beetle to their headquarters yet, and Jonathan cheerfully says he's not the oddest thing that's been in this barn. Green Beetle introduces himself as B'aars O'ohm, a Martian archeologist, who discovered his scarab two years ago, which attached itself to him and told him of the Reach's plans for the galaxy. He explains that the Reach sent a scarab out to every planet with life to take control of a host to serve as an "advance operative" for their inevitable invasion.

Arsenal asks if Green's scarab malfunctioned like Jaime's, but he says it simply was not prepared for Martian physiology, and he was able to take control of it. When Nightwing asks how Green ended up on Earth, he says that Martian Manhunter has been sending television signals to Mars for decades, and when Green learned the Reach was on Earth, he decided to come help. Nightwing says the Justice League needs to confirm this story, but Robin does offer his thanks in the meantime. Dick then pulls Tim aside to ask how the mission went. Tim almost tells him about Arsenal defying orders, but he decides to downplay it as him being "rough around the edges." He gives Dick the alien additive, and Dick congratulates him on a successful mission.

Green Beetle then telepathically tells Jaime that he doesn't need to remove his scarab, as there is another way for him to ensure that it won't take control of him. Meanwhile, Vandal Savage and Luthor inspect the damage at the greenhouse, happy to see that their most profitable venture, a Reach sports drink, was not discovered by the Team. Luthor does, however, say he wants to form a team himself with the other teenagers that the Reach experimented on.




This was another fantastic episode of this show. Bart provided plenty of humor and action, while we were treated to yet another plot twist. Black Beetle is such a fantastic villain. He takes so much delight in beating the snot out of teenagers, which he manages so easily. But unlike the frustrating invincible villains of the New 52 — *cough* Harvest! *cough* — Black Beetle can actually be hurt. He's ridiculously strong, but not inexplicably invincible. I don't even consider it a stretch that his scarab was able to process faster than Impulse. This episode began by showing us how incredibly thorough and remarkable the scarabs are, so it makes sense they'd create near-perfect soldiers.

I'll admit I did enjoy watching Arsenal unload his bag of tricks on Black Beetle. But I still believe he shouldn't have been there to begin with. To recap, Roy was captured eight years ago, had his arm amputated and was put on ice until just a month ago. As soon as he was strong enough to stand, he ran away from his hospital room, destroyed one of Green Arrow's bases and nearly got himself killed in a foolish attempt to assassinate Luthor. Long story short, Roy is in no condition to go out on covert missions like this. Yeah, he's fine physically, but his mental anguish is going to take years to resolve. Maybe he could go on smaller missions with Green Arrow, but nothing this big. And, at the very least, Tim needs to tell Dick just how unstable Roy is. I think Tim wanted his first mission as the leader to look as good as possible, which is quite a selfish instinct. Yes, I do like to have flawed characters on this show, but I'm still going to call out their flaws.

The only arguable flaw I saw with Bart this episode was his line that he's fast, not strong. We've seen him in the comics be able to run with people and objects too heavy for him to carry normally by using the momentum of his speed. So when he and Blue Beetle discussed hastening their retreat, they should have been able to do that. Maybe one could argue that Impulse simply hasn't learned how carry people with his momentum, yet. Oh well. No big deal.

Next time, we'll return to Death of the Family in Red Hood and the Outlaws #16.