Animation,  Television

Review: YOUNG JUSTICE: OUTSIDERS Premiere

Picking up a mere two years after Young Justice: Invasion, Outsiders, focuses on metahuman trafficking. The team needs to stop Count Vertigo from kidnapping children and turning them into monsters. Can Nightwing and company stop him? This review will be covering the events from these episodes: Princes All, Royal We, and Eminent Threat. If you haven’t seen all of these episodes, bookmark this review and come back when you’re finished.

Just like in season two the time jump leaves us in a different place. Nightwing is off doing solo missions, Miss Martian and Superboy lead the Team, and Kaldur has gone from Aqualad to Aquaman, leader of the Justice League. We see that metahuman trafficking has become a significant problem, so much that they have PSA’s from Beast Boy (now an actor) running on the news broadcasts. Nightwing assembles a small team to go stop Count and rescue the children. The team is comprised of Tigress, Black Lightning, and Superboy.

Black Lightning is reluctant to go because one of the kids died in a fight between him and the Justice League. The show takes advantage of being on DC Universe. There are multiple deaths, corpses, and blood is everywhere. Still, it makes sense in the story and isn’t over the top like Titans was at times. It has stakes, the team loses on almost all fronts, and it’s scary.

We’re introduced to Prince Brion; his sister was kidnapped for metahuman testing. This leads to him wanting to fight this growing issue by becoming a meta himself. The world is suffering from a Marvel-like Civil War. The Justice League can’t function without government approval, and so things are getting out of hand. So much so that Batman, Green Arrow, and others resigned from the Justice League to do things their way. They even remove Robin, Arrowette, and Spoiler from the team. Black Lightning dubs them “Batman Incorporated.” This is sure to play a significant part in the story later on.

 Brion, Halo (a meta Artemis saves), and the others fight Vertigo and his squad but ultimately lose the children. This is a very somber introduction to season three and sets a darker tone for the rest of the series. Overall, Young Justice Outsiders didn’t start with this grandiose story arc. It’s heroes trying to help people in need. It’s classic Young Justice fashion.

Young Justice: Outsiders is available exclusively on DC Universe. 

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