Are you a Garfield Logan fan? Been missing your Beast Boy fix this season? You’ll love ‘Nightmare Monkeys’, because this episode finally gives us a glimpse into Garfield’s life as an actor in addition to fleshing out what happened to him over the past seven years. Not only that, but Young Justice decided to pay a homage to Teen Titans Go with a cartoonish exaggeration of their own. In case you missed something, let’s discuss:

1. That’s Showbiz: I don’t know about you, but I would love to watch an episode of Garfield’s show. It’s so cheesy and wonderful, just like ‘Hello Megan!’ Gretchen Goode marvels over Garfield’s work while expressing how proud Marie would be for his following in her footsteps. Judging by Garfield’s reaction, he doesn’t seem to think so.
2. Another Freak: The Happy Harbor gang gather at M’gann and Conner’s house to discuss Victor’s arrival and hear what exactly happened during Forager and Violet’s first day of school. Forager recounts how Violet opened up a boom tube, as if she were a motherbox, and everyone freaks out. Through a series of flashbacks, the gang finally connects the dots and realizes that Violet is the reincarnated spirit of the motherbox that was killed in Markovia, explaining her various powers, strange quirks and lack of memories.
3. Danger Alert: Garfield relaxes in Perdita’s hotel room as she gets ready to go out on a date with him. He discovers a pair of Goode Goggles that was given to Perdita as a gift and slips them on to kill some time. No sooner does he start playing Space Trek does a little needle poke a tiny hole in his head. The goggles flash red, and thus my anxiety spikes.
4. Battle of the Geneses: Victor expresses that he wants to return to his normal life, and I honestly feel bad for him. He didn’t ask for any of this, and yet he is the one who has to face the repercussions. The moment Victor brings up the fatherbox, Sphere starts to get confrontational. In an instant, Victor is taken over again by the fatherbox and starts attacking Sphere. Conner stands between both of them, absorbing the attacks until Halo goes Indigo and heals Victor once more. Dick instructs her that from now on, she is to stick close to Victor, something Brion isn’t too happy about. Jefferson suggests returning Victor to his father, but Victor adamantly refuses. Thus, it is up to Conner and M’gann to house yet another stray.
5. Doom Patrol, Go!: Garfield’s game is interrupted by the Goggles’ mind control technology, commanding him to go to Encino. However, before he is able to do anything, the goggles short-circuit and he falls into a mind-coma. Here’s where things start to get twisty. He envisions that he’s still in his spaceship from Space Trek, only his team consists of a bunch of familiar faces: the ghosts of Tula, Ted Kord, Jason Todd… and Wally West! The clamulons begin to attack, and one by one, everyone is killed off save for Wally and Garfield. In case this wasn’t enough to make you cry, we also get to see Wally’s death and Artemis’ reaction from ‘Endgame’. Garfield coils in pain after watching, but is then distracted by his monkey from Quarac. He chases after him, only to enter a different channel in which he transforms into Beast Boy from ‘Teen Titans Go!’. The Doom Patrol greets him, and you may recognize all the voices of the original Teen Titans! In a strange sequence, it is revealed that Rita and her husband adopted Garfield after Marie died, but then died as well. I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry, and probably did a bit of both. After Rita died, a comically sad segment shows that M’gann took Garfield in, but Rita’s husband (Steve Dayton) claimed parental rights and took Garfield away from her. He then exploited his metagene powers and put him on television to make money off him. Garfield just can’t seem to catch a break, now can he?
6. A Call For Help: Unable to do anything else, Perdita calls 911 in addition to M’gann and Conner. I’ll admit, the image of Conner literally carrying out the EMTs made me laugh. M’gann goes into Garfield’s mind to try and bring him out of the coma. Garfield has finally managed to escape the cartoonish world of the ‘Doom Patrol’, but instead finds himself in ‘Hello, Megan!’. After Queen Bee shows up, he’s forced to rewatch his mother’s car ‘accident’ and collapses in grief. Garfield’s monkey, with the comical voice of Wally, brings him out of it and tells him to snap out of it. After a bit of back and forth, he realizes that this is all in his head and then meets M’gann who embraces him. He comes to the realization that while acting brought him closer to his mother, it also kept away the pain of all the people he’d lost in his life. He’s done chasing that dream, and announces that he’s finally ready to stop and face reality.
7. Kiss and Make Up: Garfield comes out of his coma, much to the relief of Conner, M’gann and Perdita. He reveals the true motives behind the goggles, as well as the person behind it all: Gretchen Goode. With trouble put to the wayside for now, him and Perdita are free to share a sweet kiss. M’gann and Conner join in, and off in Happy Harbor, so do Brion and Violet. New couple alert!

Let us know what you thought of the episode in the comments below and in the forum!

The writers of Young Justice sure love to have their parallels between the seasons. ‘Another Freak’ bears similarity to ‘Targets’ in Season one, for it’s Violet and Forager’s first day of school! However, unlike ‘Targets’, this first day has a crucial twist that may leave you hurting for what was lost and excited for what is to come. Let’s find out what happened:

1. A Fiery Confrontation: Hot off his win, Victor’s anger has bubbled to the point where he finally decides to confront his father. Dr. Stone is not having it and dismisses his son’s rage, only infuriating Victor further. He makes to leave, but as he opens the door, he hits and removes one of the cords on the Reach device salvaged from ‘Triptych’. The resounding explosion knocks them both back, and for a few moments we wonder if there are any survivors.
2. First Day of School: Forager and Violet are thrilled to attend their first day of school; I wonder if they’ll still be that excited when they find out about standardized testing. Forager is given a glamour charm, courtesy of Zatanna, so he can attend. His transformation is just as cute as he is, and soon he emerges as Fred Bugg (with two gs!). Brion warns Violet to look out for the boys, but she remains utterly clueless as she and Forager leave with M’gann and Lucas Carr.
3. The Desperate Attempt: Dr. Stone is fine after the explosion; Victor, not so much. He was crushed by debris; literally. If you thought Halo’s corpse after being burnt alive was bad, you may want to close your eyes during this part. Dr. Stone, desperate to save his son, hooks him up to the fatherbox in an attempt to save his life. The other scientists warn him not to, but Dr. Stone is past the point of sanity and does so anyway. The fatherbox fuses with Victor and supplies the prosthetics he needs to stay alive, replacing the skin and bone he had lost from the explosion. However, the fatherbox’s evil nature takes over Victor’s mind and he sets to take revenge on his father for what he’d done to him.
4. Freaks Like Us: It’s interesting to see the difference in Violet and Forager’s first day as opposed to M’gann and Conner’s. While M’gann quickly fit in with the crowd, Violet and Forager do not. Other students whisper that they are freaks. Harper Rowe makes herself known to Violet and Forager and encourages them to brush off the comments from the other students and instead accept that they are indeed freaks. However, something is off with Violet. Throughout the day, she keeps feeling worse and worse, which is all the more alarming.
5. Patience is a Virtue: Just as predicted, Brion’s patience has run thin and he attempts to take matters into his own hands again. He is caught by Dick, and the two have a physical and emotional confrontation in which Dick accuses him of holding onto the past instead of looking forwards to the future. With this revelation in mind, Brion stops fighting Dick and actually considers his words.
6. Indigo is the Warmest Color: Violet’s unease leads her to glow a different color; indigo. Before Forager can deduce what’s happening, she uses this power to open up a boom tube and enters it. The boom tube leads her to Dr. Stone’s lab, where he is in the middle of being attacked by Victor. Violet is unsure of what is going on, but insists she has to help Victor. She glows indigo again and speaks some powerful words in an unknown language. With an indigo glow, she is able to ‘cure’ Victor of the fatherbox’s influence. Victor is relieved, and despite his father’s insistence that he stay with him, Victor is still livid and wants to get away. He leaves with Violet, who takes him back to Happy Harbor, where M’gann and Forager are waiting. M’gann, utterly clueless, wants to know what happened and who Victor is, to which Violet responds ‘just another freak’.
7. Owning Up: On the beach, Brion disconnects from his phone for the first time since arriving to Happy Harbor. As he stares pensively out into the ocean, Dick meets up with him again and asks if they’re okay. Brion says they are, and that moving forward, he thinks he’s going to be okay too. Brion is growing as a character, and I’m proud of him.

Let us know what you thought of the episode in the comments below and in the forum!

I hope y’all aren’t feeling the mode too much, because this is our last week of Young Justice Outsiders episodes before the midway hiatus. It’s fine, I’m not crying or anything. To ease the parting blow, this week we didn’t get three episodes: we got four! There’s a whole lot to cover, so I want to just jump right in to this fantastic episode. ‘Exceptional Human Beings’ covers Batman, Katana and Metamorpho’s covert mission into Santa Prisca in hopes of finding information about Tara Markov. In between this epic mission, we get little glimpses into the outsiders’ lives and how they’re faring on the daily. Here’s what went down:

1. Welcome to the Jungle: After many episodes of wondering what Batman and his secret team were up to, we finally get a look at one of his covert missions. The family resemblance must be strong, because Bruce’s definition of covert is strangely similar to Nightwing’s. Batman, Katana and Metamorpho arrive in Santa Prisca with strict instructions from Oracle to maintain radio silence. The jungle sequences are beautifully choreographed to where we can see how well the three work together..
2. A Stony Relationship: Meanwhile, in Detroit, Dr. Silas Stone is working in his lab when his son, Victor, gives him a call. I see you, Cy. Their relationship is anything but warm and pleasant, and despite Victor’s attempts to get his father to come out to his game that evening, Dr. Stone is more interested in his work and disconnects the call when Steel of the Justice League gives him a ring. Dr. Steel informs Dr. Stone that he has been put in charge of examining an Apokoliptian Fatherbox. Uh oh.
3. Nothing but her Engagement Ring: To distract us from the impending doom Dr. Stone will bring, let’s return to Happy Harbor. Conner and M’gann are getting ready for the day, just a casual domestic scene. And then we laugh at how this really isn’t a kids show anymore when M’gann suggests they have a little bit of fun.
4. Tag, You’re It: In Owings Mills, Dick continues training the Outsiders team. They’ve tremendously improved over the past few months and are really starting to get a strong grip on their abilities enough to act like a real team. It’s a nice parallel to how smoothly Batman and his team operate. Brion and Violet flirt throughout the scene, and Forager is Forager. Dr. Jace and Jefferson discuss how well everyone is getting along, and I still don’t trust her. Mark my words, something is fishy about Dr. Jace. Brion is still frustrated and not whelmed that Dick isn’t talking about what’s being done to help Tara. It’s only a matter of time before he tries to go all ‘Rescue Op’ again.
5. Power in Grace: Katana and Metamorpho are on their own and encounter Lady Shiva, training a batch of Shadow recruits. Oracle warns them to steer clear, at least until Shiva singles out one of the recruits for other matters. Katana and Metamorpho pursue until Oracle bids them pause as Batman is already in location. Inside, Shiva meets up with Deathstroke sans his Season Two ponytail, and we finally discover that he is the new leader of the Shadows. Not only that, but the recruit Shiva brought with her is Cassandra Savage, who expresses concern over her missing roommate ‘Markov’. Tara Markov. Deathstroke explains that she washed out and Granny may find some use for her.
6. Locker Talk: At Heywood High School, Victor gets ready for his football game while his teammates discuss which female member of the Justice League they would love to get with. Victor pays no attention to this talk, and instead glowers that his teammates focus on the game. He also makes no move to stop them from bullying the towel-boy, so he loses points in my book for that.
7. Buenas Noches Batman: Now that Batman’s team has the information that they’ve come for, Oracle gives them instruction to meet at the rendezvous point and sneak on a boat carrying a venom shipment. Before Batman can get anywhere, though, Bane finds him out and ignites an attack.
8. A Broken Family: In Star City, Violet enjoys some ice cream with the Harper-Crock family while Artemis fills out forms for her to attend school. Violet decides to go by Violet Harper after a kind suggestion by Will. Speaking of Will, he notices something outside and excuses himself from the table. That something happened to be his wife, Jade, lurking outside and watching Lian through the window. He asks her to stay with them, but Jade refuses, insisting that they’re both better off without her. Will tells her she’s wrong, but Jade turns away, tells him to move on and runs away. Judging that she was crying, I would strongly bet that she didn’t want to. What are you hiding, Jade? Tell me so I can stop crying, I beg of you.
9. Go Out With a Bang: In an epic showdown, Batman fights Bane while Katana and Metamorpho take on Lady Shiva and Deathstroke. The fight scene is exquisite, to which my favorite part might be the many different facets of Metamorpho’s powers. Oracle saves the day by calling in their getaway and blowing up Bane’s shipment on the boats. Batman’s team is saved while Bane, Shiva and Deathstroke look on.
10. Boo-yah!: Victor’s team wins the match, but his father did not attend. He’s understandably upset, especially when college recruiters come and praise him for his success. Dr. Stone, however, is busy with other matters. He’s just received the fatherbox. Anyone else scared? You should be.

Let us know what you thought of the episode in the comments below and in the forum!

Change My Mind: Artemis and Dick Should Have Been a Couple Instead of Dick and Barbara!

Hey all! It’s Wednesday, which means that it’s time for another round of ‘Change My Mind’. Last week we kicked things off on a positive note. This week, I’d like to cover a topic that is a little more controversial and will likely get some backlash. This week, I want to talk about Dick and Barbara as a couple. More specifically, how I believe that ‘Traught’, or Dick and Artemis for the folks not feeling the aster, should have gotten together instead. Before I begin, I want to preface and say that I don’t mind Dick and Barbara as a couple. I think they’re cute together, and I have nothing against them! However, I don’t particularly care for how they were brought together, especially when the show has given so much chemistry to Dick and Artemis.

In case you’ve been living under a very heavy rock and have no idea what I’m talking about, let’s do a quick recap. During ‘Rescue Op’, we learned that Dick and Barbara are now together as a couple, calling each other nicknames such as ‘Adorableness’ and ‘Cuteness’. Sweet, right? I agree. However, if you are a casual fan of Young Justice and haven’t delved into any comic lore (tie in or otherwise), this coupling may have come out of left field for you. This is a potential problem, especially when Traught has always had, and still has, excellent chemistry.

Now, I can already feel the Spitfire shippers sneering in disgust at the sheer mention of Traught. Artemis would never be romantically involved with Wally’s best friend, you could argue. What would Wally make of that when he returns? Unfortunately, as of ‘Home Fires’ we still have no evidence that Wally will make a return. It’s been two years, and Artemis has earned the right to move on. Why wouldn’t she be able to move on with a man she’s always had a deep connection to? Artemis and Dick have chemistry, and they have history three seasons long. Dick and Barbara, unfortunately, do not. Let’s dig into this a little bit deeper:

1. Dick and Barbara have had little to no development as a relationship on screen: Dick and Barbara have shared a few scenes in Young Justice, yes. However, in the show, their interactions have been relatively platonic, with a vaguely flirty line or two. To the regular viewer who has never read a comic in their life and only watches the show, they would leave Season Two without much of an impression of them as a potentially romantic couple. Now, Dick and Barbara have had this development in the YJ tie-in comic and I definitely recommend you start reading those ASAP because they’re excellent canon additions to the show. However, one should not have to read the comic to get a sense of Dick and Barbara as a couple. As a result of the lack of development in the show itself, their relationship may have come as a confusing surprise to a lot of viewers, leaving much less of a positive impact and instead instilling uncertainty.
2. Dick and Artemis have always had a strong connection: On the opposing end, Dick and Artemis have had plenty of development on screen. Since Wally’s passing, the two are constantly quipping with each other, teasing and in some instances, touching. They have their mutual grief to bond over, and I would be willing to bet quite a bit that the two have only grown closer as a result. These two have had three seasons worth of scenes and potential relationship building to the point where if they suddenly hooked up, we would understand where it had come from. Reactions could go either way, but there would be no confusion as to why it had occurred. For years, fans have debated between Spitfire and Traught; now that Spitfire is (temporarily?) over, why not give Traught its rightful chance in the spotlight?
3. Plot wise, Dick and Artemis make more sense: So let’s say the writers want Dick and Barbara to be endgame. Fair enough. At this point in the plot, however, Artemis and Dick still make the most sense. It would have been intriguing to see them starting off the season together, even if their relationship was just friends with benefits. This way, we would have been able to explore their unresolved tension while giving time to let Barbara and Dick develop as a potential long-term couple. It’s the best of both worlds, really. Excellent plot development while still giving both teams an equal chance to shine.

Disagree with my opinion? Want to change my mind? Awesome! Make sure you hit the comments and let me know. Or if you prefer, take to the forum and let your thoughts run wild.