Introduction:

At the end of the first season of Young Justice I was begging for more. The series got off to a really good start and the long hiatus that they gave us built a strong level of anticipation in the fan base. Luckily, we did get a second season of this series. Now, your standard “pick up where we left off” kind of new season was possible, but that isn’t what the creators had in mind. I was shocked to find out that Young Justice Invasion takes place five years after the team stopped Vandal Savage’s hostile takeover of the Justice League. Some of you may be wondering what went down during the gap, but there are references to things that happened during those five years and we still get to see the old team. Given, they may have diminished roles due to the introduction of new team members, but that is the fun of the DC Universe. There are plenty of heroes out there that you should get to know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summary:

The biggest change for the team is the fact that this story starts off five years after the season one finale. Things have changed to an extent. The original team is now older and a little more spread out. Rocket and Zatanna are in the Justice League now which was the original goal. Robin is now Nightwing and he, along with Superboy and Miss Martian, have decided to stay behind and help out the new recruits as veteran team members. Wally and Artemis are retired. The two are still together and they are sharing an apartment in Palo Alto, CA while they go to college. What happened to Aqualad? You need to see that to believe it. Well, even though the characters that we have grown attached to still exist, the team is what really matters. Thus, our story focuses on Nightwing, Superboy, Miss Martian, and the new recruits as they become more refined members of the hero game. Obviously, the title of this new season, Young Justice Invasion, should give you a hint when it comes to the content of the story. Things get really intense when Earth is faced with invasion from more than one alien race. The Justice League is already kept busy by their usual business, so the team is a big part of the anti-invasion force. Although this season is only twenty episodes long, we get our fair share of answered questions to go along with the theme of the series which is secrets. Who is trying to take over the planet? What is the Light up to? What happened during the missing sixteen hours? What happened to Aqualad?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Characters:

Honestly, this season is packed with new and returning characters. We get to see all of the old team and league members as well as new heroes in both groups. We get to see new villains from all over the galaxy. Heck, we get to see more members of the media from Earth-16. I will specifically go over the important characters and talk about groups of more minor characters in detail. First off we have the team which is composed of mostly younger heroes that are not yet ready to be in the Justice League, but are still useful for world saving. The covert ops thing is still in place, but the group has started to function more independently thanks to their veteran leadership. Dick Grayson has finally made the switch from Robin to Nightwing and he is the new team leader. The biggest difference in his character is maturity, but Nightwing has retained his laid back style. Still no powers, but time has done a body good and Nightwing is a much improved fighter even though he spends most of his time as a coordinator. Superboy has finally dropped the anger and is now a mentor for the younger members. Although he cannot obtain full Kryptonian powers, Superboy found out that he doesn’t physically age which is both a blessing and a curse. Unlike Nightwing, Connor regularly goes out into the field. Miss Martian has gained control of more of her martian powers including density shifting. All of her abilities are ramped up because she is finally utilizing her great psychic mind. The biggest difference between Miss Martian and the other veteran members is the fact that she still lacks a lot of moral understanding. Jaime Reyes is Blue Beetle and one of the new team members. His powers are believed to come from the scarab that was invented by Ted Kord and not all of said abilities are revealed. To go over a few, you have sonic blasts, flight, language translation, etc. Jaime is still young and he often argues with a very vicious AI that is a part of the scarab. As a heads up, Jaime might be the most important character in Young Justice Invasion. Bart Allen is the grandson of Barry Allen aka the Flash. How is that possible? Time travel. Bart has come from the future in order to stop an apocalypse that occurs due to a failure to stop the invasion. Bart has the same powers as the Flash which include a running speed that is close to the speed of light, the ability to vibrate his molecules through solid objects, and resist high levels of friction. Although Bart is very skilled and smart he lacks maturity. Impulse, as he is called, is a chip off the old Flash block in the loudmouth department, but don’t expect him to have Wally’s horrible flirting skills. Aside from that we have a lot of team members such as the third Robin, Wondergirl, Bumblebee, and many more. The Justice League has changed a bit because Captain Atom is the new chairman. There are also new members such as Black Lightning, but the League doesn’t really play a huge role in the action of the series. The thing of note is the fact that although the team is more independent, their communication with the Justice League is now far more direct. On the villainous side we get to see a lot more Lex Luthor with his smooth talking and overly advanced technology. I could sit here all day and talk about more of the characters, but I need to limit the length of this section because it is already running long. What I will say is that I am sorry for not getting to all of the very great characters and that you should definitely watch the show to meet all of the people who couldn’t be mentioned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Impression:

I was astounded by the quality of Young Justice Invasion. Sure, the first season of the series was great and that is why there is such a big fan base out there, but Invasion blew that out of the water. At first, I was a little taken aback by the fact that we missed out on five years worth of time with the team, but my friend Vaughn made a really good point. “They needed to a time skip in order to show the growth of the team. In a series where they focus on growing up, you need to see some actual results. Also, I think that the writers have handled the time skip very well.” All of that is true and I came to agree with that statement as the season progressed. The new characters are great and I think that they handled introducing a ridiculous amount of new characters very well. Obviously, only some of them will get significant screen time, but I do think that the heroes that received less exposure had their time used very efficiently. It is hard to say that you don’t know a team member after having watched all twenty episodes. Seeing the struggles that the characters go through always seemed to feel very real. Be it Nightwing and Aqualad struggling with impossible decisions for the greater good or Jaime coming to grips with the true origin of his powers, there is a real connection being built between the viewers and characters that is lacking in a lot of shows today. Also, I can’t say enough about the fact that characters actually die in this series. The struggle of working in such an environment is a sight to behold. The action scenes are great and the fights always seem to have an appropriate duration. A great deal of tension can even be felt when the swords have been sheathed. The invasion force brings up a part of the DC Universe that is extremely significant and I am overjoyed by the fact that the staff chose to go in this direction. I would love to go into more detail regarding the invaders, but that is a huge spoiler. Although my favorite part of this season is definitely the amount of significant DC characters that were fit into this series with such ease. As I have said, it is difficult to say that you don’t know one of the younger heroes because the writing is just that good. The rework on origin, character design, and powers for established characters always seems to fit in really well with the series. I still can’t believe that Sportsmaster and Apache Chief aren’t ridiculous. With the quality of characters only being overshadowed by the strength of the plot, all I can say is that we need a season three.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Final Say:

Young Justice Invasion is the perfect sequel to Young Justice. They stepped it up in all regards which resulted in an even more passionate fan base. Action, comedy, drama, this series has it all. Unfortunately, Young Justice is being taken off the air. Even though Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti had the first three seasons outlined prior to the first season coming out, we may never see the rest of the plot unfold. I hate this because they series ended on a cliffhanger that expanded upon a concept that was introduced in season one that could lead to things running on an epic scale. I say that even though Invasion got big time itself. The Symbiosi movement was started in order to save Young Justice and Green Lantern the Animated Series from cancellation and the fight is not yet over. I urge you to check out this series and if you feel that you want to support its further success, please check out this link to more information on the Symbiosi movement. [SaveYJandGLTAS] Overall, Young Justice Invasion is definitely worth your time and I hope that this series can come to mean as much to you as it does for me.