YJ: Misplaced - Review and Recap!

[espanolbot]

Okay, recap first so massive spoiler warning.

The episode begins in Roanoke Island, where Klarion is meeting several other occult bad guys at a crossroads for some nefarious purposes. Meanwhile, Megan and Conner are unpacking their shopping for the week, while Artemis and Zatanna continue to hang out, like they did in the Secret episode. Art askes Zee if she's going to be an official member of the team, but she isn't sure due to how over protective her dad is. And just when she wishes he'll give her a little space... all the adults in the room (including Batman, Zatara and Red Tornado) disappear.

And thus everyone starts panicking, while back in Roanoke Blackbriar Thorn and the rest of the adult magicians also vanish.

Meanwhile, in Fawcett City, Billy Batson's uncle vanishes while a newsanchor namedrops the supervillain Ibac. Billy then twigs that since all the other adults have vanished too, he can't turn into Captain Marvel incase he disappears too.

Back in the YJ Cave, Zatanna and Robin are organising refugee centres for any potential victims of this event, and also find that all adults world over have vanished. Robin asks Zatanna if she can copy a spell her dad used to find the FakeLight from the previous episode, but she's unsure as it takes years of training, not just copying the incantation.

While they're doing that, Conner is saving kids trapped in cars after their parents vanished mid-journey, while Megan is gathering the rest up to put in the highschool gym so they don't accidentally kill themselves. Artemis is there in person, and is adorable in her attempts to entertain the kids while not remembering any nursey rhymes all the way through.

Using the emergency broadcast system that they established that they had in the dream episode, the Team relay a message around the world for children and teenagers not to panic, etc. etc. while images of heroes and people from around the world are shown. Billy, meanwhile, scales a fence to get into an airfield (despite the gate being open) and asks a teenage pilot to fly him to Happy Harbour (the JLA teleporter he normally uses not recognises him because of his kid voice).

Wally and Aqualad are talking, wondering whether it's the worstcase scenario that would require them to don the Helmet of Nabu... and decide against it for the time people. Zatanna says she's ready to attempt her father's locator spell, it works, but she looks worried for some reason.

Billy and Amber the pilot are flying to Happy Harbour, but it turns out that its her 18th birthday at the stroke of midnight, and she promptly vanishes midflight. Cue panicking.

Then we have a flashback, where it turns out that the adults have been teleported to a world where the teenagers and kids have vanished... interesting. I thought that this was Klarion screwing his comrades over. Showing the previous scene with Zatanna talking to Artemis, it shows her dad talking to Batman, where Zatara senior says that he's willing to let her join the team but he doesn't want to loose her, what with her getting older and being his old child. Aww.

Riots ensue on AdultEarth with a blond man, implictly Sportsmaster, deliberately inciting them by claiming that the likes of STAR Labs and the JLA know or are responsible for the kids going missing. The Light are also using the chaos to steal dangerous gear from said installations, one of which I think was their weapon from a previous episode.

Billy shazams and saves Amber, evidentally meaning she didn't have a plane in adult world. He goes to the YJ HQ, tells Batman about the two worlds and accidentally reveals his secret to the YJ when he returns back to World Without Grown-Ups. Megan confirms it with telepathy, though Wally is skeptical because, well, he's Wally. Billy basically confirms he's Cap by making a snide comment about the servant work Kid Flash made him do.

Using Billy's ability to travel between the worlds, Batman, Zatara and Red Tornado organise a plan to attack the magicians at both worlds at the same time. The team go and attack Klarion, and Kid Flash basically gets Artemis to try and kill Teekl (:() due to him being Klarion's anchor in the physical world. Doesn't work though, with Klarion turning his kitty into a sabretooth tiger thing.

The adults do a lot better, and Zatara tells Cap to tell the younger team that the weakness to the spell is to destroy the gem in the centre of the symbol that's powering the thing. Hearing this, Zatanna attempts to don the Helmet of Nabu, which she brought due to her lack of confidence in her skills. She puts it on.

Much kickass magical battles abound, and with a combination of Zatanna's power-up and Cap's quick thinking the day is saved. Though Klarion legs it while the rest of the sorcerers are captured, having being knocked out by Zatara striking them with lightning.

With everything sorted, Zatara attempts to get Nabu to release his daughter... only for him to refuse. The Lord of Order reasons that the chaos brought about by the spell justify him permanently possessing Zatanna, and her natural ability to control magic make her the perfect medium to carry out his purpose. Wally yells that Kent, the previous Dr Fate whose ghost was inhabiting the helmet and acting as a concious to the eldritch thing living in it, would never allow Nabu to hold Zatanna against her will, which results in Nabu saying that he banished Kent to the afterlife some time ago as his nagging was annoying him.

Zatara comes to a compromise, he'll don the helmet, and be trapped as Nabu's vessel forever, in exchange for him releasing his daughter. He then gives his magical word that he'll do this. Zatara is briefly thrilled to see her dad again, but after bidding his daughter and the JL fairwell, he put it on, and is posssessed forever. Effectively killing him, while leaving Zatanna alone and in shock.

The episode ends with the various kids meeting up with their older family members, Wally and his parents, Billy and his uncle, it's all very heartfelt... but the fact that Zatanna has to move into the YJ headquarters (what with her basically being an orphan now) still ends the story on a very sad note. Particularly as she ends up crying alone in the dark, as she's basically responsible for her father's death.

In the end note, the Light reveal the thing they that they stole from STAR Labs during the riots that Sportsmaster caused... and it's a chunk of Starro... Oh crap!

Review
I thought that this was a good episode, overall. Good, but not really up there with the best of the show, such as my highwater mark: Humanity. There were a lot of funny and well acted moments, mostly from Cap and Zatanna, as well as a number of interesting features, like the kid's world being the less disorderly of the two and Billy Batson seeming to be more emotionally mature than his older superpowered alter ego.

What really made the episode for me though was the ending. The relationship between Zatanna and her father was really one of the more interesting parts of the character, albeit not one that is explored that often. The fact that he was willing to effectively die for his daughter like the original did (over in Swamp Thing, where he chose to be incinerated during a spell to save her life) was a nice touch, and it was genuinely heartbreaking seeing where she was at the end of the episode.

Although it could be argued that it was her fault that her dad became the new permanent vessel for Nabu, I don't think that it should be counted as a bad move on the part of the creators. I mean, she as in a bad situation and used it as a means of last resort which they might not have won the day if she'd not done it... it's just a bad thing that was done for the right reasons, and resulted in a horrible cost to her personally. Considering how the show has dealt with trauma and character development in the past, hopefully this'll move for her to mature personalitywise instead of just sinking into despair or something.

Cameos
Klarion


Wotan


Felix Faust


Wizard


The other cameos from Conner and Megan's highschool, including the Wonder Twins


Barbara and Bette


Someone from the Static Shock Universe... not sure who. Icon?


Sportsmaster


Jim Gordon


Doctor Zatanna Fate!


Sportsmaster, the Riddler, Mallah and the Brain


For legality,

Comments

[bewareofgeek]

That's Rocket, not Icon.

[big_daddy_d]

To be fair, she does become the new Icon in the Milestone Forever mini.

[bewareofgeek]

Did she? I only bought the second issue (big Hardware fan).

In any case, that's clearly the Rocket costume.

[auggie18]

Pretty sure that's Wendy and Marvin, not the Wonder Twins.


I had mixed feelings on the episode. It had a few cute character moments and Billy was written pitch perfect, but the ending seemed pretty weak and dear god are the Light annoying. Agent of Chaos pulls some wacky stunt? PERFECT ACCORDING TO PLAN. Single prisoner escapes from jail? PERFECT ACCORDING TO PLAN. Dog crosses the street? PERFECT ACCORDING TO PLAN.

[ian_karkull]

They're going to need a really big endgame if they keep upping the stakes like that. I kept asking myself what all these ridiculously powerful adult sorcerers get out of it, but the conclusion is still a little unsatisfying.
I get a big kick out of dozens of super-villains working together in what essentially amounts to some sort of evil, work-for-hire labour union, but every single super-villain in the world apparently being perfectly fine with being bossed around by six guys and a brain in a jar is bordering on the ridiculous.

[icon_uk]

Actually, I'm REALLY liking that the villains ARE that competent. These are villains brining their A-game and frankly, that should work more often than it does.

[espanolbot]

To be fair though, they seem to be going by Xanatos Rules in regards to their schemes, by having plans that either will result in them winning whatever the outcome or take their "failure" into account so that they still get something from it.

For example, in the prison break episode the goal was to get somebody, anybody to escape Belle Reve as the intention was to both free up some resources and to discredit the warden, Amanda Waller, so she'd be replaced by the Light's plant, Hugo Strange.

If the main plot worked and the Icicle, Mr Freeze etc. escaped, then awesome, they had a lot of heavy hitters out while also getting Strange in charge. And since that failed then they got someone who is actually smart, the Riddler out, with the same result in terms of the prison hierarchy.

And it doesn't always go their way. The Red Volcano's decision to Kill All Humans was a major failure on their part, as their attempt to create an evil robot that won't decide to become human, a pinocchio, ended up creating something that wanted to kill everybody, including them.

[ian_karkull]

I immediately thought of Swamp Thing too, that was a nice way to homage this classic plot point in a sort of kids friendly way.
I don't think anybody could blame Zatanna for what happened though, she had know way of knowing that his was going to be the result. Her intention as to sacrifice herself to save everybody. She couldn't possibly be blamed for an adult making decisions on his own, especially since it's implied that their relationship is a bit strained to begin with.

Either way, it's a nice way to set up some interesting character development, I feel like the show has finally hit it's stride and is on it's way to becoming as good as JLU was.

The German chanting in the begining though tried to be too clever and failed horribly, being both damn near unintelligible and completely wrong. I'd proof-read and translate all of Marvel and DC's Nazi dialogue for free if I just never have to hear or read gibberish like that again.

[espanolbot]

Considering the name of the following miniseries, Invasion, and the clues that have been placed so far, I think that this is leading to a fullscale invasion of Earth by Darkseid that ISN'T solved over the course of one episode for a change.

[deleonjh]

That was German? I thought that actually was gibberish.

[ian_karkull]

Oh yes. They where trying to say "We are the Pied Pipers of Hamelin", which is sort of clever I suppose, but ended up saying "We are the whistlers of the ram."

[icon_uk]

It's a Wolfram and Hart conspiracy!!

I don't suppose there's a chance it's an archaic form of German? (The way Middle English would be pretty much a foreign language to a modern English speaker)

[ian_karkull]

Alas, no. It's more a case of half-assed translation, e.g. the 'pied piper' is literally called the 'rat catcher' in the original.

[big_daddy_d]

I liked this episode and seriously..I called it! I knew Zatarra will be the character who bites it in this series. So gimme my money!

On a serious note though, great episode. I thought it would end up a filler and boring (as I was not a fan of the last episode Klarion was in), but I was wrong on both counts. Love seeing Billy Batson shine in this episode and poor Zee.

[rdfox]

...is that Penny (from Inspector Gadget) in the lower left of the shot of the bleachers?

[pyrotwilight]

Ohhhh that was Sportsmaster. I had no idea who the guy was, I was too used to seeing him in costume. I expected him to look older too.

Was the Starro piece brought up before...I can't remember if it was mentioned/shown in a prior episode. Somehow I'm now expecting thousands of mini Starros controlling the JLA at some point controlled by the Light.

[apexpredator]

Starro was on ice during the "Downtime" episode. He's what Black Manta and his team ended up freeing from Atlantis. We think. Its not been explicitly shown to be Starro, but signs point to it.

[pyrotwilight]

Ohhhh right. Been a while since that episode was out and all.

[ebontien]

I though Nabu stated that since Kent didn't "argue strenuously" over Zatanna being chosen, Nabu released him not because Kent was nagging him. After all, Kent did mention that he'd stay with Nabu until the right host steps in and compared to Kaldur and Wally, she definitely hits the checklist since her affinity with magic would be higher (Kaldur's battle sorcery compared to Zatanna's wider span of magic if her father's abilities are any indication). Although Kent understands the consequences of being Dr. Fate, he does understand that when an ideal candidate comes by, they do need one given how long he's been searching. Especially since he probably just barely argued Kaldur out of the same situation since he does use magic but someone like Zatanna...Kent would have to be very silver tongued to get her out of this one.

[icon_uk]

NNabu stated that Kent DID argue, and that's why he sent him off on to the afterlife, he was cramping Nabu's style. Kent was given no choice in the matter, so his intentions were over-rules by Nabu.

[ebontien]

I had to rewatch that part (the sound was fuzzy so I had to really turn it up) and you're right. I had thought I had heard "Kent didn't argue strenuously" and was released because he inadvertently chose Zatanna, when in fact he did and Nabu finally had enough. After all, he already lost Kaldur and Kaldur did use the mystic arts though not on the same scale as Zatanna and Zatarra.

[maridee42]

What I don't understand is why Dr. Fate couldn't do a timeshare.

[icon_uk]

Nabu has... trust issues. He's not human, he doesn't seem to think much of humans, and wouldn't rely on any of them to NOT screw him out of a body first chance they got.

[magus_69]

Also, Nabu isn't exactly a good guy. He's a Lord of Order. He's about Order vs. Chaos, not Good vs. Evil. The hosts can have a moderating influence, but only to a point.

[maridee42]

Makes sense. Wonder how many times that has happened.

[silverzeo]

The part of the riot at Star Labs was... stupid... granted a crisis in a city can make people crazy... but they would most likely be at actual government buildings, like the White House or mayor's office...

[pyrotwilight]

Eh, STAR labs is the place with all the crazy tech so it's an understandable place to go to given the sudden disappearance of all the children. It's practically like Area 51 but well known.

[silverzeo]

Then why NOT the Hall of Justice, where they actually HAVE super-aliens there and are usually the ones who know what goes on. Star Labs would be number 2 on that list...

[long_silence]

There may have been a riot at the Hall of Justice too. There has to be a reason the rest of the League didn't show up in this episode at all.

[icon_uk]

That was explained, they were busy trying to deal with global hysteria.

[long_silence]

I'm just saying that dealing with a riot at the Hall of Justice could count as dealing with global hysteria.

riot

[anamnesis]

How was it stupid? S.T.A.R. labs is publicly known to deal with extreme hi-tech not disclosed to the public, possibly capable of doing this.

Why would the public face off the JLA, which they know to be a force for good?

Also, if you paid attention to the riot scene, Sportsmaster (unmasked) clearly started the riot.

[icon_uk]

Because the only reason there was a riot there was because Light wanted there to be one as a cover for their theft of the Starro bit. Sportsmaster was the one who incited the whole thing.

[eyz]

Awesome-tastic! :D
And, the Riddler!!! Woah!! Nice!

[icon_uk]

I appreciate that the ending was about Zatanna's loss, but perhaps actual orphans Billy or Dick might have been able to say SOMETHING about things getting better, or letting her know that she's not alone in what she's going through.

(Though to be fair, Zatara isn't dead, and we have seen that Nabu CAN release his hold over his host, he just never wants to, once he finds one he likes, but it's possible Zatara could return, but the Batsons and the Graysons couldn't)

And when Zatara gets stressed about the possible loss of Zatanna after the kids disappear, it might have been nice for Daddy-Bats note that Zatara isn't the only hero to have a child vanish on them.