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Greg Bishansky writes...

Schooled
The fifth episode of "Young Justice" airs, and the series continues its upward climb in quality. This week's episode was penned by Nicole Dubuc, who previously worked with Greg Weisman on "W.I.T.C.H." and "The Spectacular Spider-Man."

Also making a return from "The Spectacular Spider-Man" are Vanessa Marshall as Black Canary, and Peter MacNicol as Professor Ivo. Marshall brings a cool, confident, and collected sexiness to Black Canary that perfectly fits the character. Honestly, I think she's my favorite actress to voice the character, and this is following the incredibly talented Morena Baccarin ("Firefly") and Grey DeLisle ("Avatar the Last Airbender"). I'll admit, I know very little about the character, but I have read that she is Weisman's favorite comic book character of all time, and as such, I am eager to learn more about her. Her character model is great, very sexy (even if I normally don't go for blondes), but it looks like her famous fishnet stockings have been stolen by the Flaming C.

Then there is Professor Ivo, a character I know nothing about except that dead guy in "Justice League" who constructed the android that was occasionally called AMAZO... but almost under protest from the writing team on that show. I liked Peter MacNicol's performance, but listening to him made me wish I was watching more of Dr. Octopus. I'll admit, I am still not quite over the cancellation of "The Spectacular Spider-Man." At this point, I'm willing to bet he's working for the Light.

And finally, rounding out the introductions, we have AMAZO. I mostly know AMAZO from "Justice League" and "Justice League Unlimited" and while he was an intriguing character in those shows, they kind of wrote themselves into a corner with him by turning him into a veritable god. The last time we saw him, he teleported himself to the other end of the universe to figure out a way to defeat Solomon Grundy... and they left him there. Probably Forever. Obviously, I don't think we want someone THAT powerful in "Young Justice." But I enjoyed what we got here.

Now, the emotional core of the episode: Superboy. The hotheaded, Kryptonian clone is beginning to grow on me. I understand him, I understand where he's coming from and why he is the way he is. But he's growing and learning. He's got a long way to go, but he's definitely getting better. I enjoyed seeing him use his head, and turn his anger into a strength when he outwitted AMAZO.

Robin continues to butcher the English language, and even I have to admit it's getting a little old. I understand that this is his quirk. But if I were doing that, most of my friends would have told me to shut up by now. Still, I like him.

I am continuing to really like Kid Flash. My favorite moment had to be him hitting on Black Canary before being royally schooled. On that note, I loved it when she royally schooled Superboy.

Now, as for Superman, I'll admit this upfront, I have never been a fan of Superman and I doubt I will ever be a fan of Superman. The character has always been presented as way too perfect for me. Yes, he is "super" but he is also a man, first and foremost. Men aren't perfect and never will be. Which is why I am one of the few I have conversed with who isn't annoyed about his treatment of Superboy. Well, I am annoyed in the sense that Clark is being a jerk, but I like seeing Clark being portrayed with an understandable character flaw. There is a tendency among many Superman fans, that I've noticed, where if Clark isn't portrayed as being better than Jesus Christ, they go ballistic. I think this is a far more realistic take on the character in this situtation, and it works for me. But then, I'm not a Superman fan, so what do I know?

Overall, a pretty great episode. I look forward to next week's, and the introduction of whomever it was that fired that arrow.

Oh yeah, and my favorite moment in the entire episode, when Clark ordered an Apple Pie and Bruce Wayne ordered a Devil's Food.

Greg responds...

Thanks.

Response recorded on March 15, 2011