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Greg Bishansky writes...

Secrets

I am speechless. This episode was perfect. I loved it, and I say this as a guy who has been wanting to love this series but so far has only been able to just like it a lot. I loved this episode.

Harm was a deliciously creepy villain. Everything about him was chilling. His speech patterns could have easily been corny, but thanks to great writing and terrific voice acting they were very unnerving. I spent most of the episode wondering how Artemis and Zatanna were going to defeat him. Scratch that, not just wondering how they were, wondering IF they were. And as a thirty-year old jaded TV watcher, I hardly ever wonder IF the bad guy is going to be beaten.

The story was very heavy, and the truth about Secret was heartbreaking. I've heard of Secret and Harm before, but I didn't know their story, and I had no idea she was dead, never mind that her brother killed her. Child murder in a cartoon? Okay, there's been plenty of attempted child murder, but the real deal? Harsh. Very harsh.

The B-plot balanced out the dark drama with a lot of humor. While Artemis and Zatanna fought for their lives, Superboy, Miss Martian, and Kid Flash were attending a school Halloween dance and there they warded off... a prank. I would like to say that Marvin the Martian with Godzilla's roar is the single greatest thing a human being could ever have come up with.

Martians invading, eh? Ooh... foreshadowing for season two? And here I thought Darkseid was being set up for season two. Hmm, maybe he is. Maybe he'll be in cahoots with the White Martians. Maybe I am reading too deep into this. It wouldn't be the first time.

The brief C-plot was about Aqualad, Red Arrow, Robin, and Batman discussing who the traitor was. At this point, I have no idea. I'm leaning towards M'Gann. Or maybe it's Aqualad.

If I had one complaint, it was about Artemis taking the news that Superboy and Miss Martian are a couple that hard. She only expressed interest in him on screen once, and that was in her first appearance. Aqualad alluded to it a few episodes back, but I think we needed more. Artemis, aggressive as she is, could have flirted with Superboy more. But that doesn't detract from this perfect episode, because it's not this episode's problem. The episodes that preceded this one should have laid a little more pipe.

BTW, Marvel Zombie... very cute.

A+, Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, Encore! Encore!

Greg responds...

I take great pride in the notion of using the Godzilla roar with Miss Martian posing as Marvin the Martian to scare Marvin from SuperFriends. That was my idea!

Response recorded on February 13, 2012