"Independence Day" | |
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Young Justice episode | |
![]() Promotional image from the episode. | |
Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 1 |
Directed by | Jay Oliva |
Written by | Greg Weisman |
Production code | 101 |
Original air date | November 26, 2010 |
"Independence Day" is the first episode of the animated television series Young Justice , which first aired on November 26, 2010 alongside the episode "Fireworks" as part of an hour-long special. The episode features Young Justice team members Robin, Aqualad, Superboy, and Kid Flash, while Miss Martian and Artemis joined later in the series. References to the cartoons Super Friends , Justice League and Teen Titans appear in the episode. "Independence Day" won an Emmy Award for Individual Achievement in Animation. [1]
On the Fourth of July, Batman, The Flash, Aquaman, and Green Arrow, along with their respective proteges Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad and Speedy, each defeat a villain with ice powers, the latter in each duo telling the former how important the day is to them. Later, they all go to the Hall of Justice in Washington D.C. so that the proteges can be granted complete access to the Hall and officially inducted into the Justice League by Martian Manhunter and Red Tornado. The mentors prepare to step out for a discussion of the day's events, but Speedy furiously decides he has had enough with the League and media disregarding the proteges as "sidekicks", revealing to the other young heroes that the Hall of Justice is a front for the league's real headquarters that is in space before leaving. The young heroes are put into disbelief about the mentors keeping such things from them, and Superman contacts the mentors about a fire at Project Cadmus. Batman mentions how he always had suspicions about Project Cadmus, but as he considers using the opportunity to investigate it, Zatara subsequently contacts the League for their full support to help him stop Wotan from blotting out the sun. The mentors decide to let the fire department handle the fire and focus on stopping Wotan. As the mentors leave, they order the young heroes to stay put, but Robin suggests they investigate Project Cadmus and solve the case before the League does. They all agree and the trio sets off.
The three arrive at Cadmus Labs, saving the scientists from the fire and subsequently discovering an army of genetically engineered creatures used as weapons by Cadmus. They encounter Cadmus head of security Guardian, who is being mind-controlled by Cadmus' "genomorphs". Following a narrow escape, the three discover Project Kr, a teenage clone of Superman engineered by Cadmus and fed info by genomorphs. They are captured by Dr. Mark Desmond.
Afterwards, Desmond contacts the Cadmus board of directors to ask what to do with the young heroes. They order him to clone them and kill the originals. Meanwhile, the young heroes are awoken by a disembodied voice to find themselves strapped in pods and the clone in a trance. The clone suddenly regains consciousness from the G-Gnomes' mind control. He explains that he is Superboy, a clone of Superman, created to either replace him if he were killed, or to kill him if he went rogue. Upon hearing this, they offer him a chance of freedom from Cadmus and to meet Superman himself. Before he could make his decision, he is mind controlled again into going back into his pod while the young heroes are subjected to the painful cloning process. Superboy overhears Aqualad telling him that he has the right to make his own choices and asks him: "What would Superman do?". Superboy decides to rescue them. As they make their escape, they encounter Dubbilex, who reveals he started the fire to attract the heroes and free him and the other genomorphs as well. After the G-gnomes free Guardian of their telepathy, Desmond arrives to stop the heroes, drinking a serum known as project: Blockbuster, turning him into a powerful beast. After he knocks out Guardian, the ensuring fight between blockbuster and the young heroes reaches the surface, where they finally defeat him by causing the entire building to collapse on top of him.
The Justice League then arrives and meet Superboy. Superman feels uneasy around his clone, much to Superboy's disappointment, but assures him that the League will help him as they also take blockbuster to Belle Reve. Though they now have enough evidence to put Project Cadmus under full investigation, the mentors reprehend the young heroes for disobeying their orders, but they respond by asserting what they have done was important and convince the League to let them form a team. Three days later, with Project Cadmus as proof of how more organized villains are getting, Batman decides to have them work as a Covert Ops. team with Mount Justice as their headquarters. Batman will assign them on missions, Red Tornado will be their supervisor, and Black Canary will train them. Miss Martian, Martian Manhunter's niece, also joins them. Meanwhile, as Guardian is appointed as the new head of Project Cadmus, the Cadmus board of directors, known as The Light, contemplates on the young heroes destroying Cadmus and freeing Superboy.
Young Justice is not based on the comic book series of the same name created by Todd Dezago and Todd Nauck and differs from it in some key ways. Wally West is featured as Kid Flash, rather than Bart Allen as Impulse. Dick Grayson, not Tim Drake, is also featured as Robin. The series features new versions of Aqualad and Superboy. [2] The episode was the start of a new "young universe", in which Superman has only been around for about 10 years, the Justice League has existed for only 3–4 years, and Robin has been a sidekick the longest of the Young Justice team members. Executive producers Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti said that their aim was to keep the show "young", "fresh", "contemporary", and "from scratch" from the first episode. Like other shows, the first episode does not show the character's origin story, which Brett Singer of The A.V. Club said was alright except in cases that involve updated versions of characters. [3]
Matt of Comics Online said that the episode "easily lives up to the high expectations and standards that we would hope to see with any DC animated project". [2] An IGN review gave the episode 7 out of 10 stars while complimenting the fights, visuals, and character interaction. [4] R. J. Carter of The Trades said that the episode "sets a lot up in terms of character relationships that will provide a ton of fodder to explore in the upcoming series". [5] A review on entertainment website ComicsAlliance, however, delivered a mixed verdict that highlighted large amounts of exposition and unoriginal characters as a drawback to the fledgling series, opining that "There was nothing in here that (isn't) done better elsewhere". [6]
For his work on the episode, character designer Phil Bourassa won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in 2011.
The Teen Titans are a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, frequently in eponymous monthly series. As the group's name indicates, the members are teenage superheroes, many of whom have acted as sidekicks to DC's premier superheroes in the Justice League. The original team later becomes known as the Titans when the members age out of their teenage years, while the Teen Titans name is continued by subsequent generations of young heroes. First appearing in 1964 in The Brave and the Bold #54, the team was formed by Kid Flash, Robin, and Aqualad (Garth) before adopting the name Teen Titans in issue 60 with the addition of Wonder Girl to their ranks.
Superboy is the name of several fictional superheroes appearing in American comicbooks published by DC Comics. These characters have been featured in several eponymous comic series, in addition to Adventure Comics and other series featuring teenage superhero groups.
Krypto, also known as Krypto the Superdog, is a fictional superhero dog appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with Superman. In most continuities, Krypto is Superman's pet dog, usually depicted as a white dog of a generic pedigree. Krypto is sometimes depicted as resembling a Labrador Retriever, but his specific breed is almost never specified.
Cyborg is a superhero character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez and first appears in an insert preview in DC Comics Presents #26. Originally known as a member of the Teen Titans, Cyborg was established as a founding member of the Justice League in DC's 2011 reboot of its comic book titles.
Kid Flash is the name of several fictional superheroes appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, originally created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino, as a junior counterpart to DC Comics superhero The Flash. The first version of the character, Wally West, debuted in The Flash #110 (1959). The character, along with others like the first Wonder Girl, Aqualad, and Speedy, was created in response to the success of Batman's young sidekick Robin. These young heroes would later be spun off into their own superhero team, the Teen Titans. As Kid Flash, Wally West made regular appearances in Flash related comic books and other DC Comics publications from 1959 through the mid-1980s until the character was reinvented as the new version of The Flash.
Guardian is a DC Comics superhero introduced in April 1942 by writer/artist Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby.
Young Justice is a fictional DC Comics superhero team consisting of teenaged heroes.
DC One Million is a comic book crossover storyline that ran through a self-titled, weekly miniseries and through special issues of almost all of the "DCU" titles published by American company DC Comics in November 1998. It featured a vision of the DC Universe in the 853rd century, chosen because that is the century in which DC Comics would have published issue #1,000,000 of their comics if they had maintained a regular publishing schedule. The miniseries was written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Val Semeiks.
Project Cadmus is a fictional genetic engineering project in the DC Comics Universe. Its notable creations included the Golden Guardian, Auron, Superboy (Kon-El), and Dubbilex. Its 31st-century descendants run the Justice League 3000 clone project.
Blockbuster is the name of four fictional supervillain characters and a criminal organization appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The first one was primarily a foe of Batman and Robin, while the second was the archenemy to Nightwing. The latest version first appeared in the pages of the series 52 wherein he is directed into battle against Lex Luthor's team of superheroes.
Superboy is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. A modern variation on the original Superboy, the character first appeared as Superboy in The Adventures of Superman #500, and was created by writer Karl Kesel and artist Tom Grummett.
Justice Lords are a fictional team of anti-heroes/anti-villains who first appeared in the televised two-part Justice League episode "A Better World" which was broadcast on November 1, 2003.
Aquaman has made several appearances in numerous adaptations since his comic book debut in 1941. The character has also been referenced beyond the scope of traditional comics entertainment.
"Titans Tomorrow" is a storyline of a possible alternate future in the DC Comics Universe, from Teen Titans vol. 3 #17-19 (2005), by Geoff Johns and Mike McKone. The story arc has been collected as part of the Teen Titans: The Future is Now trade paperback.
Miss Martian is a fictional superheroine appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics.
The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure is a Saturday morning Filmation animated series that aired on CBS from 1967 to 1968. Premiering on September 9, 1967, this 60-minute program included a series of six-minute adventures featuring various DC Comics superheroes.
The Adventures of Superboy is a series of six-minute animated Superboy cartoons produced by Filmation that were broadcast on CBS between 1966 and 1969. The 34 segments appeared as part of three different programs during that time, packaged with similar shorts featuring The New Adventures of Superman and other DC Comics superheroes.
Super Juniors are a group of fictional DC Comics characters based on members of the Justice League of America, designed as baby versions in order to appeal to younger audiences and introduce them to the publisher's most popular properties. At Kenner's request, first appeared in José Luis García-López's 1982 DC Comics Style Guide and had their first and only adventure in Super Jrs. Holiday Special: The Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #58 in a story written by Tom DeFalco and drawn by Vince Squeglia. There was a considerable amount of merchandise based on them.
Young Justice is an American superhero animated television series developed by Brandon Vietti and Greg Weisman for Cartoon Network. Despite its title, it is not a direct adaptation of Peter David, Todd Dezago and Todd Nauck's Young Justice comic series, but rather an original story set in the DC Universe with a focus on teenage and young adult superheroes.