Recap: Young Justice "Welcome to Happy Harbor"

Let us now return to Young Justice. Ready to add a new team member? Let's check out Miss Martian's first full episode.

Happy Harbor, just East of Pleasantville, North of Euphoria Town.

Our episode opens up on Generic Theft Template #38, which is where dockworkers steal something from a shipping container under cover of darkness. Said "something" is laser guns. The supervisor of said theft is a large man with stony, reddish skin. Aptly enough, this guy's name is Brick.

Speedy takes out the thugs and their leader with ease, thanks to some unwanted assistance from Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Robin. They offer him membership into the nameless team (they don't actually call themselves "Young Justice"), but he declines the offer. I guess they won't be welcoming him to Happy Harbor. (see waht i did there i am teh best blogger EVAR!!!1!!!!!)

Speedy: "I don't need a babysitter or a clubhouse hang out with the other kids. Your Junior Justice League is a joke. Something to keep you busy. And in your place."

Speedy will eventually be renaming himself "Red Arrow," no doubt because he considers "Speedy" to be his slave name.

After the intro, we open up on the interior of Mount Justice, where Wally and Robin take a teleportational Zeta Beam in to join their teammates. The caption informs us that it's July 18. This will not be important. Apparently, the team's all excited because someone else will be arriving the old fashioned way. They go outside to greet their visitor, and it's... only Red Tornado? Why are they so excited that they ran outside?

Red Tornado: "Is there a reason you intercept me outside the cave?"

Yeah, what he said.

Aqualad: "We hoped you had a mission for us."
Red Tornado: "Mission assignments are the Batman's responsibility."

They protest that they're ready for missions, blah blah the usual.

Red Tornado: "Perhaps you can 'keep busy' by familiarizing yourself with the cave."

Miss Martian tries to read his mind as he goes inside to see if he's hiding something, but it doesn't work, what with him being a robot and all.
 

"Now let me inside. I have a date with the toaster."

Wally: "So, uh... you know what I'm thinking right now?"
Robin: "We all know what you're thinking now."

And somewhere out there, there's art of it.

Miss Martian volunteers herself and Superboy to be tour guides, seeing as how they both live at the cave.

Superboy: "Don't look at me."
Wally: "We won't. A private tour sounds much more fun."

I will say this. If "private tour" line was supposed to be innuendo, then bravo, my good writers.

After the tour, we get an explanation as to why the Leaguers abandoned this HQ. Apparently, some villains discovered its location.

Robin: "The bad guys know we know they know about the place, so they'd never think to look here."

Or, you know, try and loot the place. Or take it over.

Wally: "We're hiding in plain sight."

No, you're simply in plain sight.

Superboy: "I smell smoke."
Miss Martian: "My cookies!"

They rush to the kitchen, but it's too late. The cookies are burnt worse than Darth Vader on Mustafar.

Miss Martian: "I was trying out Grammy Jones' recipe from episode 17 of... heh, never mind...."

Believe it or not... this is foreshadowing for her character arc.

Miss Martian: "I'll... make more?" 
Aqualad: "It was sweet of you to make any."

Not if you know that, in the comics, cookies are basically the Martian version of heroin. Dead. Serious. Anyway, they all introduce themselves by their secret identities. Save for Robin, who has a paranoid parent/mentor, and Superboy, who doesn't have a paranoid parent/mentor or a secret identity. Miss Martian introduces herself as M'gann M'rzz, but asks to be called "Megan," to make it easier on the team. Oddly enough, this is another plot point for her character arc.

Megan tries to console Superboy's angst over not having an Earth name telepathically, but that drives him into a massive rage because it reminds him of being back at CADMUS. Yes, having come from a race of telepaths, Megan doesn't know that this is a violation of privacy, much like the NSA and wiretaps.

Megan: "Hell-ooo, Megan!"

Sweet merciful Rao, that catchphrase is annoying. But believe it or not, her catchphrase is another plot point for her character arc. Trust me, it'll make sense eventually. Give it a few episodes.

Megan: "I know what we can do!"

And they all go off to do a thing. Said thing is take a ride in Miss Martian's "bio-ship," which I guess is the Martian version of having a car. The ship can shapesh....

Is that thing supposed to look like a....

Did the artist do that on purpose, or was that design just a coincidence?

Guess that answers our question.

So, uh... moving on, they all get in for a ride. ...not like that.

Megan: "Red Tornado, please open the bay doors."

You're just asking for trouble, Megan.

Robin: "Incredible."
Wally: "She sure is. ...I mean, the ship. Which, like all ships, is a she."

Yeah, especially this one. Seriously, was the censor guy asleep?

Aqualad gives Superboy some advice on how to apologize for his overreacting earlier, and Robin and Miss Martian whisper to each other about whether or not Superboy like her.

Wally: "You guys know he has super-hearing, right?"

Robin quickly changes the subject by asking for some Martian shapeshifting, and she obliges by turning into gender-swapped versions of Robin and Kid Flash.

Young Justice, the show that provides its own Rule 63.

Wally: "Is it wrong that I think I'm hot?"
Robin: "Impressive! But you know you're not exactly going to fool anyone with those?"

The disguises? Or her br... okay, seriously, was the censor guy hungover that day? I mean, I have no problem with all of this, but you'd think the network would.

Miss Martian: "Mimicking boys is a lot harder."

Um... If that means what I think it means, two things.

1. Just give yourself Ken doll anatomy, I don't think anyone will be inspecting. 
2. Is it just me? Do I just have a dirty mind?

She goes on to explain that her clothes are just an extension of her body. Yes, people. Without outright saying so, one of our characters is technically a nudist. I refer you to my earlier statements.

She shows off her ship's camouflage mode, and Red Tornado radios in an alert at the Happy Harbor power plant. He sends coordinates, and they soon find the cause of the alert: a big ol' tornado. They eject from the ship, and Robin quickly enters the plant only to get attacked by a guy in powered armor with control over the winds as well as a stylin' scarf.

???: "You may address me as Mr. Twister."

Why, hello, John de Lancie. Always a pleasure. 

Mr. Twister makes quick work of Superboy, and the others get summarily dispatched, too. Mr. Twister heads off on his merry way, only to be re-engaged by Kid Flash. Aqualad tells Megan to read the villain's mind.

Megan: "I thought I wasn't supposed to do that!"
Robin: "It's okay with the bad guys!"

...if you've seen Young Justice: Invasion... then you know exactly why that line is horrifying. But she reads his mind and finds nothing. That's when it hits her. This is Red Tornado in disguise, training them! This serves to anger the teens, making them feel like they're not being taken seriously, and they ragequit. But Mr. Twister merely summons enormous, swirling storm clouds.

Mr. Twister: "You think that I'm Tornado? Ironic."

Superboy leaps into action, but gets taken out again. Because the Kryptonian is always the punching bag. Miss Martian hides the team with the bio-ship, and Mr. Twister leaves. After he's gone, Superboy gets all upset that Miss Martian "tricked them" into thinking that Twister was Tornado, but the others defend her. Even though they decide to leave her behind.

Mr. Twister wreaks havoc on the town of Happy Harbor to gain a certain someone's attention, and the teens engage him again. Miss Martian radios Red Tornado for help. Red Tornado, intrigued by the presence of another windy robot, drops a hint on how to beat him.

Meanwhile, the fight goes badly. Miss Martian telepathies the team, apologizes for doing so, but asks the team to trust her. Red Tornado appears and tells the team to leave in such a way that it's obvious this is a ruse.

Tornado and Twister face off one-on-one and have a tornado-off. Mr. Twister wins, and worms cables out of his fingers and into the android's brain to reprogram him. The only problem? It's not an android, it's Miss Martian. And the tornadoes were Kid Flash. And the swamp monster was Old Man Jenkins.

I've had fever dreams with less disturbing images.

Superboy hits the robot, and Aqualad electrocutes it. They utterly destroy it, and the man inside emerges. With no remorse, Megan levitates a boulder and crushes the pilot, horrifying the others. But it's okay, the pilot was a robot. Wally picks up its robotic eye.

Wally: "Cool. Souvenir."

You better hope that thing's turned off, Wally.

The team talks about trust, and we see the real Mr. Twister, watching remotely through the robot as his Tony Stark-doppelganger boss (Dr. T.O. Morrow) amusedly debriefs him. He makes evil plans, foreshadows a return, and we cut to the team back at base as they wonder what the overall plan was. We get a wrap-up where the team decides that a heartless robot guardian is exactly what they need if they're going to learn to fight their own fights. Superboy apologizes to Miss Martian for earlier, and the episode ends.

So, was Miss Martian's first episode hit or miss? Let's review.