Young Justice: Invasion "Runaways" Talkback (Spoilers)

[Dorko]

So people have been drinking this stuff for weeks and the team has just been waiting for their public image to improve or something?

Well, yes. There's not much they can do at the moment. If they come out with their allegations, just weeks after The Reach gave away some of their biggest secrets, it will look like the Justice League is manufacturing reasons to go after people who defied them - largely because that is how likes of Godfrey, The Ambassador, and Lex Luthor will spin it. The League has next to no evidence that can be independently corroborated, in fact evidence that can be EASILY discredited*. They have no play here but to bide their time.

*Something like this (imagine this on CSPAN) -

SENATOR: So, Captain Atom, you mean to tell me that you sent a secret team of teenagers to burgle a perfectly legal Lexcorp/Reach production facility with the intention of rooting out the sinister ulterior motive you believe that they have? And that this team, these minors you sent to vandalize a perfectly legal factory, just so happened to find evidence indicating these apparently friendly and very open aliens are secretly malevolent invaders?

CAPT. ATOM: Yes, sir, though I would...

SENATOR: And when did this factory raid take place, Captain?

CAPT. ATOM: On approximately April 7, though I fail to see...

SENATOR: Isn't it true that The Reach Ambassador revealed the existence of the Justice League's so-called "Watchtower", a secret base orbiting the Earth known only to the members of the League, to the public a week before your team broke in to the The Reach farm?

CAPT. ATOM:....Yes. Sir.

SENATOR: I believe we're done here.

 

[X-Man]

I like this group's characterization. I'd like to see more from the new members of the team.

 

[Capt. Speedbump]

Well, yes. There's not much they can do at the moment. If they come out with their allegations, just weeks after The Reach gave away some of their biggest secrets, it will look like the Justice League is manufacturing reasons to go after people who defied them - largely because that is how likes of Godfrey, The Ambassador, and Lex Luthor will spin it. The League has next to no evidence that can be independently corroborated, in fact evidence that can be EASILY discredited*. They have no play here but to bide their time.

*Something like this (imagine this on CSPAN) -

SENATOR: So, Captain Atom, you mean to tell me that you sent a secret team of teenagers to burgle a perfectly legal Lexcorp/Reach production facility with the intention of rooting out the sinister ulterior motive you believe that they have? And that this team, these minors you sent to vandalize a perfectly legal factory, just so happened to find evidence indicating these apparently friendly and very open aliens are secretly malevolent invaders?

CAPT. ATOM: Yes, sir, though I would...

SENATOR: And when did this factory raid take place, Captain?

CAPT. ATOM: On approximately April 7, though I fail to see...

SENATOR: Isn't it true that The Reach Ambassador revealed the existence of the Justice League's so-called "Watchtower", a secret base orbiting the Earth known only to the members of the League, to the public a week before your team broke in to the The Reach farm?

CAPT. ATOM:....Yes. Sir.

SENATOR: I believe we're done here.

Well, OK, if they went public, not everyone would believe them, and yes, people are distrustful of the League and the Reach is getting good press. I get that. It just seems... odd that people are drinking the stuff and the team is just... waiting. I'm sure they'll go public eventually and maybe develop an antidote or some such, but I would have thought with so many innocent people drinking the Reach formula, they'd have a little more of a sense of urgency. But I'll reserve final judgment for the end of the season.

 

[Monte]

Well, OK, if they went public, not everyone would believe them, and yes, people are distrustful of the League and the Reach is getting good press. I get that. It just seems... odd that people are drinking the stuff and the team is just... waiting. I'm sure they'll go public eventually and maybe develop an antidote or some such, but I would have thought with so many innocent people drinking the Reach formula, they'd have a little more of a sense of urgency. But I'll reserve final judgment for the end of the season.

Well you do have to keep in mind that the effects of the drink are VERY small. The reach are playing a long term game; for someone to become addicted and docile to the drink a person and their family must drink it for generations. With effects that weak, even drinking it for a few years would be unlikely to show any real harmful effects. So its actually not THAT urgent to get everyone to stop drinking right away...

 

[suss2it]

Well you do have to keep in mind that the effects of the drink are VERY small. The reach are playing a long term game; for someone to become addicted and docile to the drink a person and their family must drink it for generations. With effects that weak, even drinking it for a few years would be unlikely to show any real harmful effects. So its actually not THAT urgent to get everyone to stop drinking right away...

Was that stated in the show? That it takes generations for a person to get addicted? That seems kinda far fetched and actually takes away a lot of urgency and tension from that plot line.

 

[Yojimbo]

Was that stated in the show? That it takes generations for a person to get addicted? That seems kinda far fetched and actually takes away a lot of urgency and tension from that plot line.

Yeah, something like "Over generations, humans would become addicted to the drink and be rendered placid, literally incapable of revolt or resistance to invasion" but the more urgent aspect of the drink is allegedly (since Green Beetle said it), the drinks contain a mitochondrial marker to trace the Meta-Gene in potential humans.

 

[Leradomi]

yes but who knows if what Green Beetle says is the truth

by the way where is the FDA it takes them years to approve drugs food etc they aren't watching this?

 

[Yojimbo]

Well yeah, after this episode, one wonders if GB said that to manipulate the JL into attacking the Reach, find out those markers don't exist, and undermine the League even further in the public sphere.

 

[PretenderNX01]

yes but who knows if what Green Beetle says is the truth

by the way where is the FDA it takes them years to approve drugs food etc they aren't watching this?

They're all members of The Light Or Luthor paid them off.

 

[Northern Sun]

yes but who knows if what Green Beetle says is the truth

by the way where is the FDA it takes them years to approve drugs food etc they aren't watching this?

I don't believe the FDA has any involvement in monitoring energy drinks, and I imagine that they'd only be interested in the food if it was going to American consumers. So the Reach/Light sells the food to poorer countries who won't ask questions while the developed nations get the energy drinks.

 

[Monte]

by the way where is the FDA it takes them years to approve drugs food etc they aren't watching this?

Well right now the FDA probably doesn't know about the drugs and hence hasn't done anything. Granted probably the most logical step for the team would be to get Star labs or another third party lab to "discover" the drugs in reach so that it can be called to attention to the rest of the world. Though this would probably be countered by the small dosage of the drugs which in turn would call into question their harmful effects, which in turn means that star labs would have to spend the next few years proving reach's danger to consumers. And this does not even account for lex's influence in the matter... wouldn't be hard to pay off a few members of the FDA

I don't believe the FDA has any involvement in monitoring energy drinks, and I imagine that they'd only be interested in the food if it was going to American consumers. So the Reach/Light sells the food to poorer countries who won't ask questions while the developed nations get the energy drinks.

Except that the their was a reach vending machine in new mexico...

 

[Leradomi]

FDA does have involvement especially in energy drinks because of the amounts of sugar and caffeine used in them (FDA does classify caffenine as a legal drug)
but true people could have been paid off

 

[Northern Sun]

Except that the their was a reach vending machine in new mexico...

I'm not sure I get your point. The FDA does not require pre-approval for energy drinks and will only investigate them if there are complaints(hence the importance of how the drinks adverse affects happen over generations), so the Reach can go selling them anywhere in the United States, such as New Mexico. The FDA would care about the cabbage and other foods being sold mass-market, so I imagine the Reach is only exporting the food to countries whose governments don't have a strong FDA equivalent to investigate the food.

 

[DBTrilogy100]

True, right now her power manifests as that 'force push' thing but since Tye suddenly managed to generate a huge astral form, maybe we might see some development on what her powers entail.

I guess she was manifesting a coil. Samurai in Super Friends used to form a tornado around his lower half to propel himself, I guess it was a more modernized version, when she freed herself from Red Volcano she used them coils outward on her sides.

Those are both very good points. Tye and Ed did seem to get a better handle of their powers in this episode, so we will probably get a better idea of her powers in their next appearance.

Imo, it's what I would expect a 13-15 year old Japanese girl to say. Suffice to say in an actual conversation, Kawaye would speak more on par with that of an adult, I would think. It would interesting to make a submission asking Weisman about her records.

Ah, that makes sense. That is a good idea to ask Greg about it, it should clarify things for others. Thanks for your insight Yojimbo, it was both helpful and enlightening.

On another note, I didn't catch the time stamps for the episodes until the Sunday rerun, so I was also quite surprised at how long it took place after The Fix. I'm guessing that timeframe probably had a story planned for the tie-in comics; of course, giving what we know what's going to happen with those, we might not know.

 

[Yojimbo]

Those are both very good points. Tye and Ed did seem to get a better handle of their powers in this episode, so we will probably get a better idea of her powers in their next appearance.

Ah, that makes sense. That is a good idea to ask Greg about it, it should clarify things for others. Thanks for your insight Yojimbo, it was both helpful and enlightening.

Thanks on both points, DB.

On another note, I didn't catch the time stamps for the episodes until the Sunday rerun, so I was also quite surprised at how long it took place after The Fix. I'm guessing that timeframe probably had a story planned for the tie-in comics; of course, giving what we know what's going to happen with those, we might not know.

Yeah, probably.

 

[Zergrinch]

Star Labs is known to be affiliated with the Justice League. Why would people trust them more than the League?

Though, if the League wishes to go public, there's no need to tell everyone you stole something from the Farms. Just have the drinks analyzed for the enzymes.

 

[Christopher Glennon]

Didn't think this was the best episode, but it was pretty solid. Virgil's my favorite of the runaways (particularly since he's actually on good terms with his family), but I liked the relationship between Eduardo and his father. Blue Beetle was a fierce fighter, so it was no surprise that Green Beetle made him a full on Reach operative. I thought it was cool Red Volcano returned, but his dialogue wore thin. I'm starting to feel nostalgic for Despero, and that's not good. At least Lex proved how a villain gets things done. He sure knows how to manipulate people.

Also love the noise longshadow makes when he uses his powers.

Wish I could've heard an "inukchuk", though. Been too long since we had one of those.

That was neat Asami's nickname was "Sam" since she's essentially the analogue of Samurai.

And her last name is "Koizumi", which I feel like is some kind of variation on one of Samurai's power phrases.

Sammi-rai was a complete and total waste of space as the foreign exchange student who no 'speaka da English', thus she has no say when it comes to making decisions and just follows along with whatever the boys want to do. Just like Aqua Girl, Batgirl and Wonder Girl. Cause if you're not on the all female squad you don't get to lead at all.

Batgirl took the lead in "Before the Dawn". Heck, even Nightwing followed her orders when he showed up. And none of us really know how well Aquagirl fared on the team.

 

[KYO'NYUU IMOUTO]

And her last name is "Koizumi", which I feel like is some kind of variation on one of Samurai's power phrases.

Koizumi is also just a real, normal Japanese name (Koizumi Noboru, for example), so unless there's a word play in affect such is probably just her name.

 

[Yojimbo]

Koizumi is also just a real, normal Japanese name (Koizumi Noboru, for example), so unless there's a word play in affect such is probably just her name.

Idon't think so either, Koizumi just translates to something like innocuous like "tiny fountain." I suppose phonetically "Koizumi" sorta vaguely matches "Kaze no Yō ni Hayaku" but that's reaching, imo.

 

[W.C.Reaf]

Was that stated in the show? That it takes generations for a person to get addicted? That seems kinda far fetched and actually takes away a lot of urgency and tension from that plot line.

Not really. The Reach has long term plans and don't want to do anything that would lead people to be suspicious of them, so if people drinking Reach start acting weird then that's a big tip off. However if it takes generations then it'd seem more natural. Also I don't think it takes away from the tension of the storyline since we know from Impulse that something will happen that gets causes the Reach to move up their timetable. Probably the Light's plan and/or the League.