Review: Young Justice Phantoms “Ego and Superego”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After refurbishing an old bus, Nightwing and the gang hit the road.

Our Take:

The search and rescue mission to bring Connor back continues in this week’s episode of Young Justice. When we last left off, Zatanna and the team figured out another solution to get to the Phantom Zone, which involved Klarion’s school bus. This episode sees the group attempting to find the bus to access the Phantom Zone. Unfortunately, it was destroyed at the junkyard, so Zatanna summons a group of gremlins to fix the bus.

The episode also introduces the Infiniters, led by King Brion Markov. The Infiniters are a group of meta-humans that swore to protect others like them in Markovia. However, one of its members, Fury, felt concerned with how they handled the situation when a teammate frightened a father with no meta abilities. It’s been a while since we last saw Brion in the show’s previous season, so it was nice to see it continue Brion’s life-changing journey in some capacity. Although we’re getting close to the end of Phantoms, so it remains uncertain how long it will explore Brion’s team before the season wraps up.

Meanwhile, Phantom Girl’s task to bring Connor back to Earth gets more complicated, as he’s still loyal to Dru-Zod and the imprisoned Kryptonians. When he exposes Phantom Girl to Dru-Zod, she’s forced to escape the Phantom Zone without him. This sudden betrayal by Connor emphasizes the possibility that the team might have a difficult time rescuing him from the Phantom Zone.

While the episode has its sense of filler in some places, it delivers enough character growth and humorous moments to make its character-driven plot enjoyable. The humor mainly comes from the gremlins being tasked to fix the school bus, with Nightwing’s car and a bag of chips being their rewards. Additionally, it further represents Beast Boy’s journey of self-healing through his therapy dog and showcases Violet’s identity as non-binary regarding her feelings towards Harper. These elements of representation continue to provide satisfying results in the show’s fourth season outside of its superhero action, which made me regret missing out on Young Justice even more.