Young Justice episode 17 review: Jinkies! The Outsiders are official

Oh boy, there are a lot of Scooby-Doo references in this official debut of the Outsiders team. Naturally, we have a lot of thoughts on this episode of Young Justice.

Last week had some mixed reviews in the Young Justice realm. Highlights and downfalls from the midseason premiere aside, this week’s episode finally forms the Outsiders team. Yup, it only took 17 episodes, but the Outsiders are officially the Outsiders now — showing the series is really dedicated to the gradual storytelling schtick. After a rocky three-episode midseason return, the meddling heroes are filling our hero void with a “First Impression” of the titular team, with the help of some Scooby-Doo references.

Losing a bit of the momentum from the big superhero team-up in some of the earlier episodes, “First Impression” finally gives the not-exactly-Young-Justice team an official name: The Outsiders. We knew there we pretty much the Outsiders already, but now it’s official.

Apparently, the DC Universe series’ delayed reveal was to keep the viewers from expecting a comic-accurate founding team. Sure, the Outsiders have a lot of founding members in it, such as Geoforce and Halo. But a lot of noteworthy founding Outsiders are M.I.A. or on side missions, such as Batman and Black Lightning who also had more prevalent screen time in the first half of the season.

The twist of who technically founded this animated version of the team was unexpected, but the timing of the official team-up seems a bit disoriented and almost redundant. There were a few other opportunities that were more primed for this grand TV moment, such as when Brion, Violet, and Forager completed their training or their first or second mission. In fact, they’ve read as a functional team for so long that this official team-formation-themed episode seems like an afterthought. But where the timing is a bit disjointed, the way the episode builds the framework of the Outsiders canon qualities is near perfect.

Some of the imagery might appear too obvious, but this episode serves to illustrate two pillars of any version of the Outsiders:

1. An unconventional team on the fringe of heroics
2. A superhero team that also has a knack for getting arrest (or, in this case, detained)

Regardless of the incarnation, the Outsiders became a team out of necessity because the world and the universe need obscure heroes who skirt the bureaucracy of heroics. After all, rules get in the way of saving people. By association, that rule-bending nature gets the Outsiders in trouble. While many heroes have helmed the namesake team, it is bizarre that Garfield Logan is the apparent founder and leader of this version of the team.

In fact, the precedence the second half of the season puts on Gar’s narrative is unusual. Admittedly, the show has incorporated dozens of characters — many of which are main characters. It’s expected that some characters will be forgotten as the season continues. Considering the roots of the Outsiders team and how much time and effort the series has put into building Halo’s arc, Garfield isn’t the right fit as the leader. He’s still getting back into the rhythm of being a hero, and his transition back to the Young Justice-adjacent lifestyle seems a tad rushed even despite his motivation to take down Gretchen Goode. To find room for Gar’s leadership role this episode, one critical member of Outsiders lore was left out from the team development: Halo.

Garfield might not be the leader of the Outsiders longterm, but Halo is obviously an unspoken member of the team. It’s a shame she wasn’t apart of the first official glimpse of the Outsiders. After all, Halo is one of the founding members of the comic team and their comic counterpart is rarely ever apart from her teammates. To paint the team lineup without Halo visibly present is a disservice.

Longer episodes would make it easier for the show to allot more development to its main characters (namely Victor Stone, who has been forgotten in this second half so far). Nonetheless, there is a lot of action that’s packed in these 20 minutes, even if it didn’t drive us any closer to Darkseid’s plot. Even as a somewhat-filler episode, it still incorporated some humorous meta-references to another one of Warner Bros’ properties, Scooby-Doo.

Given the pattern of other meta-references transforming into a promo for other shows and movies, maybe all the Scooby-Doo callouts could lead to a new show or a movie. After all, the unmasking of the “alien” and the Velma-spectacle-fumble would have been wasted. Replace the “heroes”  with “kids” in the Scooby-esque monologue delivered by the INTERGANG, and the episode wouldn’t have been a ringer for a crossover. Villains are a commonality in the respective Scooby and YJ universes.

In fleeting moments, Dr. Jace and Tara’s villainous undertones ensue. However, hopefully, we’ll see those develop a lot more, seeing as there’s still a lot to uncover. With the 20-minute timestamps each week, their villainous uprising seems constrained, especially since the pace of the episode devoted most of the twenty-minutes to a titular reveal.

Leaving us with many questions about the villains of the series, Young Justice: Outsiders episode 17 ends with a poignant send-off to the extended Harper-Crock household. Though we’re unconvinced Halo, Tara, Brion, Forager, and Vic will stay apart from their family for long, the series preemptively honored this send-off with last week’s episodes.