Young Justice: Outsiders episode 18 preview: New team, new problems

Every new superhero team has a healthy amount of growing pains, and Young Justice’s Outsiders isn’t an exception.

Last week’s episode of Young Justice: Outsiders was obviously a noteworthy one. After all, the titular team finally formed. While the series creeps toward bigger fights and even bigger reveals, Young Justice: Outsiders is building up a lot. Seriously, there’s so much going on, which makes this week’s episode even more ambiguous.

The kids moved out, and the Outsiders are officially a team, which means we can expect some more troublesome antics. Last week left us with a Scooby-Doo-inspired confrontation with the Reach. This means episode 18 could incorporate a couple of central plots this week:

1. A follow-up run-in with the Reach or another related villain.
2. Or an investigation-heavy search into what the Reach is up to (which could yield more clues about the metahuman traffickers).

Heck, the episode could find time for both. Above all else, this week’s story will probably focus on the team’s dynamic and their collective problem-solving abilities. After all, why else would last week’s episode officially debut the namesake group?

Now that Young Justice made a statement with this iconic formation, they still need to finish building the team. Which means, we might meet new official or eventual recruits. But first, we’ll see how the team interacts in battle, which will segue into some necessary interpersonal growth.

We can also expect to see some more villains and conflict this week. Given the infancy of the Outsiders, episode 18 will work to address the group’s dynamic and some of the expected hiccups that every new hero team works through. Trial and error help form a more refined heroic ensemble.

The stakes this season are immeasurable: The Outsiders still need to stop the metahuman traffickers, figure out who’s endangering the meta-teens, and save the world from various threats and big bads. It kind of makes the superhero day (and night) job more strenuous. Scratch that — it definitely makes the whole superhero gig even more difficult.

While the team becomes a seasoned, well, team, this episode will better iterate how the animated series interprets the Outsiders. Considering DC Universe’s audience, we’ll see some comic accuracy as well as some crash twists.