Psycho Drive-In logo
Search
  • PDI Press
    Featured
    • ON SALE NOW! NOIRLATHOTEP 2: MORE TALES OF LOVECRAFTIAN CRIME!!

      Zack Davisson
      December 31, 2018
      News, PDI Press, PDI Press Catalog
    Recent
    • ON SALE NOW! NOIRLATHOTEP 2: MORE TALES OF LOVECRAFTIAN CRIME!!

      psychodr
      December 31, 2018
    • VOICES FROM THE NIGHT: The Living Dead Tell Their Stories

      John E. Meredith
      October 31, 2018
    • American Carnage: Tales of Trumpian Dystopia

      psychodr
      March 24, 2018
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-L
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
  • Columns P-Z
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    Featured
    • Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

      Zack Davisson
      February 20, 2019
      Movies, Reviews
    Recent
    • Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

      Nate Zoebl
      February 20, 2019
    • They Shall Not Grow Old (2019)

      Peterson Hill
      January 31, 2019
    • Advance Review: Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)

      Peterson Hill
      January 30, 2019
    • Books
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
    Featured
    • Interview with Indie Horror Master, Chris Bickel

      Zack Davisson
      July 13, 2018
      Interviews
    Recent
    • Interview with Indie Horror Master, Chris Bickel

      Dory Hoffman
      July 13, 2018
    • David Black: Carnies, Carnage, and the Creative Chaos of Darkness Visible

      Dan Lee
      March 7, 2017
    • Jaiden Kaine joins the Marvel Universe as new Luke Cage baddie, Zip

      Andre Lamar
      September 29, 2016
    • SDCC 2016 Interviews: The Cast and Creators of Batman: The Killing Joke

      Jason Sacks
      July 28, 2016
    • SDCC 2016 Interviews: The Cast and Creators of Syfy’s Van Helsing

      Dave Hearn, Paul Brian McCoy
      July 27, 2016
    • Wondercon Interview: The Cast of Damien

      Gary Richardson, Laura Akers
      April 16, 2016
  • News
    Featured
    • ON SALE NOW! NOIRLATHOTEP 2: MORE TALES OF LOVECRAFTIAN CRIME!!

      Zack Davisson
      December 31, 2018
      News, PDI Press, PDI Press Catalog
    Recent
    • ON SALE NOW! NOIRLATHOTEP 2: MORE TALES OF LOVECRAFTIAN CRIME!!

      psychodr
      December 31, 2018
    • We’re KICKSTARTERing NOIRLATHOTEP 2: MORE TALES OF LOVECRAFTIAN CRIME!

      Paul Brian McCoy
      August 6, 2018
    • BREAKING! DOLEMITE AND OTHER RUDY RAY MOORE CLASSICS ON VOD FOR THE FIRST TIME!

      psychodr
      June 22, 2018
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
Breaking
  • Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
  • They Shall Not Grow Old (2019)
  • Advance Review: Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)
  • Polar (2019)
  • Advance Review: Serenity (2019)
  • Star Trek Discovery 2.01 “Brother”
  • RSS
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Who We Be
  • Contact
  • PDI Press
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-L
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
  • Columns P-Z
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
Home
Columns
All Binge... No Purge

Young Justice Season 1.01 DVD Review

Zack Davisson
August 24, 2011
All Binge... No Purge, DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews, TV

YJCOVER
Reviewing DVDs is always a tough call, because you have to decide which you are reviewing; the series, or the DVD itself? In this case, the series is good, while the DVD is so bad it is insulting.

The Series: 3 stars

Like I said, Young Justice is good. It isn’t great. I don’t like it as much as Teen Titans, which was tons of fun, mixed classic Titans stories with wacky hijinks, and had its own style and identity. I don’t like it as much as Justice League, which to my mind is the greatest DC animated series ever made.

Young Justice has a promising start, and I suspect it needs some time to flesh out its characters and its series. Supposedly, Young Justice has been renewed for a Season Two next year, which is a good thing.

Young Justice is firmly set in the DC Universe (Earth-16 for the uber-geek), although in an emo-teen-angsty corner of it. The Justice League makes regular appearances, with Red Tornado and Batman being the most active. Cadmus is set up as the main villain, along with a decent rogue’s gallery like Kobra, Blockbuster, Bane, and Sportsmaster. I liked the nod to Mister Twister as well, the villain who battled the original Teen Titans from the 1960s.

YJ1
The series starts when the sidekicks Speedy, Robin, and Kid Flash get sick of being seated at the kid’s table and storm off in a huff to form their own supergroup. Speedy decides he is too cool to be part of a junior Justice League, but Robin and Kid Flash pick up a new member in the new Aqualad. They soon break into Cadmus and accidently rescue the Superboy-clone, and then the Martian Manhunter drops off his niece and protégé Miss Martian to join the team.

The team has a different dynamic than what I am used to. Instead of being the in-control, calm-headed, raised-by-Batman-natural leader, Robin is the epitome of a whinging teenage jerk who thinks he is cooler than he is. I am used to Robin being the steadying point of any teen group, so it was odd to see this little upstart punk who rarely looks before he leaps, and gets the team into more trouble than he solves. Even his voice has a nasal whine to it, reminiscent of Casey Casum’s classic Superfriends Robin.

Instead, both Superboy and Aqualad (Not the classic one – This one has some sort of Green Lantern-inspired omni-power using water constructs) are the mature members of the team who think of planning and caution. Kid Flash is typically the comic relief; a stereotypical hothead speedster.

YJ2
I am not sure yet what I think of this role-mixing, but it was nice of the series creators to try something different. You can almost imagine them sitting around a planning session and saying “Hey! What if Robin was the immature, annoying one?”

Miss Martian is an intriguing character, because I know so little of her from the comics. She has good potential, but I was disappointed that the prominent female member of the team, even though she is incredibly powerful, is played as such a “pretty airhead”-type. She mainly serves as a romantic-triangle foil, with Kid Flash making mooney-eyes at her while she goes for the strong and silent Superboy. The other female character, Artemis, does not appear on this DVD and debuts later in the series, so I don’t know how that dynamic will change.

The DVD: 1 star

Four episodes? Seriously? That’s all you are going to give us, Warner Bros? Out of a ten-episode Season One, you thought it was a good idea to split off the first four episodes into Season One, Volume One? What are you going to do with the remaining six episodes? Put out another Season One, Volume Two boxset then a 2-episode bonus disk?

Whatever. We all know that eventually, Young Justice will be collected into an actual Season One collection, and for less money. My advice would be don’t buy this. Vote with your dollar, and don’t support this kind of studio nickel-and-diming of their series. Be patient, save your money, and pick up the REAL release when it comes out.

Because it will.

YJ3

Young Justice Season 1.01 DVD Review
2.0Overall Score

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Young JusticeZack Davisson

Spartacus interview #5 (of 5): Katrina Law
Torchwood: Miracle Day 7 “Immortal Sins”

About The Author

Zack Davisson
Mad Genius / Ronin

Zack Davisson is a freelance writer and life-long comics fan. He owned a comic shop in Seattle during the ’90s, during which time he had the glorious (and unpaid) gig as pop-culture expert for NPR. He has lived in three countries, has degrees in Fine Art and Japanese Studies, and has been a contributing writer to magazines like Japanzine and Kansai Time-Out. He currently lives in Seattle, WA with his wife Miyuki. You can catch more of Zack’s reviews on his blog Japan Reviewed or read his translations of Japanese ghost stories on Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai.

RSSTwitterFacebookinstagramtumblr

Archives

All work on this site is Copyright © each individual writer.
  • PDI Press
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-L
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
  • Columns P-Z
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
%d bloggers like this: