Young Justice Season 4 Episode 10
The more I sit with “Ydaer Teg,” this week’s episode of Young Justice: Phantoms, the less I like it. It’s not the same unhappiness that I’ve had with the rest of this season, though that’s definitely there: I still hate the motion comic, and I’m still pretty mad that the show chose to tell the story of Starro the Conqueror’s invasion of ancient Babylon and murder of Nabu in still frames they nudge across the camera to simulate movement. And I’m getting increasingly frustrated with the Beast Boy pop ins, which this week seemed like an excuse to berate him for his grief. But his week, my biggest problem was with a defensible storytelling choice and not a budget or storytelling restriction: Sgt. Marvel has an addiction problem. They don’t really say it in so many words, but this week’s episode essentially treats Mary as though she has substance use disorder, and the substance she’s got a problem with is her full power set. Meanwhile, Zatanna’s gang does ask him for help, and Dr. Fate yells at the kids for trying to get involved with a battle between Lords of Chaos, and then sends each on a journey of introspection to test if they’re ready. Traci 13 has to face off with puppet versions of her boyfriend (Blue Beetle), her mentor (Zatanna) and her idol (Beast Boy), along with the voices of her own self doubt and imposter syndrome, before she yells at them and says she deals with this crap every day and Fate should try harder to knock her off her game. Khalid’s journey is pretty solid. It has him slowly drowning, between the demands of being a superhero in training, being a medical doctor in training, being a magic user, and being a faithful Muslim. He reconciles all his different identities through that faith, hugs his parents, and gets back in the fight. Mary does battle with her self doubt in the form of her fully powered form, and gets her ass handed to her – Mary can only use one power at a time, while Sergeant Marvel (ugh) has access to the full suite. But Mary’s peace comes from Billy telling Sgt. Marvel that Mary was losing herself to the powers, so she had to limit herself to only one. Which… I know superhero stories are supposed to be metaphors for real world problems, but those metaphors fall apart once they become straightforward enough to be similes. The mutant metaphor in X-Men works because you can see so many different disempowered identities in the X-Men’s struggle. Legacy heroes work because everyone can see themselves struggling to live up to an ideal. Same for the League as a whole.
