Young, But Capable
This DVD release contains just four of the twenty-six total episodes from the first season. It begins with brief introductions to the initial cast: Aqualad, Robin, Kid Flash, and Speedy. Mr. Freeze and others like him are putting the chill to parts of the city, and duos like Batman and Robin, Aquaman and Aqualad, Flash and Kid Flash, and Green Arrow and Speedy team up to stop them.
After settling that skirmish, the younger heroes believe they are about to be indoctrinated as full time Justice Leaguers. They are brought to the Hall of Justice, but the veterans point out that they are still not ready. Speedy, protege of Green Arrow, gets upset and leaves — such a weird name for that character, isn’t it? Anyway, the remaining three are to stay at the Hall, but their curiosity and eagerness to prove themselves to their mentors overwhelms them, and they decide to help out the fire department with a building fire at a location marked Project Cadmus.
Upon arrival, the trio is able to help the civilians and themselves — Robin’s computer hacking and acrobatics, Aqualad’s cool temper, great strength, and ability to create his own weapons (Green Lantern-style) from water and electrify them, and Kid Flash, while the goofiest of the bunch, is super fast. As the fire situation calms, they stumble upon sub-levels, revealing a secretive project involving genome research and cloning. They manage to save the day, for the time being, but the Justice League is not happy with how they disobeyed orders to sit tight at the Hall.
The new team, which grows by two members by the end of the third episode, is given a base of operations at Mount Justice, an old command center that had been abandoned a long time ago. Under the supervision of Red Tornado, the team is given missions by Batman. These missions are intended to be more covert than combative, but, being teenagers, unlucky ones perhaps at that, they manage to get into some scuffles with Mr. Twister, Bane, and Kobra. Something they discovered in the first episode in the sub-levels of the Cadmus building comes to the forefront again as well, a genetic modification serum. The project is being overseen by a mysterious entity, or faction, known simply as The Light.
Unfortunately, this intrigue only starts to build by the time the DVD ends, given that just four episodes are here. Image and sound quality are on par for a modern cartoon ported to DVD, and there are a pair of useless trailers for other Warner cartoons included. Otherwise? Not a thing, and while the show is really enjoyable, I don’t see many folks being quick to re-watch these four episodes over again, making this ideal for a rental but little else.
To the summary…
