1x14 Revelation

[7.7/10] There’s not much substance to “Revelation”. It’s an episode devoted to the coolness of the Young Justice heroes squaring off against the Injustice League villains with ostensibly global stakes, and there’s not much more to it than that.

I don’t mind really. The series has done a good job of including enough thematic heft and character work in each of the episodes that preceded this one. So doing a mid-season finale like this, that's mainly about confrontation between Big Good and Big Evil, is more than acceptable once you’ve done the work.

The setup works well enough. An array of malevolent plants, juiced up by kobra venom and apparently Joker gas, used to ransom the world’s governments for billions of dollars is sufficiently maniacal to warrant all of herodom’s attentions.

I don’t know if it makes sense to have the various Justice Leaguers go deal with the perilous plants while the juniors go after the actual villains, but maybe Batman knows something about who’s really behind this the audience doesn’t until the end of the episode. If nothing else, it makes for a good excuse to show some of the mainline heroes in action against the villainous vegetation in various set pieces without stealing the show from the younger capes.

The actual confrontations are solid enough. Seeing Poison Ivy talk about her “babies” is on-brand for the character. As a Star Trek: The Next Generation fan, hearing Brent Spiner play The Joker is a trip. I don’t know if I love this version of the character just yet, but it may just be that the design is a little too young and smoldery rather than grotesque and comical to me. Wutan and Dr. Vertigo are the only other baddies who get to be something approaching characters instead of just more muscle, and they do a fine job.

I do like that there’s a clear objective here -- destroy the main vine that's serving as an antenna for the others. And the coolest thing in the episode is “Plan B.” Kaldur putting on the Dr. Fate helmet to save the day is a big deal given what we know about it, and the show even sets it up in a subtle way when Aqualad tells Wutan that he knows some sorcery too. Wally’s reaction to Kaldur tangling himself with Nabu sells the magnitude of the choice, and Aqualad telling him that Kent helped free him and says hello is a nice beat to end on.

Otherwise, this one works as a grand confrontation that shows off some superheroic fireworks and advances some of the season arc, without much more to it beyond that. It is a little odd to me that the team brings Wolf on their mission, but whatever. Still gotta sell those toys, I guess. And the reveal of the true identities of “The Light” wasn’t too much of a shock, since the voice actors involved in prior episodes signified we had other baddies to meet. But the fake out with the Injustice League was still a good one, and I like the reveal of Vandal Savage as the apparent Big Bad with all of this.

Overall, not an episode that's particularly focused on being moving or making you think or teaching you more about the characters, but one which works as an energetic midpoint to the adventures so far.