Young Justice - "Humanity"

Episode Fifteen: "Humanity" - Airdate 10/21/11

It's Young Justice Saturday!

by Andy Luckett

Hey there again, everyone, Andy Luckett here with a review of "Humanity", the fifteenth Season One episode of Young Justice that aired on October 21, 2011. We catch up with Red Tornado, who after his attack on the team at their headquarters is suspected as the mole. He has returned to the laboratory of Professor T. O. Morrow, his creator and the inventor of his siblings, Red Torpedo and Red Inferno:

Morrow compares Tornado's return to that of the Biblical story of the Prodigal Son, but it is revealed that Reddy has been stripped apart, only his eyes and ears functioning. Meanwhile, back at Young Justice's Happy Harbor base of operations, Black Canary oversees the day's activities, as Captain Marvel waits on the injured Kid Flash (who broke his arm facing the Injustice League last episode):

Zatara shows up, bringing along his daughter Zatanna, who's about the same age as the other YJers. Robin is immediately taken with her, acting more like Wally than himself. Zatanna surprises the others by revealing she can hear their "private" psychic conversation. Superboy, Aqualad and the others again ask Black Canary why they have not found Red Tornado yet, to which she reveals that the League is still working on it:

Not content with that answer, the YJ team decides that they'll go out looking for Tornado themselves, under the guise of taking Zatanna on a tour of Happy Harbor. While Zatara is concerned, Black Canary assures him that the team is trustworthy. Robin's theory is that since Batman and the League have searched for Tornado in all the logical places, the YJ team should figure out somewhere illogical. They decide to visit Professor Ivo in Belle Reve Penitentiary to get Morrow's whereabouts from him.

Ivo is, of course, initially resistant, insisting he doesn't know where Morrow is. Before Miss Martian can probe his mind, Zatanna casts a backwards spell to make him spill the info. Needless to say, the others are impressed. Meanwhile, Morrow decides to tell the immobile Tornado about the origins of himself and his siblings. Morrow's first creation was Red Torpedo, an android masquerading as a human hero of the oceans, but his personality didn't function properly.

Next was Red Inferno, who debuted as Firebrand but was "killed" in action. Finally Morrow decided to drop the pretense that his creations were human and just create an android that came as advertised. Red Tornado infiltrated the Justice Society and became a hero, thus overriding Morrow's command that he betray that team.

Going by Ivo's information that Morrow is hiding underneath Yellowstone Park, the team arrives just as Morrow's latest android, the Red Volcano, goes online and proves to be more ruthless than the others. He attacks Morrow, pulling his arms off and revealing him to be an android himself! After Morrow deactivates, Volcano takes over and commands Tornado to destroy the Young Justice team. Tornado does engage the team in battle, initially defeating each of the team members. Red Volcano arrives, but realizes that the whole fight was a scam, and that Tornado warned the team beforehand.

Volcano battles the team himself, using the earth as his weapon and activating the dormant volcano underneath Yellowstone. The team takes him on, but their moves are ineffective since Volcano possesses all of Tornado's memories. However, Zatanna has some success battling him since neither he nor Tornado have met her before. At the same time in Morrow's lab, the rebuilt Red Tornado convinces his other siblings that even though they are not and never were human, they can still be heroes once again.

Tornado, Torpedo, and Inferno team up together and take the fight to Red Volcano, submerging him into the volcano he created and melting him (along with themselves). The only survivor is Tornado, whose lower legs have melted off. Working together with Kid Flash and the others, Tornado successfully vents the pressure from the volcano and prevents a gigantic natural disaster. Back at Happy Harbor, Reddy reveals that he left the team to find Morrow and his siblings and stop them. Thus he was never the mole.

In the epilogue, Reddy visits the real, human T.O. Morrow, who is now an old man clinging to life. He decides to care for him, since even though he was evil, he is still Red Tornado's creator.

This was a necessary episode, I think, since it ties up the lingering question of Red Tornado's allegiance and finishes the saga of his strange synthetic family. While Morrow doesn't make much of a villain, he does act as a foil to reveal Tornado's pride and confusion at having a father who created him for nefarious purposes. However, I would've liked to see more of Red Volcano, whose imposing physical stature, capacity for cruelty, and raw power make him quite a challenge for the YJ team. He was dispatched a little too easily in my estimation.

As far as character spotlight, this episode really served to bring Zatanna into the fold. I thought it was kind of funny that Robin went right into flirting with her, since Miss Martian is dating Superboy and Kid Flash and Artemis are on their way. It seems like Saved by the Bell on this show sometimes the way they pair up the ladies and the dudes. Unfortunately, Aqualad still doesn't have anybody who isn't back in Atlantis and dating his best friend. Bummer.

Speaking of Kalder, he doesn't get much to do this episode other than initiating the mission to find Red Tornado and participating in the final battle with Red Volcano. But anyway, we shall see what happens next week, as the Young Justice team faces one of its greatest challenges.