Young Justice: Phantoms Season 4 Episode 24
It’s not possible for the Young Justice: Phantoms team to be reading what’s published on this little ol’ site and responding to it in almost real time. The lead time on animation is usually massive: what we see on HBO Max was probably written a year or more ago. That said, it certainly feels like the writers were thinking the same thing I was after last week: holy cats there’s a lot left to do. And this week they started crossing stuff off their list.
GENERAL ZOD
By my count, we’ve got three episodes left, and three villains that the story is orbiting around. The first is General Zod, who along with a Phantom Zone-brainwashed Conner Kent, spends much of the episode kicking the asses of the original team minus M’gann. That goes to hell when Ma’alefa’ak and Lor Zod head them off on Trombus, the barren planet with a red sun where Orion agrees to open the portal from. Ma’alefa’ak wipes Danny out of the Thrall and Lor Zod sets it to shake the hell out of the good guys as Zod leaves the zone, followed by Conner and his new earthly wounds – the cuts from the Phantom Zone beasts turn from imaginary gashes in his chest to giant, seeping wounds the second Conner becomes corporeal again. And that’s where we leave off.
SAVAGE AND MARKOVIA
The episode only glancingly touches on Vandal Savage and Markovia’s significance to the endgame. Last week’s Infinity Inc. and meta-gathering operation (spearheaded by Savage’s lackey, Bad Samaritan) are almost entirely ignored here save for the bank shot from the refresher on the metahuman trafficking. Danny’s fate is generally horrific through the entire story, but he does serve as a reminder of just how messed up Savage is.
DARKSEID AND…KLARION?
We don’t really get anything on the Apokoliptian plan, either. Or at least we don’t get anything confirmed – Danny’s story, again, crosses both of these plot streams, but even that isn’t what I’m curious about. The credits stinger is Klarion’s new familiar, Teekl 2, sitting on the arm of a throne that looks almost Apokaliptian. This show does Kirby very well, and the design on the chair and on the floor around it felt quite Kirbyesque. Of course, this team up would be one of the weirder ones in DC history. Darkseid’s whole bit is trying to get and use the Anti-Life Equation, which isn’t quite what it sounds like. The Anti-Life Equation doesn’t erase life; it eradicates free will. The equation allows its owner to completely dominate the people he recites it to.
