Monsters of Television

“Try it. I hate monkeys.“

Well, they’re at least steadily moving away from seriously offensive back to blandly generic, I’ll give them that. Sadly, blandly generic is way less interesting to write about, which makes “Alpha Male” just kind of there, with a couple of bright spots thanks to Rob Lowe’s well-executed work with Captain Marvel.

The episode also picks up immediately after the events of “Homefront,” carrying through with the rest of the team reacting to the information about the mole (predictably poorly, petulantly, and unprofessionally) in a decent enough manner, but the show delays any direct development on that front by having the team go to India to investigate some vague attacks on Mayor Hamilton Hill in India.

Did I mention bland?

I think the real problem with the episode rests largely with the lack of clear motivation for why anyone should be going to India. I get that Hill was attacked by a gorilla, but Batman talks about a pattern and all this stuff. Like Superboy, I think it seems more like a distraction than a legitimate mission, no matter how legitimate it may have turned out for the team.

That motivationalless bit of writing aside, the episode hammers hard how betrayed everyone on the team feels by Aqualad not letting them know about the potential mole. Some of this feels justified given Red Tornado’s sudden reversal, but it doesn’t quite work as well as it should given how professional these folks are at their jobs. That it takes Robin, especially, until the end of the episode to realize that not informing the team of the mole was the only way to investigate the mole properly, seems a bit of out character (like Batman tells him everything) and ultimately forced for the sake of dramatic conflict.

On the upside, we have Captain Marvel as the team’s first new supervisor (it’ll be a different Leaguer each time from now on). I was eager for Marvel’s presence in the episode given that he is, in fact, younger than any member of the team when he is Billy Batson. The show has Marvel’s dialog come off as kid-like and earnest to give the hint about the alter-ego, and then makes it clear as Marvel returns to his digs in Fawcett City, grabs a couple of cookies, talks to his uncle, and heads to bed.

I was a little surprised that no one on the team knew that Marvel was a little kid, but the scene between him and Aqualad (having a crisis of leadership, of course), play well and Lowe manages to give Marvel both a serious, battle-tested Leaguer with some real wisdom (of Solomon) a voice and still convey the attitude of a kid who is just stoked to be hanging out with some folks closer to his own age.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Always happy to see John Stewart, even if it is in a non-speaking appearance.
• “You’re my boyfriend, not my protector. Stop behaving like some character from a ’70s sitcom.” Right, M’gann, because you’re totally not a character from a ’50s or ’60s sitcom. Maybe you should’ve modeled yourself a little bit more on Mary Richards?
• “Because Batman is…Batman.” Damn right he is.
• I never read the comics for Young Justice (or Teen Titans). But did they adopt a wolf at some point? Because now the team has an alien intelligence sphere and a wolf in the headquarters. A WOLF.
• Villains this week: The Brain and Monsieur Mallah.