(Mini) Review: "Alpha Male"
**Spoilers, as usual.**
The Good:
-Wh... What's this??? Miss Martian telling Superboy to stop being so overprotective because she can take care of herself and then proving it by saving both herself and Artemis from a mind-controlled alligator?? Miss Martian isn't totally useless anymore?!! *insert appropriate music here*
-Captain Marvel, you are such a dweeb. XD And he meets Talky Tawny today!
-Superboy finding a wolf, naming it Wolf, and bringing it back to Mount Justice with him. D'awww, he likes animals... and... whatever that sphere thing is... They keep this up, they can start charging people money to come see the YJ Zoo.
-"One word: souvenir!" "Two words: gorilla lice!" LOLOLOL. (Explanation: the "souvenir" Wally is talking about is Mallah's hat, which got left behind when he and Brain escaped. Wally proceeds to put the hat on, which was probably not the smartest thing to do, as Artemis so helpfully points out.)
The Meh:
-Okay, so the team is all upset at Aqualad because they found out he knew there was a mole on the team all along and never bothered to tell them about it. I really can't figure out why they're all so annoyed. If you get information that one of your teammates is a spy, I don't think that telling the ENTIRE TEAM of your suspicions, thus tipping off the spy, is the best thing to do. The team does realize this by the end and agree that Aqualad made the right decision, so that's why this is going in the meh section as opposed to the ugly.
-Again, no Light, no reference. Fine with me.
-After Captain Marvel goes home for the night, we find out that he apparently lives with his Uncle Dudley. In the comics, Dudley isn't Billy's uncle. Actually, they're not related at all. Dudley is just some old man who found out Mary Marvel's identity and made himself a Marvel costume so he could follow her and Billy around and they just sorta let him. Yeah, that may have been endearing in the '50s, but it's aged about as well as Boystown.* And I hate to say it, but the character design didn't help in making him look any less creepy. Ew.
-Brain and Mallah don't appear to be a couple here. I... I honestly don't know how I'd feel if their relationship ever did make it into one of these cartoons. And at the current rate, I don't think I'll ever find out.
The Ugly:
-Okay, no offense guys, but that alligator pulled Artemis underwater and into a death roll. I'm sorry, but even if you did have a shapeshifting martian come to your rescue, after a death roll you would be, well, dead. There's no coming back from that.
-Monsieur Mallah didn't speak English. Or French for that matter. :-( He just spoke gorilla, and the Brain somehow understood him. Way to ruin the point of the character.
Overall:
Like last time, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this episode. Even if I hadn't been, I'd STILL be happy for the simple fact that Miss Martian wasn't completely helpless and annoying for once. Let's just hope that trend continues and her usefulness wasn't just a one-shot deal for the purposes of this episode. Though with all the cameos from random little-known characters, I'm beginning to think they're trying to imitate Brave and the Bold. Not that the cameos weren't enjoyable, but they aren't even close to succeeding. Episode was still good, though.
*Boystown = Spencer Tracy movie about a priest who builds a community for homeless boys. The only adult supervision is Tracy and maybe some other guy. Needless to say, if a modern filmmaker decided to make a film about a priest who lives alone with a bunch of pre-pubescent boys several miles away from the nearest town, it would be a whole other movie. XP