True Colors
Original Airdate – January 19th, 2013
When the Reach forms a devil’s alliance with Lexcorp, Robin leads a squad undercover to investigate.
Written by Paul Giacoppo
Directed by Mel Zwyer
Review by GregX
Media by Warner Bros. Animation
Additional Images
Review:
“True Colors” was a much better episode than “Cornered,” I think. We get the slightest of glimpses of what the Reach and the Light are up to, and we get to showcase Tim Drake and Arsenal.The A-plot of the episode revolves around Tim Drake leading a few members of the Team into Lexcorp farms, in Smallville of course, to discover what the Reach are putting in our food. The answer is a mysterious additive that we’ll learn more about soon. Considering the current controversies of what gets put in our food by these big conglomerates, I thought this was an interesting plot for an episode of a superhero cartoon. We also get the return of Black Beetle, who is a hell of a lot of fun, and the introduction of the Green Beetle… a scarab wearer from Mars. Like Nightwing, I also think Green Beetle’s sudden, convenient arrival is a little bit suspicious… if the Reach and the Light want to plant a mole inside the Team, we’ve seen more subtle ways to do it.
The B-plot gave us the most “human” moments we’ve seen from Vandal Savage so far in the series. While I do think his sympathy for Sportsmaster’s woes was somewhat genuine, he is still an evil man and sympathy does not equal remorse. And while he did refer to Sportsmaster as “old friend,” and probably even meant it to whatever level he can, he was still not above quietly being prepared enough to replace him with Deathstroke. Likewise, later, I thought his sympathy for what Black Manta’s grief over Kaldur’s condition was genuine, even as he brought in Psimon to rebuild Kaldur’s mind and learn his secrets in the process. I did enjoy Vandal mentioning that as a father himself, he understood Manta’s grief… and I tend to think there was a twinge of that with Sportsmaster as well. This, along with Lex Luthor suggestion of forming their own version of The Team makes me hope we’ll see Scandal Savage show up… and with Ra’s al Ghul’s previous mention of the Light valuing family ties, I am hoping Talia appears in the series as well. We’ll see.
Sportsmaster barks about his rep, and while he was a horrible father, I think this is just as much about his daughter getting killed as it is about his rep. Suddenly I am curious to see the alternate universe where the Light did ask his permission to kill Artemis.
Great episode, and the reference of the Green Beetle’s name, B’arzz O’oomm to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ stories made me smile.
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