Eyy, Another show clearly not written by autistic people, pretending to be helpful and spread "awareness" and "understanding" or whatever by painting autistic people as weirdos who don't talk properly, have constant outbursts and can't handle basic changes to their schedule.
Sure, some autistic people are like that, but Rockets son is among the most severe you can get and the show is just like "yeah that's what autism is".
This show is focusing way too much on topics irrelevant to why people watch it this season, and now it's ventured into topics the writers themselves don't know enough about to include properly.
Why is every episode focusing on religions, mental disorders, sexuality. FFS! Enough is enough!
All roads lead to the Phantom Zone. I was really hoping for more Legion though.
damn, i didnt think this would be how they'd introduce Zod into this series
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2022-08-28T16:55:36Z
[8.0/10] This was a great start to the Rocket arc. I’ll admit, I was a little skeptical of doing an arc with a character who, despite being in the opening credits this season, was barely apart of the season 1 crew and hasn’t really been developed since. But exploring her challenges as a mother of an autistic child; having her project those challenges onto Orion, who deals with similar differences himself; and tasking her with leading negotiations for Earth on a summit with New Genesis and the Green Lantern Corps is a great setup.
It gives Raquel a real life struggle that you don’t see much of in television and film, and dramatizes it through her superheroic deeds in a canny way. Giving her the spotlight alongside Forager and Jay Garrick makes for a unique combination.
I’m also excited about the show dealing with the New Genesis social order after the teases we got of it in season 3. The prejudice Forager faces when returning to his home planet sucks. But it creates an interesting dynamic when another Bug (who I’m just going to call Purple Forager for convenience sake), steals some New Genesis tech to improve the lives of the members of her hive. The investigation and pursuit of the tech is riddled with Bias on the New Gods’ side, and you understand the motivations of the hive to secure technology that could help them, as well as their skepticism of their oppressors who look down on them and can’t even tell them apart.
It also puts Forager in an awkward position, which makes for good character work. He is a Bug, but in an exalted place given his association with the Justice League, so that means he’s received well by New Genesis but also with a certain skeptical delicateness, and that he has an in with the Bugs but is viewed with suspicion of having forgotten his roots.
The set piece that follows, where our heroes, Orion, and Lightray try to prevent the booby-trapped piece of New Genesis tech from hurting the larvae, is a solid one. Rocket bristling against Orion’s claustrophobia in her bubbles and his other behavioral challenges is compelling stuff, and the stakes are real. All-in-all, I’m excited to see where this one goes, given the personal, social, and political layers at play.
The M’comm story is an interesting one too. We see him playing henchman for Darkseid, entrapping poor slaves on Apokalips in order to win the dark lord’s favor and get what he wants. Him doing the dirty work unrepentantly shows the depths of his cravenness, especially when the young woman he lures with his shouts of revolution is very sympathetic. But the prospect of him being sent on an unclear, secret mission with Mantis and the son of General Zod raises any eyebrow. Granted, if I didn’t already know the name Zod, it might not mean anything, which is a recurring complaint I have for Young Justice. But I do, so it’s intriguing!
Likewise, it’s nice to have confirmation that Conner is, in fact, in the Phantom Zone. The images he sees of an alternate future where he became Lex Luthor’s tool and is instructed to set aside his human connections plays at the questions of identity that have been at the heart of this excursion. And as with the M’comm story, the arrival of none other than General Zod himself to ostensibly help Conner learn how to get by and survive in this place is intriguing.
Overall, this is the most promise I’ve seen in the first episode of the season 4 arcs so far! I’m curious about every piece of the story we’ve been shown so far, which is a good sign.