#drop-zone

Drop-Zone takes our heroes out of New England and down into the jungles of South America. We’re off to Santa Prisca and you know what that means…

BAANNEE!

Bane and his cronies have been tossed out of his Venom factory by the Kobra cult. Kobra graciously offers to GTFO if Bane can defeat his champion: this guy.

Seems a little one-sided.

Only one of this duo has their name mentioned, but this is Baran and Selinda, aka Mammoth and Shimmer. Baran doesn’t really seem to be living up to his name, though. If Bane didn’t already have enough of an advantage, Kobra even allows him to use Venom.

Venom is a hell of a drug.

Not so fast, though. Shimmer injects her brother with a purple liquid, resulting in a transformation that cements my belief that the animators hated their target audience.

*shudder* You can see so much muscle.

Mammoth hands Bane his ass, even pumped up on Venom, as Kobra looks on.

Man, he is channeling Voldemort by way of Kratos something fierce.

A few days later (July 22), the team wings their way toward Santa Prisca in the Bio-Ship. Via flashback, we learn that Batman has tasked them with finding out why shipments of Venom have ceased from the island and he stresses that the mission is reconnaissance only. Robin wonders who the team leader is and Batman tells them to work it out among themselves. Here’s a shot of Wally eating during the briefing.

We are going to run this joke right into the ground.

Robin automatically assumes he’ll be the leader of the team (based on the fact that he has the most experience as a hero and that Batman is the leader of the Justice League), which, of course, means we can already count him out of the running. Back in the present, the team prepares to infiltrate the island and we get the first appearance of the stealth additions to several character’s costumes.

Wally and Kaldur’s suits just change color, while M’gann gains pants and a hood.

Aqualad is dropped just off the beach to take care of heat and motion sensors while the rest of the team hops off at the second drop-zone further inland. Superboy hears movement and uses his thermal vision to spot two groups of armed enemies, who promptly start firing at teach other.

I love the effect the animators went with to convey Superboy seeing heat signals.

Robin fucks off in the darkness and Kid Flash goes to find him, accidentally alerting a group of cultists and Bane and his goons (who somehow escaped the facility despite being held at gunpoint in the beginning of the episode) to the team’s presence. Robin reappears to help the others fight, bitching them out for not following his lead while he does it, and Aqualad returns in time to stop the last cultist from alerting the rest of the cult. After tying up both groups of foes, Kid Flash and Robin argue over who should be the leader, while M’gann and Superboy are all, “fuck that responsibility noise." Superboy overhears Bane and his thugs (in Spanish, which he apparently understands) agreeing to play along with the kids’ plan to get what he wants, but he doesn’t mention this to anyone and it’s never brought up again.

Bane offers to team up with the kids, as he knows a secret entrance into the factory. I shouldn’t even have to post this, but -

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Back at the facility, one of the cultists (who, no joke, all seem to be voiced by Nolan North, even the ones speaking Spanish) informs Kobra that “He" is approaching, and Kobra commands that a jamming signal be put into place. Outside, Bane and the team observe cultists moving crates of Venom out of the factory.

The group enters the factory through an underground tunnel, and Robin and Kid Flash immediately take off, trying to outdo each other, and Bane observes, “Great chain of command." Even Bane knows this shit is getting tired. M’gann, Aqualad, Superboy, and Bane keep an eye on the cultists moving Venom crates, pondering on why they are only taking out new stuff, while Kid Flash and Robin discover that someone has given the cultists access to the Blockbuster formula and they have found a way to mix it with Venom, creating the serum we saw Shimmer give Mammoth earlier. Wally also notes that the effects are permanent.

Alright, we get it. Wally has to eat a lot.

A helicopter arrives and reveals Kobra’s supplier of Blockbuster formula/presumed distributor of the Kobra Venom:

Sportsmaster!

While M’gann observes the deal going down between Kobra and Sportsmaster, Bane decides to pit his enemies against each other and draws the cultists’ attention to Aqualad and Superboy. They, Kid Flash, and M’gann struggle to hold their own against the cultists and Mammoth, while Robin fucks off to try and fight Kobra directly. He ends up fighting Shimmer for two whole seconds, but does manage to sabotage the helicopter’s controls and temporarily prevents it from taking off.

Off-topic, I genuinely love Kaldur’s water-bearers. They’re like Lantern Rings, but not bullshit.

With their comms blocked by Kobra’s jamming signal, Aqualad has Miss Martian link the team’s minds telepathically, and he orders Robin to rejoin the team and retreat, fleeing back down the underground tunnel they used to get in. Aqualad has Superboy knock out the supports, forcing their pursuers to give up the chase. Robin laments his performance as team leader and Kaldur points out that his experience working with Batman is what is holding him back. He’s fought alongside Batman for five years and doesn’t need to worry about outlining a plan to the Dark Knight, but he’s only been with the team for roughly two weeks. In light of such wisdom, the team unanimously elects Aqualad as their leader.

As they exit the tunnel, the kids are confronted by Bane, who appears to have found some Venom during his escape.

He reveals the entirety of his plan: sick the team on the Cult of Kobra, and if they win, he gets his island back. If they died, the Justice League would come to avenge them, and the end result would be the same. Since they failed to evict the Kobra cult, but are still alive, he figures bringing the tunnel down on top of their heads will do just as well.

Well, that’s bad news bears.

Wally steals the detonator and Superboy knocks Bane’s ass out in a rather anticlimactic fight, but then again, Bane’s not the real threat here.

Back at the factory, the helicopter has been fixed and Sportsmaster prepares to depart with the Kobra Venom. The team arrives for round two, with Kid Flash and Aqualad dealing with the cultists and Mammoth, while Superboy uses himself as a decoy to keep Sportsmaster distracted as M’gann plants one of Bane’s bombs on the helicopter. This leaves Robin to take on Kobra directly, which goes about as poorly as you might expect. Sportsmaster manages to get in the air, but M’gann detonates the bomb before he gets very far.

Pretty sneaky, sis.

Unable to control the helicopter, Sportsmaster bails and it crashes into the factory, destroying it in a fiery explosion while a trussed-up and angry Bane watches helplessly. Kobra defeats Robin, but realizes he’s outmatched and vanishes into the jungle. Robin congratulates Kaldur on his first mission as leader, but points out that he’ll be the one who has to report on the fiasco to Batman.

The next day, Batman admonishes the team for not sticking to their mission (observe and report only), but admits they did a good job. Meanwhile, Sportsmaster reports to the Light and reveals that he managed to save one vial of the Kobra Venom.

Well, damn.

The leader of the Light declares that because of their meddling, the team is now officially an enemy of their organization.

Final Thoughts

"Hello, Megan!" count: 1

Wally picks up his second souvenir: a Kobra cultist’s mask

Bane is voiced by Danny Trejo and Kobra by Arnold Vosloo. The main bad guys for this episode are Machete and Imhotep.

I recognize Bruce Greenwood’s voice from his earlier portrayal of Batman in Under the Red Hood, but the performance is a lot different. Greenwood himself has said that he meant for this Batman to be a little more paternal.

This episode is definitely an improvement from the slower pace of the last one, though the arguing between Wally and Dick gets a little old. It’s also a very hormone-filled episode: M’gann is flirting with Conner, Conner is flirting back, and Wally is attempting (obliviously) to flirt with M’gann. Lot of longing glances going on, is what I’m saying.

Robin: Oh, so I'm supposed to hold everyone's hand?

[groans]

Superboy: No capes, no tights. No offense.