The latest episode of Young Justice: Phantoms was truly magical. With Artemis and Jade’s story wrapped in the previous episode, it looks like the writers are taking us to the more eccentric corners of the DC universe for the next few chapters. “Odnu!” re-introduces the magical heroine Zatanna Zatara (Lacey Chabert) as she teaches a group of young magic users how to use their abilities. Blue Devil, Madame Xanadu, Klarion the Witch Boy, and even the Phantom Stranger all make appearances. Frankly, the only thing missing was a Swamp Thing cameo to make this episode perfect.
I’m very interested to see where these episodes are going to go because the magic users in the DC Universe don’t often get the spotlight. I love that the writers aren’t pulling any punches on the gruesome aspects of what our characters are dealing with. The episode dives into some pretty high-lore concepts about the universe literally right from the beginning. We also get more of an understanding as to how Vandal Savage and Klarion the Witch Boy came to work together in the Light. What this episode does best is dive into the horror aspects of the characters it’s dealing with. People are brutally murdered in this episode and there are some very graphic moments. If you want to catch up on the previous episode before diving into this one, you can check out my recap/review here.
Without further ado, lets get into the details shall we? As always, I warn of all the spoilers to come. If you haven’t watched for yourself yet, read ahead at your own risk.
The Story (SPOILERS AHEAD YO!)
“Odnu!” opens with a Rod Serling-esque narration from someone unidentified. He is talking about the creation of the universe. Specifically, this universe. We’re told that in the early days, beings of pure energy formed and became the lords of Order and Chaos. Neither good nor evil, these entities existed to keep the necessary balance of the universe. Without them, the universe would fall like the previous one had. These beings are illustrated as groups of diamonds wreathed in colored flame. Red for Chaos. Yellow for Order. The voice of the narrator is steady and rhythmic as it describes everything. The narration continues and we see the meteor that gave Vandal Savage his immortality as it crashes to Earth. Then Vandal himself in his earliest days back when he was still known as “Vandar.” Before he became a conqueror. Before he became Head of the Light. Before everything.
Next we meet three young magic users attempting to capture several strange frog-like creatures called Trogowogs. A red-headed woman with a lizard on her shoulder, Traci Thurston/Thirteen (Lauren Tom), simply points and purple magic surrounds and captures one of the monsters. A young man named Khalid (Usman Ally) manipulates a nearby tree to capture another. The two are clearly having fun with the mission; even joking about score. The third member of the group, a young woman named Mary (Erika Ishii), arrives on the scene and briefly bestows one of the monsters with “the speed of Mercury” causing it to crash into a wall before being caught. The three continue to round up the squishy gremlins before congratulating each other for a job well done.
Zatanna reveals herself, and the fact that she is the heroes’ mentor, as she walks confidently over to the group. She also reveals that there are still several Trogowogs hiding in the area that went uncaptured. She explains to the three what each of them did right and wrong, giving solid constructive criticism to each of them. A line to Mary stands out as we’ve not seen her before this: “You’re still thinking too much like a superhero, which is understandable considering your history.” The three students all seem dejected, but Zatanna insists that they are progressing very well as the camera pans back up into the sky.
We see the diamond prisms from the opening narration as the Chaos side sends something down to Earth. The impression of the Cosmic Scale set into the nebulous background captures the magic of the concept and is genuinely beautiful. The red diamond soars down to rest atop a skyscraper spire before emitting a burst of energy. The city goes dark and Zatanna and the students all wince as the energy passes by them. Doctor Fate, in his tower in Salem, is alerted as well. As is Blue Devil in the Outsiders headquarters in Hollywood. Finally, we come to Vandal Savage in conference with the other heads of the Light, including Klarion (Thom Adcox), as their Markovian diplomatic plant, Zviad (Yuri Lowenthal), explains how well things are going there. Klarion feels the energy, panics, and flees without explanation. Vandal eyes the monitor where Klarion once sat, silently pondering something.
The scene fades back into the past and the narrator resumes his story. Long ago, Vandar established a settlement of meta-humans in a utopian society under his dominion. He had a vision. One day he left to conquer foes nearby, but when he returned he found his people slaughtered. “His utopia had been undone.” A haunting image of the mutilated bodies of Vandar’s people slowly pans up to reveal the manically laughing Klarion. Thick pools of blood spill out from under the bodies of Vandar’s villagers. Their bodies are twisted and ripped and broken. It’s grotesque in every way that it should be. The opening narration grabs your curiosity, but this where it grabs your attention.
The move to streaming has done this show all of the favors.
As the flashback cuts to the fridge at the Outsiders headquarters as Andie Murphy/Mist (Daniela Bobadilla) cleans out some old food. Blue Devil (Troy Baker) sees this and mentions that it was supposed to be Beast Boy’s turn. Andie explains Gar (Greg Cipes) was looking tired so she offered to do it for him. As their conversation continues we see Gar laying in bed staring at the ceiling as he listens to his friends. He has deep bags under his eyes, and he doesn’t look like he’s been sleeping. He is taking Conner’s death extremely hard, and he isn’t talking to anyone about it. Just as in episodes previous, this scene is particularly powerful. It’s incredible to see characters that are regularly depicted as indomitably joyous coping with real tragedy. It makes the weight of the situation and the moment all the more potent; especially because these scenes are so short and succinct.
Rejoining Zatanna and her students, they climb onboard a carnival carousel. The students each mount a steed and they suddenly begin soaring into the air. The magic users fly through the city in search of the source of the strange chaotic energy they felt earlier. Mary questions Zatanna’s methods, referring to them as being “Mary Poppins.” Zatanna responds with whimsy and delight. I liked seeing her try to show this hardened heroine that there could be a softer way. She is trying to get Mary to see the lighter side of magic and you can tell it’s starting to break through. As the group flies over the city it is revealed that Mary used to be one of the Shazam kids: Sergeant Marvel! Khalid, Tracie, and Mary talk about how she used to be a superhero and how she’s had a hard time transitioning. It’s implied heavily that something happened forcing Mary to give up being a hero, but there’s still plenty of mystery to be explored.
The stewards of magic all land outside a gothic church and walk the rest of the way to their destination as Zatanna leads the group into a fortune telling parlor. Skulls with candles, beaded doors, and other knick-knacks litter the walls as they make their way inside. Zatanna explains that the shop is owned by the legendary Madame Xanadu (Cree Summer). She is one of the most powerful mystics in the world. Xanadu enters and reveals she already knows who the students are and why they are there, bidding them a fond welcome. It’s clear that she and Zatanna have a strong friendship and comradery from their time together.
We cut back to the narrator and his tale. In a rage, Vandar tried to attack Klarion, but was instead struck down himself. To Klarion’s surprise, Vandar’s wounds healed and he rose again. Vandar understood that the being before him was not mortal, or even of the Earth. “This Klarion was something new. Or despite appearances, something incredibly old. Something elemental, fundamental… to the universe.” The ease with which Klarion could annihilate a person and Vandar’s determination as he stands back up to face this force of nature a second time are both on prominent display. An unstoppable force has met an immovable object for the first time.
Klarion’s evil face slowly fades to reveal the ejected Chaos diamond. It slowly hovers down and makes its way into a museum. Inside there is a large stone on display: the Heart of Atlantis. The red light from the Chaos diamond slowly creeps down over the jewel. It moves unsettlingly slowly. Suddenly the diamond fires a beam of light into the jewel causing it to grow to enormous size. Shards of glass from the display case explode out as the now massive stone takes humanoid form. The Chaos diamond connects with the hulking humanoid creature and suddenly becomes a small blonde-haired girl. Very properly she thanks the golem by giving it the name “Flaw” for a strange mark on its chest. The golem is to be her “anchor” to the mortal plane.
Not unlike Klarion, who uses a small orange cat, Teekl.
She has Flaw kneel before her as she carves a childish smiley face into the stone. A night watchmen enters the room and is at first confused to see the girl. His confusion quickly turns to horror and concern for her when he sees the hulking golem beside her. He calls the entity a child, and surprisingly she thanks him. He has “provided a valuable service” in giving her a name. Child then orders Flaw to “reward the mortal.” The guard tries desperately to fend off the golem, but it’s no use. Blood sprays the wall beside Child as his screams stop with a jolt. There are few things more terrifying in my book, but somehow the writers found a way. Immediately following this gruesome death, Child says something truly unsettling. “I wonder what these things look like on the inside.”
Sweet Jesus that is a scary little girl, and you honestly don’t even know the half of it yet.
The story goes from abject horror to deep melancholy as we rejoin Beast Boy. Gar is getting in the elevator to head out into town, but Blue Devil stops him before he can go. It’s obvious that Blue Devil is uncomfortable, and he isn’t sure how to proceed. He asks how Gar has been doing. Gar is visibly fatigued, and you can hear in his voice that he’s exhausted. Blue Devil points out that he hasn’t been going on missions and now he isn’t doing his chores either. “Should I be worried?” Gar puts on a smile and assures the older hero that he’s fine. As the elevator doors close, Blue Devil catches a glimpse of Gar’s face as it falls back to sadness. His eyes sink and you can tell he knows there’s more going on.
Jazzy music plays outside as we rejoin the magic users in Xanadu’s shop. Khalid asks where it’s coming from and is surprised to learn that Preservation Hall is apparently across the street. The young magicians crowd the front window and are amazed to see that she is telling the truth. Zatanna smiles as she explains Xanadu’s parlor has doors all over the world. They just happened to come in through the Harlem door. Mary, seeming unimpressed, criticizes Xanadu’s parlor for looking cheap and is met with a demonstration of the mystic’s abilities. Having been swiftly put in her place, Mary quietly listens as Xanadu and Zatanna discuss the task at hand. Xanadu offers to get them as close as she can and creates a portal in her front door. Zatanna pays for the mystic’s services and the group makes their way back out into the world.
“Favors don’t keep the lights on.”
The mages emerge in the museum where Child came to be. The immediate shock and terror on their faces would have been enough, but what follows is truly horrifying. The night watchman has been rendered into an exploded view. Tissues are barely connecting as bones and fragments cross and segment to reveal the organs within. The guard’s face is draped over a display. When the whole form is revealed we see that the body was flayed and parts of it hover, completely disconnected from the rest in horrifying tribute to their former owner. Zatanna and her students look on in horror as the scene fades into the flashback.
I told you that little girl was scary.
For nearly a year Vandar stood in opposition to Klarion. He was killed each time, and rose again each time as well. Eventually Klarion became interested by this strange immortal man. Vandar, in an attempt to save his people, bargained for 1000 years to prove what he was capable of. The two would meet in the same village again at that time. The village was known as Atlantis. Klarion tenuously agrees before vanishing. Klarion’s voice layered in behind the narrator as he tells the tale made it feel all the more true, and all the more unsettling. We’re left with the image of a throne of bodies where the Witch Boy once sat as we return to the museum and the young magic users.
Zatanna and the others look on in horror as they attempt to discern why anyone would do this. Khalid puts forth the idea that someone was doing an anatomy lesson. Zatanna agrees. As the group starts to discuss there is a sudden flash of light. Klarion has arrived! Klarion and Zatanna both question each other, thinking they were responsible, before a fight breaks out in the museum. Zatanna tries to shield her young allies from the Witch Boy’s attack, but he is much too powerful. They’re all blasted against the back wall as the maleficent agent advances. Klarion is one of those characters that is laughably evil, so when he stops playing around and takes things seriously it can be very intense. It’s obvious there’s history between Zatanna and the Chaos lord as well, but it doesn’t bog down the scene at all.
Suddenly the scene cuts to the exterior of a drug store at night on the Walk of Fame. Inside, the fluorescent lights barely light the whole store as we see Gar holding a pack of sleeping pills. The shot hangs on him for a moment before he turns and makes his way toward the checkout counter. The counter is shrouded in darkness and we can’t see anyone behind it as he slowly makes his way out from under the lights and the scene cuts. This is an incredibly powerful scene for only being 12 seconds long. The isolation. The movement from light to dark; life to death. The calmness and quiet of the scene adds to its somberness as well. There’s no music. There’s no dialogue. Just pure visual narrative at its finest.
Klarion advances menacingly on the stewards of magic until Mary stands up to him. She tries to punch her way through the situation, but this proves to be less effective than she had hoped. The Chaos lord sends the former Shazam kid to the floor before Zatanna and Khalid make a go for his cat. Klarion starts to phase out of their plane when Teekl is magically put to sleep. He attacks and Khalid nearly gets hurled through a brick wall before Traci can intervene.
Dude got tossed around like a ragdoll. It was brutal.
Several hundred miles away, Child and Flaw appear in an empty wooded area in Roanoke. Child claims she can “taste him here.” Bouncing back to the museum, Klarion’s cat jolts awake to rejoin its master. Klarion is able to grapple each of the magical heroes by copying himself, and sets to violently strangling each of them. You can see how much joy he takes in this as he hunkers down over each of them. His eyes going wide with insane pleasure. Back in the woods, Child summons up a magic circle and gently flicks her fingers against Flaw’s smiling face. The shockwave ripples out from their location until it reaches Klarion. Instantly he knows who has been behind everything, and he is very displeased. His doppelgangers all forcibly rejoin as Klarion absconds with Teekl to meet this other Chaos lord.
The narration resumes as the shot fades from the two opposing Chaos lords to the scarred face of Vandal Savage. It is here that we learn the identity of our mysterious narrator: the Phantom Stranger (D.B. Woodside). Vandal (David Kaye) and the Stranger stand high on a mountaintop looking out across the snowy mountain range before them. Vandal questions why the Stranger would come to him and tell him this tale. “To remind you of what must not be forgotten.” The Stranger vanishes without warning as Vandal tries to get a more direct answer, leaving him to ponder alone. The implication here that Vandal has some kind of pact with the Phantom Stranger is fascinating to me, and I can’t wait to see where it goes.
The credits roll as Saturn Girl and Chameleon Boy of the Legion of Superheroes watch an episode of Space Trek 3016, the scifi show that earned Garfield his fame. They sit in the sun and enjoy snacks as Gar’s character expounds about never giving up, no matter how hard or how many friends you’ve lost. Seeing how Gar is in exactly the opposite place in his actual life made this monologue all the more impactful. I genuinely worry for my favorite little green guy, and I hate that I have to wait until Thursday to find out what happened.
The Final Word
9/10: A mysterious and magical start to another set of intriguing episodes set in the Dark-er part of the DC Universe.
“Odnu” is a great start to a saga focusing on DC’s magic users. Zatanna is a long-time favorite character, and she is a delight here. I really enjoyed seeing her in a mentor role to some of the younger magicians, and she served as a great means to teaching the audience as well. We were learning about this part of the universe right along with Traci, Khalid and Mary, and it works exceptionally well. Klarion, who is normally much more of a comic threat, is made significantly more menacing here; as is Child. I’m very interested to learn more about the, obviously, complex relationship between these two characters and what her arrival means for the Witch Boy.
Beast Boy’s side-story continues to be heartbreaking and all-too-real. Watching friends blindly misreading a situation or an older figure struggling to relate and help his young comrade is rough. Depression is portrayed so accurately here. I hurt for Gar, and I worry for where he may be headed. All I know is, I’ll definitely be tuning into HBOMax on Thursday to catch the latest episode and find out. Check back next week for the newest recap/review!
I’ve worked my whole life to become a comic book illustrator, writer, and stand-up comedian. Batman and Captain Benjamin Sisko helped put a good head on my shoulders. I spent most of my childhood saving Hyrule and the Mushroom Kingdom and seeing the Justice League save all of creation time and time again. I live in Johnson City, TN with my wife Kary and daughter Laila enjoying the beautiful mountain scenery and occasional show. Three puppies round out the family and take up the rest of the time that isn’t spent debating which Wes Anderson or Studio Ghibli movie to watch. I spend an inordinate amount of time binge watching SVU, Futurama, and Letterkenny, and when I’m not watching I’m listening to “My Brother, My Brother, and Me” or playing the occasional game of D&D. If there’s a nerdy endeavor out there, I’ve probably at least tried it.
