As the Injustice Society prepare to make a serious move in their plan, Courtney and her new team face the twin challenges of their first mission and the disapproval of Pat.

Courtney went from being a lone wolf superhero-in-training to having a whole team pretty quickly, but all is not well among the ranks of the new Justice Society, especially when Pat discovers what she’s done and confronts her. Demanding that she get the various costumes and gadgets back (except the hourglass, which he intends to retrieve himself), Pat doesn’t really account for the reluctance of these new heroes to part with their new stuff.

This of course leaves Courtney in a difficult position with her two newest friends. Yolanda has no intention of giving up her new identity, which has given her so much confidence and brought her a measure of her life back. Beth similarly has no desire to lose new best friend Doctor Midnite(‘s goggles), the only person she’s ever come across who can keep up with her incessant talking and who actually pays attention. Awkward.

Meanwhile, Pat’s grand plan to confront Rick with some truths about his father and a bit of senior advice about responsibility and how Rick isn’t ready yet for the power of the hourglass fails pretty spectacularly too. And how exactly does one forcefully take away a gadget from someone that makes them super-humanly strong when they don’t want to give it up?

All this then fades into the background for the nascent team as they discover that shenanigans are afoot, and they elect to head out as a team to put an end to it all. When they arrive, they’re confronted by two new villains, billed as ‘Icicle’s Attack Dogs’ and sporting a pretty tacky gimmick and names. Still, it all allows for a fairly predictable, though admittedly visually impressive, confrontation in which our heroes realise their limitations, get their asses saved at the last minute and realise that perhaps they don’t know everything after all. This at least gives us a nice bonding moment between Pat and Courtney, even though it’s again a little obvious.

Elsewhere there’s just a lot of minor fill in. Barbara and Mike do a little bonding of their own, the roster of the Injustice Society is filled out a bit more and we get some nice little character bits between Icicle and his son emphasising their shared anguish at the loss of Icicle’s wife. Still no real idea of what ‘Project New America’ is about, but I’m quietly intrigued for now.

Verdict: A little obvious and cheesy, but still thoroughly watchable. 8/10

Greg D. Smith