Another Friday has brought us another excellent episode of Young Justice.  If this show is not yet a part of your normal Friday lineup, you really need to fix that– and quick.  Let’s catch you up, shall we?

Young Justice is a team of “Don’t call us sidekicks”: Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Superboy, and Miss Martian, mentored by Red Tornado and Black Canary. If you need more detail on how this fits into normal DC continuity, there’s a pretty good writeup of that at wikipedia.

In this week’s episode, Superboy (here, a clone of Superman engineered by Cadmus and a secret group known as The Light) begins to resent his lack of a relationship with Superman.

This is brought on by a great sequence at the top of the episode of a bridge collapse in Metropolis, a school bus in danger of plunging into the water below, and both Superman and Superboy intervening unbeknownst to one another.  Even though the day, and the school bus, are saved, it precipitates some major awkwardness, and then leading to Superboy becoming more distant, angry, and irrational, even getting schooled by Black Canary in combat training. (Hint: his overconfidence is his weakness. Insert obligatory Star Wars reference line here: )

Too heady, not enough smashy? Stay tuned for a robot monkey attack! (Mobile Optimal Nueral Quotient Infiltrators, or M.O.N.Q.I.s, to be exact) And Amazo, just to up the robot quotient.

Again, DC animated is at its finest here.  They have a superb voice cast, employing both their regular stable of talent from other animated DC projects (Bruce Greenwood reprising Batman from Under the Red Hood), and top notch supporting players. (If you missed Danny Trejo as Bane last week, you missed something spectacular).

Even better is the excellence of the storylines.  This show just screams adolescence: Kid Flash flirts with anything that moves, Superboy feels isolated and angry, Robin is overly precocious. It’s easily identifiable fare, and the essence of why comics and cartoons can be a universal medium, regardless of age.

Young Justice airs on Cartoon Network Fridays at 7pm ET/PT.  Make sure you’re watching.  I won’t spoil the reveal from the end of “Schooled”, but it hints at the inclusion of a certain someone in next week’s episode. Not a major spoiler if you’ve been watching or have seen some of the other promo images, but still. I know I’ll be there.