The series starts off with Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad and the Green Arrow's sidekick, Speedy, finally getting their day in the sun when they are granted access into the Hall of Justice and, supposedly, become full Justice League of America members. When Speedy realizes that they don't really have the run of the place and still aren't invited to the super-secret meetings, he ditches the group and explains that they are all still being treated like sidekicks.
The other three then get an opportunity to show what they are made of when they decide to investigate a fire at a chemical facility. Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad soon find that the little building has deeper levels and as they try and avoid the odd race of creatures that are being grown there, they make an unexpected discovery, a clone of Superman.
This pair of pilot episodes focuses on the four characters getting out of the facility alive and then convincing the older heroes that their younger counterparts can do what needs to be done. What results is a covert team that is sent out to do the jobs that the more visible JLA cannot accomplish. With the Martian Manhunter's niece now joining the group and the team being guided by The Red Tornado, taught by Black Canary and overseen by Batman, this young group of heroes will have quite a few challenges ahead of them.
The disc's third episode, "Welcome to Happy Harbor," not only lets the Young Justice team get to know their new base a bit better, but it also has them facing off against their first foe as a team. What they soon realize is that they don't seem to have a good handle on the teamwork side of things and their first foe quickly takes them out. It's only when the characters begin to work together and use their abilities as a unit that they are able to start hurting this strange new menace.
What the Young Justice team doesn't realize is that both the chemical company incident and their most recent foe are connected by a common threat, and when the team is sent into a recon mission concerning the manufacturing of the drug Venom, they have a third connected case on their hands. Too bad they don't see the connections. At least not yet.
As a way to kick off a new series, Young Justice: Season 1 Volume 1 does a good job. While there are some similarities that can easily be drawn between it and the Teen Titans cartoon series, Young Justice isn't nearly as silly and it seems to have a lot more character development than the other show had during its early days.
In the end, most DC fans should enjoy this show. If you aren't at least generally familiar with the universe though, you might want to hold off. The series seems to expect viewers to be able to recognize a lot of characters on sight or with little back history, especially the villains. I consider myself a casual DC fan, and while I was able to quickly pick out many of the secondary characters in the show, there were a few that I only slightly recognized or just flat out didn't know who they were. Even with that though, the show is still a lot of fun. Too bad there aren't any special features though; even something as simple as character bios would have been nice.
