While few fans mourned the loss of Cartoon Network's Beware the Batman, there was a good deal of outcry when the channel cancelled another comic book-based series in its prime. In spite of favorable notices and a still-growing audience, they pulled the plug on Young Justice, a show focused upon the sidekicks of DC's most famous superheroes. It's anyone's guess as to why the series was yanked after only two seasons --  some place the blame on executives scared that its sizable female fanbase wouldn't be as apt to buy merchandise as boys -- but it went away much too early, in any case. Storylines and character arcs were left unresolved, and judging from how well it handled the material that came before, it's doubly tragic that viewers would never be able to see where it'd all go from there. 

But at least the Young Justice we know and love has been preserved in the spiffiest way possible, with the show's second season (subtitled Invasion) now on Blu-ray, following the dynamite high-def debut of its first 26 action-packed installments. No longer are its characters fresh-faced do-gooders but seasoned veterans in their own rights, and the twenty episodes that make up Invasion do a plenty worthwhile job of proving them capable of standing toe-to-toe with their grown-up counterparts.

A lot can change in five years...especially if you're a superhero. That's how much time has gone by since the Justice League's junior squad saved the world after evil forces seized control of the minds of Earth's mightiest defenders. But not all is the same in the crime-fighting game anymore. In contrast to her once-cheerful attitude, Miss Martian (voice of Danica McKellar) now sports an aggressive approach to getting what she wants from the enemy. Former team leader Aqualad (voice of Khary Payton) has defected to the dark side, helping his villainous father plot revenge from the ocean floor. New team recruits have also sprung up, from short-tempered Lagoon Boy (voice of Yuri Lowenthal) to spunky warrior Wonder Girl (voice of Mae Whitman). However, their usual routine of cleaning the clocks of various bad guys will need to wait, as the group soon uncovers a threat of global proportions. Over the past few years, aliens have been infiltrating our society in secret, assembling a plan to conquer the planet one piece at a time. With their scheme coming closer to frution every day and with key members of the Justice League indisposed, it's up to these so-called second bananas to send the little green menaces back to whatever corner of the galaxy they came from.

Young Justice: Invasion presents a very different world from the one we left in the first season, and to be honest, adjusting to the bevy of changes is no cake walk. The series really does drop you right in the middle of a foreign environment, with all the big, important developments having occurred long before where the story picks up. Of course, with twenty episodes, the show gives itself some time to expand on certain subplots, get viewers up to speed, and reveal the shocking truths behind particular twists, but even still, it feels spread awfully thin. Though some arcs (such as Miss Martian realizing the damage she's doing with her powers) are fascinating and fleshed-out, others come across as futile, redressings of the angsty teen drama you'd thought Young Justice would've gotten out of its system the first time around. Sure, Superboy (voice of Nolan North) has worked out most of his anger issues here, but that still leaves plenty of successors to play soap opera in his absence -- and without the benefit of truly getting to know or care about many of them. While it's great that the series opened up its ensemble in a huge way, it did so at the cost of its sense of intimacy. With a few exceptions, this season has a hard time doing justice (no pun intended) to all of its new characters; many of them straight-up disappear for episodes at a time, and the ones that do stand out are often easily overshadowed by the goings-on of the returning heroes. As entertaining as some of these additions are, they have a tough go with being seen as legit members of the team instead of mere guest stars.

But when it clicks, Young Justice: Invasion is just about as compelling, thoughtful, and outright fun as superhero media can get. Where the main protagonists are concerned, it deserves credit  for resisting the temptation to repeat everything the first season did. There are some characters who receive greater importance than others, some who embrace their changing roles, and some with difficulty moving on. The series carries on its tradition of painting its heroes as complex without resorting too often to cliches or forgetting that they're allowed to enjoy their powers and be looked up to, rather than act all tortured for the entire ride. Some of the subplots are clunkily introduced (as with two characters who have a kid that's barely mentioned after she first shows up), and it wouldn't have hurt for the senior team members to be given stronger roles as mentors to the newbies. But these characters remain true to themselves and just as interesting as when they were first introduced to us.

The season-long invasion storyline also does a nice job of handling all its multiple players and moving parts while still feeling mostly cohesive (in spite of a couple episodes that nudge it aside so yet another roided-up villain can hog the spotlight). The animation continues to be lively, the voice cast is on the ball (with Tim Curry loving every minute of his role as an obnoxious take-off on Bill O'Reilly), and the action and drama work in tandem wonderfully, neither one overwhelming the other too much.

Yes, it's a bummer that Young Justice: Invasion leaves so many threads dangling at its end, but you can hardly blame the show for that. This had plans and places where it wanted to go, and were it not so unceremoniously cancelled (like the underrated and similarly mistreated Green Lantern cartoon), all signs point to its third season having a good shot at being its most adventurous and challenging one yet. Young Justice: Invasion isn't the invigorating blast that its inaugural season was, but it does fans proud and resumes its super-saga in appropriately ambitious order.

(Young Justice: Invasion is available on Blu-ray through the Warner Archive Collection.)