Independence Day

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 * For other uses, see Independence Day (disambiguation).

"Independence Day" is the first episode of Young Justice.

It premiered on Cartoon Network as part of the special hour-long, two episode pilot movie, also called "Independence Day", on 26 November 2010. The pilot was then edited into two separate episodes, "Independence Day" and "Fireworks", which aired on 7 January 2011 and 14 January 2011 respectively.

Logline
Robin, Speedy, Aqualad and Kid Flash are finally granted access to the headquarters of the Justice League. But when that access turns out to be little more than a glorified backstage pass, Speedy walks, and the other three sidekicks go on a mission of their own, to Project Cadmus, where they make a startling discovery...

Synopsis
In Gotham City park Batman and Robin arrives on seen to quell Mr. Freeze's latest rampage. Green Arrow and Speedy arrives at the Star City bridge to stop Icicle Jr. from destroying it. In Pearl Harbor Aquaman and Aqualad arrives to prevent Killer Frost from destorying a oil tanker. In Central City Flash and Kid Flash stop Captain Cold from robbing a Jem Depository.

The four hero's with their respective sidekicks arrives at the Hall of Justice in Washington, D.C. to officially induct the four youths into the league. After the tour of the hall Batman attempts to draw everyones attention to the four simultaneous attacks by cold themed villains, however Speedy angrilly reveals that the Hall of Justice isn't their real headquarters but a decoy for the press and any supervillains that may target the league, fed up with the league still not trusting them Speedy quits.

At that moment Superman calls the league with a alert of a fire at Cadmus labs and Zatara calls in with a alert that a supervillain is trying to block out the sun. Batman orders the 3 remaining sidekicks to stay put while the rest of the League deals with the supervillain attack. Ignoring their mentors the three goes investigate the fire remembering that Batman was suspicious about Cadmus for a while now.

At the Labs the three put out the fire and discovers that the building they just saved is merely the entrance to a extensive underground fortress with roaming herds of giant mammoth/gorilla like creatures. Small telepathic creatures called G-Gnomes informs the chief of security, Guardian, that there are three intruders in the fortress the head of the project orders Guardian to investigate.

Meanwhile, Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad discovers that the fortress is powered by electrokenitic creatures. At that point the three are attacked by Guardian and troop of G-Elves, Guardian begins to realized just what is going on but a G-Gnome forces him to attack the young hero's. After some fighting they're able to escape into a elevator.

Robin sends them even deeper into the fortress and after a brief skirmish with Dubbilex they're able to find Cadmus's secret weapon, Project Kr, Superman's clone.

Title
The title may refer to the national holiday in which this episode takes place, but also to the fact that the sidekicks stray from their mentors and set out to assert themselves as independent heroes.

Credited

 * Aqualad (Khary Payton)
 * Kid Flash (Jason Spisak)
 * Robin (Jesse McCartney)
 * Superboy (Nolan North)


 * Aquaman (Phil LaMarr)
 * Batman (Bruce Greenwood)
 * Computer (Stephanie Lemelin)
 * Dubbilex (Phil LaMarr)
 * Flash (George Eads)
 * Green Arrow (Alan Tudyk)
 * Guardian (Crispin Freeman)
 * Icicle Jr. (Yuri Lowenthal)
 * Mark Desmond (Rene Auberjonois)
 * Martian Manhunter (Kevin Michael Richardson)
 * Mister Freeze (Keith Szarabajka)
 * Speedy (Crispin Freeman)
 * Superman (Nolan North)
 * Zatara (Nolan North)

Uncredited
The following characters appeared in the episode but had no speaking roles.
 * Captain Cold
 * Dr. Spence
 * Killer Frost
 * Red Tornado

Other unnamed characters appeared in crowd scenes.

Locations:
 * Hall of Justice
 * Cadmus Labs

Production
This episode was originally planned to include an appearance by Catherine Cobert, who would be the Justice League's civilian liaison and the voice of the League computers (they are voiced in the episode by Stephanie Lemelin). A design of the character was created by Jerome Moore, and a scene featuring her was recorded with Stephanie Lemelin playing Catherine, but the scene ended up being cut for time at the storyboard stage.

The father at the barbecue grill (who is one of the civilians frozen by Mr. Freeze) in the opening scene in Gotham City Park was designed by Jerome Moore, who modelled the character on Lead Character Designer Phil Bourassa. However, the colours were changed for the final screened version of the episode, and the likeness was diluted.

Trivia

 * Reporters in the Hall of Justice scene make a reference to why Green Arrow's sidekick is named Speedy, often debated by fans of DC Comics.
 * The fact the only sidekicks who go to Cadmus labs and thus begin the team's existance are Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad is a reference to the first Teen Titans mission in comics, in which Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash faced off against Mister Twister.
 * Throughout the episode various characters say the words 'Today's the day', referring to the day where they get to visit the Hall