Bear with me here as I pace back and forth in front of my cork board full of candid photos, news clippings, pushpins and red string.
In Episode 7 of Young Justice: Outsiders, “Evolution,” Vandal Savage asks Lex Luthor what Klarion is up to. He’s then reminded that Klarion is busy with something called “Project Rutabaga.”
But what could Project Rutabaga be? Why would it carry such a silly codename, and why would Klarion be in charge of it?
Let’s consider the last Klarion centric scheme of Young Justice, an adaptation of “JLA: World Without Grown-Ups”, where all the children and adults on Earth are splintered off into two shards of reality.
It’s therefore reasonable to predict that a new Klarion episode would hit the criteria of:
- Something that alters reality on a global scale.
- Something that’s adapted directly from the comics.
Now let’s consider the codename: “Rutabaga.”
FUN FACT: In the process of filmmaking, it’s an old trick to have crowd scenes simulate dialogue and ruckus by repeating a nonsense phrase. One of the most common through film and television history: the word “Rutabaga.”
Now: imagine this. What if Klarion’s project is to replicate a similar effect within their own reality? What if, for whatever reason, Klarion wanted to reduce global communication to an unintelligible nonsense phrase? Something like… “Rutabaga?”
Is this beginning to sound familiar to you? Almost like it’s something we may have seen before?
I SUBMIT TO YOU: In the second half of Young Justice: Outsiders, we will bear witness to a half hour, animated adaptation of JLA: Tower of Babel.
(But what say you? Do you have a different idea on Project Rutabaga? Is my theory sound? This is, of course, an open forum.)
