The following contains spoilers for Young Justice: Phantoms, Episode 23, "Ego and Superego," which premiered Thursday, May 19 on HBO Max.
While most of Young Justice: Phantoms' focus has been on Lor-Zod waging war on the Legion of Super Heroes and potentially the Green Lanterns, the series surprised fans by picking back up on the Markovia arc in "Ego and Superego." Prince Brion had previously turned his back on the Outsiders and launched a bloody coup to take back his family's throne. He killed his uncle Baron Bedlam but alienated the heroes and his sister Terra as he turned their home into a military state.
Brion had good intentions, but the now-king became the very thing he hated. It didn't help that he was being manipulated by his psionic aide Zviad. "Ego and Superego" reintroduced Brion and showed what Markovia had evolved into -- which was reminiscent of an X-Men arc that also had dangerous consequences.
The episode found Brion and his own crew of heroes, the Infinitors, saving a young refugee named Lizard Johnny from xenophobic folks in Markovia. Brion's team took Johnny back to the palace -- where Young Justice revealed the full scope of Brion's initiative. Markovia is now an open haven to metahumans from everywhere, with Brion encouraging them to enroll in a program meant to evolve them. His plan is to train these metahumans and if they're good enough, make them Infinitors.
This approach is similar to when the X-Men settled on Krakoa in House of X and tried to develop their own separate base of operations. Magneto, Cyclops, Xavier and Emma Frost were similar in ideology to Brion, wanting safety for mutantkind, but there was also a dangerous element to what they were doing. As the Avengers noted, isolating themselves on Krakoa also allowed the X-Men to store weapons of mass destruction without any restrictions.
Similarly, Brion thinks he's building an Infinitor army to protect their species -- but he doesn't know Zviad is working for the Light. Some Infinitors are already buying into Zviad's plan, apart from Fury, who senses they're becoming terrorists and wants Brion to see the truth. But the problem could go beyond Markovia itself and cause problems for the Justice League and the reserves they've been assembling during the season.
Markovia has been plucking immigrants from Taos -- one of the League's bases -- for Helga Jace to experiment on, meaning that the Justice League should come visit soon enough. If they're not upset by what's happening, the nation could also be targeted and weaponized by one of their many enemies to use against them. With the season (and potentially the series) winding down, Young Justice: Phantoms has set Markovia up as a stage for renewed conflict.
New episodes of Young Justice: Phantoms debut every Thursday on HBO Max.