To be fair, though, we don't know that Clayface was the ONLY villain they fought. Maybe they were worn down from fighting an army of them, and Clayface was last one standing, ready to give the final blow.
We don't know because it was kept off camera, likely so the writers wouldn't have to come up with it. That or there was only so much airtime and it was decided that cutting down or eliminating any of the other scenes wasn't doable, so they decided to just cut that bit short. Admittedly, it isn't a major deal, but it is jarring. If they were going to gyp out on the fight, they literally could have stuck in any Batman villain. If they don't have to bother convincing the audience how the baddie had defeated the team, they may as well put in Riddler or the Terrible Trio or a guy in a ski mask or something. What? Sportsmaster is just a guy in a hockey mask, and he can drop two of them. Bane, on the other hand, can't even lay a hand on any of them.
As Batman implied, the team did just fine. It was their leader that failed them. It's possible, since they'd be on their telepathic communication thing, that if Kal was off because his mind wasn't on the mission, he might have made a team member or two make mis-timed missteps that "domino'ed" onto the rest of the team.
Then again, I find it hard to believe that Robin, who would have experience fighting Clayface would be defeated, or that Conner would be knocked out.
Exactly. Even if Kaldur was having an off day, it seemed horribly unlikely that Clayface could have defeated ALL of them so easily. It was kept off camera likely because the show's writers and editors wanted to focus on more vital stuff, but I do think some extra time to flesh out exactly what went wrong would have worked better. It makes it come off as they couldn't figure it out either, so they did it the lazy way and kept it off camera. I mean, the concept of the ENTIRE teaming being beaten and needing Batman to literally intervene and save their lives should have been a major, MAJOR deal. Instead, it was sort of brushed off because it was over so quickly. The fact that at least a quarter of the audience seemed to believe it was a training exercise shows that something wasn't handled perfectly.
I can buy a bunch of unexperienced heroes losing to clayface, I mean the guy has taken down Batman numerous times and if he got the drop on them I can totally see them getting there ass kicked.
Batman beat him with a stun-gun. Robin likely has a version of that instrument.
This is why we needed to see more of that sequence. In "BREAKDOWN" in "WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN", we actually SEE the X-Men fighting Juggernaut for a least a couple of minutes before things end and get to where they are going with Cyclops' mental issues. Juggernaut is also a sufficiently challenging threat.
Even in a worse episode of W&TXM, like "CODE OF CONDUCT", in which the audience has to accept a team of random ninja with no super powers ambushing and defeating the entire X-Men (save for Wolverine and Rogue), the episode actually lets us SEE IT, even if it is total baloney. I would have rather seen it.
Thing is, we don't know the circumstances of the fight. When the show starts they're all beaten, that's all we know. They may have been arguing the whole time and completely caught off guard by Clayface. The point is, they should have been able to handle Clayface and didn't.
Which is why more of the fight needed to be shown. This should have been a huge, huge deal. The kids lost and needed Batman to save them. That should have been a potential confidence shattering event, and instead it was treated with no more significance than missing a 3 pt shot in a close game. Maybe the episode was too "busy" to focus on that, but I think it could have been handled better. You can't treat every mission as deadly serious because the stakes are so high and them dismiss that opening. Are Robin and Kid-Flash whining about being "babysat" NOW? There was a load of potential here and I think in the zeal to properly showcase Kaldur's world, a damn lot of material was shucked into the void.
Two things to note about this Clayface:
-He seemed more like a mindless monster
-Electricity can harm it unlike DCAU's Clayface "Feat of Clay part 2"
And in theory, so could water, the very element Kaldur controls. Just how "out of the game" was he? It's like Superman losing to an ice monster because he was too distracted to use heat-vision.
I was fine with them not being able to beat Clayface. Knowing them, he probably got hte drop on them. And just because they beat Amazo doesnt make them anything special. They got lucky. It would be like saying they should be able to beat every enemy they encounter from now on (who isnt Darkseid) and dont need any saving at all.
In fairness, the one advantage that the kids had on AMAZO over their elders was that Dr. Ivo was literally in the same room and could be exploited to distract AMAZO (which was exactly how they defeated him). One could argue if the JLA had such an advantage they would have exploited it, too. But the point stands.
If these are kids just getting lucky, than the defeat by Clayface is MORE of a big deal, that was swept aside. It might have shut up the kids who whine about their elder heroes "babysitting" them - well, Robin, Kid-Flash, would you rather be dead or are you happy Batman "babysits" you? Maybe Superboy might have learned some humility. Maybe Kid-Flash would be motivated to train better. Instead, it was all on Kaldur without us ever seeing what went wrong, and I think that was a bit of a cheat. I think there was some fathomable way to show more of the fight and still deal with the ramifications properly while still doing all the awesome stuff in Atlantis.
I mean, it wasn't just the editing that confused people as to whether it was a training sequence or not; it was how little effect it had on the team. The opening scene didn't last long enough to have weight or a sense of danger, and what are the rest of the team doing? Superboy watches a fuzzy TV and maybe makes out with Megan, who messes up a recipe. Wally goes to a birthday party. Artemis argues with her mom about switching schools. Where's the "omigod, we almost died out there?" reaction? Where's the "maybe it is good we have Batman or Red Tornado to have our back", or why it isn't, reaction? Nothing. It's over and done with. Well, if was going to be that little of a big deal, then it very well should have been a training exercise. The episode would have literally been in no way different.
If the show itself refuses to take a mission seriously and deal with the ramifications, why should I do it for them?
No, the opening was the way it was because it fit into the formula, and I think that is the show's biggest flaw. For a production team that made their fame by bucking the rules, "YOUNG JUSTICE" sticks to too many of them. Greg Weisman has stated a few times that the show came together very "last minute" by some TV standards, and I think some of the scripts are showing some rush. Not that they're bad; they just don't seem to have that "effortless home run" quality that TSSM had. I sense more "going through the motions" with YJ, or at least I think I do. The fact that Weisman and Company can go through the motions and play every TV Trope there is dead straight and STILL average a third of an opening season that averages a B+/A- grade is a testament to their ability to execute and to write characters well, and their imagination with their world. I was probably just expecting an average grade of A/A+ by now, and didn't expect to miss "AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES" quite as much.