Metajets

Metajets is a 2009 action animated series written by Peter Lenkov. It is another in a string of Canadian series borrowed by Cartoon Network. In 2067, ten years after the Black Cloud war, the world's most powerful cities have been sent to the skies. When the world is in danger, four young flying aces competing in the A.R.C. (Aeronautical Racing Circuit), become the elite flying team known as the Metajets. Under the command of Captain George Strong, chairman of the A.R.C., the pilots work in secret, transforming their race jets into battle jets.

The four pilots consist of:


 * Johnny Miller, codename Ace, the protagonist and the Rookie Red Ranger pilot. Formerly a farm-boy from Oklahoma, Johnny is investigating the death / disappearance of his father (a former Metajets pilot). Less than subtly implied to have a crush on Maggie.
 * Trey Jordan, codename Burner, the cool Jive Turkey-talking pilot, and field leader of the Metajets team While he's the most competitive and successful A.R.C. racer of the four, when it comes to Metajets business, he's strictly professional.
 * Maggie Strong, codename Foxtrot, the daughter of Captain Strong and the only female Metajets pilot. She is level-headed and often the voice of reason amongst the team. Although she has a no-dating-teammates rule, it's subtly implied that she has a crush on Johnny.
 * Zak Kim, codename Vector, the overlooked Ace Pilot and the youngest member of the Metajets team. A Gadgeteer Genius, Zak loves music and video games and cannot fly without music.

The biggest threat to the Metajets pilots is the re-surging Black Cloud organization led by the evil General Raven.

Tropes related to the series:

 * Ace Pilot
 * After the End: Subtle but something is not right when during a quick pan on New York, it shows the city built stories above sea level, and the ocean is up to Lady Liberty's knees.
 * In "Razor's Edge," it's revealed that most of the major cities have been flooded by rising sea levels due to global warming, which has made most of the world's population live in flying cities. The exception is London, which has massive walls to hold back the water instead.
 * Airborne Aircraft Carrier: Everyone seems to have one.
 * Anime Hair: Zak's is the most blatant example. At least, until Razor is introduced.
 * Animesque: Quite blatantly with the design, along with the genre which is borrowed from anime shows. It seems they borrowed some QUALITY as well.
 * Annoying Younger Sibling: Not without reason, Zak thinks that his sister, Torissa "Tori" Kim, is one.
 * The Bad Guy Wins: Captain Strong interprets the end of "End of the Line" this way.
 * "The Fortress" has
 * Becoming the Mask: Captain Strong in "Lady in Red" is prepared in case this happens to Ace.
 * The Cavalry: In "End Game, Part Two,"
 * Chekhov's Gun: A lot of items and people in earlier episodes come back and play a part in later episodes.
 * Conspicuous CGI: The Metajets themselves. Though not nearly as glaring as other shows.
 * Cutting the Knot: In "Under the Ice," when Vector says it'll take a while to find the right access code to open the door to the abandoned research facility, Burner just blows the door open with a good shot from his snowmobile cannon.
 * Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: So far all we have seen the most of is Viper and Raven's very obvious low-tech cybernetics.
 * It also seems there is a bit of No Transhumanism Allowed, but not because it's evil but because cybernetics is still something new so no one really know how to classify augmented humans.
 * Dr. Nova's more advanced cybernetics feature in two episodes. Since the upgraded people are susceptible to Mind Control by the doctor...
 * Did Not Do the Research: In-universe example: in "The Phantom Fleet", a group of phantom propeller-driven fighters (which appear to be P-51 Mustangs) are consistently referred to as "ghost jets". Perhaps in the year 2067, nobody remembers that non-jet airplanes once existed?
 * Disproportionate Retribution: 's actions in "Grounded!" could be viewed as this. The reason? She punched  while escaping from Black Cloud's airship in "Opening Day" and got  in trouble with General Raven.
 * Part of General Raven's motivation is getting revenge for being drummed out of the A.R.C. by Captain Strong 10 years ago. In "Boiling Point", he decides to mark the anniversary of his removal by, just because there's an A.R.C. race happening there at the time.
 * Carmone Fontaine, the crime boss doing business with Black Cloud in "One of the Family." Angry over Johnny not throwing the race in favor of his son Doug, he . General Raven, of all people, calls him out on this, and.
 * In "Vanishing Point," General Raven sends out an entire armada (larger than there'd previously been any evidence that Black Cloud even had) to destroy an island to kill one scientist for betraying him.
 * Double Agent: In "Attack of the Drones,"
 * Enemy Mine: Metajets and Black Cloud team up in "High Impact" to destroy three meteors that will wipe out the human race.
 * Again in "The Island of Dr. Nova" on a smaller scale: Ace and Crusher are forced to work together when they're stranded on the titular island, to take down the titular doctor.
 * In "Lady in Red," Ace and team up to take on the Scarlet Circle before returning to shooting at each other.
 * The End or Is It: The ending of "Under the Ice".
 * Again with "Eye of the Swarm".
 * Energy Beings: The antagonist of "Under the Ice."
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Razor in "Razor's Edge" draws the line at killing innocent people while trying to force London to grow skyward.
 * had a unique device that could shut down any and all electronics at the touch of a button. Despite being, he only used it on a small scale to escape the police, because at full power it was far too dangerous even for him.
 * Evil Counterpart: The, a trio of criminals flying newer, more advanced transforming jets designed by the same man who designed the Metajets.
 * Face Heel Turn: at the end of "Deep Secrets." In "Sky-Riders,"  Colt becomes the Metajets' enemy in "Moving Target" because of the bounty on Carmone Fontaine,
 * Fate Worse Than Death: In "End Game, Part Two,"
 * General Failure: General Raven, big time.
 * Good Colors Evil Colors: The Metajets team have bright-hued personalized paint jobs on their jets. Black Cloud jets are always jet black.
 * Hard Light: In "The Phantom Fleet,"
 * Heel Face Turn: in "Moving Target."
 * Hey Its That Voice: Zak is Dan, Owen, Trent, and Yang. Maggie is Julie.
 * The Red Baroness in "Lady in Red" is Lydia from the Beetlejuice cartoon, Jubilee, and Mira.
 * Logan in "Antarctic Invasion" is 6teen's Nikki and Corona.
 * Hidden Agenda Villain:
 * Human Popsicle: in "End Game, Part 2."
 * The Infiltration: In "Lady in Red," Ace infiltrates the Scarlet Circle as the Grim Flyer.
 * Intrepid Reporter: Sylvia Saxfield in "Gone in 0.6 Seconds."
 * Kid Hero: The Metajets are all in their teens.
 * Kill Sat: In "The Pyramid Scheme," General Raven adapts the ground-based Lost Superweapon he locates into one by launching a reflector satellite to redirect the Wave Motion Gun's blasts back to Earth.
 * Large Ham: Raven IT IS GENERAL RAVEN NOW!!
 * Law of Chromatic Superiority: Follows the general mecha rule regarding red.
 * Lost Superweapon: In "The Pyramid Scheme," the is revealed to be a gigantic Wave Motion Gun. It was apparently meant to be a defense against alien invasion, or at least aerial attack.
 * Mad Scientist: Dr. Nova.
 * Mecha Mooks: Black Cloud likes its Attack Drones and in large numbers.
 * The Mole: Captain Strong believes that there's one on the World Council working for Black Cloud, In "The Island of Dr. Nova,"   infiltrates the Scarlet Circle in "Lady in Red" to capture the group's leader, the Red Baroness.
 * Not My Driver: Black Cloud pulls this on Griffin Hawksmoore at the beginning of "The Fortress."
 * Obstructive Bureaucrat: The President of the World Council looks like he'll be this, based on the end of "Sky Hard". His incredibly stupid actions in "End Game, Part 1" confirm it.
 * Papa Wolf: Captain Strong.
 * Paper Thin Disguise: The heroes' Metajets outfits aren't exactly the greatest disguises ever conceived, but the jets themselves are the real problem. Nobody notices that they have the exact same color schemes as four of the top A.R.C. pilots' racing jets? Really? Not even General Raven, ? The fact that music-obsessed Zak's jet uses sound-based weapons in its combat form doesn't exactly help either.
 * In one episode Maggie dresses up in Burner's clothes (he and Ace having broken protocal to rescue his parents) and Capt Strong comes in on 'him' fixing his jet. She does a good job of just grunting and not actually trying to speak but she gives a thumbs up at one point. Aparently Capt. Strong didn't notice that his Token Black Teamate was now White.
 * Visible Invisibility might explain the costumes, if the visor's are like tinted glass an you can't see in but everyone can see out then the only thing the Black Cloud (and Ace's mother) would have to go on is the shape of the pilot's mouth and voice, (and Ace did change his voice when talking to his mother)
 * Put On a Bus: "The Island of Dr. Nova" ends with Dr. Nova trapped on a disabled satellite which won't fall back to Earth for a few decades. Effectively writing out of the show a villain who would've easily conquered the world if not for Ace and Crusher having the dumb luck to crash on his island.
 * Quirky Miniboss Squad: Flygirl, Crusher and Viper.
 * Screwed By the Network: It remains to be seen whether the series will be renewed for a second season. But Cartoon Network giving sticking it in a 6 AM weekday timeslot, when most of the target audience is asleep, couldn't have helped the ratings. Nor could the complete lack of advertising and the fact that the whole series got only a single run; if you missed an episode, you're just out of luck.
 * Ship Tease: Johnny and Maggie. Just look at how either of them reacts when the other shows the slightest hint of possible interest in somebody else.
 * Also, Maggie and Cane in the latter's two appearances.
 * Made even more blatant at the end of "Antarctic Invasion" and during the "End Game" two-parter. The latter includes
 * Skunk Stripe: General Raven, goes nice with the goatee.
 * Sky Pirate: Cane and his caravan in "Pirates of the Sky," although they only target rich tourists. In "Night of the Living Carrier," they've given up their pirating ways and have limited themselves to scavenging through wrecks for parts.
 * The Starscream: Viper.
 * Status Quo Is God: In "The Island of Dr. Nova", Ace seems to be on the verge of convincing Crusher to make a Heel Face Turn. A series of plot contrivances at the end of the episode leave Crusher with the false impression that Ace betrayed him, erasing all the good will that had been built up during their team-up.
 * Stock Footage: The Transformation Sequences.
 * Street Urchin: "The Island of Dr. Nova" reveals that Crusher used to be this. The old skills come in handy against the Eviler Than Thou Dr. Nova.
 * Dee in "Gone in 0.6 Seconds."
 * Technology Porn
 * Temporary Blindness: Crusher suffers from this in "The Island of Dr. Nova." Convenient, as it allows Ace to maintain his Secret Identity despite having his face exposed.
 * Weather Control Machine: The cause of the conflict in "Antarctic Invasion," although it's being developed to help the world, not destroy it.
 * Well Intentioned Extremist: Razor in "Razor's Edge." The Anarchitechs want London to modernize by growing skyward and resort to tactics ranging from grafitti to planting bombs on the wall protecting London from floods. In "Attack of the Drones,"
 * Why Did It Have to Be Snakes: General Raven is the leader of the evil Black Cloud and spends most of his time in their airship, yet he is shown to be so afraid to fly jets that he chokes any time he gets in a cockpit. Even in simulators.
 * "The Phantom Fleet" reveals that Trey has a fear of ghosts.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Logan in "Antarctic Invasion."
 * You Have Failed Me: General Raven does a lot of the lead-up but never follows through with his threats. Viper actually calls him out at one point which leads to the revelation about General Raven's fear of flying.
 * In "End Game, Part 2,"
 * In "End Game, Part 2,"