To say I was disappointed in this week’s episode of Batman, The Brave and the Bold is not necessarily an accurate description of the program. I actually consider B&theB to be one of the finest shows on the air, and as this installment demonstrates, even a sub-par effort by this team, is still far more entertaining than anything the gang over at The Vampire Diaries are capable of giving us.
Perhaps they set the bar a little too high for me this week. Not only did they have to follow up the genius of the cartoon Batman musical love story, “The Mayhem of the Music Meister,” they also started this episode off with a rare glimpse of The Catwoman.
Now I have always has a love of the felonious feline fatale, and there was none better then a crazy sexy Julie Newmar. Setting up the pre-credits Batman screen with the classic green-caped, purple-skirtted, cat-cowled villainess and watching the possibly deadly flirtations game of cat and bat being played out in front of us, as well as a justifiably antsy Green Arrow, just made me want more of this Newmar-inspired temptress. Loved the cat-costumed henchmen too.
This week’s main scoundrel however was the rage-feeding, psychic vampire, the Psycho Pirate. I’ve never been a big fan of this particular rogue, and this episode didn’t make me any fonder of him. Maybe he’s just not the right villain for Batman, or maybe I just don’t buy into him. But you can’t dangle Catwoman in front of me and then expect me to settle happily for the Psycho Pirate.
Of course, as I said, this is one of the best programs on the air, and even if I wasn’t as intrigued about a 2nd rate Freddy Krueger as I was about a seductive bad girl with thigh high boots and a whip, there were still plenty of highlights.
The color palette alone in Katana’s dream sequence was impressive. Katana bathed in pinks and purples, Batman in cold blues, Takahiro in yellow, with the hate-baiting bad guy in flaming oranges and red. If that entire sequence was nothing else, it was a lesson in color theory for all graphic artists.
Next we visit what we’re led to believe is the darkly damaged psyche of the Outsider’s resident hothead, Black Lightning. In a humorous, even though telegraphed switcheroo, we come to find out that the deep root of Lightning’s anger issues are all fairly shallow. Nothing our pal Batman can’t handle of course, but when Yuri the Unicorn makes it clear he wants to give BL a warm happy hug, the Caped Crusader realizes he needs to end this situation soon, because Metamorpho’s dream is going to be a handful.
It comes as no surprise that a creature who can command the molecules of his body to transform from gas to liquid to solid would be a fairly redoubtable foe, especially when his emotions are being played by a particularly psycho pirating puppeteer.
Working as a team our adventurers help ol’ Morpho realize who is pulling the strings, and just as suddenly Batman realizes he too has fallen a victim to the Pirate’s perverse psychic plunderings.
The Psycho Pirate soon senses his own impending doom, as he recognizes our pointy eared champion has come up with a sure fire way to conquer the anger-syphoning heavy.
Batman, being Batman, is more than capable of breaking bad guys bones all the while going into his secret happy place.
Where is Batman’s secret happy place the Outsiders whisper amongst each other? My guess? It has a lot to do with a certain whip-wielding, boot-wearing bad girl.
Joe Oesterle is an award-winning writer and illustrator, but what he often fails to mention is that many of those awards were won on a New Jersey boardwalk. Pick up his latest books "Weird California" and "Weird Las Vegas" in any Barnes and Noble near you, and look for his next book, "Weird Hollywood," due out soon. www.JoeArtistWriter.com And be sure to check out a photo shoot he did with his good friend “Count Smokula.” http://joeartistwriter.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/count-smokula/
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