Wednesday, July 06, 2016

Batman Beyond - Episodes 41-44 Reviews

A series of episodes where the past came back to haunt both the good and bad guys of this series in quite a way.

Episode 41: Untouchable


An interesting look at some Isotope technology as the main villain is someone who has managed to harness the stuff in order to make themselves fairly indestructible, much to Terry's annoyance. Amidst the episode, Terry also bonded with a young girl named Irene who also needed similar technology so she could go outdoors. There's a lovely sense of crossed wires as well as Terry mistakenly believes that Irene is romantically interested in him, only for the episode's resolution to reveal that she thinks of him more as a friend. 7/10

Episode 42: Inqueling


Unlike the likes of the Royal Flush Gang, Spellbinder or Shriek, there has been quite an episode distance since we've last seen Inque and this one was rather interesting. In this episode, she had to rely on her previously unmentioned daughter, Deanna in order to regain her strength and avoid both Batman and Winchell. Of course, it's Deanna who ends up becoming Inque's biggest problem as the episode demonstrates that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. It's quite an interesting episode, possibly Inque's strongest outing so far and there's potential with Deanna to return as an ongoing threat for Batman too if she can escape her mother's wrath. 8/10

Episode 43: Big Time


We had Inque's past come back to haunt her in the previous episode, so in this one we've got Terry's emerge when old juvie pal, Charlie or Big Time reappeared to get Terry to help him with a heist. When Terry had the sense to say no, his attempts of getting Charlie to go straight just ended up with the latter trying to steal on a bigger level. It's only when Charlie showed some physical side effects from a new type of plant fertilizer do things get a little more interesting. It's an okay episode and Charlie in his monstrous form is imposing enough but saying that, the episode is a bit weaker compared to the other batch I'm reviewing here. 6/10

Episode 44: Out Of The Past


Any episode or comic that has a writing from Paul Dini is usually going to go down well for me and this episode felt like the gift that kept on giving. First of all, the opening sequence where Bruce and Terry (for the former's birthday) attend a Batman musical to the moment where Bruce broods in the Batcave over pictures of Zatanna Zatara, Lois Lane, Selina Kyle/Catwoman and Barbara Gordon, the nods to the past are superb. Then an unsurprisingly ageless Talia Al Gul shows up and offers Bruce the ultimate birthday present - immortality. Bruce accepts the gift and when he decides to change his mind, it's revealed that Ras has actually taken over Talia's body (now that's messed up on way too many levels) and plans to take over Bruce's and inherit his money and so on, until Terry dons his Batman costume and rescue Bruce from that horrible fate. For a return episode, this was an inventive and creepy way to bring back both Talia and Ras and the last scene in the Batcave is wonderfully poignant. A superb episode. 10/10

Next blog I'll look into Speak No Evil, The Call Parts 1 & 2 and Betrayal.

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