Hard as Nails
Episode #27 (385-851) - Hard as Nails
Original Airdate - January 25th, 2003 - Third Season Premiere
Static travels to Gotham City to rescue Nails, a school girl friend
of his who has fallen in with Harley and Ivy, who are promising to
cure her of her Bang Baby affliction.
Media by Bird Boy, James Harvey
Review by Matt Zimmer |
Credits:
Supervising Producer Alan Burnett
Producer Denys Cowan, Swinton O. Scott III
Associate Producer Bobbie Page
Written by Paul Dini
Directed by (Uncredited)
Music by Richard "Wolfie" Wolf
Animation by Dong Woo Animation Co., LTD.
Voices:
Phil LaMarr as Virgil Hawkins/Static
Jason Marsden as Richie Foley
Kevin Conroy as Batman / Bruce Wayne
Robert Costanzo as Detective Bullock
Bob Hastings as Commissioner Gordon
T'Keyah Crystal Keymah as Allie / Nails
Diane Pershing as Poison Ivy
Crystal Scales as Daisy
Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn
Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Alfred
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Review
Static teams up with Batman again, this time in Gotham City to help a
troubled runaway.
The episode opens in Gotham city with Static chasing a girl called Allie
who now goes by the name of Nails. He recalls that Allie had been acting
strange at school and how he and Richie discovered she was a Bang Baby
and that she had run off to meet some people over the internet who
claimed they could help her. Batman arrives and captures her and tells
Static he can take it from there, saying that he knows who Allie was
going to meet. Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn show up and trap Static and
Batman in trees and take off with Allie.
Batman rescues himself and Static and takes Static back to the Batcave.
Meanwhile Harley and Ivy tell Nails that they have come up with a cure
for the Bang Baby gas and will give it to her if she does some jobs for
them. Later Static awakens being tended to by Alfred. He sees Batman
working at the computer and learns that Batman knows he is Virgil
Hawkins because his student I.D. badge slipped out of his costume.
Batman wants to take down Allie hard but Virgil argues saying she's just
a mixed up kid. Batman tells Static that they'll do it Static's way for
now but that if Nails hurts anybody she's going down with Harley and
Ivy. Virgil is also annoyed that Batman has him blind-folded when they
leave the Batcave. Meanwhile Harley and Ivy are having Nails perform
heists of gold bars from banks. Allie say she doesn't want to do this
anymore and they give her the formula which turns out to be nail polish
and kick her off the boat they were traveling in. Batman and Static
arrive and save Nails and capture Harley and Ivy. At the end Allie is
sent to a treatment facility to get better funded by Bruce Wayne who
tells Virgil that he's earned his share of trust as he is taken away by
Alfred, revealing to Static his secret identity.
I love the dynamic between Static and Batman and it was never better
than in this episode. We see Virgil still intimidated by the Bat but
working up the nerve to question him and even challenge him. I like how
it evolved to the point where Batman sees him as a colleague in "A
League of Their Own" and "Future Shock". I think it's cool that despite
only four or five appearances on the show Batman's relationship with
Static kept evolving and changing. I've seen complaints that Batman
would NEVER let Static know his secret identity after only working with
him twice. Yeah, because Paul Dini, who wrote the episode has NO clue
what Batman would or wouldn't do.
We got a lot of little fanboy moments in the episode like Batman
mentioning that Robin was with the Titans (the episode was written
before Dini knew the series wasn't in continuity. Sue him) and hearing
Alfred using street slang. I personally thought the funniest part of the
episode was Detective Bullock wondering what the heck Robin did to his
hair.
The episode wasn't perfect however. Surprisingly the scenes with Harley
and Ivy were kind of weak. It makes sense that Dini would use them as
they ARE creepy enough to lure a teen on-line but their dialogue was
somewhat stilted and Harley's jokes were more unfunny than usual.
I did like Static's new costume however. The new theme song by Lil'
Romeo took a little getting used to but at least we now have a Brainiac
robot in the credits! I was also pleased to see Batman's universe was
pretty much on model the entire episode after the characters looking
funny in The Big Leagues. I have to say out of all of the Static Shock
DCAU crossovers this was one of the best and I remember how excited I
was when I first watched it. A great episode.
Story: *****
Animation: ****1/2
Average: *****
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