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Death Race to Oblivion!
Original Airdate - November 20, 2009
Mongul holds Earth ransom, forcing it's greatest
heroes--and villains!--to race for the planet's
survival. It's a crooked bargain wherein even if
Batman wins, he dooms his fellow heroes--if the
villains don't doom them first!
Written
by Greg Weisman
Directed by Michael Goguen
Animation by
Digital eMation, Inc.
Review by Andrew
Media by Warner Bros. Animation |
Cast
Diedrich Bader as Batman
Jeff Bennett as Joker / Captain Marvel
Tom
Kenny as Plastic Man
Kevin Michael Richardson
as Steppenwolf
Stephen Root as Woozy
Tara
Strong as Huntress / Billy Batson
James
Arnold Taylor as Green Arrow / Guy Gardner
Gary Anthony Williams as Mongul / Blockbuster
Music
Theme Written and Performed by Andy Strumer
Music by Michael McCuisition, Lolita Ritmanis,
Kristopher Carter |
Media
Video
Clip
Review
Fortunately, due to the indisputable success of season
1, we have inevitably reached season 2 of Batman: Brave
and the Bold. A bit of a quirky launch due to only the
first episode having been shown, with no known dates of
the rest of season 2 episodes, but it’s here and for
that we’re glad. Not making light of the second season,
“Death Race to Oblivion” quickly introduces a hero that
has survived his legal woes-laden life in the form of a
cult classic; Captain Marvel (child Billy Batson) is
brought in for the teaser of this episode as Blockbuster
interrupts Billy’s class fieldtrip. This quick crime
bust answers the question you’ve either always wondered,
thought of once but quickly forgot, or never even came
close to conceiving it within your mind; how does Batman
fight a child? The answer is, of course, he doesn’t!
Instead, the pint-sized brainy villain with a capability
to enlarge his body into a bulky, brainless muscle-bound
foe is faced off against the child-zapped-hero Captain
Marvel. This classic hero and odd match-up makes for a
great debut to this second season!
In an entirely
different direction, the main story of the episode
doesn’t really go the way of introducing anybody new -
aside from a clumsy friend to the quirky Plastic Man.
Instead, Mongul is back and he’s got the need; the need
for speed. Pitting several heroes and villains against
one another with no real rhyme or reason as to who is
picked, they are ordered to race or their city of
origins will be destroyed, and they will be executed.
The winner receives ultimate power of Earth, so
naturally Batman is quite eager to win. Yes, it carries
out just as oddly as it sounds, but the ending is
refreshingly unpredictable. Although the episode doesn’t
succeed to capture an actual coherent race that keeps
you on the edge of your seat, it does manage to balance
a new side of Batman with hints of comedy thanks to the
Joker.
As each player is ousted from the race,
they are transported above into Mongul’s War Moon -
that’s a space station - and separated by whether
they’re hero or villain. Not quite the best strategy, as
the heroes come prepared with a plan that wasn’t quite
expected. Admittedly, up until this point I hadn’t been
enjoying the episode due to thinking they had completely
forgotten how to write Batman, as our legendary Crusader
is featured in a most alienating light - certainly
unexpected for this series. The episode ends with
returning everything to normal without a contrived
excuse of a wrap-up, and truly goes to show you that the
writers of this fine show still have plenty of fresh
ideas up their sleeves.
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