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The Winning Edge

Episode #05 - The Winning Edge
Original Airdate - April 10th, 1999

A new Venom-derived drug is being used by some of Hamilton Hill High School's students, and Bruce sends Terry to uncover the truth of who's behind it.

Media by Bird Boy and James Harvey
Review by Tim "Two-Face" Leighton
Credits:
Written by Rich Fogel
Directed by Butch Lukic
Music by Kristopher Carter
Animation by Koko / Dong Yang

Voices:
Will Friedle as Terry McGinnis/Batman
Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne
Peter Jason as Coach Creager
Teri Garr as Mary McGinnis
Lauren Tom as Dana Tan
Yvette Lowenthal as Chelsea Cunningham
Ryan O'Donohue as Matt McGinnis
Ian Ziering as Mason Forrest
Dave Wlash as Dirk
Marc Worden as Jody
Larry Drake as Jackson Chappell
Bruce Timm as Jokerz Leader
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Pans


 
Review

Put bluntly, this episode is about drug abuse and the addiction it causes. I applaud the "Beyond" crew for tackling this issue - and it didn't turn out to be a cheesy after school special in the end, either.

Sports games at Hamilton Hill High School have become a lot more violent in recent weeks. Why? The coach is encouraging his team to use drugs known as "Slappers" - a type of super-steroids - so their performance is maximized, giving them "The Winning Edge". Soon after, while Terry (as Batman) is on patrol, he sees a trio of theives break into an electronics store; he defeats them, and learns the identity of one of them - a kid named Mason, from his school.

Terry watches Mason and discovers that he is doing business with someone providing these Slappers. He manages to acquire one from his locker at the gym; his mother finds out, and thinks that Terry is doing these drugs, soonafter grounding him. Meanwhile, Bruce has run a scan on one of the patches and discovers that they contain a chemical known as "Venom".

Hint, hint.

So, this is where Bane makes his entrance. Apparently, he's been out of prison for 20 years, and Bruce has been keeping tabs on him ever since. Terry arrives, and sees that Bane is no longer the man we once knew; he's virtually a vegetable (no Ivy pun here), hooked up to a respirator and, due to his addiction to Venom over the years, he requires it just to survive. Bane was the only one that knew the Venom formula - so he's obviously passed it on to someone else. But who?

The next time Mason acquires the drugs, Terry follows the person that gave them to him, only to find himself at the old Gotham Herald building (I thought the newspaper was called something else...) There, he meets the man behind it all and has a huge fight with 'im.

Why did I like this episode? Good animation, good plot, good realistic theme that applies to society today. It seems that I can appreciate the episodes that focus on high school life much more easily here - first "Golem", and now this - I guess it's because these themes and situations transcend time, and, being out of high school for quite some time, I've experienced these situations either first or second hand. It was also nice to see that we had a more normal villain here; if Bane somehow revived just so Terry would fight someone "formidable", I'd be really disappointed.

Overall, good episode.

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