Review Is that the smell of burnt Gorilla hair? It must be, as this episode leaves you hanging. Or rather, Grodd hanging. As Batman comes across a seemingly new villain proclaiming himself to be “Equinox,” the random foe has Grodd and the faceless Question hanging – literally – in peril. Now, this was a pretty interesting setup for this, especially as Equinox hits a button to begin lowering Grodd and Question into a pit of fire for the sake of “balance.” Taunting Batman to “choose” who to save, he simply walks away leaving the Dark Knight to immerse himself into the biggest copout of the show. How does Batman solve the dilemma, how does he halt the giant scale from lowering its helpless victims to their doom? He jumps on it. That’s right, he simply jumps on it and for absolutely no reason it stops. He then proceeds to simply untie the Question. Meanwhile in the foreground Grodd’s limbs are hanging over the edge, amongst the tips of a barrage of flames, and the two of them simply ignore the large lump of furriness as they leap into action after Equinox. Ironically, the scene ends in a fantastic way that continues on with the lack of fear of on-screen deaths – or what appear to be – as Equinox leads Batman and himself to fall to their assumed doom. Of course, anyone familiar with The main story of the episode fairs a bit better, but it’s still not any redemption from the disappointment brought on by the opening scene. Starting off with Batman waiting around for something he seems to not want to mention, he comes across the returning character Aquaman. Crying like a whale. Dreading the thought of his depressed friend joining him on his pending mission, he eventually gets around to inviting him. Makes sense. Finally, we see what Batman was waiting for, but anybody unfamiliar with the wonderful world of Adam Strange will be left absolutely dumbfounded as a huge beam takes Batman and Finally, they land, or rather fall upon the planet of Rann, a This is a very serious and current topic to include in a children’s show, but it still comes off as rather contrived as Aquaman’s depression is handled so immaturely. Conveniently, however, Aquman snaps out of it when Adam Strange begins acting depressed over not being able to rescue his wife, and decides that all is lost. Of course, somehow this also means that Aquaman has to come up with the plot to stop the invading force once and for all. Despite this, the idea was quite a brilliant one in using the bizarre transportation beam to bring a moon to the moon-less planet so the solar-powered ubership will somehow immediately lose power. If only there was some way to store power… Some device… Bah, too complex. I’m sure One problem with the moon bit, though (yeah, only one), in that for some bizarre reason they have to use Earth’s moon. This is problematic because Batman is said that even the slightest miscalculation will be devastating for the planet, but no reason is given as to why they simply can’t abdust one of the dozens of moons from the lifeless planets of the solar system. Overall, the main story is entertaining, but makes only a slight bit more sense the dreadful opening scene. Quite easily one of the most disappointing episodes of the show, and simply not a good way to start a second season. Then again, the first episodes of last season weren’t well liked either. [ Back to Reviews ] |
