REVIEWS

Episode #60 - The Metalface of Comedy Original Airdate - December 15th, 2007 An unusual accident causes Joker's personality to be downloaded into a nanite entity, and the digitized Joker is even more threatening than the original. Review by Stu Media provided by Warner Bros. Animation Credits Written by Alexx Van Dyne Directed by Vinton Heuck Music by Thomas Chase Jones Animation by Dongwoo Animation Co., LTD. Voices Rino Romano as The Batman/Bruce Wayne Evan Sabara as Robin/Dick Grayson Kevin Michael Richardson as The Joker Hynden Walch as Harley Quinn Jerry O'Connell as Nightwing Diedrich Bader as Captain Slash Patton Oswalt as Marty Slack Screen Grabs Review: The Joker returns again in this Justice League-less episode and once again, you wonder begin to wonder why… the sheer number of Joker episodes we’ve had shoved down our throats is a problem in itself, but the main point is, the majority of the other villains in the show are much better than The Joker, whose episode now tend to be filler or clichéd stories. This episode, while still slightly enjoyable tends to be an unfortunate mix of both. There’s been some exceptional high quality Joker episodes through The Batman’s run, most of them taking place in the second season and last season’s brilliant twisted Two Of A Kind which finally gave us Harley Quinn’s introduction but as said above, some of them are just pointless. It’s disappointing to see this season receive yet another Joker episode when we’ve not seen the return of The Riddler, the introduction of The Mad Hatter or that Robin focused episode I’ve been longing for since A Matter Of Family to mention but a few. Regardless, we have another Joker episode on our hands; I should probably watch it before I start berating it. This episode sees Joker become digital which pretty much goes against the characters very core which is thankfully acknowledged in the episode rather than just altering the character for the sake of a somewhat tired plot device. There’s a few interesting moments here, but there’s nothing remarkable – as said above, this episode is strictly filler which seems odd in itself given how the end may very well be nigh come this season’s finale. Harley makes a return to the show and doesn’t really do anything memorable (much like The Joker himself) which is a shame, I loved her origin episode and it’s disappointing to see her resorted to a stand in. Robin and Batgirl also appear but don’t really do anything of merit either. At least Batgirl managed to refrain from annoying the hell out of me… it seems they have toned her down slightly, or better yet, realised that she can work fine in small doses when the audience isn’t having her shoved down her throart. I’m still loving this show’s version of Robin too – adding him was the best decision this show ever made, bar none. It gave the kids someone to relate to and allowed Batman to basically become more like The Batman you wanted to see him be in the first three seasons. Not to mention the chemistry between this version of Batman and Robin is probably the best we’ve seen in animation, or at least since the days of The Adventures of Batman and Robin. The original Batman: The Animated Series worked better with Batman on his own, the aforementioned TAOBAR was beyond brilliant but The New Batman Adventures floundered by having too many sidekicks (Batgirl again!) and a rather redundant Nightwing which was a shame – animated Tim Drake was such a likeable character with the greatest Robin costume ever. I think though, with this new version of Robin here in The Batman, we can crown a new champion (even including the superlative Robin from Teen Titans). Overall, the episode can simply be classed as filler. It has no real reason to exist beyond offering 22 minutes of entertainment, which it achieved, in fairness. This isn’t one I’ll be rushing to watch again (whereas I am eagerly anticipating seeing most of the season 4 episodes again on DVD when Santa drops it under my Christmas tree). But, if we must see The Joker again, can we please give him something meaningful to do? [ Back to Reviews ]

 

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