REVIEWS

Episode #62 - The End of The Batman Original Airdate - February 9th, 2008 Batman and Robin meet their criminal twins, Wrath and Scorn, a dynamic duo dedicated to helping villains. Matters get even more complicated when Batman and Wrath uncover each other's secret identity. Review by Stu Media provided by Warner Bros. Animation Credits Written by Robert Goodman 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 Alastair Duncan as Alfred Tom Kenny as The Penguin Kevin Michael Richardson as The Joker Ron Perlman as Killer Croc Dan Castellaneta as Scarface Chris Gorham as Will Mallery/Wrath Daryl Sabara as Andy/Scorn Kathryn Fiore as Sally Galt Screen Grabs Review: This was certainly a strange episode – one of the biggest complaints I’ve had about The Batman since the start was that none of the villains are challenging to Batman and a lot of them have poor motivation, if any. I admit to having never heard of Wrath before, but I thought the idea of an evil Batman could be very interesting as alternate universe/evil versions of our heroes often give us the opportunity to examine why our hero does what he does and create character defining moments – we’ve somewhat seen this done before with this version of Batman in the Dracula DTV and it’s still one of, if not the show’s strongest story/villain. It was also done exceptionally well in Justice League Unlimited with the Justice Lords and Spider-Man: The Animated Series finale when Peter faced Spider-Carnage in Farewell Spider-Man. The problem is that Wrath and Scorn’s motivation makes absolutely no sense – why would their parents hate Batman and everything he stands for? They were jewel thieves sure but there’s no reason for them to hate Batman and Robin specifically – it probably would’ve made a lot more sense had Batman been responsible for catching them initially but their motivation is a little too random for my liking. It’s also the cause of a massive plot hole – Scorn should probably be a lot older than he’s shown in the episode. This motivation needed to be thought through a little clearer than it actually was. It was a little too jarring watching the rest of the episode and there was something off about it’s pacing – I think this an episode that could’ve greatly benefited from a rewrite and being lengthened into a two part episode. There was a lot of great potential here but most of it is unfortunately squandered – there’s a brilliant episode ready to burst out here but it never quite becomes as good as it should be. I had to admit to rolling my eyes when The Joker popped up again. I remember thinking I genuinely might have seen the last of him when Two Of A Kind came along but he’s appeared nearly half a dozen times since then, unfortunately none of them have added much of anything to his character and just add to his overexposure. It’s a shame – when he’s used well, this version of The Joker can be pretty entertaining – he has starred in the some of the show’s finest episodes – Strange Minds, The Laughing Bat, the aforementioned Two Of A Kind and the remarkably good Dracula DTV but he’s also been shoved into far too many filler episodes – this season included. I did like seeing the rest of the villains again – I get a kick out of Dan Castellena as Scarface and this show’s version of Killer Croc has grown on me. I especially liked his crack at the possibility of this being another Team Penguin, it was a nice nod to the show’s better days. I know I’ve mentioned it before but this episode proves it – the staging of the fight scenes is still just as good as it ever was. I’ve been impressed with them since the beginning and they aren’t losing any steam here. To say the cartoons aren’t allowed to be violent on this network, it’s worth noting how good they are – a lot of the cartoons I watched when I was a kid weren’t allowed to be violent either but you can barely notice it with this cartoon. Even the laser guns don’t seem as tacked on. Whatever problems the team’s writers have, the visuals have usually made up for it – the show is always exciting to watch. In summary, an entertaining but very jarring episode that doesn’t quite live up to it’s potential. [ Back to Reviews ]

 

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