REVIEWS

Episode #63 - What Goes Up... Original Airdate - February 16th, 2008 When Shadow Thief teams up with Black Mask to steal an entire building, Hawkman arrives in Gotham to give Batman an assist. Review by Stu Media by Warner Bros. Animation, The World's Finest Credits Written by Alexx Van Dyne Directed by Christopher Berkeley Music by Thomas Chase Jones Animation by Lotto Animation Voices Rino Romano as The Batman/Bruce Wayne Evan Sabara as Robin/Dick Grayson James Remar as Black Mask Robert Patrick as Hawkman Deidrich Bader as Shadow Thief/Sands Peter Jessop as Curator Lex Lang as Tech 2 Rob Clotworthy as Warden John Mariano as Number 1 Images   Review: This episode sees Batman and Robin team up with another superhero to fight their arch nemesis – it’s not exactly the most original of plots and to be honest, most of what is here has been done before in this season – out of the numerous team ups we’ve had, none of them have really come close to the season opener with Superman. Superman is a much more interesting character than Green Lantern, Flash and Hawkman and this season has shown it. As with the rest of the season, the episode isn’t bad it’s just that we’ve seen this formula a little too much this season, it’s starting to wear thin. Something different would’ve been appreciated but alas, I’m here to review what we did see, not the episode I would’ve liked to. I admit to being ignorant when it comes to Hawkman’s complex comic book history and I didn’t really enjoy him that much in the Justice League Unlimited cartoon (I actually thought Hro Talek was much, much more interesting than the real Hawkman). I like the slightly redone Hawkman design and there was some cool visuals behind Shadow Thief but to be honest, even though it’s his spotlight, Hawkman doesn’t steal the show here. That honour goes to Black Mask. When they first announced that Black Mask would be appearing in season four, I didn’t think that much to it. He’s not a villain I dislike but he’s not one of my favourites either – he was just one of Batman’s more obscure villains from the comics to me. This show’s version, however, is outstanding. He’s got everything right – the visual is great (that none moving jaw just works – I can’t explain why, but it’s brilliant), the casting is superb and his dialogue and character is spot on – I especially like the recurring “You! You’re my new number one!” line. A lot of The Batman’s villains are under whelming or underdeveloped but Black Mask isn’t among them – he is one of the show’s top villains, just behind The Riddler and Dracula in my opinion. With this being the last team up before the big finale with the Justice League, I’m hoping we see something really special for the show’s final story. With this season being the last one, I hope we get to go out with a bang rather than a whimper – despite a shocking start, the show deserves to go out on a high note. [ Back to Reviews ]

 

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