Batman: The Brave and the Bold – Reviews 06enteroutsiders

Enter the Outsiders!
Original Airdate – January 9th, 2009
In this week’s episode Batman and his mentor
Wildcat face off against a group of teens–the
Outsiders–whose violent pranks turn to criminal activity under the control of the evil Slug. Batman and
B’Wana Beast team up to take down Black Manta in teaser.

Written by Todd Casey
Directed by Michael Chang
Animation by Digital eMation, Inc.
Review by Andrew
Media provided by Warner Bros. Animation

Cast
Diedrich Bader as Batman
Andy Miller as B’wana Beast
Vyvan Pham as Kitana
R. Lee Ermey as Wildcat
Bumper Robinson as Black Lightning
Alex Polinsky as Slug
Scott Menville as Metamorpho

Music
Theme Written and Performed by Andy Strumer
Music by Michael McCuisition, Lolita Ritmanis,
Kristopher Carter

Media

Video
Clips

Review
This has to be one of the most disappointing episodes I have seen so far for this series, as not only is it incredibly random but also polluted with horrid CGI that could almost belong in a “Sci-Fi Channel Original”
movie. Black Manta decides to take a violent romp through the city in a giant robotic machine and is pursued by our main man – the Batman – and the ever quirky B’Wana Beast. Of course, the episode actually opens on a close-up of a too-well drawn spider. Yeck.
Despite the randomness of using B’Wana Beast to stop
Black Manta’s dry-land excursion, he comes off as a very fun character as he makes several strange creatures out of living animals to aid his pursuit. These creations combine a spider (again, yeck) with a horse, and then a shark with a seagull. If they ever make a Sharkgull toy,
I am definitely buying one.

Unfortunately, despite the CGI being kept to the opening the rest of the episode doesn’t fare very well. Batman is joined with the legendary R. Lee Ermey as the vocals behind the also legendary Wildcat to stop a band of itty-bitty thugs from causing trouble. This tiny trio includes the first-time ever animated Black Lightning, the incredibly dumbed down Metamorpho and Yoda in the form of a small
Japanese girl named Katana. The trio are pursued by the dark-clad duo of Batman and Wildcat, leaving Wildcat to be hit by a shock from Black Lightning to which he later quips as a “static shock,” which I admit left me slightly confused as to which shock-jock it was supposed to be. Credits list it as Black Lightning, though.

The episode writing is rather erratic as it goes from Batman encouraging Wildcat that despite the elder age, he is still as great as ever. These are some nice moments, especially as Batman claims Wildcat has been something of a father figure towards the Dark Knight.
However, whenever a situation becomes inconvenient
Batman lives up to Wildcat’s fears and accuses him of being too old. Still, they both continue to pursue the trio into the sewers where the juveniles meet up with their slimy and original to the show boss named “Slug.”
In actuality though, he’s so ugly that slugs should be offended by the use. As Batman and Wildcat track them down they are eventually captured and are to be put to certain doom by being lowered into a pit of unknown-aged mutant evil turtles – I guess alligators were too cliché? Wildcat taunts his way out of this, however, as
Slug decides to get into a one-on-one fight with him.
Meanwhile, Batman is left to face the oversized turtles by himself.

They obviously come out victorious with Wildcat eventually defeating Slug through a never-ending dialogue and dumps him into the toxic green river of ooze, which Batman previously told him could horribly mutate a person or worse. Which, seems strange that Wildcat nor Batman would have any qualms about exposing a person to – even if they are so horribly mutated already. Instead of taking the brat-pack into custody, however, they show pity on their situation and
Wildcat decides to take on the responsibility of being a more positive influence towards, and mentors them at his gym. Overall leaving the episode attempting to be heartfelt, but it really falls flat due to the convenience of the teens apparently just accepting the mentorship of anyone that gives them the time of day.

Still, despite the let-downs of this episode – especially compared to the ones before it – it is worth at least one watch to hear the powerful and awesome voice of R. Lee Ermey as the underrated and under-used
Wildcat.

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