| Review "…A team of Gotham’s greatest villains to do the job we haven’t been able to do alone—clip the Bat-jerk’s wings permanently. Now that is a blueprint for success." This episode starts off kind of flimsy with Penguin drawing his inspiration from a movie that is apparently a hybrid of The Italian
Job and Ocean’s Eleven, and while it’s not the level of awesome the season premiere was at, it managed to keep things fun. You can’t go wrong with an occasional episode featuring a myriad of villains. "Team Penguin is not up for debate." The Master of Fowl Play’s team gave us a second look at Ragdoll and
Killer Croc and I must say both were stronger in their second outing where they were not the total focus. Ragdoll fit nicely as part of the team and his witty demeanor was perhaps a bit better in small doses. It kept him fresher and more interesting. Last time he had
Catwoman to back him up; I question whether the contortionist criminal could carry the evil half of the plot all by himself. And I must say I loved Ron Pearlman returning as Killer Croc. I honestly don’t recall having such positive feelings about the character last time, but the accent really worked for him and one would expect to find a crocodile in the Southern bayou so it more than fits. There may have only been room for one ‘Killer’, but Killer Moth was fun debut as Jeff Bennett pulled double-duty. I don’t know much about the character, but he was some great comic relief as the loser who figured being taken into the fraternity of Gotham criminals was his best shot at acceptance. Moth’s commentary on his mission to deliver the chemicals and the coffee was very telling as to his mind-set. His transformation made him imposing and powerful, but it’s clear the same brain is inside that insect head. The defeat of Team Penguin was well-executed, just as Firefly, Croc and Ragdoll were recruited for their skills, The Batman and company used their special talents against them to take all three of them (plus Penguin and Moth) down. After his excellent debut in season one, it was nice seeing Bane make another appearance, albeit a short one. The visual of grabbing
Robin in one hand and Batgirl is the other was impressive image as the juniors began their little conflict. So, Batgirl found out who The Batman was kind of quick, huh? While it did seem kind of a haphazard moment, I honestly don’t think keeping Barbara in the dark would have worked very well. Now that
Robin is in the picture, the conflict of Batgirl not actually being
Batman’s partner immediately loses strength. Last season she was brought into "the loop" so the next step for Batgirl would be greater acceptance and trust from the Dark Knight. With the Dynamic
Duo now a part of the show, it would have been more difficult to have Batgirl "flying solo" in the face of the other two. We’ll see how things develop, but at this moment in time, it was the best move. It could develop into kind of a playful rivalry between the two. The compliment-criticism argument Robin and Batgirl had after the villains had been defeated was entertaining. The Batman just smiled as if to say, "Ah, kids."
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