Batman:The Brave and The Bold ‘DAY OF THE DARK KNIGHT’

Episode 5: DAY OF THE DARK KNIGHT

I feel like a broken record, but my enjoyment of team up shows (comics) depends on who’s involved. With The Brave and The Bold it really matters because of the super kiddy feel of the show. Well this episode was a double check for me. The cold open team up featured Guy Gardner, my favorite jerk off Lantern. I have to admit my first reaction was, why the hell is Batman on Oa and why the hell would the Guardians ask an outsider to help keep their Lantern in check?  With that odd bit out of the way I settled in and enjoyed seeing Kilowog and a bunch of other Lanterns (Good old Salaak) show up.

This little opening dealt with Gardner’s attitude getting him into trouble when he tosses a cup of coffee on a small alien that turns larger when in contact with liquid. Of Course Batman saves the day and makes Gardner clean up the mess. Now we get to the main story, with Batman and Green Arrow stopping a jail break out. Much like the opening story to the first episode, Green Arrow and Batman are super competitive over everything. All that stops when a certain long bearded man casts a spell and Batman and Green Arrow are taken to the King Arthur’s time. The bearded man of course reveals himself to be Merlin and tells Batman he’s supposed to take the sword from the stone and stop Morgan Le Fey and Etrigan. Green Arrow gets upset that everybody thinks Batman’s so great and they argue.

It was cool to see Etrigan, who no matter what show he shows up in looks exactly the same. Actually that character has not changed in look since the day he first showed up. I’m a sucker for King Arthur stories and all those characters so I just enjoyed this episode from start to finish. The competitive stuff with Batman and Green Arrow did start to grate on my nerves a bit towards the end but it was supposed to, being that Merlin got sick of it and sent them back to the present once the fight was done. The message I got  from this episode was that working together is best and being overally competitive isn’t good, although of course Bats and Green Arrow get right back into it at the end.

CHARLES’ GRADE: B+

PROS: MERLIN, ETRIGAN, MORGAN LE FEY, GREEN ARROW, GUY GARDNER

CONS: THE COMPETITIVE STUFF KINDA GOT ANNOYING TOWARDS THE END

WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN episodes 1-13 review

I still remember the day I watched the THE PRYDE OF THE X-MEN when I was a kid and it blowing my mind that they could take a comic I loved and put it on screen. It was for all intents and purposes the start of a pact I’ve held with comic book related cartoons since. If you make it, I will watch it. Now that pact has had it’s lows (SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED) and it’s highs (JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED) but I usually gut it out no matter what. Well that pretty much explains the relationship I’m having with WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN.

I’ve had many conversations with Joe about how bad this show is and how I, for some odd sense of loyalty, continue to watch it. I think Joe and I are in the same boat as far as our enjoyment of the show. I knew the writting was on the wall when I didn’t even like a episode heavily featuring my favorite X-MAN, GAMBIT. Even in the bad times of the 90’s X-MEN cartoon I stood stalwart knowing it would get better, but Wolverine and The X-Men has shown me no such turn around in the future. The main problems I have with the show are mostly the stories they’re telling and how they’re going about it. The only episode I enjoyed, except the Mystique stuff, was the episode where Nightcrawler is captured by Magneto and friends…but we’ve never really gotten back to it. The show does have some cool easter egg type moments, but that doesn’t make the show good. It seems that in this universe the X-MEN have only fought Magneto and his kids, because they don’t know alot of mutants which struck me as odd. Wolverine and company don’t know Sabertooth, Mystique, Mojo, Spiral, and a bunch of other classic foils to the X-Men mythos. I’ve joked many times that this universes X-Men spent all their time playing Claremont style baseball games. Recently they recognized Juggernaut and Sinister, which was good but it makes the fact that they don’t know mutants that are always teamed with Magneto kinda odd.

Besides the strange stories they’re telling, the weirdest thing about the show is that they decided to take out Charles Xavier in the first episode…and have him speak/guide Wolverine with telepathy through the future. Yes the future. It’s such a crazy idea, even for X-Men. Now the X-Men always seemed to be the only Marvel property that hops throughout the future like it’s a play thing, but that’s a little much. I didn’t go into the show expecting it to wow me, I just wanted to be able to enjoy it for something other than the easter eggs. With the season wrapping up soon, maybe we’ll get a better product when or if it comes back. I made it through the Chuck Austen years of Uncanny X-Men, I think I can make it through a bad tv show I don’t have to pay for.