This is the Jokers first encounter with Batman and the beginning of a never ending confrontation. See what you reckon to the Jokers introduction. I felt for such a massive task, it was pulled off fairly well. Next week is Four of a Kind, a look at four of Batmans villains.
Posted by Nick
Barbara Gordon’s first date with Jason Bard, the man who would eventually become her fiance, in Detective Comics issue 392.
Posted by Josh
Batman: The Unseen issue #2 is a book that should be unseen by all those who enjoy Batman. Doug Moench’s second chapter of “Batman meets the Invisible Man” falls flat on its face. Issue #2 has relieved this story arc of all the promise that issue #1 had.
Where should I begin? I can safely say that Doug Moench is no H.G. Wells. I do not understand what the point of this miniseries is, and really the bigger question, why is Batman in it? The character of the Meat-Man is one of the most uninteresting villains I have ever read in the Batman Universe. He becomes invisible so he can attack a newspaper vendor, steal some fruit, beat up a taxi driver, and steal syringes. What? I understand that there is a bigger picture, but I really do not care do read about the Invisible Man beating up innocent citizens of Gotham. The other problem with the book is that it is becoming almost all about Nigel Glass, and how he can intimidate Black Mask’s henchman. Throughout this issue, the only time we see Batman is when he questions a thug, investigates briefly, and meets with Gordon. I also didn’t enjoy how every time the character Homolka appears in a panel, he has sweat dripping down his face and a frightened appearance. However, the story does maintain its’ science fiction, 1940’s atmosphere, which separates it from the other Bat-books. Moench also continues to wrestle with the concept that Batman is no longer feared by criminals, which is the only interesting plot point in the entire issue. Other than an unexpected appearance from Matches Malone, this story really had nothing to offer me.
Kelley Jones is the savior of this issue, which isn’t saying a lot. His art is consistent throughout the issue, which is the only stability the book provides. However, the art becomes a little more frustrating because the story is so un-entertaining.
At the end of the day, if I could do it all over again, I would have not picked up this issue. Doug Moench takes everything he did in the first issue and does the exact opposite. To be perfectly honest, the Batman/Doc Savage Special preview was more interesting to me, and that did not contain any dialogue. I’m going to have to say “Wait for the trade paperback”. Hopefully, issue #3 delivers at some level of interest.
Batman: The Unseen #2:
Reviewed by Zfactor
I’d love to see how this scene would play out in what some fans are calling "the realistic Nolanverse". It happened in Batman issue 214.
Posted by Josh
Big Apple Comic Con was last weekend in New York. Now while we and most of the mainstream comic media do not consider it a main comic con, there is still a huge amount of people that turnout for the event. The con is ran by Wizard and despite trying harder and harder to reach the status of mainstream, it fails over and over again. This is mostly due to the fact that they focus more on celebrities than anything else. DC themselves has stopped attending the cons that Wizard puts on. SteveJRogers made it out to the con last weekend and gave a report of what was going on. He has included many pictures that I have posted along with his entry. Let’s see what he thought:
Big Apple Comic Con
A First-Hand Report
by SteveJRogers
Day One-Friday Evening:
First off, this was my first official comic con. Been to too many baseball card shows to count over the years and also the Major League Baseball All Star Game Fan Fest when it was held in New York City in 2008, so I know how these shows generally work. I had heard that Wizard World doesn’t do a great job when it comes to these shows, so going in, expectations were a bit low. As well I’m not an autograph hound, and the only items I would be interested in purchasing would be trading card sets. So armed with a bunch of TheBatmanUniverse.net flyers to pass around, I headed to Pier 94 in Manhattan.
Now, my experience with them is the annual NYPD Emerald Society post-parade St. Patrick’s Day bashes. They are great times, and loads of fun, but I was curious as to how this would fare as opposed to hotels or convention centers, where one would expect something that would have multiple rooms and a setup that would be fitting for a trade show, as opposed to a giant party. When I got there, I was pleased with the set up they had. While you knew you were in loading docks, they did manage to keep the feel of a trade show; though I will have more to say about the organization of the setup.
By the way, I do have a general question for New York City cabbies. At 3:30 PM, why is it so hard to flag one of you down? And what is up with the directions you are going towards? Yes I wanted to go a bit uptown, so what?
Well, anyway, finally hailed a cab, and made my way to the Piers and got in. My first celeb experience happened right away as I walked in around the same time as Adam West and Julie Newmar were getting pictures taken in front of the entrance. I snapped some pictures myself, as well as a shot of West standing next to a 1960s Batmobile replica that was on display, but unfortunately when I went to upload the files on the memory disc onto my computer, they weren’t there! Ah well.
I did have a good time walking around the floor, handing out website flyers, checking out the retailers and Artist Alley. While at Artist Alley I said hello to the man credited with creating The Joker, Jerry Robinson. I figured “why not” and had him record a promo for the comic podcast. Kind of kicking myself for not including “creator of The Joker” in the hastily written script I gave him, but ah well.
Also made my way to legendary Batman artist Neal Adams’ table and also got him to record a promo for the podcast! Not bad in getting a Golden Age and Bronze Age artist (and probably in the eyes of many, the “definitive” Batman artist) to record podcast promos.
Day was pretty much winding down, and I was getting hungry, so I ended up not staying until closing time, and so it was off to get some food in mid-town Manhattan!
Day Two-Saturday:
The first evening of the con, while not a complete letdown crowd size wise, was a bit smaller than I’d figured it might be. Not sure if the Yankee League Championship Series game had anything to do with it, or quite simply Friday night isn’t the night for convention goers! Friday did feature some interesting panels such as a “What’s up with Marvel” panel, but since this is a DC specific site, I took a pass! As well a Dukes of Hazard panel featuring the Good Ol’ Boys and Daisy! As well as separate panels for Star Trek’s Nichelle Nichols, Brent Spiner and Kate Mulgrew. I was really more interested in walking the floor of the convention, and my real focus would just be Batman related panels.
On Saturday though, the panels proved more to my liking, and there were also more celebs on hand for autograph seekers. So clearly, Saturdays are the days to go if you want to go to just one day of a convention!
In any event, my merchandise mission for the show had failed miserably Friday night. First I wanted to check out exhibitions by current DC license holders, DC Direct and Mattel. Neither one of them had a presence! Lego did, but was not showing off its Batman related products. Also Hasbro was there with a very small set-up, but nothing Marvel related! Ah well, guess going to have to wait until Toy Fair this winter for products on display.
Second, was a search for non-sport trading card sets. This is really the only hobby I have when it comes to comic books and the genres they appear in. I’m not a comic book collector by any means, and I ended a brief dabble in the action figure hobby after I noticed I lacked the time, space and money to keep the hobby going. So, trading cards are the only things I collect. And that was what I was searching for this weekend. I just could hardly find any dealers! Oh there were dealers with figures, statues, T-Shirts, fine art, novelty collectables, and, oh yeah, comic books! But nothing in terms of non-sport trading cards! Well, until Saturday and even then it was just one dealer! And in a small corner of a table in a booth that was more into selling loose and still carded figures. Also the selection was very early 1990s, some of the sets I either had, or wasn’t interested in the subject matter, but hey beggars cannot be choosers, especially when this was all I was going to see all weekend! So I just picked up a couple of early 1990 DC sets, one entitled “Cosmic Teams” and the other a set dedicated to Superman #75, The Death of Superman story. Pretty cheap as well, so even though it didn’t quite work out, it did a little bit.
Well, the merchandise end of the weekend may have been a bust for me; I did want to take in a panel. And so I did with a Neal Adams panel on Saturday afternoon. It was a good panel, with questions and discussion about what Adams is doing now as opposed to his past. There was some talk, but mostly it centered on Adams’ studio’s current project with Marvel’s venture into Motion Comics with Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men story. As well as a discussion of his soon-to-be-solicited work with Frank Miller called Batman Odyssey. That should be an interesting book, when it finally gets out.
Now, it was leaving the Adams panel that got me a bit annoyed at how security was running the flow of traffic at the con. The main floor of the con was in one building, Pier 94 which was what was promoted as the location for the show, while registration, the ticket office, and the panels were held next door in Pier 92, which coincidentally is where the NYPD Emerald Society has its Saint Pats Post-Parade Parties. Not a bad setup, but since there is nothing connecting the two buildings, when you were leaving the panel, you literally had to get back on line with people who were showing up for the first time that day. Doesn’t quite make sense when you think about the fact that someone; already was in the convention, now in order to continue to be at the convention, had to go back on line as if they were just arriving to the convention at that time. But, be that as it may, what can you do. At least the weather was just a bit raw and cold!
While I’m still ranting about displeasures, my next target is the fact that they were serving pretty adequate small cups of coffee. Now, mind you, this was a small cup of coffee, probably 6 ounces, and what do you think the price of it was? 2 dollars! And 3 up in the panel building! The same size, and quality, that I could have gotten in some random deli on the streets of Manhattan for about 99 cents! So this isn’t a grande mocha-latte-achino from Starbucks we are talking about! Oh and a bottle of beer was 7 bucks! I honestly wondered if for a brief second I hadn’t been teleported somehow to Yankee Stadium! Then I realized that at the Stadium, the price of a beer is about 10 dollars! Just very strange to see those prices, well I guess they have to pay the celebrities, and whatnot, but still?
Anyway, when one goes to one of these, one would expect to see a ton of costumes. Oh I did see some, but not too many for whatever reason. Perhaps I was just too early as the costume contests were panels held after I left for the afternoon, though I did get some good photos of con goers in Batman related costumes.
Day Three-Sunday:
Thinking I learned a lesson, I headed into the city early to catch the 11:00 Adam West panel. Perhaps I was a bit too early for it, as I was stuck upstairs on the pier for a good hour and a half. I did catch up on a couple of week’s worth of The Batman Universe Comic Podcasts though while waiting! I Also managed to walk past Donald Trump in Grand Central as they were prepping to film The Apprentice in the terminal. So I went from a billionaire to someone that played one on TV!
The West Q&A panel was very nice. West was very engaging, and fielded questions ranging from the Bat-Disco Dance, to the “Some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb” scene, to an obscure sci-fi film called “Time Warp” that West had done that also featured Kirk Alyn, who was the first live actor to play Superman in the 1940s movie serials. They did not share any scenes though. West also had some nice things to say about the direction of the Christopher Nolan Bat-Films, and jokingly, I hope, suggested that he’d make a cameo as a Batman from another dimension!
After the panel had wrapped, I walked the main floor for a little bit longer, holding out hope that I could see more modern card sets on a dealer table! But nothing was really there, as the crowd had gotten much more subdued as it was the final day of the show. So I figured since there wasn’t anything left for me to do, I just called it a day, and left!
In all, it was a fun experience. I tried to make some connections with local area stores and some pop-culture related podcasts for the website at the show, which is always a good thing in terms of getting this site to grow! Well, I do recommend that you do take in a convention just to get the feel for it. No matter what it is, whether it is a crazy huge one like San Diego, or even a smaller one held at a local hotel or whatnot.
-SteveJRogers
So what do you think? Is it worth it? Wizard World Texas is where Apple and I went last year, but as I mentioned before it was more about the celebrities that make an appearance than anything else. Even the email announcements that get sent out from them brag about only the celebrities. What happened to having getting publicity for your show by having some excellent comic related news announced? To make matters worse, Wizard has announced that it is going to go head to head with the fellows that run NYCC next year. They also scheduled another con the same week as C2E2 which is run by the same guys who bring us NYCC. I don’t think the NYCC fellows have anything to worry about since DC announced that they will have not only a presence at both cons, but booths as well. The Wizard cons are already more celebrity then the comics. So I think we will plan on attending C2E2 and NYCC over the Wizard cons.
Posted by Dustin
Barbara gets hired to impersonate…um…herself in Detective Comics issue 388. But can she come up with a better alias???
Posted by Josh
So another Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode has aired. Wait. Did it? No, you are not looking at your screen and thinking you missed it. Actually, if you live in the UK, a frequent internet user, or went to San Diego Comic Con, you probably have already saw the episode. But nonetheless, the episode officially airs tonight at 7:30 PM EST. Warner Bros. sent us over a clean version of the episode to review ahead of time so that we could get you hyped about it. We mentioned during the podcast after SDCC that the episode was way better than expected. So let’s hear from Tiggebrown and Josh and see what they thought of the episode. First up is Tiggerbrown’s review:
Batman: The Brave and the Bold
Mayhem of the Music Meister
Holy Pirouettes Bat-fans; Batman is starring in a musical! When BTBTB first started, there was a lot of trepidation that a return to the campy, psychedelic tone of the 60’s would undo the respect the character has attained since BTAS. However, after the first several episodes, even the darkest of fans found moments they enjoyed. True, the show doesn’t take itself too seriously, but there is no doubt that the integrity of the character is upheld and most importantly respected. While at first we hardcore fans thought the creators of the series were thumbing their noses at us, we realized that the keepers of the cowl just wanted us to lighten up a little, laugh at ourselves, and maybe have some fun.
So with show having achieved a level of acceptance among the Batman fan-base, we are asked to take this acceptance to a new level: Batman the musical. The idea of a dramatic show attempting a musical episode may seem outrageous, but it’s been attempted before; Buffy the Vampire Slayer being the most notable to genre fans. But how could Batman, the darkest of superheroes possibly translate to a Broadway style interpretation? Well you know what; it works.
The premise of the episode is that a villain called the Music Meister can use his singing voice to control the minds of anyone who is in ear shot. He of course wants to take over the world, and of course is stopped by the Dark Knight. Nothing extraordinary to be sure, but what makes this episode special is the phenomenal production value and the formatting of the episode as a three act musical play. Each act has one or two featured songs and production numbers that drive the narrative. There is even a curtain that opens and closes at the beginning and end of each act.
The first act has Gorilla Grodd, Black Manta, and Clock King about to be stopped from sabotaging a satellite by Aquaman, Green Arrow and Black Canary. Music Meister takes control of all of them, and forces them to battle Batman. The “West Side Story” fight choreography was hilarious. The main song, sung by actor Neil Patrick Harris as the Music Meister is classic Broadway, and although I’ve never been a fan of the genre, I found myself humming the tune long after the show was over. The choice of Harris as the Meister is inspired casting, especially for genre fans who watched the former Doogie Howser in Dr. Horrible.
My favorite song of the episode is from Act 2, “Drives us Bats”. Music Meister vents amongst all the villains of Arkham how Batman always thwarts their evil plans. “No super powers, just a flying rat. Good thing there’s Arkham, he drives us bats.” Michael Jelenic, who along with producer James Tucker wrote the lyrics and Lolita Ritmanis, Kristopher Carter, and Michael McCuistion composed the music, give us a quality that is first rate. Honest, if this was a traditional animated musical you might be looking at a music Emmy here.
The story is simple as I mentioned before, but the sub-plot love triangle between Music Meister, Black Canary and Batman added some intensity to the drama. Black Canary’s love song to Batman and her darker toned “Death Trap” while captured in act 3 are very well performed. Voice actress Grey Delisle has an incredible voice. And not to spoil the ending, but although the love struck Canary is spurned by the Caped Crusader, she does find romance with a certain green masked archer.
So the question I know you are asking yourself is, does Batman sing and dance? Very appropriately he is played very straight amongst the frolicking. Only to save the situation at the end of the final act does he briefly use his vocal chords, enhanced with a “Bat auto tuning amplifier”. He goats a hypnotized Black Canary to use her Canary cry to ruin the Meister’s nefarious plan. And for trivia sake it isn’t Deidrich Bader singing in that scene; it is actor Jeff Bennett (Creeper in BTAS, and Ragdoll in The Batman).
I admit I am one of those fans who prefer Batman dark. But I watched this with an open mind and really enjoyed it. The effort put into this episode was extraordinary and I respect the desire of the creators to try something new. Now I definitely think once was enough, but I am surprisingly giving Mayhem of the Music Meister………
Moving on to Josh’s review:
Batman: The Brave and the Bold
Mayhem of the Music Meister
Every now and then, there is an episode of a television series that will inevitably come up whenever the show is discussed at length. “Mayhem of the Music Meister” will become that episode for “Batman: The Brave and the Bold”. The show pulled all the stops here and the ending result was a masterpiece worthy exceeding everyone’s skeptical expectations.
The premise is simple and fun. Neil Patrick Harris, who shines in every role he plays, voices the Music Meister who controls the free will of others by singing. His origin is simple and explained in a verse of his opening song “I’m the Music Meister”, which will be in your head for the rest of the week. It’s up to Batman, along with Green Arrow, Aquaman, and Black Canary, to stop him.
Highlights include the “Death Trap” musical sequence which has callbacks to the 1960’s “Batman” series. Fans of that series will also notice a reference to “shark repellent spray”. We get some Broadway musical cliché’s, such as the Black Canary love ballad “If Only”, which turns out really good despite the danger of being cheesy. There is nothing more visually amusing than a superheroine in fishnets singing a love ballad while knocking villains off a rooftop.
Batman fans young and old will enjoy this. As an experiment I decided to watch this with two children and gage their reaction. They were singing the songs for the rest of the night and reenacting the scenes. Batman and musicals don’t sound like something that would go together, but this episode should win over the non-believers. Overall, I give it….
So overall, they both agree and I have to say that I agree along with them. This show has been a pleasant surprise from the very beginning. Even though when the musical episode was first announce, I cringed, this was very enjoyable. I think that this will in fact be the series that my children will watch when I am introducing them to Batman.
Posted by Dustin
Ok Bat-fans, you can breathe a sigh of relief. The awfulness that has been Judd Winick and Mark Bagley’s run on Batman has finally come to end…..at least for now. Tony Daniel returns next issue. And while he is a better artist than a writer, the change should prove to be positive.
Batman #691 wraps up the Long Shadows arc in the same muddled mediocrity as it began. Without going into too much detail: let’s just say that Dick convinces Two-Face that he is the original Batman; Dick again realizes that he has to be more vigilant; Dick and Alfred decide to completely abandon the Bat-cave; and Black Mask is the top bad-guy in Gotham. Yes, we already knew most of this. The best part of this issue is that it sets up the direction of the next arc, and allows Dick to start moving forward as Batman, much like he’s already done in the other titles.
I’ve pretty much ripped this title apart since Reborn started, so I will only pick on a few things. Is Two-Face killed at the end of the issue? He is an iconic villain; you would think his fate at the hands of Black Mask would be treated with a larger sense of importance. I thought Two-face’s split colored Batman costume was cool, just unrealistic. Having it be just a figment of Dick’s drug induced hallucination is to me a writer’s cop-out. In the next paragraph I am going to try and fit this arc into continuity, but like Dustin mentioned in the previews, how does the cave get gutted if Barbara is setting up shop there? Finally, I mentioned that the end of this storyline gives this title’s Batman a chance to move forward. But it looks like from the prologue that a big part of Daniel’s arc will be Dick investigating his parents’ murder. Are we so void of new ideas that we have to bring up plot lines that have been written and re-written to death?
One of the big complaints of this title is that there have been multiple continuity issues that don’t coincide with the other Bat-titles. We have tried to explain this by saying it has been due to sloppy editing. However, in the spirit of giving our new friend of The Batman Universe, Mike Marts the benefit of the doubt, this is how I think Winick and Daniel’s Batman fits in: Batman seems to be following along the same path as Paul Dini’s Streets of Gotham, but maybe just a month or so behind. The confusion with Batgirl will probably be resolved with Dick deciding to not gut the cave and allow Barbara to use it as her base of operations. And the goings on of Batman takes place after issue #1 of Batman & Robin but before issue#2. What do you guys think? Maybe we will be surprised and each Batman title is part of a different Grant Morrison Multiverse. Maybe Bruce comes back in Red Robin, but Dick remains Batman in the other titles. Time will tell.
I wish I could say that Winick and Bagley concluded their arc with a bang. But alas, barely a whimper was heard.
Only because Winick and Bagley are done, I give Batman #691……………….
Reviewed by Tiggerbrown
Barbara’s first solo feature was a backup story in Detective Comics issue 384. She even lost the Princess Leia hair…too bad…I liked it.
Posted by Josh
When we last left our masked crusaders they were careening out of control and heading for a crash landing in a cemetery at the outskirts of Gotham city. The new Batman, Dick Grayson, has a plan where he can isolate the Black Lanterns away from the citizens of Gotham and provides a means of escape for his battered passengers Barbara and Jim Gordon. What Batman didn’t count on was the arena for this plan would turn into a circus macabre starring his dead parents.
Batman rightly deduces that the best way to limit the feeding frenzy of the Black Lanterns is to rob them of their nourishment. A stratagem that will serve him well by the end of the book. He orders Damian to escort the Gordon’s to safety through a secret passage through the grave of an Archibald Stanton. (Like a million other people I Googled Archibald Stanton and the best match I could come up with was the grave of a Arch Stanton from the classic western, “The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.) Damian typically refuses but Red Robin (Tim Drake/Wayne) has Batman’s back and orders Damian to comply. It’s good to see Dick and Tim work as a team, when the chips are down their personal differences are tossed aside for the greater good. I also appreciate the small doses of humor introduced when Batman calls Robin through his link and both Tim and Damian answer. Dick is forced to clarify, “No, the other Robin!”
Despite the fact that Batman has a plan, so do the Black Lanterns. The source of the Lanterns energy is siphoning off the rage they elicit in their perspective victims. By running their adversaries through a gamut of emotions that typically reach an apex of rage the Black Lanterns then tear their hearts out to fuel their nefarious energy. In this story the bad guys pull no punches. A giant big top is constructed complete with trapeze for the dead Grayson’s to perform on and an apartment where Red Robin sees the night his father died. Despite Batman’s pleading advice to Red Robin to resist this farce, both heroes succumb to this hellacious hallucination. Peter Tomasi does a good job of spinning a fable where both Dick and Tim are given the opportunity to save their parents but more importantly take revenge on their killers. This rage of revenge falls right into the hands, literally, of the Black Lanterns and the gruesome ghouls make a play for the hearts of Dick and Tim.
But this Batman hasn’t played his last card and proves he is worthy of the mantle of the Bat. Before entering the fray, Batman tells Deadman to go get Jason Blood aka Etrigan the Demon! Continuing the theme of “family” Peter Tomasi weaves in the need to close ranks when those dearest to you are in danger. Dick, Tim, and Damian work as one. The Gordon family is made safe with Alfred’s help and the concept of the extended Batman family is shrewdly used. Both Deadman and the Demon are part of this “family” and without them the battle would have surely been lost. While the Deadman-possessed Demon holds off the reinforced Black Lanterns with his Hellfire, Batman’s last gambit is played out. Upon orders from Dick, Robin sends a “winger” stocked with a gun from Mr. Freeze that a trusting Tim allows Dick to use on him after which Batman uses it on himself. This clever design works as Batman and Red Robin are frozen over depriving the Lanterns of a target to focus on. Deadman completes the ploy entering the bodies of our heroes allowing them to break free of their frozen cocoons.
Family, trust, sacrifice and courage. These integral themes are woven into a foundation that is critical to Tomasi’s story. With these themes Batman lives to fight another day and valuable information is gleaned to carry on this battle when it is to be renewed on a greater scale.
I’ll give this story a four out of five Bat-a-rangs. There was no clear cut resolution to this saga for it just part of a far greater epic. An epic that the Batman and his family will play an important role.
Blackest Night: Batman #3:
Reviewed by Dark Knight Dave
Too bad we can’t see the pink Batmobile in all it’s glory. I know Apple loves ALL Batmobiles, but I wonder what he’d think about this one. This happened in Brave and the Bold issue 78.
Posted by Josh
So the first of the last four episodes of this season aired last weekend for Batman: The Brave and the Bold. When OMAC Attacks was the episode and it starred Batman, OMAC, Hawk, and Dove. We have two reviews for you to read and decide if you agree or disagree with their thoughts. The first one is from long-time reviewer Tiggerbrown:
When OMAC Attacks!
Reviewed by Tiggerbrown
When I first read the title of this episode on the Batman Universe website news, I thought WB was going to bring some recent comics continuity to BTBTB à la Infinite Crisis. Instead, which I would have known had I read the preview, we are given a pretty faithful homage to the original Jack Kirby character OMAC of the mid 1970’s. Buddy Blank, a hero worshiping insignificant janitor for the Global Peace Agency (GPA), is transformed by an eye shaped satellite called Brother Eye into the One Man Army Corps.
The premise of the episode is that the GPA isn’t happy with Batman’s methodical approach to stopping a “Soviet military” styled villain named Kafka (interesting since the famous author Franz Kafka was from Prague and died prior to the creation of the Soviet Union). The GPA, who ironically are known for their less than pacifist methods, partner the Dark Knight with their most valuable operative; the wrecking ball named OMAC. Predictably the two heroes disagree on how to proceed, with OMAC emphasizing violence and brute strength, while Batman uses his intelligence by analyzing his opponent before taking action. As a result of an explosion due to an over zealous OMAC, Kafka morphs (a reference to Kafka’s Metamorphosis perhaps?) into a cyborg monster called Shrapnel whose power is derived from the aggressive energy of others like the Greek God Ares. The results are also predictable, with OMAC realizing that Batman’s way has its merits, and uses a defensive strategy to neutralize Kafka.
The plot line I found interesting was the return of Equinox, who manipulates the episode’s entire events in order to keep his notion of universal balance. He attempts the meltdown of a nuclear power plant to destroy the city in order to counter the destruction of another. Batman of course sacrifices himself to stop the meltdown, but Equinox spares his life so as to not let Batman have the free will to choose the time of his own death. Equinox is set up to be a reoccurring villain, which creates some much needed continuity for this series.
Much like Jack Kirby’s work, Stan Berkowitz’s story is definitely not subtle. The theme of balance is obvious, with Equinox’s half black, half white costume that has the yin yang symbol crested on its chest. Then there’s all the characters having one key personality trait, while Batman possesses them all: dark and light, brain and brawn, courage and self-sacrifice. Of course OMAC and Buddy Blank are inspired by the Caped Crusader to discover the missing human elements that finally make them valued and complete.
The prelude to the main story finds Batman in space, partnered with Hawk and Dove trying to broker a peace agreement between warring alien factions. Hawk and Dove provide a rather juvenile lead in to the theme explored in the main story, and Batman plays the diplomat who invites the aliens for refreshments on his ship after signing the agreement. My mind is opened to the 50’s throwback, but this is a stretch even for Brave and the Bold. Although Batman’s use of an “Alien Nullifier Ray” to stop their fighting made me laugh. Adam West would be proud.
The animation is first rate as always, although the now trademark freeze frame fight scenes are getting a bit tired. A little trivia: Jeff Bennett, who voices OMAC in this episode, also stands in for Deidrich Bader during Batman’s singing moment in Mayhem of the Music Meister.
The best episodes of Brave and the Bold are the ones where the guest hero has an interesting chemistry with Batman such as Green Arrow, The Joker, Blue Beetle or Robin. While I appreciated the honor being paid to Jack Kirby, the dynamic between the two protagonists was uninspired and unoriginal. OMAC Attacks was definitely watchable, but not up to par with the more memorable ones of this first season.
Overall, I give When OMAC Attacks:
Next, we move on to a first time reviewer Ryan akotfa (also known on the forums as) rhine1784. Here is his take:
When OMAC Attacks!
Reviewed by Ryan
Synopsis: The all-American fighting machine OMAC is pitted against the equally destructive Shrapnel in a chaotic fight to the finish, but the architect behind the battle is the mysterious, balance-obsessed villain "Equinox."
The teasers starts out with Batman in space (argh!!) But it’s BMBATB all is well right? Batman pairs of up with Hawk and Dove to help stop an intergalactic war, an interesting prelude to the feature, Hawk – aggressive, Dove – passive.
Batman is working for the leaders of the GPA (Global Peace Agency) to find and stop the Russian war criminal Kafka. He is paired up with Buddy Blank a lowly janitor at GPA, who through the “magic” of Brother Eye in space, turns into the mighty OMAC (One Man Army Corp). The fighting pair are searching out Kafka who unbeknown to them is being used as a pawn by the mysterious Equinox, who only wants balance in the universe, and Shrapnel who is a transformed Kafka via liquid organic metal.
Why the quality of this episode holds up entirely with the BMBATB cartoon network universe, I am not a huge fan of Batman in any sci-fi situation,(especially one that involves him in space). But this is BMBATB. While the villain Equinox is not my favorite, the voice work by Oded Fehr is outstanding. I admit, I’ve been a fan of BMBATB from the get go, and while this is “not my Batman” in this episode, I’m eager to see season two. It’s like pizza, even when it’s “ok”, it’s still pretty darn good. Fans of the fantastical subject DC world will thoroughly enjoy this one!
I give When OMAC Attacks:
So now it is up to you to decide what you think. Leave your comments below.
Posted by Dustin
Batgirl’s first meeting with the Justice League. Or first time taking LSD, I’m not sure. Either way it happened in Justice League of America issue 60.
Posted by Josh
Some e-mails we got convinced us to extend "Silver Age Batgirl-scans of the day" another week. So here is something that wouldn’t fly in a comic today. They sure didn’t know how to write women back then. This originally appeared in Detective Comics issue 371.
Posted by Josh
Another scene from Batman issue 197. First off, painting your face will not hide your identity. When I go to carnivals and get my face painted, people still know who I am. Second off, could this be considered blackface? Isn’t that offensive?
Posted by Josh