Synopsis: Aquaman takes the family, Mera and Jr. for a road trip vacation but not without a little side action hero’s style along the way.
The teasers reveals Batman pairing up with the World War I fighter pilot “Enemy Ace” to take on an alien monster who’s helping the enemy with the aid of a laser type cannon.
Holiday rooooooooooad. It’s Aquaman meets the Griswold’s as the family of 3 hits the road RV style for some long overdue R & R. This episode follows the family across land as they try some time away from the crime fighting life but not if Aquaman can help it. Each stop his itching for getting some bad guys grows more and more. Along the trip he encounters and aids the likes of Green Arrow, Blue Beetle, and of course the Caped Crusader all while trying to keep it hush hush with his wife Mera. In the end the king of the ocean must take on the (so to speak) flightless bird the Penguin (his first appearance in BTBTB) in the risk of his family, Batman, and his own demise! Over all a very fun episode, I would have liked to see Flash, or even Superman thrown in. They did show Smallville on the map as they were trotting around the country, so maybe the Man of Steel is in things to come? A couple observations; Aquaman in BTBTB reminds of me of Kelsey Grammar as “Frasier”, anyone see the resemblance? And I did notice one throwback to the 1983 cult classic National Lampoons Vacation “Windows up!” All in all a great episode and great quality of a story!!
BTBTB: Aquaman's Outrageous Adventure:
Reviewed by rhine1784
Who would have ever thought that super heroes helped Santa deliver gifts? Actually in the DCU it makes sense that they do with all of the problems in the world. From DC Comics Holiday Special 2008
Posted by Dustin
So the final episode of season one has aired and did it go out with a bang or just sizzle? We hear from normal BTBTB reviewers Tiggerbrown and rhine1784. Starting off with rhine1784:
Batman: The Brave and the Bold
Fate of the Equinox
Synopsis: Batman teams up with Fate to stop the balance obsessed Equinox from remaking the Universe in his own image.
The teaser, well it was good and bad. BMBATB fans finally have the privilege of seeing Harvey Dent against the Dark Knight. True to his colors, Two Face keeps his own world fair and balanced with a flip of the coin.
For a third time Batman is after Equinox and his goal of keeping the universe in perfect harmonic balance. But Fate lends a hand, Doctor Fate. With Fates mystical powers the two heroes take on Equinox by evening the playing field in a Brave and Bold manner. Batman takes on the powers of many of his super friends. Blue Beetle, Flash, Plastic Man, and Green Lantern just to name a few, have all their powers transferred to Batman for one final epic battle with Equinox.
This episode is very fantastical, but it works, and with all the DC characters that make an appearance, it very much had a Justice League vibe to it. I really enjoyed the way this story played out. The Fate of Equinox truly felt like the end of a three part story arc since he first appeared in the episode “Mystery in Space”. As usual the animation is first rate and the voice talents are absolutely wonderful. Although the title remains “Batman” The Brave and the Bold, skewing off into a Justice League vibe certainly won’t hurt my feelings!
BTBTB: Fate of the Equinox:
Moving on to Tiggerbrown:
Batman: The Brave and the Bold
Fate of the Equinox
Season one of Batman the Brave and the Bold has mostly consisted of stand alone episodes; each one focusing on a different team-up with the Caped Crusader. The dynamic between the different hero match-ups is more often than not the predominant focal point of each story. Batman's "partner of the week" usually has some moral or behavioral conflict that impedes him from bringing the episode's bad guy to justice. There have been few repeat appearances, Green Arrow being one of the exceptions amongst the heroes, and the tone of the stories are usually light and kid friendly.
The season finale attempts to break the mold by bringing back Equinox as a serious arch villain and Dr. Fate as Batman's partner. The writers make a valiant attempt at creating an exciting hero vs. villain battle that explores the complex theme of chaos vs. order.
But before the main action begins, we are treated to a little crime noir vignette starring Two-Face. My favorite moments of this series have been when they use the classic villains; the golden age Joker being my particular favorite. This fun scene, highlighted by a great music score right out of an Elmore Leonard or Dashiell Hammett film adaptation, is a simple but classic confrontation between Harvey Dent and the Dark Knight. My only gripe is the detail on the evil side of Harvey's face. I like the almost Dick Tracyesque style given to Harvey, but his Two-Face look is too simplistic. The decision to only use the color green and limit the deformity took away from the fierceness of his character. I hope we get to see full length Golden Age style episodes in season two. The cheesy dialogue and square-jawed animation really lend well to that era.
The episode itself had its moments. I appreciated the writers trying to give the viewers a finale that is a bit more epic in scope than normal. The series has developed Equinox as its principal antagonist, and the apocalyptic potential of his success created needed tension in an often fluffy first season. Dr. Fate is relatively one dimensional in this issue, with the real focus being on Batman and Equinox. It was refreshing to see a villain in this series use their intellect to outsmart the world’s greatest detective.
The dialogue and the flow of the scenes created some confusion for me, and unfortunately, the episode climaxed by resorting to its often pre-teen plot resolutions. Having many of the heroes from previous episodes reunite was fun, but having Batman turn into a Transformers styled giant to defeat Equinox was exciting to some I’m sure, but a disappointment to me considering where the episode seemed to be heading.
The production values and acting were solid as always. However, I’m still hoping that next season will see a different choreography style for the fight scenes. The animation is top-notch as always, especially compared to the Marvel animated shows currently airing. The bright colors and grandiose settings suit the cartoon to a tee. Deidrich Bader has proven himself to be a lot more capable a Batman than anyone thought. I’m looking forward to seeing if he is able to develop the character a little deeper. If I could ask the producers one thing in regards to this Batman, is to have him take off the mask and introduce Bruce Wayne and maybe Alfred to the series. I think it would add a very interesting dimension for future stories. Oh, and match him up with Superman….that’s always a classic.
Overall, this was a serious step in the right direction for the series. Season one had some surprisingly memorable moments, and if the creative team behind BTBTB is going to give us efforts like Fate of the Equinox, this version of our favorite crime fighter will continue to gain fans both young and old.
BTBTB: Fate of the Equinox:
So there you have it. An average score of three and a half batarangs. The new episodes for the new season are right around the corner. And TheBatmanUniverse.net will be there to review them as well.
Posted by Dustin
We all know that we are only about a week away from the release of Batman: Arkham Asylum. But there have been a lot of rumors surrounding which characters will in fact be in the game. Some of the characters that have been rumored have included: Maxie Zeus, Amygdala, Alfred, Blue Beetle, Catwoman, Firefly, Hugo Strange, Hush, Killer Moth, Mr. Freeze, Penguin, Ra’s al Ghul, Ratcatcher, Scarecrow, Tweedledum and Tweedledee. and Two-Face.
Now you are probably thinking to yourself, "Man, that lineup would be awesome." Well, from my perspective do not get your hopes up too fast. Out of the list above we know only know one that will be in the game for sure. That character is Scarecrow. Now Edios has not confirmed this at all, but we know he will be in the game because of the commercial that GameStop is running right now about the Scarecrow challenge map. So that is a pretty good sign that Scarecrow will be in the game. If you don’t know what I’m talking about here is the video:
Alright in the commercial, they specifically say the Scarecrow challenge map. So we can bank on him being in the game for at the very least a challenge map.
Alright so moving on to the other rumored characters. The first one I want to address is Amygdala. A lot of people first assumed that the creature we first saw in screenshots months back was in fact this character. Now since we have learned a little more about what to expect in the game and kind of bits and pieces from the storyline, we now know that venom is a factor in the game and is used on various thugs throughout the game since we have seen many different "creatures" that look like Amygdala. Some of them have face paint on their faces, and some do not. So we can assume that the character we first thought was Amygdala might not be him after all.
As for some of the other characters that have been rumored…. Wait, before I go into that, let me just say that this is all pure speculation and should not be held as truth or assumed that I have some sort if inside information when it comes to this. I don’t want someone to blow this OPINION piece out of proportion.
Some of you may have not gone too in-depth when it came to the Demo that was released, but then again that is why you have us, to do that in-depth research that you may not think of. Well, when diving into all the info that was available on the Demo, I noticed that they had the credits available for viewing. Now before you rush over to your PS3 (which i know all of you have one) I took the time to get screenshots of the English cast that was listed for the game. Here they are:
Now the first image is not as good as the second one, but it took forever to get these screenshots. You can see on the list of characters that there are only so many characters that are listed. Most of them we already knew, but it mentions Scarecrow. So he is in fact confirmed. Now if you look at the list you will notice a shortage of villains. There is no one on that list that we already did not know about besides some supporting characters. Well, besides Jack Ryder. (Wait, who is Jack Ryder? Maybe just The Creeper?)
Now my question to all of you is, if there were going to be a ton of villains that were going to make significant appearances in the game, than why aren’t there voice actors for them. If they list the voices for the supporting characters such as the Arkham guards, why not list the villains? Before you get all upset with me for ruining your hopes of a villain extravaganza, I still do believe that there will be a ton of hints and clues that will reference different villains. I just do not think we are going to see as many as we had originally thought. I might be completely off and Rocksteady and Edios knew that we Bat-fans dig very hard for info, and they purposely made sure that there were no clues as to who else we would see in the finished game.
Is this going to be a great game? Yes. Is it going to be received well by the fans? Yes. I just want to make sure that you do not get your hopes up because of all kinds of rumors floating around that your favorite obscure character is going to appear in the game. Leave any comments below, because I’m sure this will start a commotion.
Posted by Dustin