The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review - Superman: The Animated Series

Superman: The Animated Series

Episode 44

New Kids in Town

 

Two Brainiac episodes in a row, that can be redundant and boring but not in this case.  This episode is another great story.  Brainiac from the 30^th century travels back in time to John Connor (T2) a young Clark Kent (kill him before he becomes Superman).  The Legion of Super-Heroes follow Brainiac in an effort to stop time from unraveling.  The legion members we are treated to are Cosmic Boy (Chad Lowe), Saturn Girl (Melissa Joan Hart), and Chameleon Boy (Jason Priestley).   That is some star power line-up for a standalone Superman episode. 

 

Young Clark Kent already has some powers that he’s showing off like an arrogant teenager might.  Lana Lang isn’t cool with his behavior.  Brainiac shows up and tries to kill Kent.  The Legion of Super-Heroes shows up and save Clark, Brainiac takes off.  The Legion provides insight into Clark’s future. Clark freaks out and runs away, he heads to his home and explains to his parents what’s happening.  Lana is there too.  Brainiac shows up and tries to kill everyone.  He makes the farm machinery attack everyone.  Which doesn’t really make sense because this is the 1970s or 1980s and that type of tech wasn’t in automobiles then.  Brainiac might have been able to take over the radio or lights on a car but to control a machine which has no microchips makes no sense.  Vehicles didn’t start getting computer stuff until maybe the 1990s.  Really expensive vehicles might have had them in the 1980s but that’s nothing the Kent’s could afford.  Perhaps he used nanites or something…

 

With the help of the Legionnaires, Clark destroys Brainiac by pressing his teleporter belt and zapping him into the sun.  He dies a horrible robot death in classic DCAU fashion.  Saturn Girl mind whammy’s the entire town so they think it was a storm.  It’s like it never happens, not as terrible as an “it was all a dream” trope.  But it’s close.  

 

The episode and Terminator 2 plot work so well, none of the other tropes matter.  It’s exciting, has action, you get to see a young Clark Kent, you get to see the Legion of Super-Heroes!  It’s episodes like this that make Superman on par and almost (I stress almost) beat Batman: the Animated Series.  

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Red Hot Chilli Poppers 4

Another Cuculi sponsored show. The sound and lights are bad because the venue was horrible. Don’t blame the band.

The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review - Superman: The Animated Series

 Superman: The Animated Series

Episode 43

Knight Time

 

A crossover episode that rivals World’s Finest and told in only one episode.  Batman is missing and Superman goes to investigate.  He comes across Robin (Tim Drake) and agrees to pretend to be Batman to assist in quelling a crime spree which cropped up from Batman’s absence.  The brilliance of the story is Superman getting a view on how Batman operates is.  Through the episode we see Robin talk Superman through Batman’s methods.  His stealth, intimidation, overall persona.  

 

While questioning the Penguin, Robin coaches Superman on how to scare the answers out of the villain. Superman’s appeal to common decency doesn’t work on villains like the Penguin but he does respond to fear. Through their investigation they learn Batman’s rogues are trying to capitalize on his absence.  Super-Bat shows up and makes easy work of the rogues.  He seems to have a little trouble with Bane but that’s only because Superman is careful not hurt people, so finding the right amount of force to use takes precision and Bane has some heft to him.  If Superman goes to hard he can kill someone.  Punching someone weak like The Riddler is a light tap, finding the right balance for Bane needs adjusting.  

 

Super-Bat and Robin question the Mad Hatter and trace a bunch of nanites (microscopic robots) to a Wayne Tech facility.  The duo head there and discover Bruce but he’s under a mind whammy.  It’s then discovered Brainiac is the villain behind everything.  He got onto the Wayne Enterprises computer system after the Wayne Enterprises/Lex Corp attempted team-up in World’s Finest.  Brainiac has been floating around the Lex Corp system since Stolen Memories and Ghost in the Machine.  Luckily this is the last time Brainiac is regurgitated as hiding in a computer system to cause the head of billion dollar corporation problems.  

 

Brainiac is building a rocket to get off the planet and resume his destroy all life in the universe plan.  Super-Bat confronts Brainiac and Brainiac blows him up.  He’s then revealed to really be Superman which Brainiac is confused about.  They have an all out fight.  Brainiac is annihilated in the worst way possible because they love to kill robots in the most graphic ways in the DCAU.  The nanites all die and Bruce Wayne’s mind whammy goes away.  Superman warns Wayne that Brainiac might have back-up files and Wayne promises to make certain everything is purged.  

 

As Superman leaves he compliments Bruce on having an amazing partner which is surprising since he’s such a loner.  This episode is as much a Superman episode as it is a Tim Drake - Robin episode.  Robin coaches Superman on all of Batman’s methods.  He’s a solid balance to the sulky Batman.  Robin can easily make the more optimistic Super-Bat smile, to the confusion of Batman’s rogues.  Batman would never smile.  

 

The brilliance in character interactions in this episode are interstellar! It’s an episode that explores Superman, Batman, Robin’s characters in such small runtime.  Batman’s rogues are the perfect characters to play off all these personalities.  An absolute can’t miss.

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Red Hot Chilli Poppers 5

Another Cuculi sponsored show. The sound and lights are bad because the venue was horrible. Don’t blame the band.

The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review - Superman: The Animated Series

Superman: The Animated Series

Episode 42

Where There's Smoke

It’s back to basics in this episode.  After following Apokolips…Now! and Little Girl Lost it’s tough to get back to regular episodes.  Volcana is a run of the mill villain with a tragic backstory. Superman convinces her to turn away from her life of crime and saves her from rogue government agents who want to exploit her firepower. No complaints, it’s a fine episode, Volcana is not a particularly tough adversary for Superman though.  He’s impervious to fire.  Making it a personal story about her was a smart idea. 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

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The DCAU Weekly Review – The New Batman Adventures

 The New Batman Adventures

Episode 19

Legends of the Dark Knight

 

Might receive some hate for this opinion but this episode is just okay.  It tells three different versions of Batman via kid’s imaginations and even takes a deserved potshot and Joel Schumaker.  There were only so many episodes in the order number and they wasted a story which could have been devoted to something else.  Each sub-story is enjoyable enough.  

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

The New Batman Adventures

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Stereomatic Live at Spotlight in Huntington, NY.  

The DCAU Weekly Review – The New Batman Adventures

 The New Batman Adventures

Episode 18

The Demons Within

 

Etrigan appears, quite an odd selection for a crossover.  Bruce Wayne takes Tim Drake to an art auction and sees Jason Blood get into a bidding war with Klarion over a branding iron.  Bruce Wayne steps in and over bids for it to win the auction and gives it to Jason Blood.  

 

Jason Blood is a former knight of King Arthur who is immortal and cursed with the demon Etrigan.  Jason Blood turns into Etrigan and together they fight mystic baddies.  They are separate personalities sharing the same body or something.  At some point he befriended Batman.  

 

Klarion is demon who’s eternally a child.  He’s a spoiled brat who uses his magic cat to steal the branding iron then uses its magic to separate Etrigan from Jason Blood.  As Jason Blood is gradually aging Klarion is using Etrigan to do lame boring stuff.  

 

Batman steps in and fights Kalrion and the cat Teekl.  He gets the iron back and returns Etrigan and Jason Blood as one.  Etrigan then roughs up Klarion and sends him away.  

 

Etrigan pops up again as a main player in a Justice League episode while they are fighting Morgan Le Fay.  He is shown in Justice League Unlimited but not focused on.  A solid introduction to the character.  

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

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 Live at Spotlight in Huntington, NY. 

The DCAU Weekly Review – The New Batman Adventures

 The New Batman Adventures

Episode 17

Old Wounds

 

The story about how Nightwing gave up being Robin.  A solid gap filler story which is told via a flashback between BtAS and TNBA.  Dick Grayson is still Robin and just graduated college.  He’s going it on his own via a trust he received from the circus after the death of his parents.  He has a relationship with Barbara Gordon.  

 

Batman and Robin are chasing down a plan Joker is hatching.  Batman starts interrogating a man named Connor at his home in front of his family.  Connor is totally guilty.  Robin is feeling ways about it going down in front of Connor’s family.  Batman gets pissed, Robin takes off.  

 

Dick Grayson visits Barbara Gordon late that night.  She sleeps in an outfit similar to what Lois Lane wears at night.  It must be the bedtime style in the DCAU.  Or the creators might have a festish.  Grayson is vaguely complaining about the situation to Gordon.  She goes to Bruce Wayne to try and mediate.  Wayne decides to reveal their identities to her.  He already knows she’s Batgirl.  Conveniently the Joker’s plan is revealed.  He has a radar jammer which disrupts commercial fights and can cause them to crash.  Batman is super bent on stopping it from happening and recruits Batgirl to help since Robin is MIA. 

 

Robin shows up in the middle of the fight.  Lots of cool action happens.  He learns that Bargirl is Barbara Gordon.  He gets pissed at Batman for not telling him and totally punches him in the face.  He then takes off.  Back in the present he’s hanging out with Tim Drake and they come across Connor.  During the conversation they learn Bruce Wayne hooked him up with a job after a string of bad luck which caused him to bump heads with Batman.  Nightwing gets a new appreciation for Bruce Wayne.  

 

It’s a nice Dick Grayson story and origin for Nightwing.  It also shows that the mullet is unneeded.  The Dick Grayson/Robin revamp isn’t horrible which means they just screwed it up when giving him the mullet.  

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Stereomatic - Cars

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The DCAU Weekly Review – The New Batman Adventures

 The New Batman Adventures

Episode 16

Animal Acts

 

Animals are committing crimes, Dick Grayson traces it back to his circus origins.  It turns out the Mad Hatter is controlling the animals via his special mind control tech.  Nightwing, Batman, and Robin thwart his plans.  The world is a little safer.  It’s a fine episode.  Looking back at Nightwing’s origin is fine.  It seemed to be a go-to because they perhaps didn’t know where to take the character.   He was Batman’s sidekick in BtAS and now he’s an adult trying to carve out his new identity.  Tim Drake fills the roll as spunky sidekick now.  While the creators didn’t screw-up Nightwing, episodes devoted to him lacked epic story telling like Robin’s Reckoning.  Robin’s Reckoning is an extremely high bar of story telling though. 

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

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Another Cuculi sponsored show. The sound and lights are bad because the venue was horrible. Don’t blame the band.

 

The DCAU Weekly Review – The New Batman Adventures

 The New Batman Adventures

Episode 15

Cult of the Cat

 

Catwoman is being chased endlessly by a cult of cat worshipers for stealing from them.  She enlists Batman’s help to stop them because they will not give up attacking her.  Batman feels ways about Catwoman but ultimately gets wrapped up in her situation.  

 

Catwoman gets captured and convinces the cult to let her become a member.  Batman bust in to help her escape but as the cult is arriving to indoctrinate her she knocks Batman out.  They throw him in an arena to be a sacrifice for a giant cat who was probably made by Farmer Brown.  

 

Catwoman gets involved and somehow befriends the giant cat and turns it against the cult.  Antics ensure.  Batman and Catwoman win out.  The police arrive and bust the cult but Commissioner Gordon says they don’t have as many stolen goods as a person would think.  Cut-to Selena Kyle in Paris with a ton of jewels, enjoying her spoils. 

 

France has no extradition for French citizens which makes us wonder if Selina Kyle is a French citizen. Her just hiding out there wouldn’t be enough; she would be extradited if not a citizen.  

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Red Hot Chilli Poppers California

Another Cuculi sponsored show. The sound and lights are bad because the venue was horrible. Don’t blame the band.

 

The DCAU Weekly Review – The New Batman Adventures

 The New Batman Adventures

Episode 14

Critters

 

Not sure what to say about this episode.  It’s not a standard episode and the change creates some appreciation but it’s weird. It’s a weird episode.  This guy Farmer Brown makes genetically altered animals which Gotham shuts down because you can’t make mutant animals.  Years later he decides to get revenge on the city by releasing more mutant animals to destroy the city.  Batman and friends get involved and stop him.

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Red Hot Chilli Poppers Californication

Another Cuculi sponsored show. The sound and lights are bad because the venue was horrible. Don’t blame the band.

The DCAU Weekly Review – The New Batman Adventures

 The New Batman Adventures

Episode 13

Mean Seasons

 

Another new villain called Calendar Girl (voiced by former model turned actress Sela Ward) appears.  It’s truly and enjoyable episode.  A former model is running around wrecking fashion shows.  She’s kidnapping people who ruined her life.  

 

During the investigation, Batman discovers Calendar Girl is really Page Monroe and she might be horribly disfigured under her mask after too many plastic surgeries.  As Batman tracks her down before getting her revenge against the people who ruined her life.  He stops her.  There’s a mechanical T-Rex for some reason.  A recycle from StAS, perhaps they didn’t want to make a new robot.   They stop her save the day.  The great twist at the end is when her mask is ripped off, she’s absolutely beautiful but thinks she’s horrendous looking.  An extreme version of body dysmorphia

 

There’s a nice theme in the story about aging and how to accept it gracefully.  Batman is getting older.  He has an employee who’s being forced into retirement who after the Calendar Girl incident changes the Wayne Enterprise policy to allow the man to keep working.  Not sure what Gotham City, NJ’s laws are about forced retirement but it probably wasn’t a legal policy to begin with.  

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Red Hot Chilli Poppers We're At The Bar And We're Drinking

Another Cuculi sponsored show. The sound and lights are bad because the venue was horrible. Don’t blame the band.