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

Stereomatic - She Bop

 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

Red Hot Chilli Poppers Aeroplane

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.