Um... wow... This sure as hell is NOT the Batman I remember... or that ANY of us remember. This new show really changes a lot about Batman, even more than The Batman did and only time will tell if the fans will like them or not. Let's begin...
This episode opens in a familiar set up, a bad guy is running from Batman, the mysterious dark vigilantee that's almost impossible to see in the dark. Before Batman can kick some ass though, a larger bad guy with metal bracelets socks him into a truck. Batman pops his dislocated shoulder into place and soon defeats the thugs.
Elsewhere, a guy is being chased down by Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad in an old fashioned buggy. The man is a millionaire named Simon Stagg. As he runs, he dodges Toad's sonic scream that ruins a nearby store. He is hit by a blow dart and is soon knocked out by Mr. Toad's club.
The next morning Bruce wakes up to a mysterious attacker trying to hit him with a bat. After a brief fight, Bruce finally takes down the guy, who turns out to be Alfred. Yes... this version of Alfred is a buff and bad-ass ex MI6 spy, now working as Bruce Wayne's bodyguard as well as his butler. He's disappointed that it took Bruce 5 moves to take him down, instead of just 3. Bruce reminds him that he's supposed to protect 'Bruce Wayne' not Batman. Alfred asks if they are not one in the same.
As bruce and Alfred start their morning they see the news of Stagg's kidnapping. During the interview a ransom video is shown as Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad showcase Stagg as a trohpy head (still alive, mind you) and threaten that their hunt will continue.
Thanks to some super advanced Bat-Computer skills, Bruce is able to determine that Micheal Holt will be their next victim. They also see that Toad and Pyg are named after the Winds in the Willows story and try to find a reason as to why they were after Stagg, but his financial information is locked. Alfred wants to help, but Bruce says it's too dangerous for him to hit the field with Batman, so he leaves him to hack Simon Stagg's financial information as he heads out.
Professor Pyg is chasing Micheal Holt's car in his buggy, trying to hit him with a cannon. The Batmobile shows up and rams into the buggy. The Batmobile fires a rope at the buggy, but Pyg manages to cut it off with a hacksaw. The villains fire off their cannon, but Bats drives in the way to take the hit for Holt. However the explosion knocks the Batmobile and Holt's car into a wall. Toad checks the Batmobile, but there is no sign of Batman. Pyg says it doesn't matter and they grab Micheal Holt. Batman was hiding in the shadows and tells Alfred that Holt was captured.
Elsewhere, Alfred meets with a woman that helps her to finish hacking Stagg's finances. He appreciates the help and asks her if she considers his offer. The woman leaves without an answer. Alfred talks to Bruce with his phone, but is soon knocked out by a blowdart. Bruce watches the video as Pyg announces he was supposed to capture Bruce Wayne, but got his butler instead. He then says they'll be meeting real soon and stomps on the phone. After checking Stagg's files, Bruce finds out that Micheal Holt as well as Bruce Wayne himself were involved in the same business deal at one time, so all three of them were targets.
At the hideout, Pyg explains to the millionaires about how one of their business deals ended up destroying Keystone Park. Pyg has the captives chained together and lets them run off so he can hunt them down. As they run, Alfred notices a trip wire and determines the place is booby trapped.
Batman soon arrives but the building is in very bad shape and and is basically falling apart as he tries to find Alfred. Even though the millionaires carefully step over the tripwire, Toad tosses some bombs at them. As they try to avoid them, they set off the trip wire. Alfred quickly shoves Holt and Stagg out of their way and a gate falls on Alfred which breaks his ankle. Stagg is heartless and just wants to get away since their chain to Alfred is broken but Holt wants to stay and help. Alfred tells them to leave without him.
Pyg and Toad show up to get Alfred, and Pyg threatens to use a hacksaw on his ankle. Batman then shows up and fights with them. Pyg swings his hacksaw at him, but Batman soon takes him down. Toad tries to attack Batman with some a sonic scream, but he knocks him into Pyg with a light explosive attached to him to take them both down. Holt helps take Alfred out as they escape. As Batman continues the fight against the villains, they toss a bunch of bombs, forcing our hero to escape. The entire building goes down but Batman and the captives are safe. However, Pyg and Toad are still out there.
At home Bruce and Alfred watch the news as Lt. Gordon is questioned wether or not Batman helped rescue the millionaires. Bruce admits he was wrong and if he had waited to hack Stagg's files, he would have found out he was one of Pyg's targets beforehand. He does need help and is willing to let Alfred be his assistant. However Alfred admits he won't be as much help as he thought. While Bruce's shoulder will heal in a few days, Alfred's ankle won't heal for months. He has someone new to watch over him, and introduces Tatsu Yamashiro, who DC fans know is the martial arts master Katana.
Wow.. I kinda don't know what to think of this. I already knew some of the changes due to all the news and updates, like Alfred being more buff and bad-ass so it wasn't as jarring for me. I noticed the little homage to the Pink Panther series, in which Alfred would randomly attack Bruce in his own home to keep up his fighting skills. Nice touch.
It was weird seeing Batman taken down so easily, especially with the bigger thug in the opening scene. I guess it was to have Batman's injured shoulder be a hindrance for the rest of the episode, and yes, I do understand he's supposed to be new to being Batman in this series. It's still weird seeing him get defeated so easily though.
As for Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad... well I do admit I know nothing of Mr. Toad, but I have seen Pyg in the Batman and Robin series, back when Dick Grayson was Batman. Yes, it is funny to think that other than a quick punch or so in the break out scene in the first issue of Batman for the New52. our classic Bruce Wayne Batman has never really faced him yet. As I expected, Pyg was completely changed and watered down in this version. In the comics Pyg is totally disturbed and runs a gang called the Circus of Strange. he basically kidnaps people and brainwashes them into mindless zombie-like things he calls Dollotrons. This involved dressing them as dolls and having weird doll faces sewn onto their actual faces and it appears this transformation is permanent... so obviously none of this was shown in the cartoon.
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| The Pyg is too sick for Saturday Morning |
Sadly, due to the horrible shooting at the Century Theater during the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises, the crooks' guns in the opening scene were somewhat changed to look like typical cartoon laser guns instead of real guns. It was pretty lame and obviously tacked on. The guns looked real but had extra science junk tacked on and zap sounds replacing what I would assume would have been realistic gunshot sounds. I guess the episodes were so far into completion it would have been difficult to redraw them altogether at this stage. I understand the reasoning behind this, but similar to the Spiderman 90's cartoon, it always looks weird and lame when typical normal thugs happen to be branding sci fi guns in a more realistic setting.
I personally can't speak for any of the poor victims of that horrible tragedy. For me I almost completely forgot about it until I saw the laser guns and said 'oh yeah... they did say they were gonna do that'. While the cartoon aired a year after that tragedy, I do understand for those that did lose loved ones that night will never forget no matter how much time has passed. However, I kinda feel unless they can remove or alter guns from ALL cartoons and movies, altering them just in this cartoon won't do anything to help them deal with their loss. This cartoon is hardly anything like The Dark Knight Rises anyway.
Finally I was end this by saying the episode just felt kinda boring. I guess the best part for me was watching Alfred lead the hostages to safety and using his skills to detect the traps . When he was asked who he was the way he replied 'you heard what the man said, I'm the butler'. Not sure who voices him but he sounds like a younger more bad-ass Micheal Cane. Everything else was just.... I don't know. It's too soon to judge since the series just started, but I really hope they have a better second episode. It was just boring to me and the only thing that kept me watching was the fact that it was Batman and I really wanted to give this a chance. Let's see what happens next week.
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