With the recent news of its cancellation and imminent replacement with another new Batman show that returns to a more serious tone, the cycle loops back again. They do this with Batman every few years, rebranding when enough episodes are produced.
The funny thing is, Brave and the Bold is internally conflicted in itself, as I’ve exhaustively discussed in my reviews of Season One. Once again, in this set, we see Batman changing his attitude from episode to episode. Compared to the first season, though, here the producers seem to have a better grasp of just how goofy or just how hardass they will allow their Batman to be, and the opening episode of this set actually has some fun with Batman's rep as a self-obsessed loner.
The episode, “Death Race to Oblivion,” is an homage to both the movie that it got its title from and the old Hanna-Barbera Laff-A-Lympics. The Superman villain Mongul kidnaps a bunch of heroes and villains and forces them to race cars, to win the prize of not having their hometown obliterated. To everyone’s surprise, Batman plays for keeps, declaring, “I would do anything to keep Gotham safe!” Given other interpretations of Batman as a dark avenger, this seems like something you can easily see them let Batman do, but it doesn’t seem to gel with the campier mood this show uses, thus keeping you guessing where this Batman draws his limits.
From there, it’s become increasingly obvious that the Brave and the Bold producers are really just using the format to tell various stories and characters from the DC Universe that they want to do that would never have in a million years get their own series on TV. So despite Batman being the selling point and consistent presence on Brave and the Bold, in most of the episodes here, he’s actually the guest star. A given episode would star another hero, in a story about that hero, usually fighting that hero’s villain, and Batman would just be... there. Like the Native American statue in front of cigar shops.
I’m all for it, really. It’s nice to see a popular cartoon focusing on a story about the Justice Society of America, like in the episode “The Golden Age of Justice.” Whodathunk that we’d ever get to see Dr. Magnus and his Metal Men fighting the Gas Gang in animated form? Or Firestorm, even? Yet there they are in the episode “Clash of the Metal Men” and “A Bat Divided,” respectively. Hell, the episode “The Power of Shazam!” could very well work as a backdoor pilot for a Captain Marvel series.
Without this conceit of introducing a new all-ages audience to classic characters, the show can be pretty rote when it deals with Batman’s regular partners on the show from the first season: Aquaman, Blue Beetle, Green Lantern Guy Gardner and Green Arrow. They’re not bad stories; just whimsically goofy inconsequential adventures that don’t leave any distinct lasting impression.
There are two episodes, though, that are so good that they almost warrant the set by themselves. Both episodes also happen to have the ultimate Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy as a guest voice. Coincidence?! Well, yes, actually. They would’ve been the best episodes with or without Conroy.
The first is “The Super-Batman of Planet X!” It has Batman dropping through a wormhole in space onto planet Zur-En-Arrh, where he meets another Batman. The more dedicated Batman comics readers would no doubt be familiar with the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, but instead of adapting the comics, the episode does a pretty neat exploration of the old Batman-jealous-of-Superman’s-powers trope, except told from Superman’s perspective. Or Super-Batman, that is. You see, our Batman has Superman’s powers on Zur-En-Arrh—just like Superman has his on Earth—and starts cleaning up the town, leaving their Batman feeling useless. As an added bonus for older fans, the planet’s versions of Lex Luthor and Lois Lane are voiced by their Superman: The Animated Series actors Clancy Brown and Dana Delany. Conroy, of course, voices the Zur-En-Arrh Batman, who is drawn to resemble Conroy's Batman from the Bruce Timm shows.
The second is an episode that feels like a missing episode of Batman: The Animated Series, “Chill of the Night.” It’s written by TAS writer Paul Dini, and it pays homage to the old show by dropping the usual Brave and the Bold tone almost completely, with Batman facing regular gangsters and behaving much more violently than in other episodes. Even the look of the episode employs more shadows than usual, and Gotham’s sky is painted red just as it was on TAS. In it, Batman finally tracks down Joe Chill, the man who murdered his parents 30 years earlier. Playing shoulder angel and devil are the cosmic characters Phantom Stranger and The Spectre, who observe Batman’s confrontation with a wager between them: will Batman be an representation of “justice” or will he be an agent of “vengeance”? It’s a dark episode—obviously, given the subject matter—and it decisively underlines the main principles of being Batman. He’s defined by tragedy, but his motivation is not revenge.
The guest voices here are just wonderful treats. Adam West and Julie Newmar play Batman’s parents. Richard Moll, who was Two-Face on TAS, plays dying gangster Lew Moxon. Best of all, the warring words between the Phantom Stranger and the Spectre are realized by the voices of the definitive Batman and Joker, Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill.
Honestly, this is one of those episodes that should be a series finale given the gravity of the situation and the way it cements the main character’s place in the universe, but it’s not. The show goes on, and this is just marked as a high point. It does offer one lasting change, though. Up to this point, Brave and the Bold has refrained from ever showing Bruce Wayne. When Batman’s out of the costume, he’s always either wearing a disguise or his face is covered in shadows—a way to keep the show’s focus on Batman as 100% adventurer, not some rich guy who beats up muggers at night. In the episode, Batman unmasks in a great dramatic moment, and ever since then, the show’s been more inclined to give face time to Bruce Wayne.
You don’t see that on this set, though, since “Chill of the Night” is the second-to-last episode on it. You’ll just have to wait for the next set from this series. Once again, I really wish they’d just release full seasons instead of halving them like this for no reason.
"Batman: Brave and The Bold - Season Two, Part One" is on sale August 16, 2011 and is not rated. Action, Adventure, Animation, Children & Family. Starring Diedrich Bader.
