Batman: The Brave And The Bold - Page 4

Man, evil smug Superman is my favorite Superman ever.

Okay, to showcase another reason this show is awesome? I was babysitting my 8-year old nephew today and like so many other times I've pulled this duty, I put some recordings of The Brave and the Bold on and he just gets transfixed. He also pretty much begs me to draw characters from the show while he's watching. So today I turn it on, and the episode is 'Gorillas in our Midst" and by the end of the show? I've done some rough sketches of Batman, B'Wanna Beast, and Detective Chimp.

Let me state this loud and clear. Never in my life did I ever expect somebody would REQUEST that I draw B'Wanna Beast or Detective Chimp, until today. And that's pretty awesome.

Holy nuts. I just caught the cold open the the Joker: Vile and Villainous episode and it had too much awesomeness for one sitting. Not only was there a major BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES reference, but then it goes and has the balls to riff on the same ending. New opening credits weren't so bad either. I'll have to finish the ep at a later time.

I would watch the hell out of a Joker: The Vile and the Villainous series.

So, that was it... Goddamn, I'll miss this show. I didn't even realise I was watching the last episode until the last few minutes.

That might have been one of the saddest ending to a cartoon ever. Not sure my son realizes that is the end of the series. Can't wait to buy the collected DVD set.

New series looks bizarre as well.

Shame to see this series go away. Type of show that makes me wish I could work in animation.

It was nice they gave it a good send off. ANd meta and weird as all the other episodes have been.

I got a little exasperated with how surreal, meta, and masturbatory this show got at times with its excessive pandering to comic book fans. Particularly in episodes like "Emperor Joker" and the finale. I'm not a big fan of episodes like those with their 'no rules, anything goes' approach to storytelling. I prefer more straightforward, old school storytelling, but the series had a good amount of episodes with that too. That was one of its strengths. Even though it went a little overboard with the comic-referencing wankery sometimes, it also offered a little something for everyone.

Personally I preferred the episodes with fairly simple stories that got their novelty by doing unexpected things with character dynamics. For example, the change to the Red Hood character in the Owlman 2 parter, the unique villain and hero pairings in "Triumverate of Terror", the anti-hero treatment of Batwoman in "The Criss-Cross Conspiracy", The Joker's chance to have an episode told from his perspective in "The Vile and the Villainous", and the old Justice League vs. new Justice League feud in "22300 Miles Above the Earth". The first Batmite episode was really fun too...I just found its sequels tiresomely whacked out.

I have mixed feelings about this show, but overall I think it's the first Batman series after "Batman: The Animated Series" that was truly special and a worthy successor. I think in a lot of ways, it was what "The Batman" should have been. "The Batman" came off as too much of an inferior "Batman: The Animated Series" rip-off. This one found its own path and while it overdid things a bit at times, when it worked, it was brilliant in its own unique way. It was finally the show that demonstrated Batman can be fun without being completely ridiculous (like the '60s series, which I like, but have no desire to see in animated form). The show's ability to be wacky all the time, yet still present a Batman who can actually be taken seriously was an impressive feat.