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4.0 out of 5 stars
Same "Pros"! Same "Cons"! Still worth it just for the Episodes!, November 13, 2009
Batman the Brave and the Bold: Volume Two
(Released November 10, 2009 by Warner Home Video)
Another Looong DVD Review by Joe Torcivia
Sometimes, these reviews just write themselves!
It's especially true when you've written a detailed review for "Volume One" of a series, and little or nothing changes in subsequent volumes. So it is for Batman the Brave and the Bold: Volume Two.
You can read most of the background in my review of Volume One elsewhere at Amazon.
Once upon a time, in the long-ago and far-away "Silver Age of Comic Books" (roughly defined by the 1960s), there was a notable series from DC Comics called The Brave and the Bold. It ran from 1955 thru 1983, and introduced us to the Justice League of America, the Suicide Squad, and the Silver Age version of Hawkman among others. Starting with its 59th issue in 1965, it became the "Batman Team-Up" book, pairing Bats with Green Lantern - followed by virtually every known "guest star" in the DC Comics Universe.
And so follows this superb animated series, which teams Batman with both heroes and villains from every known corner of the DCU.
The tone is lighter than the contemporary comic books, its predecessor Batman the Animated Series (1992-1999), and the current crop of Batman feature films. In both style and content, it owes much to the imaginative comic books of the Silver Age.
As is our custom in these reviews, we'll break it into CONS and PROS.
The CONS:
The Set Itself: Just about every "CON" about Batman the Brave and the Bold: Volume Two can be filed under this category. Let me count the ways...
The Number of Episodes: In a word... FOUR! JUST FOUR! REALLY? ONLY FOUR? YES, ONLY FOUR! Have I said "FOUR" enough to make the point?
The Price: For this set of FOUR episodes, that you can knock-off in little more than 90 minutes of sitting time, Warner's suggested list price is... (GASP!) 14.98! That's 3.75 per episode, folks! Fortunately, this MSRP mockery is only "suggested", and diligent searchers can find it for less.
The Extra Features: There are NO extra features! No commentaries. No DC and WB folks discussing the show and the comic book that inspired it. NOTHING!
Robo-Promos: This is a new item for my "CONS" list, but one that is making me increasingly annoyed. Pop in a DVD and you are assaulted by what I call "Robo-Promos"... those that play automatically before you even reach the initial menu.
Warner, more than other studios, seems to make this a standard practice. Yes, I know you can "zip" through them, but they're annoying all the same - all the more so when you consider that you've PAID Warner for the privilege of owning a digital copy of the program. There are FOUR of these Robo-Promos, totaling about 05:25.
The PROS:
Content Notes: In previous reviews, I've complained about the total lack of CONTENT LISTINGS included as part of the packaging of a number of Warner Animation sets this year. Among those in my collection alone are Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection, Max Fleischer's Superman, Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960s Volume 1 AND Volume 2, and Ruby-Spears Superman. Notice how that list GROWS each time we visit this topic!
But, as with Volume One, I'm pleased to report that Batman the Brave and the Bold: Volume Two lists its episode content on the outside back of the package. Of course, with only FOUR EPISODES, how much package space could it actually take! I shouldn't have to cite the inclusion of four episode titles incorporated into the set's packaging as a "PRO"... but let's give WHV its due.
Characters and Settings: If there's one thing you can count on from Batman the Brave and the Bold, it is new animated interpretations of "Characters-And-Settings-of DC Comics Lore". Needless to say, we are not disappointed...
In this (Ahem!) FOUR-episode set alone, there are so many characters to consider, that we'll break it into "Featured Characters" and "Cameos":
Featured Characters: Batman, Guy Gardner (Green Lantern), Kilowog, Green Arrow (Silver Age, no beard), Jason Blood and Etrigan the Demon, Kamandi "The Last Boy on Earth", Dr. Canus, Wildcat, Black Lightning, Metamorpho, Katana, Black Manta, B'wana Beast, Deadman, Gentleman Ghost, Speedy, Blue Beetle III (Jaime Reyes), Blue Beetle II (Ted Kord), Blue Beetle I (Dan Garrett), Doctor Polaris.
Cameos: Green Lanterns: Tomar-Re, C'hp, Saalak, Arisia, Katma Tui, Boodika, the "Diamond Green Lantern", the "Robot Green Lantern" Xax (the insect GL), and many other familiar faces and shapes from years of Green Lantern comics. Villains: Clock King, Kite-Man, Felix Faust, Mr. Zero, Punch and Jewlee, Mad-Hatter, Bookworm, Shame, King Tut, The Archer, Ma Barker, and Black Widow.
...Just imagine what a full-season set would have had!
It's Not TV: For the first time, viewers can enjoy the (Ahem!) FOUR episodes that make up Batman the Brave and the Bold: Volume Two with no "Network Identifying Bugs" in the corner of the screen, no pop up ads for other shows, and credits that you can "freeze-frame" and read. And viewers can hear the "extended version" of the show's ending theme, which has probably NEVER played on TV because promos are always running over it!
Indeed, one of the best reasons for collecting ANY contemporary TV show on DVD is that is has probably never been seen in this particular way ever before!
And, the ultimate "PRO" for Batman the Brave and the Bold: Volume Two...
The Episodes:
"Day of the Dark Knight!": Story by DC Comics writer J.M. De Matteis.
Teaser: Guy Gardner taunts an alien prisoner and gets his! I was hoping for an animated recreation of one of the most famous comic-book moments of the `80s - "Batman takes Guy Gardner down with ONE PUNCH"! Didn't happen, but all those Green Lantern cameos make up for it.
Main Story: Batman and Green Arrow thwart a mass prison escape (hence the villain cameos), and are transported to 5th Century England by Merlin the Magician, who was posing as a prisoner and triggered the escape to attract the attention of Bats and GA. Our two heroes are thrust into the story of the "Sword in the Stone" vs. Morgaine LeFay, and with Jack Kirby's Etrigan the Demon thrown in for good measure. Top flight fantasy!
"Enter the Outsiders!":
Teaser: B'wana Beast, a Silver Age character so bad even DC was ashamed of it, assists Batman in capturing Black Manta.
Main Story: Batman and Wildcat turn the "teen-age Outsiders" (!) away from a life of crime and urban terrorism. A rare stumble results in this being my least favorite of the series - at least of those seen so far. Wildcat is superbly characterized, as a hero of a bygone era (Comics' Golden Age: 1940s-early 1950s), but it's not enough to balance of the grossly mischaracterized Outsiders!
Black Lightning, Katana, and Metamorpho (who was properly characterized as the adult Rex Mason in JUSTICE LEAGUE) are misfit teens, who commit bad deeds in the service of The Slug - a grotesque mutant reading in Gotham's sewers.
This is just WRONG! I get the same crawly feeling as when seeing characters like Raven and Starfire depicted as "little girls" on the best-forgotten TEEN TITANS series of 2003.
"Dawn of the Dead Man!":
Teaser: In Jack Kirby's post-apocalyptic world of tomorrow, Kamandi helps Batman recover a "future-vaccine" to halt a present-day plague. This short bit has enough potential to have been a half-hour episode on its own.
Main Story: Begins with an eerie, semi-transparent Batman rising from his grave! "You're probably wondering who finally got me. The thing is, I'm NOT DEAD... not YET, at least!"
How do you not love a story that starts like THAT?!
An "astral projection" of Batman (who will soon suffocate, trapped in a buried coffin) teams up with Deadman, Green Arrow, and Speedy to foil Gentleman Ghost, who is raising an Army of the Dead to take his revenge on the city of London! This is perfect Silver/Bronze Age Batman, as he would have appeared in The Brave and the Bold comic book of the time! It's also my personal favorite episode of the set!
"Fall of the Blue Beetle!":
Teaser: Batman and Silver Age Blue Beetle Ted Kord break into a heavily fortified, top-secret installation - eluding guards and automated defenses - talking "shop" and comparing their respective gadgets and equipment all the way. Nicely sets up the main story.
Main Story: Novice hero Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes) learns of the past history of the Blue Beetle line - and the fate of former Beetle Ted Kord, which involved Batman. Another excellent entry!
Overall: Batman the Brave and the Bold: Volume Two succeeds in ways both expected and delightfully unexpected. It's not simply reflective of the lighter (but extremely imaginative) Silver Age DC comic books - but takes that tone and squarely hits every point in time of the DC Comics Universe.
Despite the severe and obvious flaws in it's "Three-P's" - Packaging, Presentation, and Pricing - Batman the Brave and the Bold: Volume Two is highly recommended to fans and enthusiasts of Batman, DC Comics and the Warner Animated Series based upon them, the Silver and Bronze Ages of Comics Books in general, and anyone who just wants to kick back and have a good time!
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5.0 out of 5 stars
What I Hoped Saturday Morning Cartoons Would Be As I Approached My Forties . . ., March 14, 2010
As I find it only fair to the creators to review their work rather than how it's distributed, this is a review of the episodes themselves, not the marketing strategies behind their release. I'll talk more about marketing at reviews end, though, just to give the devil his duee. I have to go ahead and be honest: I love these episodes, but in the context of what I've seen before. Had I never seen Batman: The Animated Series, I'm not sure I'd be so happy with this series. Batman is nearly stoic in this series, always contemplative, often narrating through interior dialog, you know, we hear Batman talking inside his own head. The characters he is teamed with in volume two are, with the exception of one (Kamandi) quite manic and/or full of bravado bordering on manic (B'wana Beast, Green Arrow, Speedy, Guy Gardner); and one other (Deadman) is manic depressive. That being said, these are wonderfully real characters that have just as much (if not more) depth than what you'll see in any cartoon. There's a great scene, for example, where Batman is interior dialoging about Wildcat, saying "Wildcat is a hero from a bygone era, and he's waging a war against an enemy he can't beat: time," and then you see Wildcat in profile zooming on his 70s-style Harley against intermittent flashing iron-bridge-girders as the sun highlights it all. That's powerful stuff. The most amazing thing about these episode on Volume Two (NOT to be confused with "Season Two," these are volumes of episodes, not seasons) is the amazing voice talent collected here, the most amazing of which is hearing Dee Bradley Baker do an outright bloodcurdling version of The Demon Etrigan's famous couplet "Gone, gone the form of man, now rise the Demon Etrigan"; he does the first line and a half in the voice of a man that is verging closer and closer to the dark side of the world and then when he says "Etrigan" it is an absolutely hair-raising, throat-clinching bit of brilliance. But on top of that, you get Diedrich Bader as a wonderful new voice for Batman (his is a tougher, more noir-ish Batman than Kevin Conroy's valorous classic), David McCallum as Merlin, Tatyana Yassukovich as Morgaine Le Fey (how does someone so young sound so maturely evil?), Michael Rosenbaum (a wonderful, wonderful Deadman), Greg Ellis (a spooky and nearly Shakespearean-sounding Gentleman Ghost), and Jason Marsden (a high-pitched likeable kid Speedy). I have to say that, though R. Lee Emery did his job as hired as Wildcat, I did not like the selection; Wildcat is not a tough-as-nails cornpoke; he's a New Yawkish tough-guy boxer; just sayin'. All in all, I think these cartoons are awesome. They're bringing smartly told stories with morals (without being dogmatic or idelogical) about what makes good people keep doing good things. These are slower, more contemplative stories balanced with these bizarre, manic introductions. Attention is paid, in one episode, to a beautiful forest landscape with Celtic music played over the scene as it pans / scrolls along. You get nice, subtle sound effects (Green Arrow has a trick where pinball sound effects absolutely make the entire scene). You get humor (B'Wana Beast trumping his mixture of a horse and spider with the mixture of a shark and a pelican, that, whoops!, eats the horse-spider off camera!). Lots and lots to think about mixed with humor and zaniness. These are exactly the Saturday morning cartoons I was hoping would be around as I approach my forties . . . Highly, highly recommended. Now, lots of people having given these episodes horrible reviews because Warner and DC have decided to release as four-episode volumes rather than complete seasons. First, pay attention to what you buy, and if you didn't notice what was on there (hey, it even says "4 Episodes" quite clearly on the FRONT side of the dvd case, folks!). If you're not happy with watching four cartoons, wait for the full seasons. Personally, for me, it was the same dilemma as comics: Do I buy the separate issues or wait for the trade paperback that collects them all? I chose to pay $10 to watch these episodes which breaks down to $2.50 per story. I find it quite fair and my way of telling these creators that they've done a darn fine job. You can't get much of anything for two-and-a-half bucks anymore, but thirty minutes of great fun and some serious thinking if my money well spent. You'll have to make your own decision about yours. Whatever you decide, eventually everyone's going to agree, I think, that these are some great cartoons that are bringing back lots of great characters that we haven't seen in a while. Thanks, DC and WB.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Good DVD...just 4 episodes, January 31, 2010
My son got this for Christmas and he really likes it...especially the episode with Gentleman Ghost. This DVD is 4 episodes and not an entire season, but a good price.
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