For the last few months, I have had SEVERAL close friends and fans of this blog ask me if I was going to sit back and give this show a fair chance. To be honest, when I saw the first few teaser trailers and concept images, I thought it looked VERY stupid, but at the same time, if I can stomach Avengers Assembled and write some honest reviews about it, I can do the same with this show. Besides, it's a rainy day here where I live, so I don't much else to do today anyway...
The Plot:
Batman works to stop Professor Pyg and Mister Toad from taking their revenge over a shady land deal done by Simon Stagg, Michael Holt, and an unwitting Bruce Wayne. Pyg and Mr. Toad are eco-terrorists that have been hunting and capturing corrupt executives like Simon Stagg and Michael Holt in order to get revenge on a shady land deal revolving around Keystone Park. Following the capture of Michael Holt and an encounter with Batman, Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad end up tranquilizing Alfred when Mr. Toad mistook him for Bruce Wayne (who Alfred was in the middle of a call with). Upon knowing that Alfred was in the middle of a call with Bruce Wayne Professor Pyg speaks through it telling Bruce that they will meet soon. Professor Pyg then stomps on Alfred's cell phone breaking it. While in their wetlands hideout, Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad states to Simon Stagg, Michael Holt, and Alfred that they will be hunted. Batman enters the hideout to look for the captives. Alfred ends up injured saving Simon Stagg from a trap. Before Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad can finish off the three captives, Batman arrives and fights Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad while Alfred gets Simon Stagg and Michael Holt out. When the hideout explodes, Batman suspects that Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad got away and that Keystone Park was given back to the people through an anonymous donation. The episode concludes as Alfred hires a new bodyguard for Wayne: a young woman named Tatsu Yamashiro.The Verdict:
To this show's credit, this first episode wasn't as bad as I thought this was going to be at first glance.
The animation style is very similar to the one used for current Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon on Nickolodeon, but with a sharper degree of detail to textures. The computer-generated animation used here is a step up from the one used for Green Lantern: The Animated Series and it shows that they learned from their mistakes here.
To the folks disappointed at the lack of Kevin Conroy voicing Batman/Bruce Wayne in this series, get over it. Anthony Ruivivar does a stellar job here, adding that eerie creepiness that Batman has been lacking since Batman: The Brave and The Bold killed all of the scary undertones of the character. I'm still laughing at Raj's dad from The Big Bang Theory, Brian George, is voicing Professor Pyg though. Don't get me wrong - I don't have any complaints at all at his performance here.
I don't know how to feel about the fact that Alfred Pennyworth looks like a former mobster/thug in this cartoon though. His backstory is similar to the source material as a former spy who retired to act as Bruce Wayne's bodyguard. I'm anxious to find out what is his relationship with Tatsu Yamashiro is though. I'm going to spoil it right now for most of you guys who don't know, but she will be Katana later in this series. Fans of Batman: The Brave and The Bold will remember her appearances on that series.
As for the plot, it's not bad as DC Comics gets a bit of kudos focusing on newer villains out of Batman's rogues gallery as I'm personally not familiar with Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad in the least, so their involvement was rather intriguing to me. The fact that Batman didn't catch them in this initial encounter shows that they will end up being major players down the road, so that gives me a bit of hope that this show doesn't turn into your run of the mill Batman cartoon where they recycle the same villains over and over again. That being said, there's not enough here to go by off the first episode to garner a solid opinion of this series, but there's enough to make me turn in again next week to see where it goes next.
The writers of Ultimate Spider-Man and Avengers Assembled can take a note here, they did a brief introduction of Bats at the beginning where he took down two armed thugs and kept the narrative moving from the start to the finish of the episode, not stopping for any cheap jokes nor comedy, it's all serious. Hell, they didn't even waste time telling Bats' origin story as c'mon who doesn't know that by now?
The first episode of Beware The Batman, "Hunted," serves as a solid foundation to what could be a promising animated series for the Caped Crusader. Here's to hoping that DC can continue this strong start. I'm giving this premiere a 3.75 out of 5.
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