At last, Big Hero 6 added a seventh member to their ranks. Unfortunately, it’s not Sky-Max or Mini-Max, but creepy and annoying kid Richardson Mole, who goaded Fred into revealing their true identities and then blackmails his way onto the team. Also, mother-and-daughter supervillains Barb and Juniper (aka High Voltage) are back.
1. Low Voltage? Half Voltage?
I’m glad the show didn’t forget about High Voltage, who haven’t appeared since “Issue 188” at the very start of the season, though given budgetary constraints, I doubt they can afford one-off villains anyway. When we see them again this week, the two have split up, prompting Fred to suggest a whole bunch of new names for them, and a series of peculiar and increasingly funny dance-offs, which culminate in some jawdropping slow-mo music video style moments.
I feel the show’s music team had a lot of fun with these musical sequences, emulating the likes of Tina Turner and other ’80s power ballads, and more recent pop hits for the duo’s competing tastes, and arranging a more synthesized take on the show’s usual Looney Tunes-style score.
2. Nicknames
One of the things that sets Fred off is when Richardson claims he received an autographed photo from his alter-ego, signed “Lizard Guy.” You may think everyone had agreed to call him Flamejumper per Karmi’s fanfic, and granted, this episode could’ve been out-of-order, but I like that everyone makes up a name for them, I mean who ever said that J. Jonah Jameson (or whoever) gets to have the final word on that, right? Also, this is actually the first time Fred says he goes by Fredzilla (his comic book counterpart’s codename), and it’s perfectly in-character for him to be the only one in the team who’s come up with one.
3. Do Not Engage
Richardson is such an arrogant, entitled brat, he is basically that kid who says he’s got a girlfriend who attends another school, or that his dad works at Nintendo. At the same time, it’s not like Big Hero 6 can just imprison him to protect their secret – which wouldn’t have been that dark, mind, given it’s what the crew on The Flash incarcerate their own enemies – so they’re forced to humor him, and make a teachable point about you should be nice to even the worst people in case it rubs off on them. Richardson eventually decides to break his promise not to blab about his discovery, which I guess is another teachable moment, as unfortunately in real life people do wind up taking advantage of kindness and generosity.
4. Out-of-Order
Just as well then, Richardson gets amnesia thanks to his own stupidity, and Fred gets a do-over, now knowing full well not to boast about his superhero identity. It’s all pretty convenient and very much embodies how this was a throwaway, one-off episode. The lack of any references to Obake’s overarching scheme, Mini-Max’s unexplained absence, and all these returning characters and callbacks to “Issue 188” indicate that this episode may have been intended to air much earlier in the season. It’s surprising, but I suppose we need a distraction from the show’s plotting now and again.
5. Public Identities
That said, I do wonder if this episode is foreshadowing Big Hero 6’s identities will be leaked to the public at some point. And why not? They don’t have codenames, so why not dispense with the secret identities? With the backing of the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology and Fred’s parents, they could basically become the show’s answer to the Fantastic Four: celebrity science heroes, who don’t really have to worry about villains targeting their loved ones. I guess we’ll find out if there’s anything gamechanging planned in the season 1 finale soon…
Bonus thoughts:
– The framerate in Norlum (who animated this episode)’s work is still noticeable compared to Snipple, but overall this was a delightfully expressive episode. I particularly love how Barb’s zaps causes her victims to bust a move.
– One of the big callbacks to “Issue 188” is Fred’s belief that any dilemma can be solved by consulting old comic books – and it turns out, there’s a big market for mother-daughter supervillain comics in Big Hero 6’s world.
– Seriously though, is Richardson the only comic book store owner Fred knows?
