Big Hero 6 returned with four episodes this weekend, so let’s dive into the first one, “Issue 188,” which introduced many new enemies for Big Hero 6, and Fred himself, and possibly a love interest for Hiro?
1. Opening credits
Let’s talk about the opening credits, as it’ll be with us in every episode from now on. The visuals, of which there are many spread in a hexagonal honeycomb pattern (which Ant-Man and the Wasp‘s promo imagery further demonstrates are so hot right now), are too haphazard to really to interesting. That said, the theme music from the film is always stirring, and I like the image of Baymax mimicking a Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm-Flailing Tubeman.
2. High Voltage
This episode’s supervillains, High Voltage (Barb and Juniper), were basically Cyndi Lauper and Jem as a mother-daughter pair of thieves with electrical abilities. That conceit is pretty obvious, as were the puns about how they’re not criminals but artists, and Juniper going solo at the end, but it was still pretty funny. Things got really surreal with their dancing and music, but aren’t musicals pretty weird? I definitely got a Scott Pilgrim vibe from how they turned the relative normality of the show bizarre real quick, which is always cool. I really hope we see them again and get some more insight into their washed-up background.
3. Karmi
The episode mainly revolves around Professor Granville introducing Hiro to Karmi, a biologist and fellow teen prodigy, as she recognizes he would benefit from socializing with someone his age at the college. I have a huge compliment for the animation in her introduction: you could just tell from her gritted smile that she was absolutely not keen on the idea of him sitting in on her research. She’s a very odd one, coming across as even nuttier than Honey Lemon: she talks to her test samples, laughs like a maniac, and her lab coat, syringes and goggles all add up to evoke the classic mad scientist.
Then Hiro discovers that – shock! – Karmi has a crush on his superhero alter-ego. It leads to some fun superhero commentary on the notion that Lois Lane can’t recognize Clark Kent is Superman, with Fred deciding to go hunting for the pulped original edition of “Captain Fancy” #188 (hence the title) to figure out why Karmi can’t see the boy she despises is also the hero she admires. Me, personally, felt there were stronger parallels with the earliest issues of “Amazing Spider-Man,” where everyone who admired Spider-Man also felt Peter Parker came across an arrogant, self-absorbed creep, unaware he was preoccupied with being their idol.
By the way, I really liked Karmi’s drawing of Hiro, which had a strong manga vibe to it. It’s nice to see the show paying tribute to Japanese and American comics. (Now that I think about it, does anyone else think Hiro’s helmet strongly resembles Astro Boy?)
4. Big Hero 6 Ensemble(s)
A big part of the episode has Fred and Go Go going (ahem) to a comic book store owned by a creepy 11-year old named Richardson, to find the pulped edition of “Captain Fancy” #188. It culminates in a hysterical scene where we see Richardson and Fred’s emnity is so great that the kid has a whole arcade where the objective of every game resembles Fred, and Go Go proceeds to win the comic by playing Whac-A-Fred.
I like how much screentime Go Go had in the episode, as it made the show really feel as much of an ensemble as its title implies, unlike the film, which was Hiro and Baymax: The Movie. Now if only she had a real name: and on that note, I kind’ve feel, as funny as the whole bit with Go Go taking out her annoyance with Fred on the moles based on him, Richardson’s just too nasty to have gone unpunished. I wonder if Go Go should’ve sabotaged his bunker in response for him greeting her with a kiss on the hand, and stolen the comic instead.
5. Did I miss something?
Continued belowCarrying on with the off-key beats again, I was really confounded by the ending of this episode. How did Hiro apparently get Karmi to stop disliking him to the point Granville is proud of him? Don’t get me wrong, I liked the whole part where he realized the professor paired them up because it was Karmi who desperately needed to socialize, but I still had to rewind the episode a few times to understand what he’d accomplish. Apparently not: the episode goes from Hiro learning “Captain Fancy” #188 explained why superheroes are unrecognizable to people they know, to Granville congratulating Hiro on his progress with Karmi. I complained about some strange character beats in the first episode, and this unfortunately continues that.
Bonus thoughts:
– Fred does the Batman ’66 transition!
– “You can’t rush Fred” – this is now my favorite Toy Story 2 parody.
– Our big bad apparently has a glowing skeleton like Derek Powers from Batman Beyond.
