BraveandBold-Red-Tornado Television 

Five Thoughts on Batman: The Brave & the Bold‘s “Day of the Dark Knight!” & “Invasion of the Secret Santas!”

By | June 4th, 2018
Posted in Television | % Comments

Batman’s had a lot of different animated incarnations over the past 30-years, and while Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League are certainly iconic, one should not overlook Batman: The Brave & the Bold. Is it a bit campy? Yeah, but that’s what makes it so utterly charming. Follow along as we go through the all 3 seasons and experience a Batman that can be loved by all. Plus, feel free to comment down below and make this as interactive as possible, because Batman: The Brave & the Bold is first and foremost, fun. And now… “Day of the Dark Knight!” & “Invasion of the Secret Santas!”

1. The Cold Open

Nothing incredibly crazy with these two openings. First we meet Guy Gardner and it goes just about you would expect. He’s an ass. Nothing surprising there. Then we see Blue Beetle again as he teams up with Batman to battle Sportmaster. Both are fairly forgettable considering how incredibly nuts the regular episodes are. I really love the cold opens but there’s a bit of a lull with these two.

2. Spotlight on the Team-Up

While the intros fall short, the regular episodes more than make up for them. First we get Green Arrow and Etrigan the Demon. The friendly little competition between Bat’s and Green Arrow is humorous enough, but it gives us a nice glimpse into the Oliver Queen character being portrayed here. He’s got a bit of an inferiority complex, and I like that because… well he throws arrows. The crazy one is Etrigan. Who would have thought we’d ever see a cartoon feature on one of DC Comic’s more obscure heroes. And he’s a rhyming demon to boot. Batman: The Brave & the Bold never ceases to amaze me with the level of inclusiveness they brought to the DC pantheon. All that being said, seeing Red Tornado in the next episode was the real treat. What’s there not to love about an android obsessed with figuring out what Christmas is. Like all great artificial intelligence stories, Red Tornado’s quest to become more human puts the spotlight on our very human shortcomings, in this case Batman’s social and familial deficiencies. There was a lot of Vision in this interpretation of Red Tornado and I felt it was for the better.

3. Things you wouldn’t think the Bat-Suit could do

Show me… become a Suit of Armor! That’s a bit of a cheat, I know. Magical or not though, it was still cool to see Batman dressed as a Knight. At first I thought the “Day of the Dark Knight!” episode was extra silly, but it ended up working. Whenever I see something with King Arthur, Merlin and things of that ilk it’s an uphill battle. But, it worked, and clearly the connection to that world and Green Arrow is an easy bridge to cross.

4. And the Bad Guy is…?

First up we get Morgaine le Fey, who’s kind of forgettable. Sure, she turns into a dragon and she clearly goes hand-in-hand with Merlin, but the true star of that episode is Etrigan the Demon. That episode works because of Etrigan. He overcomes the King Arthur campiness, the underwhelming villain and silly Green Arrow competitive side plot. Which goes to show that more attention should be given to “B” and “C” characters. There’s good stories within the DC archives and Etrigan is a prime example of them. You can only go back to the Batman, Superman well so many times before people get tired. The next episode features  Fun Haus, who was really, really creepy. His motivation made no real sense, but the army of Santa Claus robots looked great!

5. Give me the Bat-Humor

I haven’t really touched on Red Tornado enough. He was so awkward in his quest to be human that it came across as rather funny. It was almost akin to a 1950’s movie where you have a immigrant settling into the States and he can’t quite grasp the social norms. While not knee slapping funny, there is a undercurrent of humor to seeing his misconceptions and failures regarding things that are second nature to all of us. As I had already stated above, there’s always a bit of hidden truth when it comes to these things, but it was a perfect example of the series bringing a silly angle for the younger viewers wrapped with a more thought provoking concept for the adults.

See you next week! We’ll have Bat’s team up with WildCat and Deadman!


//TAGS | 2018 Summer TV Binge | Batman: The Brave & The Bold

Rodney Ortiz

When not writing about comics you can find Rodney blogging about home improvement and cars at SmartEnoughtoDIY. He's also read every Star Wars Legends novel which is not as impressive as it once was.

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