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Five Thoughts on Batman: The Brave & the Bold‘s “Enter the Outsiders!” & “Dawn of the Dead Man!”

By | June 11th, 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… “Enter the Outsiders!” & “Dawn of the Dead Man!”

1. The Cold Open

It’s so hard not to love Batman: The Brave & the Bold‘s teaser openings. They take these short snippets and introduce the craziest characters. Characters that any normal Batman cartoon wouldn’t devote an episode to because they are beyond the fringe of Batman’s gallery. For these two episodes we have B’wana Beast, who is super creepy, and Kamandi, who quite frankly I had never even heard of. That’s the beauty of The Brave & the Bold, nothing is forbidden or off the table. It’s truly is a testament to the creative team that they could get things like a spider-horse or Rat Men on the screen. I feel that you wouldn’t be able to bring such an eclectic mix of costars to a mainstream cartoon today.

2. Spotlight on the Team-Up

The “Outsiders” episode features a team-up with Wildcat. While generally fine, his whole “I’m not too old to do this” shtick gets old fast. The fight scenes are great and they do a great job of bringing his boxing background to life during the battles, but I get it. He’s old but still has something in the tank. I could quite frankly do without seeing him again. It was awesome to see the select group of Outsiders perform impromptu defibrillation of Wildcat though. That was a solid piece of writing. The next episode features Dead Man, Green Arrow and Speedy. While unexpected, that was one of the best episodes so far for reasons you wouldn’t necessarily associate with Batman.

3. Things you wouldn’t think Batman could do

Who would have thought that Batman could give Dr. Strange a run for his money when it comes to astral projections? “Dawn of the Dead Man!” has to be one of the best episodes so far, and if it took an ancient Tibetan technique to introduce Dead Man to the The Brave & the Bold universe, then so be it. Boston Brand is an awesome character, and just the type of 3rd tier, eclectic hero that doesn’t get the run he deserves. It was great to see them working together and incorporating the astral projections and body takeovers into the mix. Should Batman be able to incorporate that level of mysticism into his character? Well, probably not, but it goes well with the spirit of the show. Plus, Speedy is a bit of a teenage schmuck, so who else would you take over?

4. And the Bad Guy is…?

Let’s just skip the episode with The Outsiders and Sleez. It’s not that great and Sleez is one of the grossest characters in the DC Universe. I can do without him going forward. The Dead Man episode though features Gentleman Ghost. This is our second visit with Gentleman Ghost and he is an awesome villain. Great power set, great styling and vibe, and he took it to Batman. I really love that we’re almost 10-episodes in and we have yet to hit one of Batman’s premier rogue gallery villains. Hopefully we’ll have more Gentleman Ghost and other villains of that ilk.

5. Give me the Bat-Humor

Need a comedy straight man to come in and save Batman when he’s buried alive? Who better than Green Arrow and Speedy. This was our first introduction to Speedy and he’s treated the way I kinda want to see him. He’s a kid and if you need someone expendable, i.e. to take over his body, then Speedy’s your guy. Plus, it plays perfectly with Green Arrows arrogant nature.

That’s it for now, see you next week! We’ll have Bat’s team up with Blue Beetles, The Atom and Aquaman!


//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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