Huntress-Brave-Bold Television 

Five Thoughts on Batman: The Brave & Bold‘s “Trials of the Demon!” & “Night of the Huntress!”

By | July 9th, 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… “Trials of the Demon!” & “Night of the Huntress!”

1. The Cold Open

This week we had a couple of solid teaser openings. The first featured Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash, and Scarecrow. While the second featured Black Canary and Solomon Grundy. I feel like I’m beating a dead horse here, but it’s a lot of fun to see all these characters involved in the series. Especially since there is no time devoted to their origins or backgrounds. While this is clearly something devised for the younger audience in place, it also hearkens back to the Silver Age of comics. I remember as a kid seeing an endless parade of no-name characters brought into books. If they were good, they’d come back, but if they sucked… Well, there was next month. Not everything needs to be part of some grand interwoven story-arc, and these little snippets carry that same, fun vibe.

2. Spotlight on the Team-Up

Since we’ve already covered Etrigan the Demon in a prior entry, we’ll focus instead on The Huntress. Her appearance was smoldering, to say the least. She took a relatively mundane episode featuring Babyface and Mrs. Manface and made it memorable by completely beguiling Blue Beetle. Is it juvenile? Yeah, but Blue Beetle is a juvenile, so it works great. In a sea of relatively similar female versions of Batman (Huntress, Black Canary, Batwoman, Batgirl, Catwoman, etc…), The Huntress has the hardest hill to climb. She has basically the exact same origin as Batman. While her abusive childhood and unpredictably violent fighting style is not mentioned in this episode, she clearly has a strength to her that goes beyond her attraction. We’ll see a lot more of The Huntress in future episodes which is something to look forward to.

3. Things you wouldn’t think Batman could do

I don’t get tired of seeing Batman dressed up in all sorts of historical garb. This time after getting his suit ripped up from confronting The Gentleman Ghost, Etrigan provides Batman with a period correct, Victorian costume. It looked really cool and it’s fun to see all these different “versions” of Batman. I’m sure it’s a toy manufacturer’s dream come true. I would much rather buy Batman in his episode correct Victorian costume, than a random scuba action batman with submersible tanks, or whatever they peddled for the majority of the 80’s and 90’s. Just saying…

4. And the Bad Guy is…?

Speaking of beating a dead horse, have I mentioned how much I love The Gentleman Ghost in this series? Sticking to a version close to his traditional origin, we see how he came to be in “Trials of the Demon!.” There are multiple characters seen so far in Batman: The Brave & the Bold, that quite frankly have made a more significant impact than their comic book page counterparts. The Gentleman Ghost is a perfect example of this. I think it’s a shame that, outside of Hawkman & Harkgirl comics, The Gentleman Ghost hasn’t really been given the type of cherished character defining story that he deserves.

5. Give me the Bat-Humor

We already mentioned that The Huntress episode was chock full of juvenile, sexual innuendo jokes involving Blue Beetle. There’s also the creepiness of seeing Babyface and his wife Mrs. Manface, which extends up and to their own goons. Overall the “Night of the Huntress!” was pretty funny and upbeat. A nice departure from the prior episode since it featured a litany of demon and death related motifs. Batman: The Brave & the Bold, has been far more humorous than I remember and it really adds to the quality of each episode.

That’s it for now, see you next week! We’ll have Booster Gold, Bane, and our first appearance of Robin!


//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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