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Trials of the Demon!
Original Airdate - March 20th, 2009
In 19th century London, Jason Blood - aka The
Demon Etrigan - has been framed for supernatural
attacks perpetrated by Gentleman Ghost.
This week's teaser gives
you a first look at the villainous Scream Queen
and Scarecrow and introduces Jay Garrick aka The
Flash.
Written by Todd Casey
Directed by Michael Chang
Animation by
Dongwoo Animation
Review by Andrew
Media by Jim Harvey |
Cast
Deidrich Bader as Batman Andy Milder as Jay
Garrick (The Flash) Dee Braldey Baker as
Scarecrow / Jason Blood / Etrigan Ian
Buchanan as Sherlock Holmes Jane Alan as
Woman Jim Piddock as Dr. Watson Tony Todd
as Asteroth Greg Ellis as Gentleman Ghost
Music
Theme Written and Performed by Andy Strumer
Music by Michael McCuisition, Lolita Ritmanis,
Kristopher Carter
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Images
Review
With the massive disappointment brought on by "Mystery
in Space!" I was a bit worried about this episode, but
this is one of those times in which I love to be proven
wrong. First off, it starts with Batman teaming up with
a rarely featured version of the Flash; from the Golden
Age. Teamed up with Batman, they go after a frightful
duo with a new character referred to as Scream Queen and
the infamous Batman foe, Scarecrow. This Scarecrow is
something special, however, in that it is absolutely the
best animated version of Scarecrow ever. Not only is his
non-fear gas design like a vastly improved version of
the B:TAS Scarecrow, but his nightmarish version is
incredibly well done. On top of all that, he actually
gets in on the action with the ever-classic weapon; a
reaper.
As a bonus, the token henchmen are done
very well too, not being mere thugs in skeleton masks
but rather very well done skeleton costumes. In theory,
this should have looked incredibly corny, but they
pulled it off incredibly well. The plot involving
Scarecrow is a bit cheesy, with him having simply
planted fear gas bombs within Gotham's pumpkin supply,
but it doesn't matter. The rest of the mini-story is
done so well that it doesn't come off as ridiculous as
it should.
Moving on to the rest of the episode,
we're taken back to old-time London with a mysterious
man offering a ride to a random woman…which he then
leaves living, yet corpsified. I have to say, this
episode falls under some of the gutsiest as this is only
the beginning of the darkness they delve into. The woman
is pointed out to be alive, but her appearance is an
absolute fright. On the case to solve this mysterious
killing spree is the illustrious Sherlock Holmes and his
mostly ignored assistant Dr. Watson. Of course, what
would a past-era murder mystery be if you didn't have
rabid locals? The paranoid villagers rally together to
put Brave & the Bold re-visitor Jason Blood in the blame
for these killings. Just before the villagers capture
him, Blood manages to draw some magic gimmicks on the
floor that Holmes manages to summon Batman with.
The meeting between Batman and Holmes is unfortunately
over the top, and seems nothing but contrived. Still,
it's an interesting pairing. Batman, of course, leaps
into action to save Blood and they figure out that
someone is attempting to frame Jason Blood. This someone
turns out to be “Gentleman” Jim Craddock, or the
Gentleman non-Ghost. Blasting Bats with some magic
gimmick, his cape does quite possibly the coolest thing
it's done throughout the whole series (so far); it
transforms into a demon bat. This is not only
interesting from an ooh-awe standpoint, but to fans'
delights it even leads Blood to repair Batman's ripped
costume by giving him a costume inspired from the Mike
Mignola and Brian Augustyn Batman romp “Gotham by
Gaslight.” And, the costume is replicated very, very
well.
From this point on is where the episode
begins to truly delve in darkness, as Craddock has been
collecting souls for Asteroth in exchange for
invincibility. He even manages to steal Holmes' soul,
leaving him corpsified - but alive - as well. By now,
we've found out that this isn't just any old-era
adventure, but it's the origin of Craddock's existence
as the Gentleman Ghost. Wonderfully done episode, and
fascinatingly morbid - even if the corpsified people did
get their souls back to live on. In the mind-blowing end
of this episode, we even get a subtle reference that
Craddock was actually executed for his crimes.
I
have to say, the only problems I had with this entire
episode was the ridiculous introduction of Batman to
Sherlock Holmes, and Etrigan's rhymes. I understand that
the rhymes are supposed to be there, but they were some
of the most poorly written ones I've ever heard. Still,
they don't even come close to overshadowing the
greatness of the episode. Definitely belongs in the top
greatest episodes of the show so far.
One quick
note - as this episode ends with Craddock returning as
the Gentleman Ghost and vowing vengeance against Batman,
it ties in with the previous episode “Dawn of the
Deadman!” by offering an explanation as to why Gentleman
Ghost would leave Batman in a grave.
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