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Gorillas in the Midst!
Original Airdate - April 16th, 2010
Gorilla Grodd and his super secret ape alliance replace Gotham 's entire human population with gorillas. Batman teams with Detective Chimp, B'Wana Beast and Vixen to thwart the mad Grodd's plans.

Written by Todd Casey
Directed by Michael Goguen
Animation by MOI Animation
Review by Andrew
Media by Warner Bros. Animation
Cast
Diedrich Bader as Batman/Gorilla Boss
Mark Hamill as Spectre
John DiMaggio as Gorilla Grodd
Kevin M Richardson as B'wana Beast/Msr. Mallah
Dee Bradley Baker as Dr. Milo/Detective Chimp/Bat-Griffin
Cree Summer as Vixen

Music
Theme Written and Performed by Andy Strumer
Music by Michael McCuisition, Lolita Ritmanis, Kristopher Carter
Media


Video Clip



Review
The teaser this time around lives up to being a “tease” quite well, but I’m not entirely sure it’s intentional. Introduced in “Chill of the Night,” the mysterious omnipotent anti-hero known as The Spectre is teamed up with Batman to track down Dr. Achilles Milo. It starts with them finding him, of course, and really he just comes across as a plot device to give us a more proper introduction to The Spectre. This leaves me to wonder if this is indeed a mere tease, and we will be having some more focus on The Spectre in an episode to come. Especially given the full use of his dark tactics as he, behind Batman’s back, sentences Dr. Milo to an inevitable incredibly gruesome death. Overall, it’s a bit bland since it doesn’t really conform to a real plot, but it’s very fascinating - especially if it’s supposed to leave us salivating for more of The Spectre’s dark tendencies.

Blandness, however, doesn’t stop there. The main story revolves around a Gorilla Grodd storyline involving, predictably, making gorillas and apes superior to man. Or rather, GASP, a humorously corny acronym for Gorillas and Apes Seizing Power. Maybe that offset me for the rest of the episode, but I simply can’t say it was entertaining. Gorilla Grodd can be an interesting villain, and I do like that they introduced the strange notion that he is obsessed with Batman, but it doesn’t really save the episode any. It really only seems present to provide exposition as to why Grodd cares at all about taking over Gotham City.

Back in Gotham, the episode finds its little bit of redemption in a subplot with the second appearance of B’Wana Beast, and the introduction to Vixen. As their subplot unfolds, it becomes evident that not only are they dating, but their relationship is on the rocks. Frankly, the episode would have been better expanding on this further. They seemed shoved to the side in favor of Batman and Detective Chimp, which was a fun pair up, but it really feels as though this is two episode squeezed into one, with only a vague relation.

What annoyed me most about the episode, though, is that Grodd and GASP easily took over Gotham City. While you can imagine the GCPD not putting up a fight to the Gorilla and Ape invasion force, given the firepower they brought with them, it doesn’t really seem likely that Gotham’s other notorious criminals would sit back and let their turf be taken so easily. I especially can’t imagine the Joker simply laughing it off. Overall, the episode has its entertaining moments which you’ll get a laugh from, but aside from the proper introduction to The Spectre, and Vixen’s foray into the universe, there simply isn’t anything that stands out as all that worthwhile. Well, there is Vixen and B’Wana’s relationship, but it’s easily fixed without much struggle. I will note, however, that it was nice to see Vixen being the one to propose marriage.

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