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The Masks of Matches
Malone!
Original Airdates: Online debut - Dec. 5, 2010; Home video debut - June 19th, 2012
Note: Episode did not air on U.S. television
Batman, Huntress and Black Canary are after Two-Face -- and
so is Catwoman. While incognito, Batman gets amnesia and believes
himself to be a real gangster -- now the girls must stop him AND Two-Face!
Written by Gail Simone Directed by Michael
Chang
Review by Andrew |
Cast
Diedrich Bader as Batman Grey DeLisle as
Black Canary Nika Futterman as Catwoman
John Mariano as Henchman / Mobster Vanessa
Marshall as Poison Ivy James Remar as Two
Face Tara Strong as Huntress
Music
Theme Written and Performed by Andy Strumer
Music by Michael McCuisition, Lolita Ritmanis,
Kristopher Carter
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Media
Review
Although Brave and the Bold has had a fairly
consistent team of writers that seem to divide up the
episodes among their group, the show has occasionally
enjoyed the writing of exceptional guests. The one that
springs to most peoples' minds is Paul Dini, one of the
genius minds behind the illustrious Batman: The
Animated Series and the writer of some of the
finest Brave and the Bold episodes. This time
we dip into the pool of actual comic books for its
famous writer, Gail Simone. Frequently heralded as one
of the most remarkable writers to helm the books of the
Birds of Prey, the Secret Six and Wonder Woman. For this
episode, Gail Simone brings us to her familiar territory
by giving the first introduction of the Birds of Prey to
the Brave and the Bold universe. Unfortunately, this new
medium for the femme flock doesn't fly as well as one
would expect.
The teaser opening manages to be
the best part of the episode given one its best uses of
a new female hero (and villain) introduction for the
series, in that neither are awkwardly lusting after
Batman like naïve schoolgirls that have discovered their
first crush. This is Poison Ivy's first actual use on
the show, and honestly this is about the best way to use
her. It has seemed very difficult for most writers to
accomplish lengthy stories involving the toxic hippy,
but she's pretty great for short stories such as this.
One important notation is that her henchwomen actually
seem to be dressed in Ivy's original look from
Batman: The Animated Series. It was a bit too
generic for her at the time, but for mere lady thugs it
works nicely. The highlight is the introduction to a
hero that I had never heard of before: Black Orchid.
Although I've been quite ignorant to the previous
existence of many characters featured on Brave and
the Bold, they're most often villain than hero so
it's always nice to have another hero introduced.
Especially when she's used as interesting as this and
not simply brought in to mindlessly lust after Batman,
as has been a problem with the show.
Its
treatment of female heroes has been mostly grating, some
of them have had their shining moments but unfortunately
when it comes to the big name superheroines such as
Black Canary and Huntress, they've been pretty much
dumbed down to simply lusting after Batman. Huntress has
been the worst scorned in this regard, considering her
sole previous appearance involved her practically
lusting after Batman the entire time. Black Canary has
been mostly used the same way but at least has been
given a decent story featured in “The Golden Age of
Justice” which actually treated her as a character
rather than a running gag. Apparently females are
discouraged from being used on the show since that might
bring people to expect merchandise featuring them, as
studio and toy company execs continue to believe that
boys don't want icky, cootie-infested girl action
figures. But, I digress.
The main story
unfortunately doesn't manage to keep up with the quality
of its teaser, and suffers from feeling like two stories
shoved together without any attempt to really tie them
together. It is an interesting to watch due to the
significant lack of Batman with 90% of his involvement
being under the guise of Matches Malone, an unmasked
undercover persona that doesn't get featured much in the
animated medium. It serves as a great turn from the norm
with Batman being the unexpected (amnesiac) villain of
the episode rather than the hero, and even leads the way
for a Bruce Wayne/Matches showdown vs. Batman in a twist
right out of a popular story from the comics. This alone
would have made a great episode, with other heroes only
becoming slightly involved in order to eventually reach
the climax. Unfortunately, the Birds of Prey treatment
throughout tends to get in the way, and they ultimately
feel shoehorned in. It's nice to see Catwoman actually
in her element which is something that has been vastly
missing from this show despite her having appeared
several times by now. Along with that, it was unexpected
but cool to see Two-Face show up. He does feel slightly
shoehorned in, similar to the ladies, but his
involvement eventually gives the episode a decent twist
and makes it worthwhile.
The most baffling about
it all is why we they didn't simply use this episode to
form the Birds of Prey, especially considering that
we've already seen the formation of the Teen Titans
previously. Black Canary and Huntress could certainly
use some more worthwhile screentime, and it would have
been a chance to get Batgirl involved in the show some
more. Unfortunately, this version of the Birds of Prey
is incredibly confusing given that they spend the entire
time resenting Catwoman's company, but all of a sudden
are willing to consider her part of the group. …Why?
Furthermore, this leads to Catwoman actually seeing
Bruce unmasked. Granted, his disguise includes a cheesy
mustache and sunglasses which is more than Superman
takes the effort to do for Clark Kent, but this works in
the context that nobody has seen Superman dress up in a
similar outfit. And given Catwoman's infamous
proficiency at her catburglar ways, it's hard to believe
that she wouldn't be able to recognize Bruce Wayne
instantly. Given that she's considered a despicable
criminal by Black Canary and Huntress, this seems
incredibly stupid to suddenly trust her.
The
episode features some very unexpected dark elements to
it akin to “Emperor Joker” in that we see Batman, or
rather Matches, go through various deaths including
being shot, driving off a cliff, and thrown off a
building to pancake a car below. Surprisingly these are
shown pretty blatantly, although with the predictable
lack of bloody mess and he's revived quickly due to
Catwoman's coveted McGuffin, which is actually the cloak
of Nefertiti. Honestly, it's a bit of an overpowered
plot device and I think there could have been a far more
interesting use for it had it not been shown as actually
having power, but this feels minor compared to the rest
of the episode. The cloak plot is lazily ended with
Catwoman simply managing to get away with it, which
makes me want to expect to see it again, but we probably
won't.
Overall, it's not a terrible episode. The
Matches Malone story would have been fantastic had they
not tried to shove the Birds of Prey into it, whose
presence seemed to solely exist for a completely random
song and dance number. The song was very entertaining,
I'll give them that. However, it completely throws off
the entire episode. Adding insult to injury, the song
has also managed to keep the episode from being aired in
America as of this writing. Apparently it's fine as-is
for audiences abroad, but it seems that a single line is
being changed for American audiences - supposedly not
out of censorship, though. I hope to see more of the
Birds of Prey in the future, but I'm not certain if an
animated TV show is the best medium for the writing
efforts of Gail Simone. I Recommend
seeing this once, and that's about it.
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