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The Knights of Tomorrow!
Original Airdate - November 19th, 2010
A glimpse into the future reveals Dick Grayson
has assumed the Batman mantle after the Caped
Crusader retired and fathered a son, Damian,
with Catwoman. Despite his parents wishes,
Damian does not want to follow their legacy, but
when Joker returns, he may have no choice!
Written by Michael Chang Directed by Jake
Black, Todd Casey
Review by Andrew,
klammed
Media by Warner Bros. Animation |
Cast
Diedrich Bader as Batman / Bruce Wayne / Adult
Damian Sebastian Bader as Damian's Son /
Future Robin Jeff Bennett as Joker / Joker
Jr. Patrick Cavanaugh as Damian Wayne / New
Robin Nika Futterman as Selina Kyle James
Garrett as Alfred Pennyworth Nicholas Guest
as Question Lex Lang as Dick Grayson / Batman
II Michael-Leon Wooley as Kalibak Marc
Worden as New Joker
Music
Theme Written and Performed by Andy Strumer
Music by Michael McCuisition, Lolita Ritmanis,
Kristopher Carter
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Media
Video
Clip
Review (by Andrew)
Since about season 1 the only involvement with Jack
Kirby’s New Gods characters had been with brief
appearances by Mr. Miracle and beloved Big Barda, this
teaser somewhat builds off of the previous episode’s
teaser which introduced Mantis fighting Stargirl.
Instead of a random suburban neighborhood, however, our
continued foray into the New Gods involves The Question
taking a romp on Darkseid’s chaotic homeworld of
Apokolips. It’s a rather simple teaser focusing pretty
much on just The Question being a bad ass, as fans have
been yearning to see him, and taking on several
Parademons and ultimately leading to an ambiguous
(escape?). The only problem present with this was that
Question seemed a bit overpowered given that he’s more
brain than brawn, but it was still a pleasant teaser.
Surprisingly, the teaser has nothing to do with the
main episode. While that’s not unexpected for a usual
Brave and the Bold episode, it is unusual for episodes
dealing with the Bat legacy. Fortunately, though, the
lack of use of the teaser doesn’t impede the
story-telling ability of the rest of the episode. It
starts off with chronicling Batman’s career from the
first days, to Robin’s arrival and departure as
Nightwing, and unexpectedly onto his relationship with
Catwoman. This came off as a major jump into huh-worthy
territory given that, so far, Catwoman and Batman have
only moderately flirted throughout the show. Soon enough
it even goes on to give them a son, marking Damian
Wayne’s first animated appearance.
Despite the
major jumps in the timeline and the attempts to
chronicle Batman’s history, the main story manages to
tell a well rounded story revolving around Bruce Wayne’s
ultimate fate and Dick Grayson’s rise to the Batman
mantle. It’s nearly endlessly surprising what they
managed to fit into this episode without any of it
feeling rushed or improperly represented. Although it
ultimately doesn’t serve any actual canon purpose to the
show itself, it does serve as a gateway for viewers to
learn the modern day canon of the comics - as askew as
it may be. The only disappointment that really came from
this chronological look was the lack of reference to
Batman Beyond, but it’s a minor nit-pick.
Overall, I was concerned that this episode would fall
under the cliché of “jumping the shark” and simply come
off as an overzealous attempt to represent the comics’
current take on Batman. This was slightly exacerbated by
the lack of mention of Tim Drake and Jason Todd, but
telling the story from the viewpoint of Alfred - in the
present-day timeline of the show - as something along
the lines of fanfiction was incredibly clever. This is
definitely not an episode to miss.
Review
(by Klammed) Not going too much into the
teaser for this. To sum up, it’s a continuation of the
previous teaser, this time taking place far away from
earth on the world of Apokolips. While they stuck to
designs very much in the style of what we’ve seen in
animation of the Parademons, they made them huge. Huge.
Really huge. Which makes for cool -but maybe
incongruous- action from the Question.
Straight
into the actual episode. Many references to Morrison’s
current run throughout the episode, though that would be
expected, considering that they intended to feature a
‘Damian Wayne’. This Damian Wayne however, is not the
spoilt, socially homicidal little freak that was trained
by assassins from an early age with major daddy issues
over his claim to the legacy of the Bat. Damian Wayne
here, the son of Selina and Bruce, doesn’t want to
continue his father’s legacy. It was interesting here
how Bruce was portrayed as someone who actively enjoyed
the idea of continuity for Batman, rather than viewing
it as a curse and so on as he is as Mister Moody in most
current portrayals. That this may be out of character
even for the Batman of ‘Brave and the Bold’ does fit in
with the whole episode, as we’ll later see.
On a
side note, this episode was filled with unspoken cameos,
most notably of Clark Kent and a rapidly ageing Oliver
Queen. Nice to see if you can spot them through the
scenes. I thought it interesting that Bruce Wayne on
hanging up the cape and cowl would gravitate towards a
look that was more the traditional depiction of Thomas
Wayne. It did help to mature the look, certainly.
Jeff Bennet turns in an awesome performance both as
the Joker and Joker Jr., Joker Jr. himself a possible
nod to the Nolan interpretation of the character, hair
and all. Some great lines from this, my favourite being
‘Hey, new Me, get him’. With the excellent scripting and
equally excellent acting, I think Bennet’s Joker is
going to rise up there among the greats in no time. More
Morrison tribute through the last Joker(s) encounter,
including the whole ‘Batman is an ideal, not a person’
spiel which Morrison’s been trying to achieve in more
ways than one with his various arcs. A nice nod to the
comic fans, as I doubt any average eight year old would
recognise the references.
Our music team being
the same who did both Justice League and more
importantly for this episode, Batman Beyond, seemed to
manage to bring in strains which were reminiscent of a
previous series of a Batman of the Future. Maybe it was
just me, but I couldn’t help thinking that as the fight
between Damian and Joker Jr. played out, and we had a
reminiscent of an even earlier series in the last scene.
Perhaps in keeping with a nod to Elseworlds, and
Elseworld futures, we got another nice cameo of Rob and
Don (from Dark Knight Returns) in a mirrored enactment
of the opening of Batman the Animated series. Nice
little bit with the music there too. And we get Batman
3! With Robin 3, who played by Sebastian Bader is
adorable with his ‘Holy Hammers of Justice Dad- I mean,
Batman’.
The designs as well for the future
Dynamic Duo were decent, and different. No all black
sleek Batsuit here, but it works, and at least here he
manages a family of his own. The grand reveal of the
mysterious narrator, which had set an initial fable like
tone to the episode, goes further into the realm of
Elseworld, or, ahem, fanfiction. The author? The Butler.
So it seems Alfred himself has a penchant for conjuring
happy endings to the continuance of Batman’s legacy,
though Bruce himself isn’t so entertained by the notion
of eventual settling with Selina Kyle. Why Alfred thinks
she would make a good partner for Bruce, and the actual
possibility of it, remains to be seen. If this is a hint
to the development in their relationship for the third
season, bring it on. If not, well, there’s always
fanfiction.
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