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Night of the Batmen!
Original Airdate - April 29th, 2011
When Batman gets hurt, his friends Captain Marvel, Aquaman, Green Arrow, and Plastic Man attempt to fill his cowl.

Written by Paul Giacoppo
Directed by Ben Jones
Review by klammed
Media by Bird Boy

Media










Review
Teaser: Those of you who've been missing Vigilante since his appearance in the DCAU will be glad to see him here ... and singing! Vigilante's Wild West aesthetic bleeds into this teaser, which was remarkably self contained and enjoyable, and very little of Batman speaking, despite him being the focus of the teaser. I thought the timing of Batman's reactions may have been a tad slow, though that could just be due to the slow-motion- dramatic toned ballad Vigilante was composing. Vigilante's weapon was a nice touch, and the mafia thugs suitably rough looking. Cameos of Batman's rogue gallery (including Bane) in the posters were a nice touch too. The song was made of awesome sauce.

Main Episode: We start off with a sizeable battle scene with Green Arrow, Aquaman and Captain Marvel pit against Kanjar Ro. Batman, predictably, comes in to save the day. The ensuing conversation between the other characters, with their digs at that, amused me. Aquaman's line, 'because he's Batman!' was so taken from every little fanboy's heart that the little fanboy in me had to smile and give a little cheer. Batman, being human, however, gets caught in a rather severe accident. Replace Captain Marvel with Superman, and the pose could have come straight out of Final Crisis, albeit Batman isn't quite dead here.

However, he is heavily indisposed. The neck brace shot seemed reminiscent of 'Doomsday Sanction', till of course, the camera zoomed out and we realise just how ridiculously bad Batman was injured, and Manhunter's eccentric ways of nursing were pretty funny to watch. I mentioned the use of sound effects in my last review concerning the VampireBats. Here, they surface again, and their obviousness only adds to the comic effect they produce wonderfully - Batman's pained movements and his attempts to escape were wonderful. You know what they say about doctors: cure the disease, kill the patient. Yes indeed, J'onn. Batman does of course, escape, because he's Batman.

James Arnold Taylor does his wonderful Green Arrow as Batman impersonation again, with the running 'hammers of justice' gag. Jokes about the effectiveness of the batarang were well played. Aquaman-Batman's punches were made of win, along with the other heroes' impressions of what Batman was a should be. Aquaman's version seemed slightly awkward, but still delightfully Aquaman. The BTAS opening bank robbery was expected, but welcome, in what is very quickly turning into a 'classic' scene change into Gotham sequence, especially in what is a very condensed and packed twenty minutes.

The Joker's appearance did not feel out of place, and his 'Batsy, it really is you!' was very in character, reminding you of the strange dependency the Joker has on Batman. Gaggy as his sidekick, in Harley Quinn type colours seemed an ample conflation of the two for this universe's Joker. Batman, of course, took down the whole Joker ship with a batarang…. because he's Batman.

If you hadn't picked up on the jokes about Batman's 'Batgodness' by now, it's time to. Again, another thing I love about the show's self-referential and sometimes castigating nature. It didn't disappoint in this episode.

Cameo time! This episode was chock full of them. Once again the Gotham villains make their appearance, and Killer Croc gets a nice bit of screen time, after having appeared the BATB comic. Liked the design of him, thought it worked very well. Deadshot's appearance was also fitting, squaring off with Green Arrow. I could've done without the Catwoman costume. Evidently they're still bent on caricaturising her quite heavily through this show, and her constant strange ways to get Batman to notice her. I don't know if she'll develop beyond this, or if I'm only feeling the character's flatness after the relative change and development in the 'elseworlds' Knights of Tomorrow episode. Possibly my one sore point about the whole episode, though it did provide for more humour in her exchange with Plastic Man.

On to the Batmen cameos. The variants courtesy of Plastic Man were ace. DCAU's, Kelly Jones' (??), and of course, Miller's, in the order of 'brooding', 'broodier', and 'broodiest'. This is really only a taste of the wonderful last panel shot which we get, which includes almost all of the cameos we've seen so far on the show, and some new ones. We get Batmen from all sorts of incarnations and time periods: Batman Beyond, Zur-En-Arrh, the TNBA design, DKR, Red Rain, Adam West, Plasticky-Movie version, The Batman, Azbats (or just a Robo-Bats? I could be wrong), Cowboy, Brainy, and Zorro Batman, and a couple more I couldn't name (though is that bottom one meant to be Neal Adams' or just the Superfriends version?). All these made this episode a very recommended watch for any long time Batman fan.

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