Batman Retrospective

I know I don’t usually post on Tuesdays, and I guess this isn’t really a review, but I still wanted to talk a little about Batman since today just happens to be the 50^th (!!!) anniversary of its debut.  Click behind the cut for some fangirl reminiscing.  Or just wait until Saturday for the next Avengerous Tale.  Or both.  Both is good.

Spitballing - "The Sound and the Fury" (The Flash)

I have been waiting to see the Pied Piper on my television screen for literal years.  (And no, a two-second cameo doesn't COUNT, Justice League: Unlimited.)  A split-second after they announced the new Flash series, I was already thinking I hope Piper makes an appearance.

No WAY was I about to let this episode go by without throwing a few spitballs.

**Normally I don't post spoiler warnings, but since this episode is still so new at the time of this posting, I'm putting one right now.**

"Aqua" - Smallville

 

Hey, all!  I’m taking a hiatus from the hiatus to fulfill a request from a friend, who wanted to see a review about her favorite hero, Aquaman.  So today we’re returning to Smallville to take a look at the fifth-season episode “Aqua.”

"The Man from the Edge of Tomorrow", Parts One and Two - Legion of Superheroes

Speaking of short-lived superhero cartoons, let’s turn our attention to Legion of Superheroes for a moment, shall we?

As a team, the Legion of Superheroes—a group of crime-fighters from 31^st century (New) Metropolis—doesn’t exactly have the greatest reputation.  Usually when I hear about them, it’s because someone is making fun of the perceived lameness of their membership, and with members like Matter-Eater Lad, I can’t really blame them.  (At least they had the sense to reject Arm-Fall-Off Boy.)  But someone somewhere must have thought them capable of turning a profit, because in 2006, a cartoon based on these half-baked heroes debuted on the CW (then called the WB).

Season One started with a young Superman traveling to the future and chillin’ with the Legion, consisting of, among others, Brainiac 5, Bouncing Boy, Triplicate Girl, Timber Wolf, and Lightning Lad, most of whom have pretty self-explanatory powers.  It ended with Superman going back to his own time, and then came Season Two. 

"Lonely Heart"/"A Friend in High Places" - Sky Dancers

 

…

…

…sigh.

Freakazoid!, Season Two

 

A few months ago, I reviewed Season One of the 90s cartoon Freakazoid!, which defied all conventional logic but still managed to be one of the funniest superhero shows I’d ever seen.  Today, I’m going to review Season Two, which continues to defy all conventional logic but still manages to be one of the funniest superhero shows I’ve ever seen. Welp, that about covers it.  Can I go home now?  No?  Ah, well.  It’s not like writing about superhero stuff is hard.

Freakazoid!, Season One

 

After all the whininess in my last review, I figured you might like something that’s stupid in a good way.  Fortunately, this show is full of it.
 

"On Angel's Wing" - X-Men: Evolution

Well now that we’ve FINALLY got Thanksgiving out of the way, we can focus on dropping hints about what we want for Christmas and searching our relatives’ houses for any signs of our presents.  Honestly.  What were they thinking, creating a holiday that didn’t involve buying lots of stuff and couldn’t be commercialized from here to the Negative Zone?  So annoying.

"Thirst" - Smallville

For many shows, airing at least one holiday-themed episode is sort of a tradition.  Christmas seems to be the most popular subject, but appearances by Hanukkah, New Years’ Eve/Day, Thanksgiving, and others are certainly not unheard of.  Having lasted an impressive ten seasons, Smallville had plenty of time to air plenty of episodes about plenty of holidays, and in Season Five, they decided to go the spooky route with a tangentially Halloween-themed episode, complete with costume parties and hot lady vampires.  Boy, was that ever dumb.

The ONLY bright spot here is that this was made before Twilight, so they couldn’t rip it off or make “fun” references.  And that is the only Twilight reference I will make in this review.  I knew you’d be expecting it, so I got it out of the way early so that, like the later Hitchcock cameos, it won’t distract you from enjoying the rest of the show.  You’re welcome.

Spitballing - "Pilot" (Arrow)

This isn't my normal review of the week--that comes on Saturday.  But I (finally) got around to watching the Arrow pilot that debuted on CW last Wednesday and really, really, REALLY needed to get some things off my chest.  This is by no means a comprehensive review; this is just me typing up some general, half-baked opinions that came to mind when I was watching.  Or, if you prefer, spitballing.  So if I come across as rambly and non-sensical, welcome to my unedited brain.

So in case you hadn't guessed, SPOILERS LIVE HERE.

"Broken Stone"/"Getting the Story" - Sky Dancers

Apparently I thought it would be a good idea to keep reviewing Sky Dancers, even after I realized that they were not the great and glorious heroes that my nostalgia specs tried to convince me they were.  Apparently I’m a knucklehead.

Batman, Season Three

 

*sigh* And so we arrive at the third season of Batman.  Far and away the worst of Batman’s three seasons, Season Three debuted well after the show’s popularity began to wane.  Bat-mania was dying, but the show itself stubbornly refused to die with it.  They suffered massive budget cuts that reduced their sets to the bare bones.  Even the distinctive two-part episode structure was stripped away, leaving a single half-hour episode per week with each one ending in the flimsiest of cliffhangers. (“Oh, yes, Batman and Robin may have defeated THIS villain, but look over there!  THAT villain is roaming around!!  What trickery is THAT villain up to now?  Tune in to find out in our next episode!”)

El Chapulín Colorado

I’m willing to bet that most of the native English-speakers reading this (all two of them) have absolutely no idea who this guy is, unless they’re Latino and/or grew up around Latino people. (Is Latino even politically correct anymore?  I can’t keep up with this…) El Chapulín Colorado, “the Red Grasshopper”, is the brainchild of Mexican comedian Roberto Gómez Bolaños, a.k.a. Chespirito.  The characters he created—particularly Chapulín Colorado and Chavo del Ocho (dude had a thing for “ch” sounds)—are immensely popular, scoring monster ratings across multiple nations and multiple decades.  He’s popular outside of Spanish-speaking nations too; his shows have been translated into Japanese, Portuguese, French, Russian, and more. 

The one language it hasn’t been translated into?  English.  The DVDs I own don’t even bother to provide English subtitles.  Which is a pain, because that means I have to do the translating myself.* But hey, nowhere in my list of superhero requirements does it say that a superhero needs to speak English, so let’s take a quick look.

"Mask of Doom" - Fantastic Four

Every once in a while, I’ll come across a superhero that even I can’t bring myself to care about.  For Marvel, those heroes used to be the Fantastic Four.  For some reason, even as I was gobbling up the most recent Spiderman and X-Men cartoons and reading every issue of Young Avengers I could get my hands on, I just wasn’t interested in tracking down anything starring Reed Richards and company.  When I saw the “blockbuster” films from 2005 and 2007, I was even less interested.  And when I saw this show?  Let’s just say Marvel was lucky I stuck around long enough to give Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four a try.

Batman, Season Two

The second season of Batman is almost twice as long as Season One, and frankly, I don’t think that was a good thing.  By this point, the show was a monster success and everyone was riding high.  It was nominated for three Emmys—Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Comedy (for Frank Gorshin), and Individual Achievements in Sound Editing—and was even being referenced by other shows (The Monkees, Gilligan’s Island) and movies (The Fortune Cookie).  The Bat-climb celebrity cameos were in full swing, featuring everyone from Sammy Davis Jr. to… Colonel Klink from Hogan’s Heroes?  How is that supposed to work?*

The point is, the show was at the peak of its popularity, and I guess that made the writers too lazy to get up off their laurels and make sure the show continued to be a success.

"Lucy and Superman" - I Love Lucy

June 16, 1959.  For many, this is just another date on the calendar, but for those of us who know a little bit about superhero pop culture, this is also the day that George Reeves, most famous as TV’s Superman and that guy who had two lines at the beginning of Gone with the Wind, was found dead of a single gunshot wound.  The death was ruled a suicide—the result of depression coupled with a night of heavy drinking—but nevertheless remains a source of debate and intrigue even today, and as the owner of a superhero blog, it wouldn’t be right for me to let the anniversary of this tragic event go by unobserved.

"The Sky's the Limit"/"On Wings of Song" - Sky Dancers

Hey there, children of the ‘90s!  Ready for a blast from the past that’ll make you feel old?  You’ve come to the right place.  And yes, I am counting the Sky Dancers as superheroes.  They are on the side of good, have special powers, and fight a designated supervillain, and that’s good enough for my money.  Though after watching the show, I’m kinda wishing it wasn’t.

"Walk on the Wild Side" - X-Men: Evolution

As I said in my introductory post, I’m primarily a DC fan, and it was only in the past couple of years that I became curious enough about Marvel to start checking out some of their cartoons.  One of the first shows I tried was X-Men: Evolution, which lasted four seasons and played fast and loose with the X-Men mythos (e.g. de-aging half the cast).  If you look at the reviews for this program on IMDB, the changes apparently raised some hackles among comic book nerds.  Let’s face it—when it comes to hackle-raising, we geeks are the undisputed champions. (Finally, a sport that nerds excel in!)  But in all honesty, X-Men: Evolution isn’t one of the things I nitpick.  For better or worse, this show was my introduction to the X-Men, and I for one get a lot of enjoyment out of it.

Well… except for this one episode…

Batman, Season One

Ah, the sixties Batman series.  Most superhero dorks have probably at least heard of it, even if only in the context of “that show that made nobody take comics SERIOUSLY anymore.” Because, as we all know, comic books were serious business in the 1960s.  By the way, have you been to the World of 1,000 Olsens?  Lovely this time of year.  Just don’t make eye contact with the locals.