Episode 13

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Mike and James briefly discuss Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Nintendo Wii, answer a few e-mails and then review four episodes of Batman: The Animated Series: "His Silicon Soul," "Fire from Olympus," "Read My Lips" and "The Worry Men." [ 1:53:14 || 51.8 MB ]

The above is from: http://www.worldsfinestpodcast.com/episodes/wfp_013.mp3

[Missy]

As promised, here's the link to Better in the Dark.

[Stavros]

Back in the day when I was a kid watchng Saturday morning cartoons I was only able to catch Batman: TAS inconsistantly as it was buried in larger variety shows and split apart so the advert break became a 15 minute gap. It wasn't until recently that I was able to really go through and appreciate and watch the whole show.

The very first two episodes that I saw were "Moon of the Wolf" and "Fire from Olympus", and both of these are personal favorites of mine as a result. They exemplified a darker more adult kind of entertainment even if they were stuck in horrible larger shows filled with phone-in competitions and depressingly enthusiastic hosts. They also helped me to seperate Batman from the old 60's show which was all I knew at the time. Whilst in retrospect both a flawed by the standards of this show they were miles better than the majority of kids tv I was supposed I enjoy, really the first thing I'd seen aside from the X-men and Spider-man cartoons to really bring me into the world of comics, and the animation was on a much higher level here. I'll always appreciate Fire from Olympus as a solid stand alone episode.

The two villains also both interested me being linked to mythology as they were. At the time I was greatly interested in the Iliad and Oddessy, as well as the Roman empire. Romulus as a wolf was obviously a link to the beginnings of ancient Rome and Zeus sees the pantheon of gods in everything around him. It was very refreshing to see that evil guys wre more than animal-themed thieves, technical wizards or masked pranksters, even a one time villian could be well defined and interesting rather than just a variation on a theme.

[Mr. Mxyzptlk]

Forgot about the podcast yesterday due to loads of homework. Going to start right now.

[Mr. Mxyzptlk]

Pre-Episode banter

I CAN'T wait until Brawl. It's the main reason I'm asking for a Wii for Christmas. I keep up with the updates everyday and every single one makes me drool with delight.

And Smash is excellent for being one of the most fun multiplayer experiences, a fighting game that unlike other fighting games, has some of the most strategic and versatile game-play featuring loads of variety between characters (each one with his own specific move set). Not to mention the sheer amount of combat modes, items, and stage diversity. Once you understand how to play it Mike, you'd be HOOKED.

Oh yeah, it isn't much fun unless you're playing with friends. Brawl's going to have online play so you won't need to have to be within a ten foot radius to play someone.

Other games I'm probably going to pick up are 'Super Mario Galaxy', 'Twilight Princess', and maybe 'Metroid Prime' and 'Paper Mario'.

And I LOVED 'The Wind Waker''s graphics; The cartoony look is awesome.

E-mails

LOVE Chris's comparison between the Bullock/Batman relationship and the Batman/Superman relationship. Excellent job on his part.

I don't think there was any validation that Curare was part of Ras Al Ghul's terrorist group. I remember her being part of some type of assassins' league, but not the specific League of Assassins of Ras.

Okay, I want you to do 'Teen Titans', and I can even slightly buy some theories that it's in continuity, but that 'Static Shock' line I'd prefer to ignore, because it implies that the Tim Drake Robin of TNBA is the Robin of the Titans, whereas it's already been established in 'Teen Titans' that the Robin is simply Robin and no more, and if he does have an identity, it's most likely Dick Grayson, due to the LOADS of hints given by the show (Nosyarg Kcid, Starfire relationship, 'Haunted' allusions to the candle oath and his parents' death, Nightwing, etc.). I think I'm going to e-mail this.

I like 'The Batman' SOLELY for the fight scenes and animation, which are both very very excellent. It's definitely not an awful show. As far as being an action show that appeals to kids, it does its job very well, whether or not you're upset by the lack of truly intelligent story-lines.

Mike is spot-on with his assessment that Batman is such an excellent character due to the fact that he can be constantly re-interpreted.

Ahh, 'Legion of Superheroes', another show I watch mainly for the animation. Objectively, it's probably better than 'The Batman' in that the characterizations are stronger and the dialogue better.

Episodes

'His Silicon Soul'- LOVE this episode. Very eerie, and very avoidant of cliches for an archetypal man vs machine episode. I very much enjoy the idea that a robotic duplicate and grow to emulate its human counterpart to the extent that it retains the original's morals and non physical properties. The ending is pretty ambiguous, as well as being kind of freaky (just looking at the mangled and deactivated mess of machine just gives me chills in a way). One of the little touches I really enjoy are Rossum's lines to the duplicate concerning implanted memories and actual emotions ('when was the last time you tasted a really good steak?').

NOOOOO!!!! TMS did 'The Demon's Quest'!!!! Dong Yang did 'His Silicon Soul'. Still, I understand the mistake namely because volume 3 of the series is the point in which Dong Yang started becoming really good.

I understand the over-the-top complaint, but I accept it given it was an unstable robotic duplicate and not the genuine article. And especially given that if there's anything Batman wants to avoid no matter what, it's taking a life. That definitely has to be the most serious guilt-inducing action Batman could ever commit.

I really love the fact that the cave extends beyond what we usually see to a trophy/lab rooms that actually exist in even deeper unexplored areas.

'Fire From Olympus'- An underrated episode that offers crisp animation, great music and voice-acting, and the only main flaw is the slow pace that is occasionally irritating. The ending is also particularly awesome.

You hate it? Aww. I find Maxie to be one of the more psychologically interesting character of the series and whole episode is filled to the brim with awesome Greek mythological allusions. The backgrounds particularly stand out to me. I'll stop gushing and wait for your criticisms.

First your praises- 1) Mike's comment on animation- agreed 2) decent story structure- agreed 3) brand new villain- agreed. It's one of the few episodes I didn't watch as a child and running through the episode guide later as a teenager, I was eagerly surprised to find that Maxie actually made an appearance. 4) Batman as Hades- definitely agreed 5) tragic ending- agreed

Criticisms- 1) episode's need of origin story- I can accept it easily; I prefer that there's no exposition and rather we have to infer the extent to which Maxie got stressed out running his business to the point that he associated himself with Zeus (a real psychologist actually went through the villains and assigned them with specific disorders; he assigned Maxie with 296.44 Bipolar I Disorder, Most Recent Episode Manic, with Psychotic Features). 2) Maxie should be dead- of course he should, but it's a typical action cartoon suspension of belief 3) the dialogue is AWESOME!!!! Maybe his lover should have been less blatant and sad, but she displays some well-written wit, and the Greek touches in Maxie's dialogue sounds so awesome and makes the character come alive 4) Bat-grenade- eh, I don't really care 5) oh yeah- the elevator is awful, as is the plot hole that she gets captured by the goons on the elevator but then soon after sneaks to the top 6) mentally broken character- I sort of understand, but then sort of don't. You'd be surprised how mentally screwed up someone can get for little reason and with minor transition; I can buy Maxie's predicament. Oh and the 'how does he still run his company?'; what I also like about the episode is that despite his mentally screwed up mindset, he is obviously still very intelligent; despite the fact that Batman speaks in non-Greek terms concerning the electric discharge canon, Maxie is still sane enough to understand every word of it. He's a smart guy, only he's stuck in a messed up sense of identity.

Just to throw it out there, here's one of the essays I used to quote all the time, and I think it may offer some neat insight into reasons why the episode can be considered good.

It is much easier to fall short of intentions or expectations than to exceed them; how refreshing, then, to run across the occasional story that is better than it has any right to be. The premise of "Fire From Olympus," that a shipping magnate several walnuts short in his baklava should dress up like Zeus and throw thunderbolts around, seems dumb beyond belief. To describe selected scenes, like Batman's fight with the Hydra, would only add to the impression of low-grade corn. So why does it work?

Partly, I think, because Maximillian believes in his world so thoroughly that we wonder if it is he that's insane or we who are misguided. His delusions, after all, do not incapacitate him or interfere with his plans, hitherto successful. He embraces Batman as his "brother Hades," while stoutly resisting his interference; as "Zeus" he does not seem the least bit fazed by the obviously technological underpinnings of his power. The result leaves us feeling like we're stuck in that Escher house where the people live at 90-degree angles to each other: Perhaps Maxie's not really mad, perhaps he just sees and interacts with the world in a strikingly different but no less rational way than we do.

The tension between his attitudes and those of his minions is another source of unexpected pleasure. Instead of henchmen who buy into the scheme and dress up accordingly, it gives us lackeys who are either amused or mortified by the boss' delusions. The conceptual and attitudinal miss is so great it sometimes feels like screwball comedy: Maxie and Clio thoroughly exasperate each other because neither will see the world as the other sees it—each one thinks the other is being willfully perverse.

The episode also manages to recapture some of the charm associated with the early comic books—or, at least, it lulls us into a mood that will take innocent pleasure in the goofiest of situations. Let's be honest: a lot of Batman's early adventures were pretty risible (even when they tried to be dark), and it's easy to cop a snarky attitude toward them. But that's just the kind of attitude Clio and Stavros adopt in the face of the ridiculous plot they're trapped in. This has the effect of disarming our own skepticism toward the story: we can no longer feel knowing and superior to the characters in the story when they're already acting knowing and superior to it, and when they get stopped dead in their tracks by Maxie's earnestness we're stopped dead too. When an episode anticipates and bamboozles our suspicions as thoroughly as this one does, there's only one thing we poor, bemused, latter-day cynics can do: Sit back and enjoy the ride.

The episode features a powerful score, too.

'Read My Lips'- AMAZING TOP TEN A+ episode. The music is perfect, the animation (TMS) is perfect, the script is perfect, the acting (George Dzundza I love you) is peerrrrffffeeeecccctttttt. I know that the Batman death scene will be mentioned but when the episode is this well written, I could really care less about something so minor.

YES! You love it. Hooray Huzzah, you agree with me. Yeah, the dialogue is mentioned in the commentary. Michael Reeves owes it to Joe R. Landsdale, who also wrote 'Showdown' (the Jonah Hex episode), who's a master of witty dialogue. James is dead-on about the old-timey jazz music that perfectly fits the dark gangster theme. George Dzundza is excellent, I must agree (also note that he's Perry White in 'S:TAS'). That he can transition between two completely different voices is astounding.

Oh yeah, and the psychology of the character is very well-done. He actually does have the same diagnosis as Harvey Dent in 'Two-Face' pt 1, but to a much greater extent (the Scarface personality has reached a level of equal control as the Wesker personality, and the fact that each personality pops up in response to the other shows just how bad it is).

Here's the actual psychologist's assessment:

Anybody who’s seen Psycho can diagnose the flagrantly ill Arnold Wesker. Two voices, two motivations, even two faces (with apologies to Harvey Dent): easy peasy, Wesker has multiple personalities. In the current parlance, he suffers from dissociative identity disorder (DID), with one self completely split off from the other. Scary as the Dark Knight can be, Batman will never get Scarface’s plans out of Wesker—because he doesn’t know them, even though his own brain thought them up! His two personalities are so distinct, so alien to each other, that even Batman can be forgiven for suspecting (as he creeps up on Scarface while he “sleeps”) that in some fantastic way the wooden dummy into which Wesker dissociates his alternate personality might actually be alive.

And these two personalities don’t play nice. Wesker is terrified of the pint-sized bully who borrows his voice. Scarface hectors and manipulates Wesker, turning the concept of dummy and ventriloquist inside out; he dominates Wesker’s nightmares, cutting a more frightening figure than Batman. (Armchair psychoanalysts might wryly suggest that Scarface is overcompensating for his small stature.) Wesker’s years at Arkham don’t do the trick, either, as he emerges still petrified at the thought of Scarface’s return. In fact, Wesker’s years as a guest of Gotham make things worse by providing Scarface a chance to go to ground.

As a hiding place, Wesker’s dominant personality is deep cover indeed. His abject fear, social isolation, extreme sensitivity to criticism, and apparent sense of helplessness earn him the distinction of a personality disorder all his own: he’s avoidant. To watch the poor fella is to cringe at his timidity; no one would guess he could pose a threat. But inside this neurasthenic little wretch, in just about the least likely place on Earth, Scarface lurks. It’s cunning to the point of brilliance: he’s using harmless, innocent Wesker both as a human shield and for plausible deniability.

At another level below this, Wesker—that is, the original personality called Arnold Wesker—is using Scarface, too. His worry and unease are too much for him to process, so he’s generated a second personality, a terrifying object of fear (are you listening, Dr. Crane?) as a way of transcending the anxiety. Wesker’s desperately needed help comes from within, from a separate identity, so dangerous to his meek surface character that it split off and consolidated itself. At the heart of this issue is the question of how Wesker learned to throw his voice—and, more specifically, who learned to do it. Did the hours of practice with a ventriloquist’s dummy emerge from Arnold’s knowledge of the alienation within his own psyche, and did it facilitate his first split? Or was it Scarface who picked up the talent as a means of differentiating himself from his host personality and striking out on his own?

The smart money is on Scarface. This vicious little puppet spews out all the rot and contempt that built up throughout Arnold Wesker’s sad, downtrodden childhood. When confronted by the Dark Knight, Wesker all but wets his pants, but deep inside he wants to cut Batman’s eyes out of his cowl. No one who meets Wesker knows what menace he shelters; he’d give even the Joker a run for his money.

So for DID, let’s forget about Two-Face; the only thing he and the Ventriloquist share is a fondness for Thompson submachine guns. For that matter, we can look past the Riddler for smarts and the Joker for a pure nasty love of crime. Here, hiding in plain sight, all but immune to physical harm, able to conceal his plans even from the man who thinks them up, and pulling the strings from the shadows until the perfect moment, is perhaps Batman’s most lethal foe.

DSM-IV-TR Diagnoses: 300.14 Dissociative Identity Disorder; 301.82 Avoidant Personality Disorder (as Arnold Wesker); 301.7 Antisocial Personality Disorder (as Scarface)

And note that Multiple Personality is the equivalent of Dissociative Identity Disorder. And did you know that in extreme MPD cases, there can be up to 100 different personalities? (I just did a project on it for Psychology class because I wanted to see how it matches up to Two-Face; as expected, 'Two-Face' pt 1 is completely accurate in regards to Harvey's MPD).

The gripes: yes I know he's dead. I knew this would be brought up. I'll just say that I accept it because it's just such a fun episode that stepping outside the realm of physical reality doesn't bug me and doesn't detract from the episode. No matter what nitpicks you can possibly have concerning the ending, it was just necessary. They had to do it. I don't mind the goon not realizing he's shooting Scarface, because there are several times where people can have late reaction time to something, and he was obvious so into the moment that it probably took him a second to snap back to reality and figure out what was happening.

Agreed about the empathetic crying scene. But nothing will ever beat Two-Face's shrieks at the end of 'Two-Face pt 2'.

'Perchance to Dream' is awesome and one of the most psychological episodes ever.

'The Worry Men'- The epitome of average. A typical Batman vs a rogues gallery with no real depth but with good plotting. Just pretty meh.

Yeah, this is when Veronica Vreeland started showing up a whole lot. I can buy Wayne associating with her because she, unlike her friend, was actually remorseful and felt sorry for the Penguin at the end. I don't think she was really that awful in 'Birds of a Feather' and I can buy that they still associate.

What bad Mad Hatter episodes? This is the first weak episode so far because he's lost any ties to his past and is simply an ordinary thug. 'Mad as a Hatter' and 'Perchance to Dream' are both excellent excellent excellent episodes, despite what either of you think.

No, he doesn't have another episode until Gotham Knights (which is 'Animal Act', which is awful).

Scores

'His Silicon Soul'- You: 6 and 6 / Me: 8.5

'Fire From Olympus'- You: 4 and 6 / Me: 7

'Read My Lips'- You: 8.5 and 9 / Me: 10

'The Worry Men'- You: 3 and 4 / Me: 5

Final words

Oh, and I just want to say that I'm going to have a few bones to pick with JL when the time comes to discuss it. Prepare to be taken aback by my criticisms, given how much you appear to love it. I actually much prefer 'S:TAS'.

Any reason why you're moving to 'Mask of the Phantasm'?

And great job.

[Missy]

Mxy: I'll address some of your points later on, but right now I wanted to explain why we're doing Mask of the Phantasm next. Production wise, MotP falls between "The Worry Men" (which was the end of the first season) and "Sideshow" (the start of season two).

[Mr. Mxyzptlk]

Okay. That makes sense. I really can't wait to see what all you're going to be able to cover for this. I'm thinking it'll be a nice change of pace.

[Malpractice]

Oh, and I just want to say that I'm going to have a few bones to pick with JL when the time comes to discuss it. Prepare to be taken aback by my criticisms, given how much you appear to love it.

Glad someone else said it first. JL is the worst show in the DCAU imo. It's a decent show but the way some people talk about it you'd think it was Citizen Kane.

[Missy]

You think it's worse than Static and Zeta Project?

[Malpractice]

You think it's worse than Static and Zeta Project?

well i can't really say it's worse than Zeta Project or Static Shock because i haven't seen all of Zeta Project and it's been ages since i have watched Static Shock so i can't really judge but of the rest of the DCAU i definetly would rank Justice League at the bottom.

[Stavros]

Justice League is a *** show. Justice League Unlimited is *****. Justice League tends to suffer due to the two parter format I think, there's no room for short entertaining stories that are the forte of the DCU. Its only in Unlimited that some of the best DCU characters like Green Arrow, Black Canary, Huntress, the Question and others have time to shine. They are much more interesting than Hawkgirl or GL.

[Mr. Mxyzptlk]

I'd say JL(U) belongs below 'B:TAS' and 'S:TAS' but probably above 'Batman Beyond' (for having more consistent writing). However, the animation for 'Justice League' was consistently terrible and Dan Riba's direction in 'JLU' always pales in comparison to that of Joquaim Dos Santos that watching his episodes feels really underwhelming. While the stories are often very well-plotted, there is also a plethora of lame dialogue. The show's main strong point is its scope and continuity, but I don't think that can compare to the superior animation, music, and all around consistency of 'S:TAS'.

[Missy]

Wow. I'm really surprised to be reading this!

[slothian]

Yeah, this is when Veronica Vreeland started showing up a whole lot. I can buy Wayne associating with her because she, unlike her friend, was actually remorseful and felt sorry for the Penguin at the end. I don't think she was really that awful in 'Birds of a Feather' and I can buy that they still associate.

I can buy it for a different reason. Batman knows all about what she did to the Penguin, but would the public persona of Bruce Wayne actually care? Surely Batman's mask would be nearly as vacuous as a woman like Vreeland (judging by other characters' perceptions of Wayne, seen mainly in Scarecrow episodes) even if he wouldn't be stupid enough to involve himself with Gotham's Rogues gallery. As such, Bruce would probably side with her more than anything, if Bruce didn't happen to also be Batman. So in keeping up with his facade, Batman would socialise with her when not under the cape & cowl.

That said, in no way is Justice League the worst series of the DCAU. I wish I'd seen more of Superman: TAS to have a better basis of comparison, but as Stavros said, both Batman & Superman episodes were shown sporadically on British TV.

[Missy]

It's not just Bruce; it's the entire Gotham elite. How can they warmly embrace her after she reignited the Penguin's criminal career? Remember, he generally robs the rich (RE: them). She put them all back at risk.

[Dread]

I'll throw my hat in the ring here and say that the two series of JL are far superior to anything else in the DCAU. BTAS is great but uneven from episode to episode and, sorry, but I thought S:TAS was awful. Batman Beyond was good because it was fresh and I've never seen Zeta Whatchamacallit. In fact, I'd never heard of it until it was mentioned on WFP.

I just don't understand the whole JL is awful thing. It's a thought that is just so foreign to me I can't wrap my head around it.

As far as "Read my Lips" goes, that Joe Lansdale is an amazing writer.

[Missy]

As far as "Read my Lips" goes, that Joe Lansdale is an amazing writer.

I've heard he's the coolest man alive.

[Mr. Mxyzptlk]

Any particular reason why you found S:TAS to be awful, despite the fact that it, purely objectively, has the most famous Japanese animation studio (TMS) working on almost half the episodes, an actual authentic orchestra, continuity from episode to episode, the first major attempts to flesh out the DCAU, etc.?

And subjectively, in matters I can't see anyone possibly disagreeing on, the voice acting was excellent, the series had so much more variety as far as story angles as opposed to JL, the writing was incredibly consistent, the fight choreography was much better than JL(U) (even actual animation critics who frequent the Toonzone boards agree to that), etc.

It just seems to me that JL(U) is so often praised for its scale and scope and cast of characters despite the inferior animation, bland writing, occasionally lame and un-fleshed out characterizations, and some really really crappy voice acting (even Kevin Conroy's voice became more smooth and less menacing than it was in B:TAS, not to mention season 1 George Newbern and the occasional dreadfulness of Susan Eisenberg).

I also think that S:TAS gets such a bad wrap for being Superman (who, as we all know, is so vastly underrated in today's world, where everyone prefers cynical anti-heroes to anyone resembling the Big Blue Boy Scout). B:TAS was so dark and the first DCAU show and it was so revolutionary that it gets praised, JL was such a landmark in comic book animation history due its breathtaking scope that it gets praised, whereas S:TAS, for reasons no one seems to be able to provide, gets nothing.

[Stavros]

I thought the animation for JLU was pretty much flawless. Its like the've ironed out all the kinks in the animation process that the earlier show's suffered from. Its also the most iconic in terms of model design for most of the characters. Wonder Woman in particular is a great improvement. The best thing about that show is the story arcs that just gather pace until the finale. Its like the team that built this universe have got it perfect at its very end.

S:TAS, whilst being in general a very good series that I credit with the expansion of the DCAU does on occasion suffer from the worst animation I've seen allowed on screen. For an example watch the episode "Superman's Pal" and watch the sequence with Superman, a car he's pusuing and the helicopters. Pure crap! I really like the show and it is one the reasons that I appreciate the character so much nowadays, but its did have its problems.

I'm just starting to go through Batman Beyond right now, its the last show in the DCAU that I plan to watch in full. I'm ditching Static Shock and The Zeta Project because what I saw never impressed me. My only problem with Beyond in the past was the weak villians but its been a while so I might well gain some appreciation for them. I did quite like Blight.

[Mr. Mxyzptlk]

Agreed that S:TAS suffers from bad animation done by Jade Studios (I actually remember cringing at that scene in 'Superman's Pal'), but that was only in three or four episodes, and none of those half as bad as the worst of B:TAS ('Moon of the Wolf', 'I've Got Batman in My Basement', etc.) or even the first season of JL (almost every episode had AWFUL animation).

I love JLU, but it does have a few problems. A few terrible episodes. 'Hawk and Dove', 'Chaos at the Earth's Core', 'Dark Heart', 'Far From Home', and 'The Ties That Bind' were all pretty bad. The animation also suffers occasionally due to the continuation of lousy CGI. As well, there is a large directorial inconsistency. Joquaim Dos Santos, who directed such visually appealing episodes as 'Initiation', 'Divided We Fall', and 'The Cat and the Canary' (best fight scenes JL(U) has ever seen), was vastly superior to Dan Riba, who although great in previous DCAU shows, fails to impress when doing JL (perhaps because of the emphasis on action and the grand scope or whatnot). His episodes included 'This Little Piggy' (hilarious episodes but the animation direction was SO by-the-numbers), 'Dark Heart' (I do enjoy the entire JL cast in a single battle, but compared to the large scale fights in Santos' 'The Return', there's no comparison; here they're very static and almost every shot is a member shooting or crushing a few techno-beings, with only a few truly creative action sequences, such as the Atom vs the worm), and 'Hawk and Dove (which is terrible in every respect). I will give him props for episodes like 'Clash' and 'For the Man Who Has Everything', but Santos is so much better. I think the problem is that Riba excels far better in subtleties ('Epilogue') and focused one-on-one action scenes ('Clash'), which were both rarities in JLU.

And finally, the third season was a huge letdown from the amazing second season. After an intricately plotted season of awesomeness, we get an inconsistent season with nothing but run-of-the-mill adventure stories. So yeah, not stellar.

[LTSmash]

Regarding Levar Burton's cameo in Worry Men:

In the review Mike said he didn't like the fact that Burton had such a small role, considering his high profile at the time (Reading Rainbow, Star Trek: The Next Generation). The reason I can come up with for giving him such a small role was that it was only intended as a cameo. Given his busy schedule with the aformentioned shows, he may not have had time to record lines for an entire episode. I imagine somebody on B:TAS ran into Burton somehow and asked him if he'd like to appear on the show, or maybe the other way around.

[James D.]

I don't doubt that might have been the case. My confusion over the matter is just that the character was basically an unimportant, rich nobody who happens to be friends with Wayne. He didn't even need to be in the episode at all (and for all intents and purposes he hardly was there). You can't even classify him as a plot device because his character was completely ineffectual to the storyline.

[Dread]

Perhaps he was visiting a friend in the recording studio and they threw him the lines for fun?

[Missy]

Having LeVar Burton voice such a small, one-off character was almost distracting. You're right, LT, his schedule was probably too busy to voice a more robust role; I simply wish the producers would comment on why he was used.

[annericelover]

Here I am after a long absence(I was out of town and away from a computer)I'm back.

First off, I have to agree that the only reason to buy the newest installment of Super Smash Bros is for the historic Mario Vs Sonic stuff. I could never get into that series, and it always bothered me, because I am a huge Mario fan. But the Kart series and Smash Bros series are the two I can never get into. I'll buy your Nintendo Wii from you, I so want to get Super Mario Galaxy and Paper Mario games. I have a PS3, simply for the Blu-Ray feature and in the future new Resident Evil and Grand Theft Auto games. Now for my reviews, these will be shorter than usual, sorry.

His Silicon Soul, I actually enjoyed this episode. Yes, the one problem I had was that if you didn't see the two parter before this, than your lost until the flashback. But, I like drama and to see the Robo-Batman struggling between his programming and his emotional morality was fun. Sometimes it was over the top and yes I am so annoyed that computers always seem to explode so easily and powerfully, but I would have to say its for the dramatic aspect. It is a cartoon and even though watching this series we forget that, the animators and writers don't. I give this a 6 out of 10, because it isn't self contained and you have to watch the previous two parter to understand fully.

Fire From Olympus, OMG, this episode is crazy and I am into Greek mythology and love some of the trivia that is put out, but this character was lame. The fall he takes should have killed him, we even here the full impact of the hit to the floor, making it more apparent that he should be dead. I would have liked this to be a two parter ONLY so we can get a first half exploring his sanity spirling out of control into a second episode(like Two-Face). I am glad we didn't see him again, but his girlfriend or wife, reminded me of Grace from Two-Face, even seemed to have a similar character design. I would have to give this a 3 out of 10, because they are comic book fans and should know better.

Read My Lips. I love this episode, so many one liners, I can't choose which one to quote. Rhino is one of those characters you laugh at, but is highly dangerous. He had to have been about 10 feet tall, but I've taken film class and it could just be the way it was drawn to give Batman a real threat. He's not the smartest shed in the wood either(no pun intended), but he's the brawn. I also found myself in later episode wanting the Venquiliquist to snap out of it. Because he really feel like a dummy and Scarface is using him to commit the crimes. I also love the whole Paul Muni(the original Scarface from the 30's)look the puppet gets. I give this a 7 out of 10.

Worry Men, oh geez another episode I applaud you for taking the time to watch and review for us. This is just the worse. I do tend to like a few Hatter episodes, but this was the worse of em(even the few minutes he's in for the episode where Superman dressed like Batman was better, which is also the last Riddler appearance). I just can't bother to keep typing. Watxh at your own risk. 1 out 10.