Episode 87

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Beast Boy's past as part of The Doom Patrol comes back to haunt him, as Brain, Monsieur Mallah, and the rest of the Brotherhood of Evil butt heads with the Teen Titans for the first time ("Homecoming"). Madame Rouge has been assigned to acquire Hot Spot's communicator, but his fire powers present a slight problem for the malleable villain ("Trust"). Control Freak wants another shot at the Titans, but he finds himself pitted against their East Coast counterparts ("For Real"). Starfire befriends a Russian super soldier who's hidden himself from the world ("Snowblind"). Then the Titans go underground as Dr. Light makes a play for a crystalline girl ("Kole"). And Raven has to protect a trio of young superheroes from Monsieur Mallah ("Hide and Seek"). [ 1:32:46 || 42.5 MB ]

The above is from: http://www.worldsfinestpodcast.com/episodes/wfp_087.mp3

[Missy]

I can't believe we neglected to mention the turn-based RPG / 8-bit portion of "For Real."

[dc20willsave]

I'm not used to the new episodes being up this early. Yeah, got something to listen to on my way to and back from work!

[You Know Who]

Madam Rouge was voiced by Hynden Walch, not Tara Strong.

Also, Mento is the greatest douchebag in all of Teen Titans (yes, he's even more douchy than Val-Yor)

[Koete]

The Superman TAS callback redeems you guys from last week's missed opportunity.

[GoFlash]

"Homecoming" is actually adapted from a story arc about a year into the run of the New Teen Titans. BB's friendship with Cyborg as it related to his previous association with Robotman was more explicit. At the end, BB actually kills Madame Rouge - and Negative Man and Elasti-Girl stayed dead (at least until the next Crisis). Mento wasn't the leader of the Doom Patrol - he was the 5th richest man in the world, and was in love with Rita "Elasti-Girl" Farr, so had his scientists build him a suit that let him harness his brain power thinking that being a super-hero would help him woo her. He and Elasti-girl then adopted Beast Boy. The side effects of the suit made him kind of loopy, but when you're that rich, you're allowed to be...eccentric. In the comics, wheelchair-bound Niles Caulder, "The Chief", was the leader of the Doom Patrol. Maybe they thought that a team of heros considered to be freaks and outcasts, led by a man in a wheelchair, wouldn't work in an animated series. Or four.

Madame Rouge is French - in the comics, she was a schoolteacher in love with Niles Caulder whose mind was warped by the Brain and was given powers. She was killed by Beast Boy about New Teen Titans 14. Her daughter was the villain in the 4 issue Beast Boy miniseries.

Monsieur Mallah was given his intelligence by the Brain, and is very devoted to him. Using the same voice actor for both could have been a nod to this - the Brain gave Mallah his ability to speak, after all.

Mike, don't worry about the fact that Wonder Girl appeared in DCAU continuity before Wonder Woman. After the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Wonder Woman didn't arrive in Man's World until the Legends miniseries, which was the same point at which Wally West took over as the Flash - meaning that all of the Teen Titans and New Teen Titans stories with Wonder Girl happened before Wonder Woman arrived in Man's World in the comics, as well. This was reset by the Infinite Crisis!...or maybe it was Final Crisis!...or the Crisis After The Final Crisis Wasn't!...or the Crisis Of Last Thursday!...I lose track.

As far as quantum black holes, they are still a theory. Our current understanding is that to form a stable black hole, you need a significant mass (I believe it's 1.44 times the mass of our sun). Anything smaller doesn't generate enough gravity to hold itself together that tightly. The theory is that during the Big Bang, there was enough pressure to compact mass enough to form quantum (i.e., smaller than the above mass) black holes, but that that's the only time stable ones could be formed. Brain's machine could have temporarily compacted mass to simulate a black hole, but it owuldn't be stable and self perpetuating, so once the machine is destroyed, the gravity generated by the smaller amount of mass wouldn't be enough to hold the mass together. Think of it like sitting on a bunch of cardboard boxes and tying them into a small ball with thread. Your weight is the pressure from the machine that compacts the boxes, and the thread is the gravity of that mass. When you get up, however, the thread's not strong enough to hold the boxes crushed down, and they spring back.

And that's just the things I thought of from listening to your review of "Homecoming" on the way to work. I haven't even gotten to the other 5 episodes yet. Good thing I started posting at the forums rather than sending all of this in on e-mail like I used to...

Chris

[GoFlash]

Sorry, hit submit twice by accident. Hopefully, Junior will start sleeping through the night soon...

Chris

[GoFlash]

Just to clarify - Raven's real name is in fact Raven. Her mother Arella was born Angela Roth, so in her third incarnation (at the beginning of the current Teen Titans series, in the team with Tim Drake, Bart Allen, Connor Kent, and Cassie Sandsmark), she began using the alias "Rachel Roth", but that was just because high schools get a little dubious about students who claim their only given name is "Raven".

So, since this ran about the same time as season 3 of JLU, did Kole and Gnart live in Skartaris?

Dr. Light will gain the power of the aurora borealis. Wow. He can now make green, blue, AND purple. But only if you're far enough north. Remind me why no one takes him seriously?

Chris

[James D.]

Dr. Light will gain the power of the aurora borealis. Wow. He can now make green, blue, AND purple. But only if you're far enough north. Remind me why no one takes him seriously?

Haha, you have no idea how hard it was to not make some offhand remark about how goofy it sounded for me to say, "so he can gain the power of the aurora borealis."

[GoFlash]

Dr. Light will gain the power of the aurora borealis. Wow. He can now make green, blue, AND purple. But only if you're far enough north. Remind me why no one takes him seriously?

Haha, you have no idea how hard it was to not make some offhand remark about how goofy it sounded for me to say, "so he can gain the power of the aurora borealis."

Although, to be fair, green, blue, and purple gives him half the awesome power of... The Rainbow Raider!

[Garfield]

Dr. Light will gain the power of the aurora borealis. Wow. He can now make green, blue, AND purple. But only if you're far enough north. Remind me why no one takes him seriously?

Haha, you have no idea how hard it was to not make some offhand remark about how goofy it sounded for me to say, "so he can gain the power of the aurora borealis."

Although, to be fair, green, blue, and purple gives him half the awesome power of... The Rainbow Raider!

You just can't take it seriously. "We're under attack...by rainbows."

[You Know Who]

Dr. Light will gain the power of the aurora borealis. Wow. He can now make green, blue, AND purple. But only if you're far enough north. Remind me why no one takes him seriously?

Haha, you have no idea how hard it was to not make some offhand remark about how goofy it sounded for me to say, "so he can gain the power of the aurora borealis."

Although, to be fair, green, blue, and purple gives him half the awesome power of... The Rainbow Raider!

You just can't take it seriously. "We're under attack...by rainbows."

He's still a better villain than Specs and Trapper:

"Oh no, Specs is history. Call me "Spectral". I have all the colors of the rainbow, Static!" -Specs

[James D.]

Yeah, Specs is the worst of the worst.

[GoFlash]

Yeah, Specs is the worst of the worst.

Actually, the Rainbow Raider may be down there as well. Really, what can you say about a guy whose motivation for villainy was being a colorblind artist named Roy G. Bivolo?

...yet for some reason, I know his real name off the top of my head. Who's the more lame, the lame villain or the lame guy who knows about him?

Chris

[dc20willsave]

I cut Rainbow Raider quite a bit of slack because, outside of being a creation of the silver age, the characters of the DCU acknowledged how lame he was on a few occasions. Specs on the other hand, someone writing the Spectral idea actually thought this was going to be the best villain ever. If I ever get a job with DC, I'd be tempted to write Specs and Trapper into continuity just so I can kill them off. I think I'd use Ambush Bug to do it. Or G'Nort.

[You Know Who]

I cut Rainbow Raider quite a bit of slack because, outside of being a creation of the silver age, the characters of the DCU acknowledged how lame he was on a few occasions. Specs on the other hand, someone writing the Spectral idea actually thought this was going to be the best villain ever. If I ever get a job with DC, I'd be tempted to write Specs and Trapper into continuity just so I can kill them off. I think I'd use Ambush Bug to do it. Or G'Nort.

Or make them the only two people Batman actually kills voluntarily just to prevent the DC universe from being sullied by their very presence.

[Kscriv]

So to clarify on the first thing mentioned on the show. NFL is adopting a CFL style-policy when it comes to end-zone catches. The second I saw that play happen I said no catch. If you go to the ground, you must come up with the ball, and he didn't.

Also, love it any time you guys casually gloss over something that shows Teen Titans is NIC.

[James D.]

Also, love it any time you guys casually gloss over something that shows Teen Titans is NIC.

We're like politicians.

[The Doctor]

I was watching For Real with the boy yoday for the first time and I kept trying to figure out where I had seen the part when Control Freak is flailing around with the double light saber before and finally it hit me about 5 hours later, they were completely riffing on the Star Wars Kid video from years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPPj6viIBmU