4.01 A Matter of Family. (Discussion)

[Ultimate_Superman]

I loved the show but I personally hate that whenever we really see Robin Batgirl will be there as well. I just wish she would leave the show.

 

[Casius--J]

I thought this was such a great ep, prob one of the best ones yet. I too noticed how darker batman was in this show, i hope they keep it up!!

 

[Cobblepot]

I realy want to see this eps. but I have to count on torrenst. This show will never air in Holland.

 

[TheDarkKnight_NL]

i saw it got it of off usenet ,very nice episode cant wait to see whats coming up in this season

 

[Rowen]

So, you can't even get stuff on the TV? I mean, I never got cable until I was 13 and still I got stuff like NBC, and WB.

nope i can't. whenever i turn on the tv, the only thing i see is static, even when i flip through the channels, its still the same.(static)

 

[Rowen]

Rowen, Have you tried changing your TV from CATV to TV in your menu from the remote?

Every TV (at least in the last 15 years) has a second function that allows basic channels to be used, as long as the cable is plugged in, regardless of having regular cable.

no i haven't tried that , ill have to see if that works.

 

[Rowen]

just tried it & it doesn't work. like i said, ill have to download it, or use torrents, or wait till somebody uploads it on youtube.

 

[Chris Wallace]

Second episode I've watched, first one I've enjoyed. I just might come back next week.

 

[TRUE]

Personally, I couldnt stop thinking "Robin's Reckoning" did this better. This was a decent TB ep, but when a show can only make a so-so episode from basically copying a fantastic episode, you know its got problems.

I did have high hopes for this season, but after this episode, I'm not going to start waking up with the intention of watching TB. Only ep I'm really looking forward to anymore is the Riddlers return. Thats the one character they've done consistently right (crappy design and all).

CO SIGN

 

[Batman]

Finally got to see this (Missed it Saturday, found it on YouTube), and I think I actually liked "Clayface Of Tragedy", "Riddled", "Night And The City", and even "Traction" better. But a good episode nonetheless.

The kid voicing Robin was pretty good in the role by the end of it, Batman's jawline looks ten times better than it did, and Hammill did an absolutely awesome job as Zucco. And I loved how much more brutal Batman's fighting was.

The only thing I hate about Batman's new design are the eyes on his cowl. They're just... weird looking. But everything else, . Robin's design also works alot better in animation than in stills.

In any case, more good things came out of this episode than bad, especially the bigger changes made, in regards to design and the inclusion of Robin. At this rate, we could be in for one kickass season.

 

[Rowen]

this e was pretty good episode . i think it played robins orgin even better then BTAS. In BTAS, the flashback scenes took WAY to long, & took forever to get to the showdown between robin & zucco. but here in THE BATMAN it took like what; half the episode to get to the fighting.

i agree that this epsidoe was alot darker than the previous season's, beacuse i could barley see batman in the background, cause the shading was so dark. batman did seem alot darker & more serious, cause i was laghing when he kicked down that club door & started beating up all the bad guys.

i think this is a good start for this season, cause it looks promising. can't wait to see future episodes & where its going.

 

[November Rain]

decent ep, although it did feel like it was moving at flash pace....

they should have slowed it right down. How come batgirl gets two eps to introduce her and robin only gets one.

Maybe they feel that the best way to get used to robin is probably to expose him at every corner and get to know him that way, same way we got to know bruce i suppose...

 

[storyteller]

2 things

Damn the square jaw helps a bundle.

also the episode was pretty fast paced. But at least it was all that needed to be said. Batgirls episode in reality was introducing 2 characters and not just one. They did batgirl and poision ivy. Robin was self contained to a villain we wont see again. They also probably felt that ..."hey its robin, everyone knows robins imo". So they could condense 2 eppys worth of material into one. Though i think they could have expanded(or will) on ***** training.

Well when do we see tim drake(or hell jason).

 

[November Rain]

alright i have just watched robin's reckoning and i think a lot of you are being particularly harsh on this ep.

the timeframe and maturity level of both respective robin's are completely different. One has let the hate wear away at him in a batman-esque fashion and the other one is clearly a happy go lucky individual.

A matter of the family really isn't about Robin, he's a side issue, it's clearly a bruce centred issue where bruce feels he has a chance to make up for the wrongs performed on him and the loss of his family. He is the one who makes it personal and it is Young Grayson that takes the path of the light, the path of the moral high ground (even though zucco's antics were more personally directed at the graysons). This immediately shows that grayson is to be batman's beacon of light in the apparent dark times ahead.

in the batman, robin showed great maturity in such a short time, and has shown himself and us that although himself and bruce have shared tradgedy, they aren't willing to go about it in the same manner. nor will this new robin let the hatred grow inside. also the fact that he decided to don a costume of his own and go and help bats, came up with his own name and decided to stay with bruce shows this is a boy of ambition while in the tas, grayson is clearly a character that needed guidance.

it's obvious from the episodes that robin is seen as an apprentice in robin's reckoning while he is depicted straight off the bat as being a partner in the batman.

although the ep was short, i felt it gave more bruce and grayson wise (for all the flashbacks, you don't get to see what the graysons actually mean to dick).

I don't have nostalgia on my side so perhaps that's why i have these views..

 

[Proteus-X312]

After a mediocre Season 3 that seemed to seriously question all the goodwill the show earned in Season 2, THE BATMAN debuts for a 4th, and they have yet another sidekick in tow in Robin. Initially I wasn't too thrilled, as the inclusion of Batgirl last season all but erased any hope for Batman to have any romantic tension with anyone (as Yin vanished and he's stuck babysitting in front of Catwoman), plus half the episodes weren't beyond average. But this episode is easily better than about half of last season; combined. In fact, the only downside of it is that it basically seeks to do "Robin's Reckoning" in two parts, set entirely in the present, and without a lot of the theatrical music, pacing, or dialogue. Not that the dialogue was as astrocious as it is for some episodes, but it can't match some of the exchanges from Randy Rogel (the writer of Part 1 at least), Timm & Co. So naturally you're reminded of "Reckoning", which will always be better (Part 1 anyway, the second part was a bit of a downturn).

Specking of B:TAS, Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill get to return to Batman animation as John Grayson and Tony Zucco, respectively. Both do a good job, especially Hamill, who had on a bit of a "Nu Yawk/Nu Joysey" accent for this part, which I hadn't heard from him, and he did well. THE BATMAN, despite the writing flaws, has always had a rock solid cast and guest-stars, and gladly recalls their roots by including a lot of actors from past Batman incarnations, from the 60's to the 90's. And the new actor for Robin/Dick Grayson actually does a good job, which is no small feat to ears used to either Loren Lester or Scott Melville in the role. Naturally the only issue is whether or not the fact of Batman taking in costumed teenagers is really in keeping with modern interpretations of him, but that debate is never had properly because the sidekicks keep coming because they've been attached to the franchise forever, and no one questions it. However, while Batgirl basically inserted herself into Batman's world without his say-so (or even his blessing for a while), Grayson's world takes a parallel to Wayne's and thus Wayne takes him in, seeing a bit of himself in the boy. Batman's design has been tweaked a bit, his chin padded out and his form a little different, to show some age progression since Season 1. I'm not sure how this show records time; he was 26 in Season 1 (having been Batman for 3 years, time he used to take out most of the mob) and this is Season 4; JLU treated every season like a year, so if this show followed suit, Batman'd be 29-30 now. However, I could be off, but I'm sure he's at least 1-2 years older now than he was in Season 1.

The themesong, unfortunately, remains a remix of HAWAII FIVE-O with some SPY KIDS thrown in, which really isn't fitting for Batman. The last shot of he, Robin and Batgirl looks nice, although one may fear that Batman is quickly being reduced to being the leader of a "team", which is a role Kid's WB has wanted for Batman for years now. True story, when TNGA wrapped in '98, Kid's WB wanted Timm to basically do a "Justice League Evolution" sort of show, with the JL as teenagers being led by an adult Batman, a premise he hated and instead went with BATMAN BEYOND in '99 to appease the teen-crazed WB (and later took his JL show to CN to escape them, which was it's own Faustian deal). THE BATMAN's producers obviously aren't as iron-willed and seem more willing to appease the network demands, at least by how Season 3 was almost a role reversal from the 2nd. Can we expect Spoiler in Season 5?

That all said, the premire was good, even when compared to it's decade old predassessor. The rundown: The Flying Grayons are not only in charge of a travelling circus, but they're part of the star attractions. Tony Zucco and his three brothers (almost ringers for Marvel's Enforcers, as one is a burly brute, the other a whip-man, the third a juggler) come in to do a protection racket scheme. They rough up John Grayson, but Dick calls the police, and by chance (or plot convience) Batman intercepts the call and arrives first. The Zucco's escape but the whip-guy gets collared, earning Tony's ire. Batman would seek to track down the Zucco's but as Wayne he attends the next showing of the circus, and of course we all know what happens. Zucco loosens the screws to the trapeze, and Richard becomes an orphan.

Easily seeing the parallel between his own past and Grayson's, Bruce pays for the funeral and offers to take him in as a foster parent, a role that becomes muddled as he is frequently away from the mansion while he's Batman, running down leads to avenge the murder of Dick's parents by finding Tony Zucco (the fact that he never collared his own parents' killer is eating at him, and he doesn't want Dick going through the same). There are some "CSI Jr." elements, like the notion of a set of toothpicks only being specific to one of two bars, or a bag of popcorn from a run-down circus, but it's Batman so it works. Zucco, it turns out, was an ex-circus man whose life fell apart from the act, so he sort of became a mob thug, running protection rackets on circuses. Granted you have your obligatory, "You've TKO'd Batman, why not unmask or kill him, rather than simply tie him up and rattle on and on", but it would be unfair to pick on this episode for that when nearly every Batman cartoon (or Bond movie) is famous for this. Meanwhile, Grayson has stumbled into the Batcave (why Alfred put his parent's portrait so close to the Batcave enterance I'll never know; he was all but asking for Dick to get snoopy). Donning his old trapeze uniform with some add-ons, he makes his debut helping Batman out.

In a rare showing of grit, Batman seems to go "out of control" after Zucco gives Robin a thrashing, and he starts to pound away at him, chasing him up to the trapeze and almost scaring him to his death with a plunge, but naturally Robin saves him, wanting him to get "justice". Seeing eye to eye on crime-fighting and seeing no other way to spend quality time together, they decide to be partners.

Really, the only bad thing I could say about the episode, aside for it bringing up too many memories of the superior "Reckoning", was that the name "Dick" makes some lines sound "dirty" to us adults. "Master Dick is requiring more of your attention", that kind of stuff. Why not just call him "Richard"? Granted, part of this is Frank Miller's fault. Robin's design looks much sleeker in motion, I like the sleek pants and the cape that vaguely resembles wings. The episode moved a bit too quickly at times, but as they wanted this to be a two-parter, they had to cram in Robin's entire origin in about 20 minutes, which is naturally a rush. And one could argue 1997's "Sins of the Father" (Tim Drake's origin sequence from B:TNGA) was almost equally crammed.

A solid debut to THE BATMAN's 4th season and Robin. I was quite impressed and I hope the rest of the season follows through on better writing and not wasting so much time on bad Joker or Penguin appearences. Hopefully Batgirl will be less annoying, too.

Good review Dread.I had the same thoughts about how Robin easily found the Batcave it was almost too convenient.I thought it was a great start to the new season.I didn't notice Batman's new chin design but I did notice that he did get alot meaner as he was driven to bring Zucco down for murdering Dick's parents.I hope Bats keeps this up.

 

[Dread]

oh & Dread its on how you take it. if a word or a context seems written with adult words, like Dick grayson. then its up to us vewiers in how we take the refrence or syllable.

Oh, I can be a freak when it comes to stuff, I know. Heck, I still laugh at fart jokes.

But it's like, 100 years ago, a name like "Gaylord" wouldn't have made anyone snicker. Now, it's the basis for two Ben Stiller comedies. So sometimes a name like "Dick", in today's climate, can add some extra bits to lines when they're unintendined.

Just recall this line from BATMAN & ROBIN: "She's trying to kill you, Dick!"

Yes, yes, I know it's all me. No need to use the long name for the character for the first time in 60 years. I just wouldn't have minded. I'll try not to have such a dirty mind.

Oh, and kudos to THE BATMAN actually casting a teenage actor to voice a teenage character. Not that adults can't voice younger characters, but you never have to worry about a 14 year old actor making his teen character "sound too old".

 

[ghost113]

just saw the episode on youtube, it was pretty good but batman looks way too big.

 

[hulkamania85]

Pretty good episode I thought. Still prefer Robin's Reckoning but this still was an effective telling of Robin's origin. I almost thought they were going to water it down for the kids for a sec there.

 

[The Caped Knight]

Badass intro episode for The Boy Wonder & The Dynamic Duo into The series .

 

[ghost113]

Yes it was

 

[November Rain]

just saw the episode on youtube, it was pretty good but batman looks way too big.

they seem to have slimmed him back down for the other episodes of the series, clayfaces and team penguin, he's back to his normal size...

 

[ghost113]

no he's still pretty big

 

[ghost113]

I'm pissed the one day I don't have class they are showing a rrepeat of this episode

 

[Abaddon]

Batman allowing children to play hero with him has become increasingly disturbing to me.

 

[Batman]

Welcome to 67 years ago.