This episode not only has the villain of the piece, Gentleman Ghost, rise an army of zombie criminals who were executed for their crimes, but Batman seemingly dies.
In the teaser, Batman is having a future adventure with Kamandi, one of Jack Kirby's creations (which he created for a title that ran from 1972-1978). Basically, Kamandi hails from a post apocalyptic future where mutant animal creatures run wild and society has fallen (and the Statue of Liberty looks quite PLANET OF THE APES-ish; for the record, that movie predated Kamandi by about five years). He's trying to help Batman get back into a time portal with a vaccine for a deadly illness that their future depends on being cured. Unfortunately, the duo (along with Kamandi's ally Dr. Canus, a dog-man) are being chased by a gang of rat-men. While I am sure this was a treat for some old school DC fans who recall Kamandi, I know little of the franchise and it seemed a little generic. I did like how the art style of B
TB manages to look enough like Kirby that I could quickly tell, just from the faithful hairstyle, that this was a Jack Kirby designed hero. Mikey Kelly voices Kamandi but he came off as a bit cliche; a typical arrogant young hero in a post apocalyptic world. But, for a teaser that only last a minute or three, it is fine. He ends up helping Batman escape with the formula, but thankfully for them, the Dark Knight left a time capsule that allows Kamandi to dispatch with the rat-men with a very Kirby-esque laser canon.
The producers/writers of this show, who have worked on other DC cartoons before, obviously like some of DC's more far out realities as they've made sure to include stuff like Warlock into JLU, but they never seem to click with me. Granted, it may be because it seems like much for a teaser. Or because this sort of thing was typical of a lot of cartoons I grew up with from the 80's-90's.
The crux of the episode, however, relies upon characters featured before. Gentleman Ghost, who showed up in a teaser of his own in the second episode, gets the full treatment this time. Basically an "undead" criminal who has returned to haunt the living and continue his infamy, he quickly is able to entrap Batman in an electronic coffin and bury him alive! Thankfully for Bats, he knows an Asian technique for going into a "near coma" and focusing his astral self outside of his body. It is in this form that he encounters another wayward ghost, Boston Brand. Brand is of course Deadman, another figure who has shown up before, who this time gets more of an arc.
The issue of death, however, is not treated flippantly throughout the episode. Very quickly, Batman is encountered by "the light" and the guise of eternal peace, in the form of the souls of his murdered parents. It is a light and pathway to "resting in piece" that Brand has been unable to find. It was actually rather sad to see Batman actually get to encounter his parents, only to have to forgo that peace for his quest for justice. Hardly something a lot of us expected from the splash, punchy previews for the series. Batman also tries to reach out to the cynical Brand, encouraging him to use his unrest wisely rather than simply wallowing in pity. Brand is further convinced when Batman reveals he knew full well who he was and was working to solve his murder.
And yes, Brand's murder is actually shown on screen.
Brand is voiced by Micheal Rosembaum, who of course has a long tenure with DC related shows; playing Lex Luthor for many seasons in SMALLVILLE as well as voicing The Flash in JUSTICE LEAGUE/JLU and even Kid Flash for a few episodes in TEEN TITANS. This time he adds a bit of a "pug" accent to Deadman, a murdered acrobat who has the ability to possess the bodies of others. Unable to pass into the great beyond for a reason he doesn't know, Deadman nevertheless agrees to help Batman free himself, and is aware of the infamy of Gentleman Ghost (played by Greg Ellis).
Unwilling to endanger a civilian, Batman instead implores Deadman to aid him by possessing a fellow superhero. After some skirmishes with the Ghost (who Batman can actually strike without magic-nulling Nth Metal weapons as a spirit, although he isn't nearly as used to the state as Deadman and the Ghost are), the duo run into Green Arrow and Speedy (played by the always hilarious Jason Marsden). James Arnold Taylor of course has played Green Arrow three times and by now we have gotten a sort of "arc" and familiarity of him as Batman's close friend and especially rival. In that way it mocks how originally, the two were very similar. Speedy stretches the joke further by acting almost exactly like Burt Ward's Robin from the 1966-1968 BATMAN TV series, right down to the fist-palm movements and the "Holy _____!" exclamations. Considering that Robin is due to appear himself at some point this season, I am curious how he will act.
After gathering the artifacts needed to raise an army of undead criminals, Speedy & Green Arrow are able to free Batman, and then with Deadman possessing Speedy (as well as Batman, allowing Deidrich Bader to copy the accent for a few sentences), they have their final battle. Naturally, the Ghost is thwarted and Batman is saved, but the moral gets through to Deadman about being selfless. After being offered eternal peace, he returns to Batman in a moment of need and announces his pledge to help people, as well as solve his own murder.
Rosenbaum does a great job as Deadman, giving a bit more of a memorable performance for me than Raphael Sbarge, who voiced the character in the "Dead Reckoning" episode of JLU. Much like the other guest stars in this show, Deadman is a quirky C-List character who rarely shows up in other cartoons or is well known.
