Episode 9 - 'Journey to the Center of the Bat!' Discussion Thread

[Mister J]

When Batman is stricken down by a disease, the Atom must miniaturize himself and with Aquaman must travel into the Caped Crusader's body to cure him.

Airing: January 30

The Atom featured here will be the most recent comic incarnation, Ryan Choi. Aquaman will be featured in the episode as well.

Spoiler

 

[SHADOWBAT69]

Im looking forward to this episode.

 

[Drz]

What a crazy plot lol. :P

 

[Blaztro]

Oh no, not more Aquaman!

 

[GamerSlyRatchet]

As Comic Continuum reports, Atom will be played by James Sie, and the villain will be Chemo.

http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0901/16/index.htm

 

[SuGarRush]

YES!

More Aquaman!

 

[GamerSlyRatchet]

This episode's teaser will feature the return of Plastic Man. Also, Elongated Man (whose name appears in the intro) makes his debut, and the show's first original villain, a mobster named Baby Face, will appear.

 

[Mister J]

http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0901/25/index.htm

Matt Wayne is the writer of "Journey to the Center of the Bat!," the Friday, Jan. 30 episode of the TV series on Cartoon Network.

In the episode, Atom and Aquaman shrink themselves to fight a virus in Batman's bloodstream after he's been poisoned by Chemo.

Atom is voiced by James Sie.

Babyface.

 

[KatarHol]

If i was a porn star,my name would be Elongated Man.............

 

[SHADOWBAT69]

If i was a porn star,my name would be Elongated Man.............

 

[GamerSlyRatchet]

http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=221310&page=8o

Someone had WAY too much time in their hands at Toon Zone.

 

[Syncos]

Was an alright episode. Was afraid it was going to be absolute garbage. Luckily Aquaman saved it for me. God he's zany. I love it.

 

[Mister J]

I found Aquaman to be greatly more tolerable than I did in his first episode. He was down right enjoyable. The dynamic between he and Ryan was cliched, but fun.

The spot with The Brain could have been a bit more developed, but maybe that's me being slightly disappointed in no Monsieur Mallah cameo. I would have screamed.

The Plastic Man/Elongated Man teaser = .

The preview for next week looked promising.

 

[Temple Fugate]

"Neptunes Beard"!

i almost cried

PLATELET!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[Prison Mike]

why does Aquaman act like an idiot? Is that his character (I'm not too familiar with him)?

 

[GamerSlyRatchet]

For the teaser, Plastic Man and Elongated Man argue about who is better while stopping the mobster Baby Face. The arguing was fun, and while I'm used to the carefree, goofy Elongated Man from the comics and JLU, I can understand they wanted to make him different from Plastic Man. The highlight is Baby Face. Kudos to Tom Kenny for using a rather unique accent for the mob boss. One of his more un-Kennylike role. The villain was also a good tribute to Dick Tracy villains.

As for the main episode, the serious nerd Atom and the jolly jock Aquaman team up inside Batman's body when he is poisoned by Chemo. The episode, for the most part, was nothing special. However, two factors saved it from being as average as "Enter the Outsiders!". The Aquaman/Atom chemistry was really fun. Their dialogue was great humors, and one of the bright spots of the episode. The Brain also made for a fun villain. I was ready to scream "EPIC FAIL!!!" when Brain ranted about a climatic fight with Batman, only to be rolling around the floor helplessly.

Oh, and death continues to haunt this series, First Bruce's parents and Deadman, then the first two Blue Beetles, and now, Platelet.

R.I.P. Platelet.

NEXT WEEK: Waton breaks into the Library of Infinity. Luckily, Batman and Dr. Fate will put a stop to him! Then, when Despero attempts to control the Green Lanter Corps and turn Planet Mogo into a weapon, Batman, along with Green Lanterns Guy Gardener, G'nort, and Sinestro, will try to defeat him.

 

[SHADOWBAT69]

why does Aquaman act like an idiot? Is that his character (I'm not too familiar with him)?

Aquaman doesnt have character.lol


It seems that in recent years he was laways portrayed as this surface dweller hater who had no use for anything above the ocean. Not very personable and almost intollerable. This is defintely a new take on the character and one I thoroughly enjoy.

 

[KatarHol]

Aquaman doesnt have character.lol


It seems that in recent years he was laways portrayed as this surface dweller hater who had no use for anything above the ocean. Not very personable and almost intollerable. This is defintely a new take on the character and one I thoroughly enjoy.

Yeah,if he had acted like this for the last almost 70 years,he might have been more popular like the Flash or GL.

 

[DJ Kornphlake]

I like his portrayal as a somewhat more competent Zapp Brannigan.

 

[Drz]

Babyface's actor had a good gangster voice. Oh and Aquaman is ridicilously awesome. =D Atom was okay, but i found him abit boring, scientists you know.

But surely Batman never cries....

 

[Mister J]

Babyface was very Edward G. Robinson in voice. I liked it. Reminds me of those Bugs Bunny cartoons where they do the same with the gangster, Rocky (at least, I think that's the character there). Either way.

GSR is right about the Dick Tracy villain reference too.

 

[Temple Fugate]

AQ: I will call him Platelet

Atom: Actually he's a lymphocyte

AQ: PLATELET IT IS!!!

 

[Two-Face=Badass]

Loved the episode. Not quite as good as Fall of the Blue Beetle or Dawn of the Deadman but still very enjoyable. Babyface's teaser was great, mind you the "Bats likes me better!" got old real fast because at this stage the BatB universe seems to just revolve around him. Dick Tracy nods and a cool Bat entrance made it though. The main event was even better, I loved the interaction between the Atom and Aquaman, which did a good job of making Aquaman a bit pigheaded yet full of heart. Chemo was awesomely disgusting too. I was disappointed with no Monsieur Mallah appearance, but it was semi-worth it for the "climactic fight!" between Bats and Brain, with them both lying on the floor doing very little t:

Overall another great episode that solidifies the series as a worthy successor to previous DC animated shows, I very much look forward to the next!

 

[Dread]

The 9th episode in the debut season and the first one that could easily be called a "formula" episode of BATMAN: BRAVE AND THE BOLD. Not only is is a shrinking episode, but an "enter the body of a hero to save their life from something" episode. Such episodes, like time travel, have been staples of cartoons for at least 25 years, and if not longer. They can be tricky things to pull off. Handle them too seriously, and they don't work, because even children have seen them several times before and assume everything will work out. TEEN TITANS made that mistake with some of their formula episodes, and they seemed to have a lot of them, at least 1-2 a season. The other angle is to treat them as comedy; so ludicrious that not even the characters take them seriously and play it for laughs. When JLU did the "mind swap" formula episode, they chose to me "THE GREAT BRAIN ROBBERY" into a sheer comedy, and it was gold; one of the few stabs at comedy from JLU that worked.

The title is of course a riff on "Journey into the Center of the Earth", the name of a famous story and no end of terrible movie adaptations, even recently in 3D with Brenden Fraiser.

Spoilers!

Spoiler

But first there is the teaser, which seems to get longer every episode. It barely features Batman at all; it has Elongated Man and Plastic Man meeting in an attempt to take on the mobster Babyface. Both are DC stretching heroes and naturally they are rivals. Plastic Man is more well known, but Elongated Man is usually considered smarter, as he is detective (and not a former thief). EM had this sort of issue with Plas in JLU, only we never saw Plas. This time, both get to appear and trade barbs. Unfortunately, it degenerates into a "who does Batman like best to work with" which seemed a bit juvenile; what should two superheroes who aren't teenagers like Jaimie Reyes care if Batman likes one better? This isn't high school! The gag of course at the end is that Batman is annoyed by both of them, as their rivalry gets them tied in knots (literally). Tom Kenny, is of course great as Plastic Man, as well as the gangser Baby Face, who seemed akin to a few Looney Tunes villains. Elongated Man is in his old school costume with the domino mask, and played by Sean Donnellan, who does a fine job for what the role implies. The teasers seem more like skits sometimes, but that is fine, it helps add to the lighter tone of the series.

As for the rest of the episode, it in no way matches the last two episodes. However, it is better than "ENTER THE OUTSIDERS", which right now stands as the worst episode of the series. It has both Aquaman and the Atom return from prior appearances, in a full episode and teaser, respectively. They must team up when Batman is poisoned by Chemo and only has a short time to live. Unfortunately, Chemo is on a rampage across the ocean in an attempt to steal a nuke for his master, who turns out to be the Brain (of the Brotherhood of Evil variety).

John DiMaggio reprises his role as Aquaman and of course this incarnation of Aquaman is one that always causes some reaction and debate from fans. Unlike the "Timmverse" Aquaman, this is not an Arthur Curry who hates the surface world and seems to rub everyone the wrong way with his aggressive arrogance; basically, it isn't Aquaman as Namor. If I may be so bold, this Aquaman is similar to the lighter hearted adventuring hero of SUPERFRIENDS, only for one key detail; he is COMPETANT. He isn't useless on land, and he can hold his own in a fight. This Aquaman in some ways, especially in this episode, reminded me a bit of The Tick, only a little smarter (although not much smarter) and played slightly straighter. The Tick also had to venture inside the body of a friend to save him via shrinking in Season 3 of his show. Rather than being a riff on the "talks to fish" gimmick that poor Aquaman has been lambasted for in media, BTB's Aquaman is a riff on bigger-than-life heroes; the type of heroes who put their hands on their hips and laugh, who always have an over-the-top exclamation, and never seem to be rattled. In that way it implies that Aquaman has literally had so much experience that everything is an adventure to him, one he always expects to either survive or go down punching in.

The Atom is the newest Atom, Dr. Choi. I assume this was done because Asian heroes are rare in general, especially ones who aren't martial artists. But, this show has handled the Blue Beetle legacy very well, so to assume they won't get into the Atom, who is another legacy hero, would be premature. Called in by Aquaman when Batman starts to succumb to Chemo's chemical infection, the two shrink down to cure Batman. Unfortunately, the Dark Knight refuses to take things easy, continuing to fight Chemo in his Bat-Plane and even get another dose of chemicals to defeat the menace and defuse the bomb.

Naturally, Atom and Aquaman clash. Atom would rather think things out and use science or wits to prevail, while Aquaman would rather scream "Spoooooooooon!" (or something akin to it) and slice things in two with a hydro-sword. There were a few bits where I thought some of the jokes portraying Aquaman as being dumb, at least compared to Atom, were taken a bit too far, although James Sie really handled Atom's lines well and made them work. Considering that the human body is mostly fluid, taking Aquaman along actually did make some degree of sense, though, and allowed him to be in his element. The biggest bit, though, is when Aquaman uses his powers to summon a steed; this time a lymphocyte, which he names "Platelet". For the record, Lymphocytes are white blood cells in vertebrate immune systems, at least according to Wikipedia. This works, although I suppose a bacteria cell would have worked better, but the gag goes a bit far when the cell takes a "fluffy horse" shape and even makes animal sounds. Now, I am more than aware this show does try to play towards a lighter and younger audience; I just think even in that regard, it was a bit too far. Once they get to the "Main Cell" causing the damage to Batman, Aquaman seemingly charges into the horde of replicating enemies to buy Atom some time; Atom, however, is finally moved to "bold" heroic action when Platelet is killed. Much like the Gibbles from the pilot, this show is amazingly harsh on blob-like cutsey critters. It was only by employing some of Aquaman's breast-beating heroic punching action that Atom is able to get close enough to use one of his gadgets to save the day. Fortunately, unlike real cancers, destroying the lead cell instantly vaporizes the rest.

The Brain has showed up before, in TEEN TITANS. There I thought he sounded like a broken SPEAK N' SPELL, but that show also tried to straddle the line between darkness and light, although may have done a better job than THE BATMAN did. This show is usually lighter in general, so here the Brain has a mechanical French accent from Dee Bradly Baker, who has made a career voicing monsters, and it works out fine on the show's terms. No cameo from Mr. Mallah, the talking French gun-toting gorilla, a cheesball menace BORN for this kind of show. Maybe next time.

Even if it was a little over the top, it was sad to see Platelet die, and even Choi agreed. There is a part of me, though, that kind of sees it as appropriate that Aquaman is so friendly. Animals rarely build a rapport with people who are aggressive all the time. Aquaman would need to be a bit chummy and empathic to make so many underwater friends. But then again, I was getting tired of seeing the Namor stereotype to underwater heroes all the time, and so seeing a stab at the other end of the spectrum, much like seeing a lighter Batman, at least is more original.

"But...Batman doesn't cry." Classic.

Overall, this was a fun episode. Some bits are a little too hammy and don't work, but taken as a whole it is a fun, harmless adventure. But that is typical of the whole season so far. I can't imagine hardcore grim and gritty Batman fans liking this, but those who, say, enjoy a MARVEL ADVENTURES comic every now and then are certain to be entertained.

 

[Cain]

I demand that we get a Platelet action figure. The Brain trying to helplessly attack Batman when he fell on the floor was hilariously priceless and finally they give him a french accent in an animated show. But yeah Monsieur Mallah was missed but since Batman was sick I guess it didn't make sense to have him face any real muscle.