Polite Dissent

It was a pretty lightweight Saturday in terms of super-hero cartoons. Two original episodes and one repeat, but neither of the original episodes was particularly outstanding. The best episode of the day was the Justice League Unlimited, even if it was a repeat.

On The Batman, “The Man Who Would Be Bat” featured the origin of Man-Bat. Unlike previous incarnations of the character that had been good-but-tortured or good-but-misguided, this Man-Bat is pure evil. The character design is excellent with the “bat” side of Man-Bat shining through. The plot, however, was weak with numerous lapses and the writers (and animators) seemed to frequently confuse infra-red vision with sonar. And just a hint to Batman (the “World’s Greatest Detective”), measles does not cause deafness.

The Teen Titans episode, “The Beast Within,” was a Beast Boy werewolf tale. There was a slight plot twist, but nothing overly unexpected. All in all, a slight episode. As an aside, I have always wondered who built and paid for the Titans Tower. And why is there only one bathroom in a tower full of teens?

“This Little Piggy” was the Justice League Unlimited episode tonight. It was a repeat, but a repeat of the best episode so far this year. Basically, Wonder Woman gets turned into a pig and Batman enlists Zatanna, Bwana Beast and others to track her down. That description doesn’t do the episode justice, so make sure to catch it for yourself. (My impressions of the episode its first time out can be found here).