Polite Dissent

The Batman was a repeat episode this week, and not a particularly good one. “The Man Who Would be Bat” features Man-Bat, and like Mr. Freeze last week, all the interesting pathos of the character was stipped leaving behind a bland mad-scientist. The new look of Man-Bat is impressive and the title is a modestly-clever pun on Kipling, but that’s really all to recommend in this episode.

The Teen Titans was preempted for a Lego’s Bionicle movie.

“Wake the Dead,” the Justice League Unlimited episode, should have been a lot better. The plot was paper thin and existed solely to bring Hawkgirl back into the Justice League. That’s fine by me, she was a great character and I happily welcome her back, but she deserved a better episode than this one.
It starts out with a trio of stereotypical nerds (and do I mean stereotyped: Tired of getting wedgies, one has stopped wearing underwear. Another asks “Did you forget your dice again?”). The three attempt to summon a demon for revenge, but the spell fails. Somehow, this misfired magic manages to resurrect Solomon Grundy and make him much more powerful than ever before. Green Lantern and his current squeeze Vixen try to stop Grundy, as does Superman, but they all fail.
Meanwhile, Aquaman (hark! is that a contented sigh from the Seattle area?), the Amazo Android and Hawkgirl are all hanging out playing chess in Dr. Fate’s tower. Knowing Grundy is involved, they rush to help the others and see if they can’t reason with Grundy. Sadly, there is no mind left in Grundy; he is all brawn and no brain. It turns out that only Hawkgirl’s Nth metal mace can harm him (because Nth metal was developed to battle the undead, of course), so it’s left to Hawkgirl to solve the problem once and for all.
I’ll admit that the title is clever, as it refers not only to Solomon Grundy but also to “waking” Hawkgirl from her self-loathing. Still, there were too many plot-holes and coincidences for it to be the excellent episode it should have been.

(Once again, Green Lantern continues to be the most stylish member of the League, looking very Luke Cage-ish at the fashion show as he was waiting for Vixen.)