Review: Beware the Batman “Attraction”

Oh, look! Another casualty of time-slot roulette hits our screen! Beware the Batman finally comes back to finish its run, but we have the definitive answer here as to how good this show really is.

Beware the Batman was the replacement for Green Lantern: The Animated Series when Cartoon Network wanted to put a DC block of cartoons on early Saturday morning. Well, after ending Young Justice and the Green Lantern show early, we got Teen Titans Go!. and Beware the Batman. Guess what show stayed. After nine months, the show returns, if only to burn off the remaining episodes.

Spoilers!

The episode begins with Batman and Katana following Lunkhead, who is carrying a car. Lunkhead tries to hit Katana with it, but she evades it. She goes for a kick, but gets caught. Luckily, Batman shoots a bola at Lunkhead, and knocks him out. They bring Lunkhead to Blackgate Penitentiary, where Magpie is flipping out on a guard who called her Tweety Bird. Batman excuses himself from the Warden, and goes to talk to Magpie. He apologizes for not showing up more often, and then Katana tells Batman that Gotham PD are on their way. Magpie starts to spiral into a jealous rage. Magpie takes it as Batman needs help getting away from Katana. Magpie tries to manipulate Lunkhead with candy, and Lunkhead breaks out both Magpie and himself. However, Magpie ends up kicking Lunkhead over the railing,

On the streets, Katana was going over how Batman almost lost his mind fighting Magpie. There was a huge explosion, and it turns out to be Magpie. She still thinks that Batman needs help getting away from Katana. He keeps telling both Katana and Magpie that nothing is going on, and that just works Magpie up even more. Magpie and Katana go at it, and Batman stops them from getting more out of control. She gets away, and starts robbing banks and jewelry stores. She keeps leaving loot in the shape of a bat, making the police think that she is working with Batman. Bruce decides to go hunting alone.

Batman decides to go to the Miskatonic Hospital, where Magpie ambushed Batman at before. Lo and behold, Magpie is there. Magpie still misunderstands why Batman keeps showing up to Blackgate for her, but Batman just wants to see her get the help she needs. Magpie hears Katana coming, and thinks Batman has something to do with it. Magpie incapacitates Batman, then goes after Katana. This fight looks rather legit, because Katana was able to hold her own against Magpie, until Magpie poisoned Katana with Curare poison. Batman wakes up, and goes looking or Katana and Magpie, but they’re gone. Batman makes it back to the Batcave, where Alfred tells Batman that he isn’t in his right mind. The alerts go off, and it shows a newscast of what appears to be an ip address. Batman plugs it in, and it’s a live feed of Katana in a box, with a timer. Magpie set this up so Batman and her can be together again.

Katana wakes up, and does her best impression of The Bride from Kill Bill. The one inch punch isn’t working for her so well right now. Back at the Batcave, Batman is dwelling on something Magpie said at the hospital, “…where they buried Margaret Sorrow.” They wiped Margaret’s mind, and gave her a new identity, and killed off the identity of Margaret Sorrow. The hospital went so far as to give Margaret a funeral, and Batman deduces that’s where Katana is buried. In the box, Katana shatters the timer, and uses the glass to dislodge a piece of wood. Outside, Batman is looking for the burial plot of Margaret Sorrow. He finds it, and starts digging. Batman starts digging, and unearths an empty tomb. Meanwhile, Katana opens the box, only to get buried by dirt.

Magpie led Batman into a trap, thinking that she knows Batman. Batman won’t let anyone harm his allies. Batman kept showing up to Blackgate to try give back some of the humanity that Magpie lost during her treatments. Magpie gets even more pissed, and poisons Batman,  again. Magpie kicks Batman into the empty coffin, and drives the shovel where the head should be. Magpie goes to walk away, only to see Katana get out of her grave. They fight again, and this time, Katana is a lot more protective against those claws. Katana gets her more incensed with anger, going after Magpie’s fashion sense. Katana asks if Batman agrees, but Magpie tells Katana Batman’s dead.

Batman tells Magpie to think again, and that he doesn’t want to hurt her. Magpie goes in for another attack, but Batman counters, sending her into the tombstone. Magpie and Margaret Sorrow’s tombstone both land in the grave. Back at home, Katana and Alfred talk about Magpie’s price for staying in the darkness too long, and how Bruce is worried that the same thing will happen to him. They both realize that they’re both there to help Bruce and Batman whenever he needs it.

I honestly don’t get it. Beware the Batman was / is a good show. This episode shows it, because it’s still Batman early in his crime fighting career. Before Joker, Penguin, and Two-Face, we have rogues like Magpie, Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad, Lunkhead and Anarky. These are the Batman stories that are very seldom told, because no one sees them worth telling. Yeah, I love a good Bane story as much as the rest, but sometimes, we need something different from our shows. And this is it. The show took a risk, and Cartoon Network didn’t see it pan out. So, they relegate it to 2:30am on Toonami. It’s a great move, because people will actually watch the show.

The episode itself was very good. It shows the depths of Batman’s compassion, because he goes to see a person who was done wrong by the system,and only wants to see her get well again. Unfortunately, that compassion bit him in the ass like it has in every comic story that has come. Batman takes this as a failure, and he just wants to make it right. Unfortunately, Magpie doesn’t let him. This is along the line that Jason Todd, Joker, and Two-Face all had happen as well. Again, when people don’t see the people they’re used to, they automatically change the channel.

This is one of the many aspects of Bruce and Batman that are lost when he becomes a hardened vigilante later in life. This isn’t a city-wide, crime war fighting Batman. He’s still fighting to get there. This is the vessel to get to the Batman we know and love, and with the introduction of the League of Shadows earlier in the series, you knew that Ra’s al Ghul, Deathstroke, and many big villains were coming. I hope the viewers are high enough until the end of the season, because I am very hopeful for a season two.