Yeah, it really seemed out of character for Batman. It was still pretty touching, but at the cost of essentially turning Batman and Tornado into murderers.
The man was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the best at both killing and not killing - Stranger
Sexplosion
Love it, especially the shows self awareness with Bat-Mite addressing the Darker and Edgier fanboys without breaking the flow of the episode.
And any show with a Booster Gold episode is worth watching.
Nigga I kill for less
I love this show! It was really awesome that they managed to get the DCAU voices of Booster and Skeets to reprise their roles. He's full of awesome (but I got the G.I. Joe theme stuck in my head with "Booster Gold" in place of the team name).
This show took steps to make sure that people wouldn't hate it just because it existed like people did for The Batman (which I admit I did hate, but have chilled out). Not to mention that it doesn't demand other WB shows do or not do stuff just to satisfy them (*coughTheBatmancough*).
Anyone else think that this continuity could have been the continuity of current DC comics had Earth-Two been the primary Earth following Crisis On Infinite Earths? I read a WMG about it and, dammit it made sense!
Sometimes life just sucks. You have to learn to take the good with the bad. Why should you expect anything different in the mediums?
Planescape Hijack
That actually makes a lot of sense, now that I think about it.
Anyway, "The Last Bat On Earth!" was this week's episode, and it was awesome. Of course, I have no idea why, logically, this future would still exist, but it had to because then Batman wouldn't have been able to awesome there *. The action was intense, the dialogue was troperiffic ("My obsession...is with justice!"), Gorilla Grodd was a hammy ape ("CHIMPANZEES!?"), etc. One of the better episodes this season.
edited 20th Jun '09 8:16:52 PM by Haven
Productivity is for people without internet connections. -Count Dorku
Working my way through the series right now, and just hit "Hail the Tornado Tyrant", which was kind of a crowning moment of WTF for Batman. Red Tornado builds himself a son, said son gets confused and upset that people are freaking out at him even though he's hero-ing, and starts acting out a bit... and I mean, nothing beyond yelling and beating a criminal (no worse than anything Batman's handed out... guy wasn't even unconscious at the end of it, I don't think), and Batman promptly tries to kill him.
Uhm... did we miss a step or three in there, Bats? "Kid's behaving badly. Time to snuff 'im!" And at the end of the episode, Batman does wind up succesfully killing him (after browbeating Red Tornado into helping), and delivers a little homily about Red Tornado having found his own humanity through all this.
Seriously, what?!?
Yeah, the Tornado Tyrant episode has a very high What the Hell, Hero? quotient. 
OTOH, Kamandi is one of my favorite crazy comic characters - and after The Last Bat On Earth I think I even have PSL for him, and I never have PSL for fictional characters...
I mean check this out! >> [1]
◊ Who in their right mind don't want to visit the Orangutang Surfing Civilisation where Indonesia used to be?
Erik
Planescape Hijack
That map may be one of the best things I've ever seen.
The United States of Lions
. And Stephen Colbert's worst nightmare, the Communi-bears!
And the Kangarat Murder Society. Awesome.
Productivity is for people without internet connections. -Count Dorku
DUMB
What the hell kind of natural disaster could have caused that? Alaska is on fire! "Intelligent killer whale riders"?! "Undersea New York rat network"?!
[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.
If comics were drugs, Kamandi would be good shit.
Edit: Beats me if I know. Among other things, lots of animals has become upright and gained intelligence, while humans have gained the minds of animals, and I think there was some sort of handwave about a doomsday bioweapon that caused it at one point. But mostly, its geophysics run on Rule of Cool.
Erik
edited 28th Jun '09 7:54:08 AM by ErikS
Alright, I just watched a few episodes of this show at a geek friend's house, and I have to agree it's made of pure concentrated awesomeness.
Planescape Hijack
Anyone else see the season finale? It was alright, but the plotting wasn't quite as tight as usual. In particular, what the hell were the ten seconds of dinosaurs about? I can only assume that they animated dinosaurs attacking Gotham for an episode which was cut for some reason, and decided not to let that footage go to waste.
Ah well. "Balance this!", and Batman got to wear Jay Garrick's helmet, that's what's important.
edited 26th Jul '09 2:21:41 PM by Haven
Productivity is for people without internet connections. -Count Dorku
Cold.
I saw an episode with War World, I like my batman darker.
Sex, Drugs, and Rationality
Lord of Darkness
Anybody feel that this show was seriously Screwed by the Network in the US? Australia has got the last two episodes of the season, but Cartoon Network is apparently too busy showing its Ghosthunters Jr. and Survivorman Jr. shows to bother finishing off the season. They also seem to schedule it at random times when it gets pre-empted by movies nobody wants to see most of the time. And I thought it was bad enough when they gave The Secret Saturdays its original time slot, screwing with everybody's Ti Vo in the process.
edited 26th Jul '09 9:19:37 PM by Ganondorfdude11
It can only be called fate. That here. I would again gather the three with the crests. That I should lay my hand on that which grants the wishes of the beholder. That when power, wisdom, and courage come together, the gods would have no choice but to come down.
Both Cartoon Network and The Sci-Fi channel (oh, I'm sorry, I meant "Syfy") have been making some pretty inexplicable decisions of late. Is Cartoon Network trying to be Nickelodeon? What's with all the live action shit?
I've taken to just watching BBC America for my light science fiction/fantasy fare.
Of course, I'd probably be happy if CN just made a commitment to only showing a rotating schedule of Gantz, Elfen Lied, Death Note, Exo Squad, Zone Riders, Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex, Gargoyles, Justice League, and Batman The Animated Series. Just... something guaranteed to look awesome whenever you tuned in.
edited 27th Jul '09 1:12:05 PM by Dracomicron
"The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules." - E. Gary Gygax
Planescape Hijack
Just watched the "Inside the Outsiders!" one. Unless it's a coincidence that both Dating Catwoman scenarios so far had bondage barely-subtext, I think this show just took a very Watchmen-esque look at that trope.
Also, Batman punching out Psycho Pirate with a grin on his face=pure win. I guess he called that number Catwoman left after all...
Though I was kind of hoping it would turn out that the kids got to save him, in sort of a Children Raise You thing. And just punching him out was kind of a Broken Aesop, but what the hell, still great.
Also, Black Lightning's dream made me lol. Suck on that, Freudian Excuse! Though I don't think I can agree with the aesop "Blowing up Tastes Like Diabetes donkey-unicorns in wrong".
Productivity is for people without internet connections. -Count Dorku
The mystery of life.
Really great job they did with this show. My favorite so far was the Bat-Mite episode. I could just picture that actually happening at some convention. Also, the Red Beetle's quote "I do have the heart of a hero! It's in a jar in the back of my closet!"
Though I don't think I can agree with the aesop "Blowing up Tastes Like Diabetes donkey-unicorns in wrong".
Naw, sounds like Broken Aesop to me. Though I suspect the real aesop is "don't work yourself up about small stuff".
I actually liked the revelation that Batman doesn't need to be angry to fight effectively, while he can become angry, he isn't Driven By Rage.
Erik
Mayhem of the Music Meister was an... Interesting episode, also quite funny, seriously, Gorilla Grodd dancing with Aquaman? Hilarious. But the other parts stand out as well.
It had me in stitches. Strangely enough, this Musical Episode actually has pretty good music.
"He Drives Us Bats" (sung during a chase scene, no less) is REALLY catchy: [1]
Erik
Taller than Zim
Planescape Hijack
That was EPIC.
"This show's been canceled due to criminal intent! ...and bad reviews."
Was the Bat-tuning amplificator a reference to something other than Batman's Crazy-Prepared-ness? I thought it would have been even awesomer if Batman was just that good a singer because he is the best at everything. But, well, that's the difference between this Batman and others.
But anyway...holy crap. Impossibly epic. Just...yeah. Wow.
edited 24th Sep '09 3:00:51 PM by Haven
Productivity is for people without internet connections. -Count Dorku
The Evil Dr Bolty
I. LOVED. The musical episode. It was so ridiculous that it was awesome.
Indeed
I watched one episode of this series, "Fall of the Blue Beetle!" (it's the one where Jaime wants to find out about his predecessor and whether he was "chosen" for his role). I didn't like it at all. I thought the labor robot plan as presented to the Blue Beetle had a number of holes which made him seem like an idiot for not even thinking about them, and Batman trying to keep the common sense notion of "people sometimes die when they engage in dangerous heroics" from Jaime was just... words fail me. Not to mention the idea of the past Blue Beetle not being chosen for the role and making the best out of his lack of superpowers was good, but then rather than the present Blue Beetle learning to stop bitching and just doing what good he can with his powers regardless of whether he was meant to have them or not, Batman undoes the point by saying that there is something to the notion he was chosen after all. Overall, using this episode as a representation of the series, it seems like a way too Lighter and Softer superhero story for my tastes.
edited 26th Sep '09 5:17:41 AM by jaimeastorga2000
Legally Free Content
I hate Darker and Edgier with a vengeance and generally expect anything in that vein to be puerile tripe. 
Explains why I like this, in general the exact opposite. 
I am more surprised there are other people out there who like it, despite both chucking the Darker and Edgier trend and not caring much for the Sacred Continuity which is making me very weary of superhero fans (if not always of the actual comics, to be honest). (People other than any kids who might catch it, say.)
Erik, stating the obvious
Last night's episode wasn't quite up to the series' usual standards IMO. Mostly because I get Moral Dissonance from Batman telling Red Tornado his son couldn't be redeemed; if Bats thought he was the one to decide that he'd just kill all his enemies instead of sending them to jail, and if it's because the kid was a robot...well, that sort of breaks the part where we're supposed to (and totally do, at least for me) see Red Tornado as being as good as human. And you'd think robo-logic-y Red Tornado would have called him on this.
(Also, sneak attacking your robotic godson with an electric boomerang? Not a fantastic way to impress the idea that humans aren't deceitful and evil on him.)
Although the sequence where Red Tornado and son avert crises while he tries to explain why there's evil was pretty touching (even if it was a little weird in a milieu where you can tell who's evil because they're trying to steal stuff, and who's good because they're trying to stop them, and that's pretty much all there is to it).
Productivity is for people without internet connections. -Count Dorku