BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, SEASON ONE (1992)

 

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological, sociological*

And so I come to the end of my order-backwards reviews of BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES. The only real result is that as the result of having worked backwards, I noticed some very weak animation and voice-work in the earliest episodes, which I believe one or more of the producers have copped to. But even some of the earliest ones, particularly the debut episode, stand among the best in the series.

ON LEATHER WINGS (G)-- Whereas the comics made no bones about the identity and genesis of the man who would be Man-Bat, this introductory episode plays it like "who's the Jekyll turning himself into a mutated bat-Hyde," complete with suspicious red herring. Lots of science-factoids about the bat-species build suspense until Batman's confrontation with the culprit, who drags the crusader on a not-so-merry flight amid the killer skies of Gotham City.

CHRISTMAS WITH THE JOKER (F)-- Mark Hamill debuts voicing the Joker, as Batman and Robin join forces to keep the Clown Prince from ruining Gotham's Christmas. Though the villain has lots of Yuletide-themed toys, there's enough edge in his psychotic attitude to keep him from devolving into the "silly Joker" of the late Golden Age.

NOTHING TO FEAR (F)-- Though various popular villains seem to have been operating for years before the series proper begins, this is Batman's first face-off with The Scarecrow. The script adds a nice twist in that the hero, instead of becoming afraid of the criminal himself, becomes haunted by the fear of not living up to the expectations of his late parents.

THE LAST LAUGH (F)-- And just like that, the Joker's already back, utilizing the weapon that made him the stuff of nightmares: Joker-venom, that causes its victims to laugh themselves to death, complete with Joker-grins contorting their mouths. Batman must find the antidote for the infected people of Gotham, including the redoubtable Alfred Pennyworth.

PRETTY POISON (F)-- In an unusual move, the producers decided to start off Poison Ivy as the apparently normal fiancee of District Attorney Harvey Dent, not yet transformed into Two-Face. It's a decent debut for the enchanting eco-terrorist, but nothing in the script is as good as the joke that eventuates when Ivy and Harvey meet again in "Almost Got 'Im."

THE UNDERDWELLERS (P)-- This episode feels a bit like a cross between a famous SPIRIT story, involving the hero fighting crime in metropolitan sewers, and Charles Dickens' story of Fagin, the evil leader of a gang of juvenile thieves. Though it's not actively bad, "Underdwellers" is underwhelming.

P.O.V. (F)-- The producers weren't able to come out with more than a handful of "true crime" episodes-- that is, stories without weird menaces-- but this is the best one. After a sting operation goes south, Harvey Bullock, Renee Montoya and a third cop must all give Rashomon-like testimonies to Internal Affairs. Batman plays only a refreshingly indirect role in the officers' clearing of their names.

THE FORGOTTEN (F)-- In order to investigate the disappearances of homeless people, Batman assumes a mundane disguise. Then he suffers an accident and loses his memory, so that he comes to believe that he's an ordinary homeless man. Alfred goes looking for his boss and brings him back to his Bat-hood.

BE A CLOWN (F)-- The Joker decides to form a vendetta against Mayor Hill by pretending to be a party clown. Inadvertently, he finds a fan in Hill's neglected son Jordan, who has some confused idea of apprenticing with the fiend and doesn't seem entirely cognizant of the villain's rep for murderous activities. Though there are some very strong stories in which Joker functions as a sort of tempting devil-figure, this tale plays things too safe to catch fire.

TWO-FACE, PARTS 1 and 2 (F)-- This narrative departs from the more standard Two-Face origins, in which fighting attorney Harvey Dent goes mad after suffering his two-toned disfigurement. This time, Harvey already has a split personality due to past conflicts, long before he became a scourge to mobster Rupert Thorne. Batman, who as Wayne is friends with the disturbed D.A., suffers many slings and arrows in trying to save Two-Face from his own evil.

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE (P)-- This one feels like a homage to thirties crime melodramas like the 1938 ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES. However, the characters are too routine to incite any strong feelings.

I'VE GOT BATMAN IN MY BASEMENT (F)-- This is the best of the Penguin episodes, largely because voice-actor Paul Williams does such a fine job of capturing the character's hauteur and intellectual pretensions. The villain comes very close to finishing off his foe with slow-acting poison gas, but a trio of kids, one of whom is an amateur detective, manage to succor the Gotham Guardian. And for once, the kids aren't offensively cute.

HEART OF ICE (G)-- As all Bat-fans know, Mister Freeze had been something of a minor gimmick-villain for most of his history in the comics and in television. The Bruce Timm script ratchets up Freeze's tragic affliction by introducing his cryonically-preserved wife, Nora. In this episode, he believes Nora slain by the interference of a heartless functionary, and Freeze is willing to chill any bat who'd impede his cold-hearted revenge. Michael Ansara delivers an admirable blend of passion damped down by emotional trauma.

THE CAT AND THE CLAW, PTS 1-2 (G)-- While Batman's in the midst of ferreting out a weapons-dealing operation involving the foreign agent Red Claw, he also finds time for his first encounter with the Princess of Plunder. More than most of the later Catwoman episodes, this one captures her inability to bamboozle the Caped Crusader with her sex appeal and her tricky moves. However, this series dispenses with her Tim Burton persona and substitutes a fierce devotion to wildlife preservation, possibly borrowed from Poison Ivy's devotion to plant life. With two female foes involved, "Claw" comes just this close to overplaying the "girl power" theme, and I found the culminating "catfight" between Cat and Claw just so-so. Still, the essence of the Bat-Cat romance is captured admirably.

SEE NO EVIL (F)-- Invisible men and women don't carry much cachet in comic books, but both live-action and cartoons can capture the difficulty of a sighted hero trying to deal with an unseen foe. Certainly, Lloyd Ventris is unusual in that his main aim is to spirit away his young daughter Kimberly after his criminal activities resulted in his divorce from Kimberly's mother and her sole custody of the child. He initially approaches the little girl, who's been warned against her father, by pretending to be an "imaginary friend," but the invisibility suit he's stolen begins to affect his mind in a Wellsian manner. When he pulls some heists to gain money to take Kimberly away, Batman gets on Ventris' trail and finally brings him down, but not without lots of head-bashing invisible violence. It's a nice touch that the crook is gifted with the surname of an old Bat-foe, the Mirror-Man, though the two villains have nothing else in common.

BEWARE THE GRAY GHOST (F)-- A mad bomber imperils the city, and Batman recognizes the fiend's m.o. from, of all things, an episode of an old superhero TV show, "The Gray Ghost." The hero's inquiries lead him to interview Simon Trent, an aging, impecunious actor who played the role long ago. Though Trent is initially a suspect, he ends up donning the garb of his old role in order to help the Caped Crusader bring the culprit to justice. Within the diegesis of the story, Bruce Wayne gets to work with a character who was one of his juvenile idols-- and implicitly, an influence upon his adult career as a vigilante. Outside said diegesis, the use of Adam West to voice Trent is an implicit homage to the 1966 BATMAN, whose enduring popularity had no small influence upon the success of BTAS.

PROPHECY OF DOOM (F)-- This is a change of pace from most of the "true crime" tales. Here Batman must take down a bunco artist, Nostromos, who hoaxes rich men into believing in his psychic powers.       

FEAT OF CLAY, PTS 1-2 (F)-- Clayface also gets to debut with a brand-new origin on BTAS, and it's a better origin than anything in the comics, though he's still not as memorable a menace as the revised versions of Mister Freeze and the forthcoming Mad Hatter. Actor Matt Hagen falls under the thrall of gangster Roland Daggett, committing crimes by using a special clay that allows Hagen to temporarily transform his appearance. Indeed, he comes to Batman's attention thanks to impersonating Bruce Wayne. Wayne becomes wanted for attempted murder, but before Batman can track Hagen down, Daggett's thugs give the actor maximum exposure to the unique clay. Thus, Hagen becomes the monstrous Clayface, able to shift into any shape or form he pleases, within certain time-limits, and from then on he plays just one continually tragic role upon the stage of the BTAS universe. 

JOKER'S FAVOR (F)-- Ordinary schmuck Charlie Collins pisses off the Joker, and the only way Charlie can avoid a dirt nap is by doing the fiend's bidding. Despite his terror at his circumstances, Charlie manages not only to step up and alert the Batman to the Joker's murderous plot, but also to discourage the Clown Prince from ever bothering him again.

VENDETTA (F)-- Killer Croc doesn't get a big origin-tale in his debut episode, because Batman only encounters the reptilian rowdy while trying to clear Harvey Bullock of having kidnapped a witness. Croc did the deed, seeking to get the man who once arrested him put away. Batman's second visit to the Gotham sewers, battling a powerhouse who's at home underwater, leads to a lively battle, nearly as good as the hero's aerial combat with Man-Bat in the season's first episode. Bullock, up to this point openly hostile to Batman, becomes considerably more forgiving of vigilantes thereafter.

FEAR OF VICTORY (G)-- Heroes, whether fighting crime or rival sports-teams, have to be able to consistently choose "fight" over "flight." However, the Scarecrow concocts his most impressive BTAS scheme, exposing athletes to a fear-chemical that causes them to freak out in the midst of athletic exertion. When said athletes undermine their teams, Scarecrow makes a mint betting on the opposing sides. This certainly makes a lot more sense than most of Scarecrow's schemes, and for good measure, he manages to expose Robin to the same chemical. This leads to the Teen Wonder having serious doubts about whether he can even function as Batman's partner. Naturally, Robin transcends the power of fear and comes through in the end, in one of his better BTAS arcs.

THE CLOCK KING (F)-- In comics the Bat-universe played host to at least three clock-themed crooks, and one or more of them may have inspired the so-so Bat-foe from the 1966 TV show. Here BTAS tries to upgrade the name with a reinvented time-happy transgressor, a former efficiency expert who goes nuts when he gets some bad advice from none other than Mayor Hill. But though the new villain uses lots of clock-gimmicks and "timely" puns, somehow this King never ascends to the firmament of great re-inventions.

APPOINTMENT IN CRIME ALLEY (G)-- This is the best of the "true crime" stories, based on an equally well-regarded comics-original. Every year Bruce Wayne commemorates the deaths of his parents by meeting with elderly Leslie Tompkins, a doctor who comforted Young Bruce after his loss. The killing happened in a formerly affluent neighborhood, now fallen on hard times and nicknamed "Crime Alley." Crime-boss Roland Daggett plans to "gentrify" the area by forcing out the indigent residents, and one of the evildoer's potential victims is Doctor Tompkins. There are some good sociological jabs at the pretensions of the wealthy, who view the poor merely as stepping-stones.

MAD AS A HATTER (G)-- In the 1980s comics-writers took the gimmicky character of the headgear-obsessed Mad Hatter and gave him an upgrade, so that he possessed technology able to use his hats to control human minds. This episode blends that version with that of lonely loser Jervis Tetch, an ALICE IN WONDERLAND fanatic who falls in love with a co-worker named (wonder of wonders) Alice. Though he has just enough morality to fight against the temptation, eventually Tetch makes the madder choice. Soon he's got Alice under his mental thrall, as well as several innocents dressed up like Lewis Carroll characters in order to keep stray bats from his door. Roddy McDowall's voice characterization of the Hatter is on the same par with equally good work by Hamill, Williams and Ansara, and the script works in lots of fine Carrollisms, not least the final "Mock Turtle" quote.

DREAMS OF DARKNESS (F)-- And boo hoo, the Scarecrow's back to mediocrity, as he tries to poison Gotham's water supply for some demented experiment in fear-making. In fairness, this script derived from some comics-stories I've not read, and since Scarecrow wasn't in those stories, that may be why he's an ill fit here. Batman gets the strongest arc, for he's exposed to a chemical that causes him to hallucinate, but for Gotham's sake he can't take time to recover. I did like the coda, though. When the battle's finally won and Batman can finally rest in the security of the Batcave, the shadow of a tiny bat somehow becomes big enough to envelop the sleeping hero, like the aegis of some protecting angel.

BOUDICA: QUEEN OF WAR (2023)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological,sociological*

Given that Olga Kurylenko had garnered some fame for playing action-roles in films like MAX PAYNE and QUANTUM OF SOLACE, I'm surprised she didn't prove a good fit for this role. Here she essays the part of Boudica, a Celtic warrior queen of the first century CE, who battled the forces of the occupying Romans.

True, many of the failings of BOUDICA stem from its pedestrian, unimaginative script and its low budget (just a little over $53K USD). In this very fictionalized account of the historical personage, Boudica is the wife of a local king of the Iceni tribe, and the king's priority is to placate the Roman forces by being helpful and agreeable. Despite having had "barbarian" ancestors, Boudica is the very picture of a contented first-century housewife, entirely preoccupied with her two daughters and her husband. She has no interest in politics, though she experiences a weird moment when the barbarians of a neighboring tribe genuflect before her, acting as if Boudica is some sort of exalted presence.

But a villainous Roman counsel finds an excuse to murder Boudica's husband, while Roman laws, instituted by Emperor Nero, forbid women from holding queenship. (Yes, of course the worst thing about Roman rule was their marginalization of women.) Boudica's children are slain and she's whipped prior to being sold as a slave. However, some of those worshipful barbarians rescue her from her captors, and in no time Boudica finds herself elevated to the position of rebel queen. In addition, she imagines that her daughters are still alive, giving her advice-- though to her fellow Celts, this is merely another indicator of Boudica's special destiny. 

Another failing is that, aside from the villainous Roman, there are no interesting supporting characters. There's a chieftain who pushes back a little against being led by a woman, and he defies her by breaking her bronze sword and casting it into a lake. But he bows his head after Boudica fishes the blade out, and suddenly it's not only whole, it's as strong as any iron sword. A couple of times it even leaps to her hand when called. There's a brief mention that the blade was forged by druids, but aside from providing the film's only metaphenomenal content, the sword doesn't affect Boudica's anti-Roman campaign. She does get to exterminate the rotter who killed her husband, but eventually the Romans bring her and her rebellion down, though not quite the way history records the event. Frankly, this roadshow BRAVEHEART is a downer all the way.

But the biggest problem is Kurylenko. After portraying Boudica for almost half an hour as a mild-mannered housewife, the actress wasn't able to transition to Boudica, Warrior Queen. The battle-scenes are all right for the budget involved, but Kurylenko proves bland at best, unable to handle any of the more turbulent emotional states. The only praise I can muster is that the actress kept herself in good enough condition that I wasn't conscious of her being in her middle forties.

IRIA: ZEIRAM- THE ANIMATION (1994)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological*

I wrote in my review of the two ZEIRAM films that while I originally got some mild enjoyment out of them, they didn't hold up well to a repeated viewing. I don't remember if I had looked at this six-episode OVA series-- released the same year as the sequel-- but it's on the same level of unremarkableness.

IRIA is a prequel to both films, dealing with the early history of the titular female bounty hunter. In her space-opera world, she travels from world to world, apprenticed to her more experienced senior Gren. She calls him "brother" at times, but one line of dialogue suggests that their relationship may be adoptive. Iria is shown to be impulsive but determined in her quest to graduate to the ranks of fully professional bounty hunters, and though the OVA series doesn't take much advantage of its animated status, she's seen to be capable in hand-to-hand combat and with a ray-gun.

In addition to Gren, Iria also associates with a bounty-dispatcher named Bob. In the live-action films, he's seen only as a sentient computer; here he's shown to have been an organic life-form, killed by the vicious alien conqueror Zeiram and then transferred to a computer bank. A couple of other support-characters appear to help Iria in her endeavors, but they're not especially memorable.

Since the original ZEIRAM has Iria and Bob waiting on Earth for the advent of the monstrous alien, there's no absolute reason that the prequel needs to show that Iria encountered Zeiram-- or at least one of his species-- on a previous occasion. Possibly the creators thought that they needed both Iria and Zeiram in order to cross-pollinate with ZEIRAM 2. But since the live-action films didn't make me a fan of this irritable ET, I would have preferred seeing Iria test herself against some other opponent.

Even for just six episodes, IRIA is a lot lighter on characterization than the majority of SF-anime, and so proves of no more than modest entertainment value.

TARZAN ESCAPES (1936)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *sociological, psychological*

TARZAN ESCAPES, third in MGM's series and the last one before "Boy" was introduced, takes most of its cues from the previous entry, though with several new permutations.  Again a safari of Europeans-- headed by Jane's cousins-- ventures into Tarzan's territory with the intention of taking Jane away, and again this "woman-theft" is associated with making money.  But to avoid repeating yet another attempt on the elephants' graveyard, the cousins don't want to take wealth from Africa; they want Jane to come back to England so that they can secure an inheritance.  They also have a desire to bring Jane back to her homeland because they just don't feel she belongs in Africa with a near-naked white savage. 

Instead of a villainous ivory-hunter, this time it's a villainous trapper, name of Fry.  He's less well developed than the previous film's villain, and his desire to put Tarzan in a cage and exhibit him-- as Fry does with the animals he captures-- seems ill-conceived.  Still, trappers are perhaps even a better type of foe for Tarzan than simple hunters, for trappers represent the forces of civilization that hem in nature, and so oppose the virtues of Tarzan and his wild freedom.  Interestingly, when Jane considers returning to England to help her cousins, she speaks of her obligation to them as a "trap."

Like TARZAN AND HIS MATE, the purpose of the film is to celebrate the rare romantic bliss of Tarzan and Jane, and in some ways, ESCAPES exceeds MATE in this respect.  Tarzan is deeply hurt by the possibility that Jane may leave him, even for a short time, and Johnny Weismuller, whose portrayal of Tarzan was somewhat one-dimensional in previous films, communicates his woundedness with an almost childlike soulfulness.  The couple's sexiness is toned down somewhat, which is a natural consequence of the theme of threatened separation, but director Richard Thorpe still arranges one scene of masterful understatement.  Jane, playing with a flower by a riverbank, is approached by Tarzan.  Her face changes to an expression of anticipation, and the camera pans away from her as she allows the flower to drift away on the river-- quite as good an image of sexual activity as the falling of Persephone's flowers after her "rape" by Hades.

ESCAPES is notorious for having been almost entirely reshot due to negative audience reactions to an early version.  There is some strong violence in the reshot version, particularly when an evil African tribe ties one of its victims between two bent-over trees and then let the trees implicitly tear the man in half.  If Thorpe and his crew left this in, one can only wonder what they left out.  The only thing  we know got left out was a scene in which Tarzan, Jane and the safari-members attempt to return to their hidden land through a misty swamp.  Originally the party was supposed to encounter vampire bats and nasty pygmies, but the sequence was axed and dropped, though the redone version does include some giant lizard-creatures.  I debated as to whether to consider them "marvelous" entities, but since the lizards are about the size of Komodo dragons, it's possible that their origins are not quite so distanced from regular reality.  Fry, after having conspired to cage Tarzan and lying to him about Jane wishing to help trap him, meets his fitting doom by getting "trapped" in the deadly swamp.  The cousins reveal that Jane doesn't really have to come back to England, and they take their leave, while once more Tarzan and Jane are happily reconciled.

This is also the first film to start the overemphasis on Cheetah's antics for almost all the comedy relief, which some may like better than I.

THE WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS (1966)

  

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, sociological*

I'm reasonably sure that when I saw WAR in a theater in the late sixties, it was an English dub that had excised all references to WAR's predecessor, FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD. I also saw CONQUERS in the same period, and made no connections between the two movies.

The streaming English dub I just watched, however, includes references both in the spoken dialogue and in the subtitles, so that it's much clearer that WAR is a sequel. I don't mind that the subtitles don't always match the spoken words-- sometimes, this can be rather amusing-- but some of the spoken dialogue is simply not duplicated in any way.

A greater inconsistency arises from the use of the viewpoint characters from the first film, Bowen and Sueko-- an inconsistency particularly puzzling since WAR reunited the director and screenplay-scribe from CONQUERS. Bowen and Sueko are now Stewart and Akemi, even though the latter characters seem to have had exactly the same experiences with the Frankenstein Creature as did the former ones. Kumi Mizuno plays the role of Akemi in a manner indistinguishable from her portrayal of Sueko, and perhaps Toho hoped that new American actor Russ Tamblyn would be at least as good as Adams. Unfortunately, Tamblyn projects almost no conviction in his scientist-role and seems to be sleepwalking in search of a paycheck.

Nevertheless, the screenplay creates a palpable sense of mystery with regard to the recrudescent Monster, who now shows up as an equally large humanoid, but now covered in green fur. This creature, later dubbed Gaira, arises from the sea and immediately begins preying on human beings. Stewart and Akemi, upon learning of the giant's existence, are baffled, since New Frankenstein only ate lower animals. The green giant also seems to dwell largely in the sea, coming out at night to devour humans, and avoiding the light of day.

The mystery is solved when the army corners Gaira in the mountains. Gaira seems near destruction, but a second giant, brown in color and later named "Sanda," intervenes to guide his companion to safety. The scientists, who have almost nothing else to do in the movie, swiftly theorize that Brown Sanda is the original Frankenstein, though in the dubs I've seen they don't bother to explain why he's covered in brown fur now. As for Green Gaira, the scientists decide that he may have evolved from cells that Sanda lost while passing through the ocean, and that these cells then evolved into a seagoing, cannibalistic monster. In due time, the military is able to track down the two giants once more, but before that takes place, Sanda (who, like Frankenstein, cannot talk) discovers for the first time that Gaira's been scarfing down human beings. The giants fight, and their epic battle takes them out to sea, where the military attacks them both with laser beams. Conveniently, a dormant volcano erupts and seems to destroy both of the "Gargantuas."

Though there's not as much human interest in WAR compared to CONQUERS, Akemi is allowed to have a few "King Kong" moments with the gentle Sanda. The big battle-scenes also receive much more attention this time, with the usual excellent use of miniatures. It's of minor interest that whereas CONQUERS only showed an inhuman creature guilty of anthropophagy, Gaira is more like a reversal of Sanda's humanity, revealing in chowing down on humans-- though to be sure, he never eats enough to sustain such a titanic body!

 

ASTERIX AND OBELIX VS. CAESAR (1999)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

This film (which I'll abbreviate as CAESAR) is the first of the successful live-action adaptations of ASTERIX,drawing from at least five of the popular Franco-Belgian comics albums. Naturally the first movie in this series introduces the basic setup: a small village in Roman-ruled Gaul proves able to repulse all the efforts of Caesar's legions to extort taxes and fealty. The druid of the possibly-unnamed village has created a potion that can endow those who drink it with super-strength and durability, and if attacked, all of the barbarian Gauls have but to drink the potion and become powerhouses that can devastate everything in their path. But for most incursions, usually only the village's two foremost warriors are necessary: the short-statured Asterix (Christian Clavier) and the brobdingnagian Obelix (Gerard Depardieu). 

The story's very episodic but the core of CAESAR's conflict is that Caesar's military leader Detritus (Oscar-winner Roberto Benigni) learns about the potion that gives the Gauls their powers, and launches strategies to steal the potion so that he can turn his Roman soldiers into powerhouses as well. The evil schemer succeeds in kidnapping the druid Getafix and taking him all the way back to Rome. Asterix and Obelix follow, but only Obelix's super-power remains stable because he fell into a potion-cauldron as a baby, while that of Asterix wears off once he's not imbibed the necessary chemicals.

CAESAR's high point takes place in a Roman arena. Asterix uses hypnotism to help the dull-witted Obelix impersonate a legionary in order to get them past the city gates. However, powerless Asterix is taken prisoner and forced to run a gamut of death-traps in the arena. Throughout his ordeals the Gaul can see his friend standing at the side of Detritus-- who, by the bye, has used his new power to overthrow Caesar. But Obelix doesn't recognize his buddy thanks to his being in a hypnotic haze. Eventually, though, the two friends are united and return to Gaul with the liberated Getafix. The druid then brews up a special potion so that the villagers get special powers that help them repel the next attack despite the fact that some Roman soldiers have super-strength now. I'll omit the nature of these special powers, but Detritus is defeated and Caesar reclaims his throne, pledging to leave the barbarians to their own devices-- at least for the time being.

It's a pleasant comedy, a little funnier than most of the animated adaptations, and there's a good subplot in which the lummox Obelix falls in love with a girl who's already got a fiancee. One of the oddest touches is that early in the film, the heroes torment one of the Romans by trying to make him sing "Ai yi yi yi, like the Frito Bandito," according to the subtitles. That Frito's spokesman was retired over twenty years before this movie was in production. So I don't know how the Frenchies knew about that bit of advertising ephemera, unless it had appeared in one of the comics albums.

HONOR ROLL #238

 GERARD DEPARDIEU throws his archaic weight around.

Since neither of THE GARGANTUAS is really "Frankenstein" anymore, I've giving these twin terrors their own entry.

BENITA HUME joins Tarzan and Jane in a not quite great escape.

Why couldn't IRIA hunt up a better script for her own series?

OLGA KURYLENKO can't decide whether to make love, make war, or something somewhere in between.

They don't come madder than THE MAD HATTER.

DON DAREDEVIL RIDES AGAIN (1951)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

As far as I know, DON DAREDEVIL is the first of two times that Republic Studios recycled footage from the 1944 ZORRO'S BLACK WHIP to cut costs on a new, equally western-themed serial. This was made possible by the writers devising a new hero with a costume very similar to that of an earlier one, so that clips from the earlier work could be repurposed. I made a comparison between the 1944 WHIP and the second clip-show serial, 1954's MAN WITH THE STEEL WHIP here. At the time I wrote that dual review, I was amused that sometimes I could see the male hero being "played" by a female stunt double for the heroine of ZORRO'S BLACK WHIP. DON DAREDEVIL came three years before STEEL WHIP, and on the whole the 1951 serial looks better, with less use of clips that make the male hero look as if the size of his body changes. 

Unfortunately, all the plot-elements of this 12-episode chapterplay suffer more "recycling" than any visual elements. In BLACK WHIP, the heroine took the place of her brother, the first Black Whip, who was slain by the outlaws whom the young woman then pursues. In the 1951 serial, the first Don Daredevil was a costumed vigilante who overcame some unspecified outlaws, but he's been deceased for some time. In order to battle a new set of criminals,the "Daredevil" mantle is then taken up by the original's descendant, which mirrors the developments of 1937's ZORRO RIDES AGAIN-- which gives DON DAREDEVIL more of a likeness to the Zorro-movies than ZORRO'S BLACK WHIP, where the name Zorro only appears in the 1944 serial's title. Presumably the original "Don Daredevil" was an actual Spanish "don," since it's a major point that the unnamed town where all the action happens was founded by Caucasians from a Spanish land-grant.

Doug Stratton (familiar heavy Roy Barcroft), prosperous town-citizen, has the courts invalidate the land-grant. Thus all the settlers have dubious ownership of their property, which will make it easier for Stratton to buy up all the land cheap. To make certain the settlers sell, Stratton secretly commands a passel of outlaws with whom he terrorizes people. Stratton sets his sights upon the ranch once owned by the man who was Don Daredevil (though Stratton does not know this), where the late hero's grand-niece Patricia (Aline Towne) lives. Stratton is thwarted when Patricia's cousin Lee (Ken Curtis) rides up and shows off his law-degree by blocking Stratton's acquisition. The villain rides away, planning new villainies.

Lee, Patricia, and Patricia's ranch-hand Buck (Hank "GREEN ACRES" Patterson) are the only ones who know that the former owner of the ranch was Don Daredevil. As they reflect on the threat Stratton poses, Lee gets the bright idea of becoming the new Don Daredevil, and the other two immediately agree with him. Unlike Diego de la Vega, Lee gets into fights almost as often as his masked alter ego, and sometimes receives assistance from other locals in contending with the raiders.

For the next eleven chapters, nearly all of the fights, stunts and cliffhangers in DON DAREDEVIL whether original material or clips, are re-iterations of previous fights, stunts and cliffhangers from earlier Republic serials. One chapter even swipes a schtick from a prose Zorro tale, in which the masked hero is visibly wounded by the evildoers, causing the bad guys to see if the man they suspect of being Zorro's alter ego has an identical wound. This is the closest this make-work serial comes to suspense, and Lee gets out of the difficulty the usual way: someone else dons the costume and diverts the villains' suspicions. As it happens, Patricia takes up the costume very briefly to provide this diversion, though unlike the heroine in ZORRO'S BLACK WHIP Aline Towne's character gets no action-scenes.

Aside from the presence of Barcroft as the main villain, DON DAREDEVIL's main asset for modern viewers is that Ken Curtis, the actor essaying the non-clip exploits of the titular hero, is today best known for playing the scruffy "Festus Hagen" of GUNSMOKE fame.

BLADE: THE ANIME SERIES (2011)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*

Prior to this post I have reviewed only one of the four animated TV projects executed in a collaboration between Marvel Entertainment and the Japanese animation company Madhouse: X-MEN; THE ANIME SERIES. In that review I noted that few of the storylines had anything to do with the comics-work of Warren Ellis, who is said to have "overseen" all four productions. Since Wolverine appears in all four projects, Ellis possibly got the job because of his experience with X-books. He certainly contributed nothing of his own to the BLADE serial, because he never wrote the character. On that basis I think it's somewhat more likely that the Madhouse raconteurs are mostly responsible for the storyline-- not least because, in one of the DVD extras for the show, said raconteurs go into great detail about what they did, and no one references Warren Ellis.

I'm sure that the animators were largely familiar with the Marvel franchise through the 1998 Wesley Snipes film and its sequels, but there was a conscious effort to put aside all of the supernatural-vampire elements from the movies and the comics. The movie probably abetted this move toward "scientific vampires," though. The hero Blade is a vampire hunter with superhuman powers due to his mother having been vampirized when Blade was still in the womb, and the cinematic version was reliant upon modern medicine to control his urges to drink blood. From there I hypothesize that the Madhouse scribes decided that all vampires on their earth, despite having exited for centuries and having formed large organizations, are the creation of some supernormal virus. This ties in with their project of having the hero and his sidekick, plucky vampire huntress Makoto, travel through many Asian countries and fight Asian-style vampires. Most of these entities, rather than being undead humans who can sometimes change shape, are polymorphic monsters closer in nature to the Japanese creatures called yokai. All of these metamorphic beings, however, are also the creations of weird science.

The main weird scientist here is Deacon Frost, the vampire who originally fed off Blade's pregnant mother. The writers keep one salient aspect of Frost's 1998 incarnation: that he represents a breed of vampire seeking to overthrow the established clans. However, the film-version of Frost sacrificed all possible Oedipal vibes by casting in the role an actor younger than the hero he had "begotten," and playing Frost as a "young upstart." The Madhouse Frost is an older, white-haired white man, and at one point he even sarcastically calls himself Blade's "father." His reason for opposing the ancient clans is also tied into his paternal nature, for he's tampering with vampire breeds in order to eliminate all the old-style vamps to avenge his son's death by one bloodsucker. Patently the writers sought to make this Frost parallel Blade's own focus upon wiping out predacious vampires everywhere.

Though the revamped origin for the villain arguably improves on that of both the movies and the original comics, the series as a whole never reaches any similar heights with any other element of the franchise. Blade himself struggles with both the horrible traumas of his childhood and with his vampiric urges, but none of these take on dramatic heft. This may be because the writers wanted to emphasize his bonding with Makoto, who would be an identification character for the Japanese audiences seeing the show on their television screens. Makoto and her father are introduced as crusaders out to expunge vampirism even as Blade is, though with no great attention to their motives. However, during a vamp-battle the father is turned into an undead, and to save the girl's life Blade must execute her sole parent. However, Makoto only bears a grudge for two episodes before becoming Blade's full-fledged partner in undead-killing.

The motive for the two heroes to travel across Asia is ostensibly to track down Frost. Frost for his part wants to trap Blade and take samples of his blood for a new super-race that will annihilate the old vampires, so implicitly every time he departs a given country, he leaves behind minions to capture Blade. This gets a bit monotonous until Frost finally does capture his nemesis, though some of the Asian creatures, particularly those from the Philippines, are imaginatively rendered.

The original Blade of the comics concentrated on the use of knives as weapons against supernatural vamps. Movie-Blade built up the hero's image as a swordfighter, but Madhouse also posits that he learned his skills in a particular Asian country-- gee, wonder which one? I liked Blade's sensei but I could have lived without the irrelevant addition of a rival Japanese student obsessed with proving himself superior to the American adventurer. Similarly, the episode with Wolverine is also underwhelming. Since Blade has the market covered on taciturn characters for this series, the writers perforce mold the Marvel mutant more along the lines of the standard "snarky joker" type.

The action-scenes are easily the standout here, with both Blade and Makoto getting strong battles throughout-- which anneals one of my complaints about X-MEN THE ANIME, where I found the fight choreography merely baffling. Despite various compromises, BLADE is still worth a watch.

ATTACK OF THE 50-FOOT CAM GIRL (2022)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

CAM GIRL is the first in an OAV series that might be termed "Giant-Porn." About its only significance is that though it's been designed for roughly the same market that liked ATTACK OF THE 60 FOOT CENTERFOLDS and ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT CHEERLEADER, CAM GIRL is the only one that actually borrows the primary dramatic conflict of the big-girl movie that started it all: ATTACK OF THE 50-FOOT WOMAN. To wit: as in the first ATTACK, the girl with the gigantic assets starts out as an ordinary Earth-woman whose husband is cheating on her, and she ends up using her biggitude to take vengeance. 

But it's impossible to have even the slight investment needed for a supremely slight comedy when all of the characters are terminally stupid. Popular cam-girl Ivy (Beverly Wood) has made a fortune posing for sexy videos, but she has no idea that her sleazy camera-guy/husband Bradley is boning another model, Fuschia (Christine Nguyen), whom Bradley even photographs side by side with Ivy. To diversify their wealth, Bradley has Ivy invest in a gimcrack experiment to expand foodstuffs to end world hunger. (The experiment is represented by a whole three scientists.) Ivy is too impatient to wait for trials, so she eats one of the experimental foods herself, and of course it makes her into Giant Girl. After coping with this turn of events, she finds out about the affair. Yet Bradley's so stoked about selling more videos with Ivy's titanic bod, Fuschia gets jealous and with equal stupidity eats some of the giantizing food too. Thus CAM GIRL is able to compete with CENTERFOLDS and CHEERLEADER in spotlighting a catfight of colossi at the end-- though it's the most listless of the three, thanks to Jim Wynorski's usual bad direction.

Oh, one other mildly original touch: Bradley gets punished by what might be called a "double motorboat of doom," though somehow he survives to show up for this crapfest's first sequel. 

DRAGONBALL Z: RESURRECTION "F" (2015)

  

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*

RESURRECTION "F" is the direct sequel to BATTLE OF GODS, which launched a new series of animated DRAGONBALL feature films in the 2010s. However, whereas BATTLE premiered the new characters of the destroyer-god Lord Beerus and his majordomo Whis, RESURRECTION is a stale retread in which once more Goku and his fellow Saiyan Vegeta contend with an old enemy. But since this was another script by the franchise's creator Akira Toriyama, I suppose he had the right to coast if anyone did.

The evil alien overlord Frieza has been dead for some time, tormented in a Japanese hell where he has to listen to fuzzy bunnies singing happy songs. However, some of Frieza's former army, headed by Commander Sorbet, desire to revive their old boss. They collect all seven dragonballs and summon the wish-dragon Shenron, who revives Frieza even though he's been cut into pieces. We don't see a bunch of animated body parts flopping about, though, because Sorbet has a handy-dandy organic integrator lying around, Soon Frieza is strutting around, killing off subordinates whenever he feels like it and nurturing a grudge against Goku and all the allies who vanquished the evildoer in past.

As is often the case, Goku and Vegeta, competitive with one another as always, have journeyed to Beerus' world to train with majordomo Whis. He makes some observations about the mental failings of both Saiyans, and Beerus, waking up cranky, reminds the heroes that the only reason he spared Earth was because he enjoyed the food there. 

One good thing about the Saiyans' absence: when Freiza's troops attack Earth, many of the heroic support-cast get to kick butt, which often does not occur in the animated films. But none of the support characters can handle ultra-powered Frieza himself, so Bulma is able to summon Goku and Vegeta to save the day,

And so, the heroes take turns fighting Frieza, while their friends watch anxiously and the two deity-types chow down on Earth food. As usual, the villain of the show has some secret technique to up his game, and the heroes have to up their game in turn. After Goku wins, his reluctance to take his ruthless enemy's life allows Frieza to destroy Earth. Fortunately, Whis just happens to have mentioned he has the power to reset time about three minutes back, and so Goku gets a do-over.

Aside from giving the support cast more props, there's a little bit of diffident camraderie sustained between the two Saiyans, but none of it is germane to the simplistic plot.

ATLAS AGAINST THE CZAR (1964)

 

ATLAS AGAINST THE CZAR has nothing to do with the Titan of Greek myth, for the hero renamed "Atlas"-- and also "Samson" in some translations-- is just Maciste, Italy's all-purpose hero. It's not even clear what culture the bare-chested hero hails from. He's revived from a long slumber in a cave, and then promptly gets mixed up in intrigues relating to the medieval Czar Nicholas.

Morris's Atlas gets to toss rocks around and to have a big tug-of-war to demonstrate his strength, but it's hard to say if he qualifies as a marvelous hero. However, the element of the centuries-long slumber proves sufficient to confer a marvelous phenomenality.

The intrigues are made duller by the fact that almost everyone aside from Atlas wears heavy fur garments. Thus, one of the genre's most enduring factors-- that of comely women in diaphanous garments-- is dumped out of hand, and nothing quite makes up for that lack.

XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS: SEASON FIVE (1999-2000)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, metaphysical, psychological, sociological*

For the whole season, Xena and Gabrielle remain dead and Joxer becomes the new star. Or maybe not. OK, they both come back to life and somehow Xena gets pregnant, because Lucy Lawless had become pregnant back during Season Four. This meant that Season 5 saddled O'Connor's Gabrielle with most of the action scenes, and Lawless's Xena spends most of her time covered up by heavy clothes or appliances.

FALLEN ANGEL (F)-- The spirits of the two heroines go to heaven, but promptly become bones of contention between the angels and demons. In fact, most of the episode consists of either Xena or Gabrielle shuttling back and forth between Perdition and Paradise, while back on Earth their mourners, Joxer and Amarice, seek to take the crusaders' bodies back to Xena's hometown. There are only two scenes of mythic substance in the episode. First, when Angel-Xena struggles with a demonic version of Callisto, Xena decides to use her spirit-power to redeem Callisto's soul from her obsessive evil, and succeeds, though Xena herself becomes a demon. Second, after all the otherworldly transformations run their gamut, Eli pulls a Lazarus, reviving the bodies of X and G with their spirits once more intact. Though Eli was seen performing other magical acts, this is the only one that's a definite Imitatio Christi.

CHAKRAM (F)-- There's a twist to Xena's resurrection: she forgets all of her experiences as a warrior, becoming something of a goody-good milquetoast. Also, Xena's Chakram was broken by Callisto in THE IDES OF MARCH, and it can only be repaired by a complicated process, while both Ares and a rival war-god, Kal, seek to obtain the weapon for their own benefit. Inevitably Xena regains both her weapon and her full memories, while from somewhere Gabrielle acquires a pair of sai-knives. These apparently symbolize her decision to become a full-time warrior-companion to her BFF. Eli departs once more, but presumably spends more time building up his peace-and-love movement, given later events. Also, Joxer confesses his love to Gabrielle, while she puts off making any response.

SUCCESSION (F)-- Though Ares seems to have mostly given up on re-recruiting Xena, an intense warrior-woman named Mavican (Jenya Lano) stumps for the job of the war-god's new emissary on Earth. When she challenges both Xena and Gabrielle, Ares flings all three of them into another dimension to fight it out. The rules of the game are pretty clever.

ANIMAL ATTRACTION (F)-- High Plains Warrior Princess! The action takes place in a town called Spamona, which one might assume is in North Greece, since the very next story has the cast hike all the way back to the territory of the Siberian Amazons. Anyway, everyone in Spamona wears cowboy hats and dusters, so that Xena and Gabrielle-- who have picked up Joxer and Amarice again at some point-- stand out a bit, even though Xena volunteers to protect the town from yet another warlord-horde. Also, Gabrielle makes friends with a new horse, and is seen riding out of town on it at the end, though the new mount is only irregularly seen from then on. Amarice gets an "animal attraction" for a young stud, but the big news is that Xena's pregnant-- and to the best of her knowledge, there's no way that could have happened.

THEM BONES, THEM BONES (F)-- Xena begins to experience bad symptoms from her pregnancy, and the eventual diagnosis is that the spirit of the slain villain Alti is seeking to possess the heroine's unborn child. So the two heroines, Amarice and Joxer hoof it to Siberia for the help of the Amazon shamans. If only because it's shorter, this is a much better shaman-outing than ADVENTURES IN THE SIN TRADE, though it's still rather derivative. Amarice stands revealed as a pretender to Amazon status, and she stays behind to join the Siberian tribe.

PURITY/ BACK IN THE BOTTLE (G)-- These two strongly related episodes send the heroines back to Chin, this time with Joxer in tow. Xena learns that there's a secret book of magical/martial techniques left behind by her late, cherished mentor Lao Ma, and her two surviving children both want the book. But Kao Hsin wants to keep the book's secrets away from evildoers, while Pao Ssu wants to share the secrets with her warlord friends-- who also seek the secret of gunpowder to begin a wave of conquest. Pao Ssu perishes in the first episode, and then comes back merged with Xena's no-less-dead enemy Ming Tien. (The merger is probably a tip of the hat to the 1993 BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR.) Xena, who wielded supernatural power in THE DEBT thanks to Lao Ma's tutelage, steps up her mystical game to defeat a teeming army. A few lines from Lao Ma's book sound like Schopenhauer, an alleged favorite of Rob Tapert.

LITTLE PROBLEMS (P)-- Thanks to yet another goofup by ditzy Aphrodite, Xena's spirit becomes lodged in the body of a little girl, Daphne, who has problems communicating with her daddy. There's a forgettable warlord in a Doctor Doom mask to provide peril. The only memorable schtick involves Gabrielle and Aphrodite masquerading as conjoined twins to have an oil-wrestling match with another pair of such twins, Castor and Pollux.

SEEDS OF FAITH (G)-- Despite the fact that the writers don't build up to the revelation, it seems that Ares and the other Olympians fear a "twilight of the gods," when they will be replaced by other forms of worship, presumably the real-life religion that Eli represents. Ares plans to send an army of soldiers to slay Eli, and Eli begs Xena and Gabrielle to stay out of the matter. The angel Callisto informs that Eli's sacrifice alone can cause the Olympians' downfall-- and just for a topper, asserts that she's the one who created Xena's immaculate pregnancy so that she could become reincarnated in the burgeoning infant. Xena decides she's OK with all this, and that's the last appearance for Hudson Leick on the show. Eli dies but clearly has a supernatural survival that betokens the rise of his religion of peace.

LYRE, LYRE, HEARTS ON FIRE (P)-- All the good credit the show earned from THE BITTER SUITE is largely wiped from the slate by this musical mishmash. Xena and Gabrielle insist that two claimants to a mystic lyre should fight things out in a battle of the bands: one band led by a tribe of Amazons, the other a group of raiders led by Draco, still in love with Gabrielle since A COMEDY OF EROS. There are a few amusing scenes, such as Gabrielle getting a little jelly when another woman makes moves on Joxer. Less successful is a heavy-handed lecture about tolerance, as Joxer is shown to be embarrassed by his flamboyant brother Jase (also Raimi). Since the writers wanted Joxer to remain sympathetic, his discomfort never rises to the level of homophobia. 

PUNCH LINES (P)-- Call this "Adventures in the Shrink Trade," as the gloomy god Lachrymose subjects Gabrielle and Argo to a "reduction derby." Amid all the lame humor, including an old-style pie fight, Xena has some decent dialogue worrying about her fitness to be a mother.

GOD FEARING CHILD (P)-- Unlike the comedy episodes, the writers clearly meant this opus to be deep and meaningful, but failed due to an overall meretricious outlook. The Fates decree to Zeus and Hera that the Olympian gods are doomed by the rise of a child not born of man, so Zeus sets his sights on Xena's daughter. Hercules shows up and seeks to intercede with his godly father, but to no avail.

For some dubious reason Xena decides she and Gabrielle must journey to Tartarus to steal Hades' cap of invisibility, even though the baby will be stillborn if birthed in the underworld. X and G have various adventures, including once more encountering the shade of Solan, but the main thrust of the story belongs to Hercules. His stepmother Hera switches sides for no good reason and guides Hercules to a graveyard where the hero can fashion a weapon from one of the ribs of Kronos. (One HERCULES show claimed that Kronos was in Tartarus, so how'd he get there without his ribs?) Zeus punishes Hera by absorbing her, but Hercules fulfills his destiny by killing his own father with a rib-weapon--the TV hero's last act, since the HERCULES series had ended. The heroines win free of Tartarus in time for Xena to bear her immaculate progeny, whom she decides to name "Eve" for no reason. The writers were presumably trying to go for some symbolic link between the ribs of Kronos and the Adamic rib from which the Biblical Eve was created, but it's a clumsy juxtaposition.

ETERNAL BONDS (F)-- The surviving gods mount a campaign to slay Xena's newborn child, attacking both with their own godly forces and with human servitors. (Three such servitors appear before Xena and Gabrielle, offering gifts, but this Magi-imposture is just a trick.) Joxer is wounded by a poisoned blade from a priest of Artemis (Apollo would've been more appropriate), so Gabrielle must take him to get a cure. This errand frees up Xena, traveling covertly with Eve, to encounter Ares once again. The war-god is now convinced that the Olympians are doomed (Eve oddly taking the place of the previous gods'-bane, Dahak) so he wants Xena to bear his child. For the first time since the series' beginning, Xena is visibly tempted by her buried erotic feelings for Ares, but she rejects his bargain and re-united with her friends, escaping the gods once more.

AMPHIPOLIS UNDER SIEGE (P)-- This is just another "city under siege" story. Joxer wanders off somewhere else while Xena, Gabrielle and Xena's newborn proceed to her home town. Xena's mother gets a chance to play grandma and Ares renews his offer of salvation when the other gods descend to invade the city. The one virtue of the dull story is a moment when Ares KNOWS that Xena makes a bargain with him as a means of playing him, but he can't resist letting her have her way.

MARRIED WITH FISHSTICKS (P)-- Here's one last silly-pants episode before Season Five concludes on a lot of heavy-themed stories. The heroines witness two petulant goddesses, Aphrodite and Discord, dueling with lightning-bolts, and a wayward blast tosses Gabrielle into the sea. Gabrielle then dreams most of the rest of the episode, which is a revised version of the Goldie Hawn movie OVERBOARD, sans the big romantic hookup with the male lead (Ted Raimi again). Lots of makeup and monsters make this one mildly palatable.

LIFEBLOOD (F)-- For an episode that recycles footage from a failed pilot called AMAZON HIGH (about a 20th-century woman joining a primeval Amazon tribe), this story works out better than expected. The heroines seek out the Northern Amazon tribe (which I didn't think was homologous with the ones who made Gabby their queen, but whatever). Both the head Amazon Yakut and the long-unseen Amarice have died, and the tribe plans a mission of vengeance. Xena gets visions that link her to the primeval Amazons, and this helps her avert senseless killing.

KINDRED SPIRITS (F)-- This is a largely comic episode but it's not completely silly. Joxer finds his way to the Northern Amazon tribe but he peeps on some of the nubile wenches at their ablutions. Gabrielle, installed as temporary chieftain, must find some way to keep Joxer from being executed for his offense without violating Amazon tradition. An Amazon named Rhea, who's not seen many men before, visits the captive male with the idea of siring a child by him, but it's just infant-envy at work. A big ring-fight between Xena and Joxer, spiced with spoofs of pro-wrestling, is more memorable than most Xena-japes, particularly since Xena finally loses her damn pregnancy concealing coat.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA (P)-- This episode serves largely to set up Xena becoming an ally of Octavius, one of the major players vying with Brutus and Marc Antony for Roman power. An assassin sent by Brutus slays Cleopatra, so Xena poses as the Egyptian queen and seeks to run rings around the Romans. Xena makes love to Marc Antony but ends up killing him, while Gabrielle offs Brutus. Just can't trust them Romans.

LOOKING DEATH IN THE EYE (F)-- The fate of Xena and Gabrielle, seeking to protect Eve from the gods, is related in piecemeal fashion via a frame-story which takes place 25 years in the future, related by an aged Joxer (now married to Xena-lookalike Meg and possessed of a strapping young son who looks like neither parent). Xena arranges a massive hoax that involves kidnapping the death-goddess Celesta (last seen in DEATH IN CHAINS). Xena fakes the deaths of herself, Eve and Gabrielle, so that neither Ares nor Joxer knows the truth, though Octavius takes custody of Eve. But because Ares believes the heroines are dead, he enshrines their comatose bodies in an Arctic ice-cave.

LIVIA (G)-- X and G escape their icy confinement, find out that 25 years have passed, and seek out Joxer the Aged. They meet both wife Meg and son Virgil, who's become a proficient warrior after being raised on a diet of Joxer's stories of his glorious actions. Xena, Gabrielle, Joxer and Virgil go to Rome to demand an accounting from Octavius as to the disposition of Xena's daughter. 

But-- never trust a Roman! Octavius renamed Eve "Livia" (note the slight name-resemblance) and raised her as a warrior-woman who devotes herself to gladiatorial games and persecuting the still-extant followers of Christ-like Eli. (To be sure, since Livia shared the "blood" of both Xena and Callisto, Octavius may not have much of a choice.) Octavius eventually tells Xena that he's in love with his adoptive daughter and plans to marry her. But that enormity doesn't frost the warrior princess' butt as much as finding out that Ares-- who still believes that Baby Eve died for real-- has become both mentor and implied lover to Livia. Livia considers Rome itself her only "mother," having never been told of her mortal sire, so when Xena reveals the truth, Livia reacts with scandalized hatred-- and for a bonus, Ares figures out that his new squeeze is Eve, Doom of the Gods. Mother and daughter battle in the Colosseum, but though Livia is spared by both Xena and the citizens of Rome, she vows undying hatred of the warrior princess.

EVE (G)-- Forget the struggles of Livia/Eve; the standout event here is Xena's daughter finally kills someone Xena and Gabrielle actually care about. Due to traveling with Xena's group, Joxer becomes embarrassed by his ineptitude and leaves himself open to being slain by none other than Livia. But before that big moment, Ares, having been rejected by Xena once again, encourages Livia to kill her mother. For Xena's part, she's all but convinced that Livia is beyond recovery, though she prays to Eli for guidance. With the help of some Roman allies, Xena sets a trap for Livia and her soldiers. When Xena conquers Livia, she pauses before the final stroke and implores the aid of Eli once more. Whatever power is behind Eli gives Livia her own personal "road to Damascus" moment, and she sees the evil of her entire life, effectively transforming corrupted Livia back into innocent Eve. Virgil takes his father's body back home.

MOTHERHOOD (F)-- It's "Twilight of the Gods" in overdrive, as Eve seeks redemption from a prominent Eli follower, "The Baptist." Somehow this redemptive power also confers on Xena the power to kill gods, which will come in handy throughout Season Six. Athena mounts a sneak attack, sending the invisible Furies to seduce Gabrielle into killing Eve. (The Furies also show Gabby visions of Joxer and Hope.) Eve tries to make amends to Virgil, but he rejects her. The plot is partly successful, though Xena has to severely wound Gabrielle to prevent Eve's slaying. Four gods show up to attack Xena and Eve, but Xena kills two and the others retreat. Aphrodite appears, but cannot help dying Gabrielle without the blessing of Athena. She transports Xena, the wounded Eve and the dying Gabrielle to Olympus, where the warrior princess seeks to make a deal with Athena, though Xena's in danger of losing her power to kill gods if Eve dies of her wound. The writers then blatantly contradict Aphrodite's testimony, that only Athena can bring healing, by having lovelorn Ares heal both Eve and Gabrielle, making it possible for Xena to slay Athena. (They throw in a weak excuse that Ares can only do this deed by giving up his immortality, which gives him an excuse to dodge the Gotterdammerung and to hang around through Season Six.)

While it's too early for a series overview, I have to say that this season places the show-runners very much in the mode of Gabrielle in THE PLAY'S THE THING. They have the characters make lots of speeches about the importance of "letting go" and extending mercy, while finding lots of excuses to unleash crowd-pleasing mayhem (this time, expressly aligned with a fictional version of the Judeo-Christian religion).

HONOR ROLL #237

TED RAIMI's character Joxer wears out his welcome in Amazon Land.

Just another scheming aristocrat for the well-travelled MASSIMO SERATO (at far left).

Finally, VEGETA gets a plotline where his contributions actually equal those of his "goofy brother."

Don't bother asking if BEVERLY WOOD.

At last, the cool BLADE gets animated about something.

Long before he gamboled about Dodge City as the hayseed Festus, KEN CURTIS got to play a Zorro-like headliner.

BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, VOLUME TWO (1992-93)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*

Still working my way backward from newest to oldest of the 1990s Bat-series.

ETERNAL YOUTH (F)-- Bruce Wayne gets an invite from the Eternal Youth Health Spa, but he passes it along to his butler Alfred, who takes his similarly aged friend Maggie as his plus-one. The two don't come back as expected, so Batman investigates. Turns out Poison Ivy has turned her spa into a "Venus fly trap" for fatcats whom she thinks are bad for the environment. It's a novel scheme for the Plant Mistress, but it's hard to believe nobody else missed other rich people who went missing after attending the health clinic.

PERCHANCE TO DREAM (G)-- Bruce Wayne awakes to a world in which he's never been Batman, but he has the rudiments of what could be a happy life, engaged to Selina Kyle. But when Bruce sees some other Batman parading around Gotham, he's determined to get the bottom of the mind-game, even if everyone around thinks he's gone berserk. Turns out it's an old foe who wants the satisfaction of confining Batman to a delusional dream-world just because the Cowled Crusader deprived the villain of his own paradise. I suppose the idea of trumping Batman's righteousness is the only good motive for the villain to mind-game the captive Batman, instead of just killing the crusader. As for who the villain is, it's a good surprise, so I'll just keep the evildoer's identity under my hat.

THE CAPE AND COWL CONSPIRACY (P)-- This started as a gimmicky comics-tale and it's just as gimmicky as a cartoon episode. It's pretty unmemorable, but in theory I approve of giving Batman a fair share of crime stories with no bizarro villains involved.

ROBIN'S RECKONING, PTS 1-2 (F)-- When Robin is brought into contact with the man who killed his parents, can he resist the urge to take vigilante vengeance? Well, he pretty much has to, or he can't keep on being a hero in the Old DC Universe. (Much later, the "hero" Red Hood would murder assorted crooks but would pretty much be forgiven, but those were different times.) I rate the episodes "fair" for providing snapshots of the psychological bonding between Bruce Wayne and his youthful ward.

THE LAUGHING FISH (F)-- "Fish" adapts disparate parts of two separate Joker-stories from the comics and squeezes in Harley Quinn for good measure. The episode doesn't manage to sell the more atmospheric aspects of either original, but it's still a better than average look at the Joker's demented psyche. 

NIGHT OF THE NINJA (F)-- I believe this is the first time the TV show builds an episode around the process by which a young Bruce Wayne obtained the peerless martial skills that he needed to become Batman. In those days he incurred the enmity of a fellow student, Kyodai Ken, and now Ken has returned in the guise of a ninja, targeting the Wayne businesses. Though both Batman and Robin have brief encounters with the ninja, it's Bruce Wayne who gets the chance to decisively defeat Ken, with a little identity-guarding help from Robin. Good interplay between the Dynamic Duo.

CAT SCRATCH FEVER (F)-- Of course you know that right after a judge lets Selina Kyle off with probation, but specifies that she better not don the cat-costume again, Catwoman will soon prowl again. This time her own pet cat Isis is one of many felines abducted by rogue scientist Milo, who needs test subjects for a virus. Catwoman is sidelined by exposure to the virus, so Batman has to play a lone hand for the most part. The high point is the hero facing off an attack dog atop a frozen lake.

THE STRANGE SECRET OF BRUCE WAYNE (P)-- This episode is based on a two-part fan-favorite comic, in which the author revived the diabolical Hugo Strange for the first time since the early 1940s. However, the writers of SECRET blew off all the eccentric aspects of Strange's personality. Here he's just another mad scientist, who in this case is able to ferret out Batman's identity with the use of a mind-control machine. Guest-starring roles for Joker, Penguin and Two-Face aren't much compensation.

HEART OF STEEL PTS 1-2 (P)-- The supercomputer HARDAC plots to control Gotham City by replacing real people with android duplicates, and only Batman can take the perilous processor off-line. Barbara Gordon, not yet Batgirl, guest stars.

IF YOU'RE SO SMART, WHY AREN'T YOU RICH? (G)-- One of the biggest problems with the Riddler in comics is that his compulsion about leaving clues, however useful in stories, makes him look somewhat pathetic, despite his intellect. The BATMAN show dispenses with the riddle-compulsion. Now he's a game-programming genius who simply likes using riddles in his games, but he turns criminal after his boss cheats him of profits. This villain, Batman and Robin have to sweat to defeat as they seek to rescue Riddler's victim from a modern Minotaur's maze.

JOKER'S WILD (P)-- This is basically just another Joker episode, with the angle that a casino owner rather foolishly tries to honk off the Clown Prince so that Joker will create an opportunity for insurance fraud. Why the schemer thinks he can survive arousing the Joker's wrath goes unexplained.

TYGER TYGER (F)-- Did the producers really have to subject Catwoman to a virus in one episode, and then to a "Doctor Moreau" transformation about a month later? The "Moreau" of the tale, Doctor Dorian, comes up with a magical serum (one might as well call it magic) that can advance animals into humanoid forms, yet also devolve humans into carefully chosen animal-hybrids. In particular, Dorian transforms Selina Kyle into a literal cat-woman so that he can mate her with his tiger-derived humanoid Tygrus. This is the G-rated version of the potential "bestiality" experiment in the 1932 film adaptation of the Wells novel, ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, so of course nothing like that comes close to happening. But I give the writers points for dealing with the tragedy of the cat-humanoid after he loses Selina, and for correctly quoting the Blake poem that furnished the episode's title.

MOON OF THE WOLF (P)-- This adaptation of another well-regarded comics-story fails to equal both the atmosphere and the action-content of the original. As in the story, Professor Milo transforms his test subject Anthony Romulus (named now for one of the founders of Rome) into a being who can transform into a vicious werewolf. Batman manages to fight off the lycanthrope, but it escapes at the episode's end, suggesting that the producers considered bringing Romulus back for a second encounter.

DAY OF THE SAMURAI (G)-- Yoru, the sensei who originally trained both Bruce Wayne and the ninja Kyodai Ken, learns that his star pupil, a woman named Kairi, had been kidnapped by Ken. Ken wants as ransom a scroll depicting an arcane "death touch" maneuver, and so Yoru appeals to Bruce Wayne for help, knowing that Batman will intervene. However, Ken has figured out the equivalence of Wayne and Batman too. When Batman shows up with the ransom-scroll, Ken forces the crusader to rescue Kairi while Ken makes off with the scroll. Ken learns the death-touch technique and challenges the hero to a face-off. When they fight, Ken jabs Batman, who seems to perish, only to revive and continue fighting. In the end Ken allows himself to die in a fiery explosion (though the producers kept this fact ambiguous). The revelation of how Batman figures out how to guard against the fatal jab is as intriguing as the (probably fictional) menace of the death-touch itself.

TERROR IN THE SKY (F)-- Man-Bat flies again-- or does he? It's a mediocre follow-up to the show's excellent introduction of the leather-winged monster-man, but to be sure, the comics story on which this episode is based wasn't that hot either.

ALMOST GOT 'IM (G)-- Much like PERCHANCE TO DREAM, this tale concretizes the need of Gotham's rogues not just to kill Batman, but to outclass him through their use of insidiously involved death-traps. Five villains on the run from the law-- Joker, Penguin, Two-Face, Killer Croc, and Poison Ivy-- convene at a gin-joint to play poker. While they play, each relates a story about how each villain "almost got" Batman in a chosen trap. Naturally, a certain Bat deals himself into the action as well, and so do both Catwoman and Harley Quinn. Arguably this is the finest episode of the entire series, with pitch perfect voice-work and exquisitely timed dialogue, as well as a few darker elements that got past the censors. Batman's escapes are all clever, but I think the villains really outdid themselves with their traps, with Penguin's aviary plot taking top honors while Two-Face's "giant penny" strategy runs a close second.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER (F)-- Penguin gets out of prison, determined to give up jousting with the law once and for all. Unfortunately, his good intentions are undermined when wealthy Veronica Vreeland invites him to a high-society party as a joke. Offended when he finds out he's being played, Penguin returns to crime, abducting Veronica and one of her partygoers for ransom. Batman defeats his old foe once again, but surprisingly neglects to dress down the useless aristocrats who caused much of the mess. This could have been an outstanding Penguin episode except that the script doesn't go the extra mile in terms of delineating his character.

WHAT IS REALITY? (F)-- The new, hyper-intelligent Riddler seeks to eliminate all records of his existence, but this is also a gambit designed to trap Batman in a virtual-game world. As in the villain's previous appearance, Batman has to figure out the rules of the game to survive. At episode's end, Riddler falls into a mental coma, but by his next appearance he's okay again.

I AM THE NIGHT (F)-- Batman begins to doubt that his crusade serves any purpose since crime remains ever-present, and nothing Robin or Alfred can say lessens the hero's existential ennui. A threat to Commissioner Gordon's life puts the crusader on high alert, though, and by the episode's end Batman is able to regain his sense of purpose.

OFF BALANCE (F)-- Prior to his first encounter with Ra's Al Ghul, the Cowled Crusader enjoys his first encounter with the villain's daughter Talia, albeit in circumstances very different from the comics-introduction. "Balance" is very action-oriented, as Batman and Talia must unite to stop the schemes of Count Vertigo. While not a great story, this is many times better than any of the hero's encounters with Talia and Ra's in the mediocre Nolan-verse.

THE MAN WHO KILLED BATMAN (P)-- It's another gimmicky crime-story, in which Batman allows the underworld to think he's been killed by a low-level goon, Sid the Squid. It is a little funnier than "Cape and Cowl Conspiracy," though.

MUDSLIDE (F)-- Clayface returns, but he's rapidly losing control of his bodily integrity. The shapechanging villain receives a respite from a medical doctor, Stella Bates, who knew Clayface when he was just a film-actor. She directs him to steal components needed for a cure, but he has to steal from Wayne Industries, and so Batman gets involved. Clayface survives his apparent death at episode's end, but this is probably his best BTAS outing.

PAGING THE CRIME DOCTOR (P)-- The original comics version of the titular villain concerned a medical man who's seduced by the thrill of aiding the criminal element. That goes out the window for a mediocre melodrama in which the doctor's gangster-brother involves the physician in crime, as well as kidnapping Batman's medical consultant Leslie Tompkins.

ZATANNA (F)-- To learn methods of escaping traps, a young Bruce Wayne studied stage magic with renowned performer Zatara, and on the side enjoyed a mild romance with Zatara's comely daughter Zatanna. Years later, Zatanna is framed for a robbery during her magic act, and Batman comes to her aid. The villains are far less important than the romantic interplay that results as Zatanna figures out that Batman is the young fellow she once fancied. In the comics and in most other animated shows Zatanna possesses real magic powers, but here, presumably to keep the show more grounded, she's just an illusionist and a good fighter.

THE MECHANIC (F)-- Batman regularly has his car serviced by a mechanic who doesn't know the hero's secret ID. But the Penguin does some research and tracks down the Batmobile's service bay. Like a couple of stories in the ouevre of BATMAN '66, Penguin seems to have a case of "vehicle envy" when it comes to the Batmobile. The mechanic is nicely characterized but happily is not seen again.

HARLEY AND IVY (F)-- This episode arguably begins the slow dissolution of Harley Quinn's love affair with the Maniac of Mirth. In the midst of a quarrel with Joker, Harley tries to prove herself, and ends up joining forces with Poison Ivy. The two ladies find they make a good team and start committing crimes together, enraging the Joker and getting Batman on their tails. Ivy relentlessly blasts Harley for being in love with a homicidal maniac. (Like she's one to talk.) Lots of good action here, and Harley gets most of the best lines.