R.I.P., Batman: The Brave And The Bold

It’s been a good three-season run for Cartoon Network’s series Batman: The Brave And The Bold, its most recent reimagining of The Caped Crusader’s adventures.  When it first came out in mid-2009, The Dark Knight has just had its day in the sun, presenting a well-received but hardly kid-friendly take on the Caped Crusader that KO’d the lingering stench left by Joel Schumacher’s camp-leaning sequels.  It seemed time to put some of the fun back into the franchise – and boy, did Batman: The Brave and The Bold deliver that (in spades!!!!)

 For starters, you got Diedrich Bader playing The Caped Crusader in all his primary-colored glory.  Having followed his career from Office Space to The Drew Carey Show and Outsourced, Bader has proven his comic chops time and again; obviously, WB & Cartoon Network were just taking cues from Tim Burton‘s inspired choice of Michael Keaton in the first two Bat-flicks.

B:TB&TB sees Ol’ Bats being paired up with a revolving cast of DC’s top-line and second-string superheroes, the most well-received of which was Aquaman (voiced by John DiMaggio) and Plastic Man (voiced by Tom “Spongebob Squarepants” Kenny).  From the first-season opening episode, “Mystery In Space!” (Batman….IN….SPACE!!!!!) there was no doubt that the series’ eyes were set toward The Silver Age of comic books, when anything can happen – and could!

Batman IN SPACE!!!!

Batman makes like Pacquiao

Surely enough, future installments of B:TB&TB would play up on the excesses of the Silver Age concepts as well as that of the 60’s TV show (one first-season episode even featured a number of cameos by Bat-villains from said series).  I myself was initially sceptical on how a “Looney Tune”-ised Batman would pan out, with all the primary colors and merchandise-friendly situations The Caped Crusader faced; however, my view warmed up with the series’ subtle winks and nudges toward my inner fanboy.   The entire series was very much a mine for YouTube memes as its “campy” live-action predecessor was.

In its entire run, B:TB &TB got Batsy working not only with the DCU but also Sherlock Holmes (and Watson), the Scooby Doo gang, and even Space Ghost (SPAAAACE GHOOOOOOST!!!!!!!!!). On its most recent season, it even caved in to fan pressure and decided to pair him with the other two of the DCU’s “Holy Trinity” (not a Robin quote, mind you) – Superman and Wonder Woman.

For all its lightheartedness, it also knew the value of restraint (that is, not stretching the joke past its funny date), so it was with much trepidation that Cartoon Network  has recently pulled the plug on the series, just in time for the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises film.  Nevertheless, a good (nope.  Not good.  OUTRAGEOUS!!! – Aquaman) time has been had by all by Batman and the DCU, amping up the action-packed fun spiced up with ample fanboy-baiting.  That was a Batman series meant to bridge generations…kids can relish the focus on action and adventure, while dads will enjoy spotting the nostalgic references.

Monkey Business

I was pretty much surprised with the warm critical reception afforded this prequel to the classic sci-fi franchise.

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes is a briskly-paced straight-forward action-thriller that works equally effective as a stand-alone piece.  The fanboy-baiting references serve as icing on the cake – but what delicious icing!

Your Own Casting Couch: Whom to cast in a live-action version of Jirel of Joiry?

Before Xena: Warrior Princess & Red Sonja, there was Jirel of Joiry.

Geena Davis would've killed for that role - not!

Created by US genre writer C.L. Moore in the mid-1930s, she was a phenomenon from the get-go: a female warrior tough enough to face her (largely) male adversaries – human or sorcerous – without flinching, penned by a female writer (the C.L. stands for Catherine Lucille) making her mark felt on a predominantly male-dominated business.

Captain America: The Glorified Placeholder

The clock slowly ticks for 2012 – nope, not the prophesied day of the world’s flooding as per Roland Emmerich, but the day when Joss Whedon – director and geek god – unleashes The Avengers onto global screens.

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!!!

The line-up’s all set:

Iron Man (2 well-received box-office smashes starring Robert Downey Jr. as Ol’ Shell-Head)

MTV: From “defining a generation” to just “degeneration”

A portent of things to come….

Upon encountering this insightful article by blogger Todd Pack, I couldn’t help but get these awesome flashbacks of growing up with MTV – albeit from a somewhat staggered Third-W0rld perspective.   I would say it may have all started with the music-video clip shows which were frequently aired on Philippine free (VHF) TV channels – Video Hit Parade, Video Hot tracks and even the 99.5 RT-sponsored Rhythm of the City.