Watching the Detectives: Beware the Batman Ep3 "Tests"

XXXVII

'Men of England, heirs of Glory,
Heroes of unwritten story,
Nurslings of one mighty Mother,
Hopes of her, and one another;

XXXVIII

'Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few.’

So says dying Hope in Percy Shelly’s The Mask of Anarchy. It’s the kind of sentiment I hoped would be applied to TV’s Anarky.

I hardly expected this version to spout off about Washington Bullets, civilian drone casualties, war on whistle blowers, but the whitewashed declawed one I saw made Dennis the Menace look like Sid Vicious.

I'm not afraid of Beware the Batman... I'm angry! Pogo through the break.

Episode opens with property damage. That’s big on Batcop’s priority list.

Anarky’s drastically different all white costume makes him look like the Spectre. 

His accompanying music theme feels very Victorian Sherlockian. If they wanted to go British, why not go 1978?

In Morrison’s first volume of Batman Inc.#6 Alfred easily put Bruce in checkmate.

Yamashiro’s Soultaker sword makes it debut. Will it be inhabited with the spirit of her dead hubby?

She sleuths too!

Queen Street Galley… Oliver “Green Arrow” Queen?

“Get a load of our street art, homies!” No comment.

“The Art of Destruction” Does Anarky think he’s in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing? I think it would be on the comics’ Anarky’s top ten list. In comics he never intentionally risked civilian lives.

Alfred’s sardonic humor never gets old.

Besides both having “a quiet footstep”, Yamashiro and Bruce also keep their wardrobes in black.

She palmed his prints. Makes me think of Penguin’s plastic coated fingertips from the 1966 Movie.

“Total unleashed freedom at any price” This helps to further create disinformation about anarchists. It also disappoints me as a Batman fan.

Anarchy seems to mean chaos for many people who probably haven’t researched into the subject much. The show’s people are trying to mold Anarky to be their Joker like “agent of chaos”. What they seem to forget, as did many critics of Nolan’s The Dark Knight is that the Joker lies… Like 90% of the time! He’s not a believer in anything, least of all anarchism.

Alfred playing the Batmobile videogame helps to alleviate the pain of this long over due review.

The climax set piece is more likely a nod to the classic Moonraker, but still brings up the first Spider-Man.

White vs. Black… Why do they have to be so clearly defined as opposites. In the comics, Anarky respected Batman, but felt he didn’t take his methods far enough in order to result in true social change. He knew Batman attacked the symptoms of corruption, but not actual some of the causes. Anarky was more of an anti-villain, whose youth and idealism blinded him from seeing the harm he unintentionally helped to bring about. According to his co creator Alan Grant in an interview, he was at one point considered for the third Robin.

I much prefer Bruce getting called a geek by Yamashiro, then earlier being called a tool as Batman.

Anarky uses a telescopic quarter staff akin to Tim Drake in the blessed 90s.

Now at the point I’m taking Grandma’s advice about only saying nice things.

Since it’s a Saturday morning cartoon it’s prudent Batman wears a helmet on the Batcycle.

Batcycle transform into Bat-handglider! I had The Animated Series Batmobile that could become an open-air jet flyer.

The music during the fightscene with Anarky needs a good shoutout. Composer Frederik Wiedmann should not be confused with Fredric Wertham!

His little angst outburst suggest Anarky might be like his comic counterpart in one way. He could be a 13 year old.

Just the facts. No hate intended. Madness is not anarchy. Anarchy is the logical process for freedom by eliminating social order and wielders of power.

Fini.

During the 90s X-Men cartoon, there was one episode that introduced Nightcrawler, and the show didn't shy away from the character's belief in Christianity. Whoever wrote the episode realized how integral it was to the true nature of Nightcrawler. There's even a great arch for Wolverine, who by the end of the episode is in a church humbling himself by rejecting years of bitter cynicism. Even now, that scene moves me, not in any religious sense (Superman is the closest thing to a deity I believe in), but because the characters involved are treated with the respect they deserve and more importantly, I'm hoping along with the characters that what they believe in will better their lives.

Couldn't Anarky's beliefs be treated with the same respect?