Teen Titans, Season 3, Episode 8: Wavelength
After being introduced in the season premiere, we finally have Cyborg's story with Brother Blood extended. It's the mid-season 'time to get serious' episode. In season one, we had Robin, in his obsession to bring down Slade, become more like the villain himself. In season two, we had the episode where Terra fools Beast Boy and successfully infiltrates the Titans, showing her allegiance to Slade. It set up the big grand finale against the main villain of the season.
Basically, while infiltrating the HIVE base, Cyborg is forced not to participate in the fight to take down Brother Blood but instead take down the big superweapon because he's the only one who can shut it down. It's a nice bit of realism how sending in someone to infiltrate an enemy base sometimes backfire, allowing Blood to obtain Cyborg's sonic cannon blueprints. Brother Blood in this incarnation is a lot more obsessed with perfecting himself and understanding Cyborg's machine mechanics because he's the only one that can resist Blood's mind control, which I guess is the only way you can adapt Brother Blood into a children's cartoon. I mean, a cult that sacrifices the blood of the innocent to demons in order to prolong its leader's life is hardly something suitable for Teen Titans the cartoon show. Regrettably, though, this incarnation of Blood just... doesn't quite have the personal creepiness that Slade has, nor does he actually feel like the world-ending threat that Trigon or the Brotherhood of Evil will have in the future. He just feels like one among the Titans' many villains, just one that is slightly more effective in combating them.
The episode introduces Bumblebee, which cameo'd briefly in the first episode of the season, and apparently she's a double agent. There's a pretty cool fight between Cyborg and Bumblebee, which is pretty definitely supposed to imply some kiss-slap-slap style of romance/friendship but it didn't work out for me mostly because Cyborg and Bumblebee's arguments over who's the better superhero felt particularly juvenile, especially when Cyborg locks Bumblebee in a corridor and proceeds to do his mission alone. It felt just dumb and a contrived plot device to get Cyborg and Brother Blood together in the same room so they can have their face-off. Which, of course, proves inconclusive.
Oh, and we have Aqualad show up as a guest star as the mission takes place on an underwater base, but honestly his presence or absence is hardly noticeable. It's a bit to build up for the whole Titans East thing because he and Bumblebee bugger off to continue hunting Blood down (is there a reason why the Titans didn't join in, to be honest?).
This episode features the immortal line "unleash the MIND CONTROL SQUID" which is the most hilarious thing ever, though, and the Mind Control Squid has my vote for being the Teen Titans' best villain. Sorry, Kardiak, you're just not as catchy as Mind Control Squid.
I dunno. This episode tried its best to be epic, and Cyborg definitely delivers in his interactions with Bumblebee and Brother Blood, but neither of those characters felt fleshed-out enough. It's a pretty cool episode with lots of beat-up action scenes, though, so there's that. Oh, and Mind Control Squid.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- Bumblebee is a member of the Teen Titans in the comics, and is DC's first black female superhero. Karen Beecher, girlfriend of the Teen Titan member Herald (who'll show up much later in this cartoon), makes herself a bumblebee-themed suit and attacked the Titans to make her boyfriend look good. This ends up causing her instant membership to join the Teen Titans. She doesn't have the shrinking powers that her animated counterpart does, not until much the show inspired the comics to give her said powers. Or, well, just permanently shrinking her.
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