Batman Beyond S01E06 Review: 2D-MAN

Batman Beyond, Season 1, Episode 6: Heroes

"Heroes" is an... interesting episode. This is definitely not the first time a DC comics work lampoons the Fantastic Four and showcases what would happen if less-mentally-stable people than Marvel's First Family ended up with similar powers. The comics did it famously with Hank Henshaw's family, and this Batman Beyond episode ends up introducing Magma, Freon, and 2-D Man as a family who's transformed by a freak accident, but ends up showing up as Gotham City's newest superheroes, ones that have a relatively good press. Terry is all happy that he might have some time off, but as always, Old Man Bruce is super skeptical. 

(Also, hee hee, 2-D Man!)

And the episode manages to show -- albeit a bit too quickly -- the origins and the dynamic between the scientists that would become the Terrific Trio, as well as their buddy dr. Howard Hodges who was not present at the night where the Trio receive their powers. Even without the Fantastic Four knowledge, it's sort of obvious what's going on around halfway through the episode, that Hodges was actually a villain that caused the accident that transformed the Trio, partly driven by jealousy and a desire to 'get' the girl. 

The Trio themselves aren't super blameless, too, with Magma being pretty shaken when a girl he saves is extremely terrified of him on account of him, y'know, being a huge walking giant made of volcanic rock. It honestly does make Magma a wee bit petty, although eventual conversations with Hodges and uncovering the fact that Hodges is hiding the fact that all their cells are deteriorating ends up giving the Trio a pretty sympathetic reason to try and unleash vengeance. 

There's a three-way battle as the Trio's tower is attacked by the genuinely arbitrary and fluctuating loyalties of military general Norman (who quickly declares the Trio as being loose ends and vows to destroy them), and Batman is caught in the middle of it all when he's trying to solve the mystery and prevent the catastrophe from happening. The Trio very nearly overload the reactor and blow up the building, but Batman ends up arriving and stopping all the villains... and in an uncharacteristically ruthless way, too. We never see what happened to Freon and 2-D Man after they got sucked into the ventilation system. Freon's probably fine, since she's gaseous, but, man, poor 2-D Man. Magma himself gets sprayed with a hose which turns him into a rock, while Hodges is left to mourn his failures and how he lost all his friends. 

And... and I dunno. I'm not a huge fan of this episode. It's a solid one, and it's not bad, but the story seems to have too many moving parts and jumps around from one plot point to the next without really stopping to breathe. I really wished Magma's jump from happy public hero to being suspicious and discontent is shown a bit better -- maybe make the Trio hated by the public in the first place? General Norman's also just sort of there, and I kind of wished that there was more to him, maybe tying him in with Blight or something? Ultimately, though, this episode is just completely standalone and is never really brought up ever again in the series. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• The Terrific Trio is, of course, a homage to the Fantastic Four. There isn't a one-on-one comparison, but a pair of husband and wife, as well as their best friend, being transformed by a freak science accident -- which turns out to contain aspects of sabotage from another friend -- is similar enough to the origin story of the Fantastic Four. 2-D Man shares Mr. Fantastic's stretchy powers; Freon's gas/ice powers are sort of a combination of Invisible Woman and a reversal of the Human Torch's; Magma is a combination of the Thing and Human Torch. They even operate out of a building and has relatively good press.