Batman Beyond S01E07 Review: History

Batman Beyond, Season 1, Episode 7: Shriek

A pretty interesting episode -- it's still a villain-of-the-week one, but this one is relatively unique in that Old Man Bruce ends up getting a vast majority of the focus in this episode. Part of the theme of "is Batman truly as crazy as the criminals he fights?" is sort of ruined by the fact that we know from the get-go that it is Shriek and Derek Powers that are fucking around with Old Man Bruce to get him to back off from a deal to destroy Gotham's Historical District for a soulless industrial complex. And... and honestly, while Bruce does give a long, impassioned speech about preserving Gotham City's history, we all know he's just a huge sentimental dude and he just wants to keep Crime Alley intact and unmolested. We could probably insert an argument about clinging to the past and not moving on, but Derek Powers is an asshole and we all love Bruce Wayne, so this isn't an argument I'm going to make.

The villain of the week is acoustic engineer Walter Shreeve, who develops powerful illusions with his super-advanced sonic gadgets. And it is interesting that the episode initially really depicts Shreeve as a bit of a slimy opportunist, and he does descend into full-on crime, but he doesn't even think about using his sonic suit for fighting until Derek Powers plants the idea in his head. Sure, Shreeve did make the sonic suit powerful and able to destroy concrete and whatnot, but he meant for it to be used in construction and demolition. Just like Mr. Freeze before him, this is another villain that probably wouldn't have even ended up a villain if not for Powers' influence, and I do think that this does help to make me see Shreeve in a bit more of a tragic light. Not that tragic, but it does make him a bit more sympathetic.

Later on, after a shareholder meeting, Bruce brings Terry to Crime Alley and while the importance of the place is certainly obvious to the viewers, I do appreciate these scenes where Bruce slowly opens up to Terry about his own personal past, and how he's never going to ever forget what happened in Crime Alley. Of course, Shreeve, now clad in full robo-armour, shows up and starts blasting shit apart, eventually collapsing the old theater but failing to kill Old Man Bruce.

And, yeah, while it's pretty brutal that Powers and Shreeve essentially try to murder a good old cranky geriatric man, what they did afterwards is perhaps a bit more cruel. Old Man Bruce is initially angry at being forced to stay in a hospital, but then he starts hearing voices, with Shreeve putting in a little voice chip (hidden in a bandage) that causes Bruce to start hearing voices and essentially tells Bruce to open a window and jump to his death. Part of me wonders why Bruce would even entertain the voices, especially after years of fighting criminals like Scarecrow, Mad Hatter and the like, but I'll buy it. This behaviour, and the subsequent rampage, causes him to be sedated and taken to a padded room, while Powers shows up dolled with faux-concern and "reassuring" Terry that Bruce will be taken care of.

I do like the brief bit of Terry actually going off and doing things on his own without Bruce's supervision and only the slightest bit of help from the non-sentient but snarky Batcomputer. Tracking the alloy Acoustium (ha!) to Shreeve's laboratories, and disguising himself as a pizza delivery boy, Terry ends up managing to weasel out enough information from Shreeve before he realizes he's being played.

I do really love the subsequent interaction between Shreeve and Powers. Shreeve's face is now known by the police, and he can't ever go back to his civilian life, but Powers just talks about how Shreeve now has true power, and christens him with a supervillain name: Shriek. Neat way of twisting Shreeve's well-placed anger and turning him into a supervillain you can direct, Powers.

Meanwhile, after a hilarious bit where Old Man Bruce tells Terry to check this and that to look for a transmitter or a device, the two Batmen find out the miniature radio in a bandage. The two Batmen end up breaking out of the psychiatric ward, and we get a fight scene, which would be generic if not for the fact that halfway through the fight, Shriek straight-up just turns off all sound around him, and it's a simple thing, y'know? Cutting off all ambient music and dialogue and having sound effects echo out loud, showing just how Shriek is able to track down where Batman in jumping? Pretty great, as is the slight, slow buildup of the background music. It's a simple thing, perhaps, but it's honestly pretty damn well done. Hell, even good boy Ace gets to do something with his canine hearing, saving Batman from being hit by a truck. Eventually Batman takes out Shriek and overloads his systems, causing him to become deaf when the sounds of the city gets amplified. This, unfortunately, prevents him from testifying against Powers... although he could, y'know, write?

The episode ends with Powers getting outvoted in the stockholders meeting (it's a huge meeting), and we get the amazing little bit about why Old Man Bruce is so sure he isn't hallucinating... and Bruce tells Terry, of course, that his subconscious never refers to himself as "Bruce", but as "Batman". Amazing, and the perfect way to cap off this episode.