Batman Beyond S01E11 Review: The Dark Knight Returns... Again!

Batman Beyond, Season 1, Episode 11: Disappearing Inque

A pretty interesting episode, featuring the return of one of Batman's Rogues' Gallery, something that hasn't happened this season other than Derek Powers. Who's been... kinda absent these past few episodes, huh? Not even a token "he's still being a dick on board meetings" presence? This episode deals with the return of Inque, with a neat little twist. She ends up being freed by a disgruntled caretaker, Aaron Herst, who develops a very, very unhealthy obsession with Inque, who's trapped in a block of ice. It's almost Harley-Quinn-esque, except instead of the more sinister villain actually manipulating the lovesick person from the beginning, Aaron's clearly got some problems since he's just talking to a frozen, immobile Inque. Understandably, when this creepy behaviour (extending to even kissing the ice) comes to the attention of Aaron's employer, he gets fired. Aaron ends up wanting revenge, and cuts power to Inque's cell, melting the ice aroud Inque and freeing her.

Meanwhile, Terry and Bruce briefly discusses a massive robotic batsuit that Bruce notes was one of the experimental suits he tried on in the past to compensate for his age. Which is way too obvious of foreshadowing. They quickly scramble to help del with Inque's breakout, with Terry bringing Mr. Freeze's cold gun in the process. The ensuing fight is perhaps not quite as impressive as "Blackout", but it's still pretty cool. In the process, as well as the police firing indiscriminately into the fight, the Mr Freeze ice gun gets destroyed, robbing Terry of his primary weapon against Inque.

Meanwhile, Inque shows up at Aaron's apartment, revealing that she's been aware of Aaron's... unhealthy obsession, and basically all but seduces Aaron. The dialogue never ever implies sex, but man, Inque's voice actress Shannon Kenny really does a great job being seductive while also keeping the dialogue PG-13. The visuals of Inque just shapeshifting and swooping around Aaron helps to really sell Inque as essentially seducing Aaron, who basically declares that he'll do anything for Inque.

Simultaneously, the Batmen discover that Inque's DNA has been degenerated in their previous fight, particularly the exposure to the Freeze Gun, and she's unable to assume her human form, and is trapped in her inky form permanently. I really do love Terry being the paranoid one this time aroud, reinforcing all the gaps in the Batcave with some sort of plasti-steel. Armed with electrical batarangs to compensate for the broken Freeze Gun, Batman heads out to hunt down Inque.

And, well, it's pretty quick to see that Inque really doesn't view Aaron as anything but an asset, being verbally abusive to him when they actually start their little heist, and when they pretend to be lovers to allay suspicion from a police officer, Aaron getting a little too handsy causes Inque to lash out and whip him. Interestingly, though, Aaron ends up demanding a reward through this conversation as they break into the lab -- not romance or adoration, but Aaron actually wants to become a shapeshifter like Inque.

Of course, we get an action scene, which is pretty awesome with Inque just melding into the huge chunky machinery of the chemical plant and everything. Aaron's assistance in piloting the machinery of the factory ends up knocking Terry out, but Inque decides to use Batman as bait to get "the old one" too, remembering their previous altercation in the Batcave.

And, of course, Terry is used as bait to get Bruce to arrive at a sports stadium. Inque is restored to her full strength, and ends up taunting the "old man" to show himself while Terry remains chained. Old Man Bruce, dressed with a bulky trenchcoat, sunglasses and hat, shows up on the stadium and ends up first finding Aaron... who's turn into a pretty horrifyingly half-mutated blob-person, because of course Inque's totally evil and betrayed the poor dude. Not that Aaron himself wasn't pretty creepy himself, but still, he didn't deserve this.


We get a pretty badass sequence as Inque is about to choke Bruce to death, but turns out that Bruce brought the old, metallic armoured Batsuit and it begins to deploy and encase Bruce's body, and as an amazing rendition of the Batman TAS theme plays, we get a pretty cool fight of huge Old Man Batman against Inque. Of course, the suit has risks to Bruce's heart, as he mentioned earlier, and despite an initial advantage, Bruce ends up collapsing and being overpowered by Inque. But the manic Aaron intervenes, slamming into Inque and the two sort of swirl around a little, the the conflict causes Terry to free himself, and Terry ends up taking down Inque by smashing the ceiling of the stadium and causing the rain to wash Inque's body away.

And, well, Aaron ends up being kept in a cage in the very same facility where he once worked, being fed mashed-up potato by a talky, cheery lady attendant who's way too happy to tell him his problems.

Overall, it's a pretty neat episode. Aaron straddles the line between being pitiable and deluded with just being pretty creepy, but being turned into a shapeless blob is still pretty horrifying of a fate. It's a pretty neat followup to "Black Out" as an episode, with multiple plot points from that episode being called out, and Old Man Bruce suiting up in an iron Batman suit is unexpected and also awesome. Inque herself really cements herself as a pretty memorable villain, and it's not just the innuendo-laden dialogue either. She's just got style, with her cruelty and her action scenes being pretty entertaining to watch. Probably not the best episode Batman Beyond has to offer, but it's definitely one of the stronger ones from the first season.


DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Old Man Bruce's giant, bulky mechanized Batsuit is of course a reference to the mechanized batsuit from The Dark Knight Returns, where a future Batman would build a mechanized batsuit in order to fight Superman, heavily inspiring the live-action Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. This one is cooler, by virtue of being able to instantly wrap itself around Bruce. 
• A remixed version of Batman's theme from Batman: The Animated Series plays when Bruce suits up as the iron Batman.