Batman Beyond, Season 2, Episode 3: Joyride; Episode 4: Lost Soul
Episode 3: Joyride
Not really the most interesting Batman Beyond episode, although I do note that Batman Beyond is aired at a time where superhero cartoons aren't really super-serialized and for the most part just focused on more episodic fare. "Joyride" is... it's a solid story, it's just one that I don't think really ended up worth being stretched out for twenty minutes. It did give us some extra context regarding the Jokerz gang, but... I just don't particularly think that it's as exciting as the episode makes it out to be. While initiating one of their new members, Lee, they end up happening on an experimental military super-vehicle that they take over and end up going on a joyride. Said military super-vehicle is actually unstable and set to explode, but the Jokerz being lunatic teenagers (mostly the 'teenager' part) they don't care about the cops, Batman or Dr. Price, the military scientist that keeps talking to them. There's a bunch of Jokerz antics and Batman gets to do some action scenes and whatnot... but eh.
And... and ultimately that's all what the episode amounts to. The seeming main part of the episode seems to revolve around Lee realizing that these Jokerz dudes are actually kind of crazy. There's a nice bit of writing at the end of the episode where gang leader Scab is basically panicking and in a bit of a desperation when he realized that his brief power-trip is over... but ultimately, again, the episode really doesn't give us a whole ton of interesting stuff to talk about and it certainly really didn't deserve to be stretched to 20 minutes. I don't think Lee, Scab or Dr. Price's enigmatic military organization even comes into play in any future episode either.
Again, the basic premise of the episode is solid. Scab as the gang leader who's actually pretty rotten and doesn't actually care about his gang-mates is pretty unlikable, and Lee as an unsure 'new blood' to the gang is also written all right... but that's mostly about it.
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Episode 4: Lost Soul
"Lost Soul" is a bit more interesting! Granted, they do speed through the implications of the supervillain's rise to power. Robert Vance, an elderly super-smart multimillionaire, dies but preserves his brain patterns into a computer program, ostensibly to advice his future owners. However, he is merely a creepy floating A.I. head, and he wants a real body. Coming off the heels of Batman: TAS, this is the sort of a more sci-fi inspired storyline that feels so much more at home in Batman Beyond, I feel, even if with other shows in the DCAU (Superman, JLA, JLU) this isn't too exotic. Still, Robert Vance's A.I. manipulates his young, confused heir Bobby Vance to help him gain access to, well, the internet. Once doing so Robert Vance just goes full Skynet and ends up hacking everything, absolutely cock-blocking poor Terry and Dana who are about to kiss in an elevator.
Terry and Bruce's attempts to investigate ends up kind of leading to an obligatory action scene in the power plant, which I thought is pretty smooth... but, of course, Vance jumps into the suit. It's a neat reminder that the Batman Beyond suit is a completely different beast than most DC comics superhero suits, more like a skin-tight version of Iron Man's armour than an actual suit. There's a pretty creepy bit as Vance takes over the suit and forces Terry to drown himself in the ocean. Bruce manages to activate the kill-switch (which thankfully still works) and rescues Terry... but then we're treated with the creepy shot of the suit walking up by itself without anyone piloting it once it's in the Batcave.
Sure, the episode doesn't really delve too deep into it since it quickly devolves into "Terry vs. the evil Batsuit" but there's a nice little monologue of Terry wondering if this is the time to prove to himself what makes him Batman -- was it him or the suit? It's an age-old question to superheroes like Iron Man or Green Lantern or, hell, Batman himself on whether they are still heroes if the gimmicks and gadgets given to them are taken away.
Robert's master plan is to download himself into the Batsuit to make his way towards his grandson's place, kidnap Bobby and download himself into Bobby's brain and take over his grandson's body. What a dick! The voice acting for Robert is also sufficiently creepy, with the voice actor giving him a very calm tone that makes it pretty clear that he thinks that this is totally the right thing to do and Bobby is just disposable.
The fight between Terry and Vance-Batsuit is pretty neat, with the Batsuit absolutely overpowering Terry in actual brute strength, but with a combination of Bruce's old utility belt and rigging it to explode and disabling the Batsuit's stealth mode and Terry's earlier observation of the batsuit's susceptibility to electricity, Terry manages to zap the batsuit with a cable and drive Robert out of it. There's a neat little epilogue about how Bobby sells his grandfather's legacy and company as a final 'fuck you' to him, which I thought was neat.
Ultimately, I feel like "Lost Soul" is the exact opposite of "Joyride". While "Joyride" felt like a ten-minute or five-minute episode premise stretched to twenty, "Lost Soul" could've easily been a two-parter if they had wanted to expand more on the Vances' backstory, or Terry's angst about whether it's him or the suit that made Batman, or even training or trying to figure out the weakness. It's pretty cool.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- There is the very obvious one of Terry wearing Nightwing's mask when fighting Vance. Terry also weaponizes Bruce's original utility belt.
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