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If you were disappointed by the description of the episode don’t miss the first several minutes, as there is fan service abound (in a classic old school way, not the other way). And the episode? Find out for yourself.

Name three super heroes with the most animated series and live action series slash movies under their belts you’d have to admit one of them is, yes, Batman.
Don’t stress much on the rest, there’s only two others I know of… Superman, and Spider-Man. I don’t think X-Men count since that’s a team and not an individual hero.

But just in case you missed the first several minutes…

Disappointed that the first team up with Batman is the Blue Beetle? If you tune in for the first five minute you’ll see a mini-team up with the pairing you most likely wanted to see for the premiere episode, Batman & Green Arrow… sure, it’s a rather young Green Arrow (not the one from Justice League Unlimited, you know, the classic one) but it’s still a great team up.

We find the duo in an absurb trap like the kind you’d find in a classic Adam West Batman series episode (in fact pay attention to the opening animation and you catch glimpse of Batman scaling a building in another tribute to the classic Adam West Batman series. Also as you check in on the new Blue Beetle (no relation to the classic Blue Beetle no doubt) he’s watching TV with his clueless pal (who doesn’t know his bud is a super hero) when, while channel surfing, runs into a cat food commercial featuring a cat who becomes… whatever the super cat (a tribute to classic Superman and how he used to have a menagerie of super pets including a super cat).

OK, once you see the whole episode you note that this is really like the classic Brave and the Bold in a lot more than just title and the pair-ups. Let’s start with the animation, it is fresh and bold but takes all it’s cues from a more classic interpretation of the Batman (as opposed to more recent versions from Justice League and the Batman Begins inspired The Batman), the new look for the Batman has an almost Adam West era Batman feel to it (then agian from the opening credits onward the whole series harkens back to a purer age (when Brave and the Bold was being published).

The Batman opening is a bright, almost Teen Titans (animated) cheery upbeat. The “new” Batmobile (only seen in the opening this week out) is a classic throwback to a age past in Batman mythos, Even the story has a purer less darkened feel to it; as Batman takes the new Blue Beetle (more of a Guyver meets X-O Manowar battle armor that is allergic to sonic attacks) to stop an incoming piece of space debris threatening to smash an orbiting space station. looking to measure the potential of this new Blue Beetle as a hero, it is only (when the two end up teleported to another planet across the galaxy) to watch the kid prove his hero mettle fighting to save a planet of white amoeba creatures who can double as power sources from a rude alien and his thugs and large spaceships (even as he teaches Blue Beetle about the power of mind over muscle).

Dark Knight burnout? After the serious tones of Batman : The Animated Series (first inspired by Tim Burton’s Batman, then retooled to reflect the evil done by Joel Schumacher) and The Batman, aren’t you ready for a campy snappy action popper of a super hero team up beat-em up with just pure joy drawn from the fare (though maybe it’s a bit dark watching those little white amoeba people thrown into a huge power system where they are harshly exploited for their energy, but that’s like the ONE scene and the most of it is pure old school Batman).

From the far more Adam West/classic Batman style, to the strange things he gets into (one trip to stop the destruction of a space station and he ends up saving an alien world and being dubbed the galaxy’s best sidekick by the aliens… you’ll see…) this is a lighter punchier fare that should please Batman fans with a new team-up, and new action yarn every week.

I think I’m going to enjoy the pleasure of this, all the lightness of Teen Titans but none of the teen angst and attempts to sell the series to Anime Otaku, how can you lose with this? 5 requests to install a batphone and batpoles into Wayne Manor out of 5.

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