NOTE: Due to the loss of the WGN, editor Tim "TWO-FACE" Leighton has been virtually unable to review any new episodes. Until he can once again, we'll be having someone substituting for him. 
Thank you to Justin Chen for this review!

 

NOTE: ALRIGHT! I've been messing up WHO is writing WHAT for this column for too long now. If you wanna see who's writing each review, just go to the bottom - they all sign it there. Sorry Zanna and Justin! I feel so foolish...agh...*HALF OF MY FACE BLUSHES*

 

<BATMAN BEYOND>
REVENANT
Written by Hillary J. Bader
Directed by Kyoung  (Kydung?)  Won Lim
Animation by Koko, Dong Yang
Animation Co., Ltd.
Original air date: December 11, 1999
My rating: ***1/2 (Out of five stars)

 

A mysterious vandal is plaguing Hamilton Hill High School.  The students think the vandal is the ghost of a dead student, Garrison Jacobs.  Terry sees the vandalism and an attack on several students, including Dana, Chelsea, and especially, Nelson Nash.  Later, in the Batcave, Terry is skeptical about the ghost. Bruce has witnessed the supernatural, but isn't convinced in this case.  After another ghostly incident, Terry connects all the attacks to one suspect, Willie Watt.  Terry and Batman both go after Willie.

 

This episode reminds me of the villain-first-appearance stories from the Batman series.  Most of these stories were shown in two parts.  The first part sets up the situation that creates the villain or his special abilities and then the second part shows the villain committing crimes with his new m.o. (modus operandi or method of operation).  REVENANT is Willie's second part, m.o. episode.

 

GOOD POINTS:

 

REVENANT is a good, dual meaning title.  The ghost seemingly returns from the afterlife and Willie Watt returns from a long absence.

 

Terry exhibits some detective skills in this episode when he deduces that the vandalism and attacks are targeting specific people and connects all the incidents to Willie Watt.

 

Bruce appears for one scene in this episode and gets some good lines.  "I've seen it all, demons, witch boys, immortals, zombies.  But this thing, I don't know, it feels so...so high school."

 

Terry also gets some good lines.  After the shower scene, Terry wonders, "An invisible boy in the girls' shower, why didn't I think of that?"  Later, when Commissioner Barbara Gordon closes the school down temporarily, Terry speaks to her and says, "You're a hero to my people".

 

Terry cleverly tricks Willie into revealing his psychic powers and admitting to the school vandalism.

 

Willie is still isolated and ignored by his family, but he is no longer a scrawny misfit.  Now he is a muscular, bullying misfit with strong telekinetic powers and reason to dislike Terry and Batman.  Future Willie stories should prove interesting.

 

As a secondary story, Terry's brother Matt misses his father and even wishes he could contact his father's ghost so that he won't forget him.  At the episode end, Terry and Matt spend some time together reminiscing.

 

BAD POINTS:

 

While the animation is good, one scene has a small mistake.  In the very wet shower scene, the girls are soaked and have dripping wet hair.  However, when they run out of the shower room, their hair is completely dry and styled!

 

When Terry goes to Juvenile Hall, he alludes to the fact that he's been there.  Come on writers, tell that story!

 

Yet again, Terry is armed with some type of weapon to capture a villain, but the weapon only has one dose or projectile.  Can't the Batbelt carry extras?

 

Since Terry spoiled Willie's future plans, why didn't Willie go after Terry instead of Nelson at the end?

 

Zanna (Zanna_Z@Yahoo.com)
__________________________
EDITORIAL!
(by Kelly Tindall)

 

THE WORLDS WE LIVE IN, THE WORLDS WE CREATE

 

The Japanese animated film, "Princess Mononoke", had its last showing at the ancient Plaza Theatre last night.  I was there, along with a decent-sized crowd of curious animation fans and late-comers.  I had come again to see the finest animated film I've ever had the joy to see, and to expose such a film to another of my disbelieving friends.  Moments in, they became believers.

 

One of the most striking things about the world director/writer/animator/lyricist Hayao Miyazaki created for this film, his undeniable masterpiece, was that he created a WORLD.  It wasn't a mere background for the action, it wasn't a place for character exposition.  It was a WORLD, a fully functioning universe complete with hierarchies, jealousies, and epic battles. 
It's a world that is hardly considered in animation today.

 

Except, of course, for Batman.

 

While it is hardly fair to compare something as basically rushed and incomplete as a television cartoon to something as polished as a film, the point remains.  The creators behind Batman, Superman, and most recently Batman Beyond went out of their way to create a world where every character had a place, no matter how odd or unconventional they may be.  When you see an oddity like Clayface, he fits in with normal people like Summer Gleeson or Renee Montoya.  They all belong to Gotham City.

 

Now, we have the most recent universe to explore; the world of an aged Bruce Wayne and a brand- new Batman.  It's not the Gotham of the past, a place we thought we knew simply because it appeared to be the 'present' (with black-and-white t.v.s and rotary phones).  It's a Gotham of the future, a place that may exist one day or never come to pass...but its all brand-new, and that's part of the joy of watching.

 

In our new time, we see a world where high technology affects everyone, not unlike our own time.  Instead of special contact lenses, people add cat's eyes.  Beyond merely watching a television, a gigantic wall panel actually IS a televsion.  Cars fly, people seem to be made of frozen flesh and inky fluid, and the world, to those who are new to it, has become a loud and often terrifying place.

 

That's part of the beauty.  We don't know this world, but we have two excellent guides.  First, of course, is Terry, a young man to whom this rush of fast and loose technology is merely a standard of life.  Second, but no less important, is Bruce.

 

Bruce is our eyes and our ears in the world of tomorrow.  He is a man who never grew out of that one shattering moment when the two most important people died in front of him.  He grew up, learning more about the deep recesses of science, technology, and even magic than almost any other man.  He became Batman.  And then he stopped, put away the mask, and waited patiently for the time when he would be needed again.

 

He's arrived, of course, into this strange and bizarre world.  He can learn to adapt to it, of course...he's BATMAN, he's designed to do so.  But it's new to him.  And it's new to us.  And we learn together, just as we learn to face the darkness in our own hearts and lives with Terry, and learn to get along with our elders, our mentors, and our teachers.  The ideas of Batman; respect, heart, mind, body, and strength, against all else...those are the constants that bridge the gap between the past and the future.