BEWARE THE BATMAN “Attraction” Review

After about nine months, Beware the Batman is back with new episodes, thanks to Toonami. With the show already reportedly canceled, it might not matter anymore, but at least fans can watch the final half of the season. Some spoilers ahead.

When Batman (Anthony Ruivivar) begins visiting Magpie (Grey DeLisle) at Blackgate Penitentiary, the villainess deludes herself into thinking Batman is in love with her. She escapes the prison, and decides that the only way to have him for herself is to murder his current female partner – Katana (Sumalee Montano)

One of the best parts of this episode, like her last one, is Magpie herself. In Beware, she seems to be taking the place of Catwoman, but in a much more insane but fun to watch way. The writers do a great job of showcasing her mental state.

Much of the credit needs to go to DeLisle. She gives Magpie such a good range of emotion, to the point where you can (almost) sympathize with her, for wanting a companion, namely Batman. Is this really the same lady who voiced the mostly calm Aya in Green Lantern?

While the CG animation still isn’t perfect, you can’t say the fights aren’t handled well. Katana vs Magpie is a highlight of the episode, and Batman gets some cool action scenes too. Which sadly leads to some negatives.

Literally all of Batman’s fight scenes in this episode consist of him getting royally smacked by Magpie….until the climax fight, where he pretty much defeats her in about ten seconds. The excuse seems to be he was going easy on her at first out of pity, but its no fun watching a Batman episode where the title character gets thrown around like a ragdoll.

Meanwhile, in not-quite-negative territory, but approaching it, the whole “Hero who may get consumed by his inner darkness” trope is a bit tired at this point. For new viewers, of course, it doesn’t matter, but for older viewers, we’ve seen it all before. I highly doubt Batman would turn evil just because he hangs out at night!

But some minor gripes don’t make a bad episode, and this one was very impressive. It reminds me why DC Animation is highly regarded. It’s too bad it isn’t being given the chance to shine lately, we need more like this!