BEWARE THE BATMAN “Reckoning” Review

The first story arc of Beware the Batman is over. I can safely say it was one of the best episodes yet! Spoilers ahead!

Ra’s al Ghul (Lance Reddick), tired of Batman (Anthony Ruivivar), frees various criminals from jail, including Professor Pyg (Brian George), Magpie (Grey DeLisle), Cypher, Phosphorous Rex (Greg Ellis), and Tobias Whale (Michael-Leon Wooley) to give them a proposition: whoever catches Btaman gets their own chunk of Gotham.

Meanwhile, Katana (Sumalee Montano) wrestles with her emotions after finding out that Alfred (J.B. Blanc) killed her father. Finally, Barbara Gordon (Tara Strong) and her father (Kurtwood Smith) attempt to hack into the Cortex.

This episode is very exciting, to say the least. It starts strong, and the action never lets up, as we go from Batman fighting all the villains, to the villains starting to have in-fights, to Katana confronting Alfred, to Batman’s rematch with Ra’s. Its all good stuff.

The whole thing with the villains is so well done. Of course, all the villains are selfishly wanting the reward for themselves, which leads to some really good action as each villains tries to cut in on the other. Ra’s al Ghul also continues to show why he is to be feared, especially when he faces off against Batman.

Unfortunately, the episode still isn’t perfect. Some parts do feel a bit rushed (Katana loses the SoulTaker Sword without much of a fight, Shiva is taken down too fast for my liking), the Gordon’s sub-plot never really hits it off, and a plot-twist involving Katana’s dad is eye-rollingly obvious.

Still, the episode’s positives outweigh the negatives, and even with a somber ending, we have great promises for the second half of the series!