BEWARE THE BATMAN “Allies” Review

By Nathan Mark on Monday, September 16th, 2013

Well, allies are better than side-kicks, right? SPOILERS AHEAD!

After James Gordon (Kurtwood Smith) arrests Tobias Whale (Michael-Leon Wooley), Whale has his daughter Barbara (Tara Strong) kidnapped, with an ultimatum: if Gordon lets Whale go with a clean record, his daughter will be safe.

Gordon decides that for his daughter’s sake, he’ll need to set aside his pride and ask Batman (Anthony Ruivivar) for help. And now that Batman and Katana (Sumalee Montano) are officially partners, this should be easy, right? Well, maybe not. Katana is feeling that Batman is being a bit…over-bearing, and Barbara has been taken to a very secluded part of Gotham.

As I’ve mentioned before, my favorite plot in Beware the Batman is the League of Assassins plot. Unfortunately, that sub-plot didn’t make an appearance here (although Katana does mention it). But I think some fans will be pleased with this episode. The show is slowly planting seeds for future events.

For example, you can tell that Gordon is starting to warm up to Batman. This is a good thing, since it was always really annoying how Batman would save the day and save the police some trouble, and they would “thank” him by trying to arrest him. Seriously, it was getting on my nerves. But that shouldn’t be a problem anymore.

Meanwhile, Barbara Gordon seems to admire Batman even more. If the air isn’t thick with foreshadowing now, then it never will be. Gordon doesn’t approve of her admiration, yet.

Unfortunately, one thing this episode lacked was tension, I felt. Sure, Barbara is kidnapped and all that, but since she isn’t scared at all, why should we feel scared for her? We do get some octane action, though, as Batman and Katana fight against Phosphorus Rex, a man who can set himself on fire. Unfortunately, Rex is a pretty one-note villain, but ah well.