Spoilers for "Brave and the Bold - In the Chill of the Night"

[icon_uk]

Peekaboo! He SEE'S YOU!!!



Some new characters debut in Batman: Brave and the Bold's next episode "In the Chill of the Night" (Currently available via iTunes)

From the pre-credit story-ette, and hardly surprising for a Paul Dini episode; Zatanna!



who assists Batman in fighting the classic Flash rogue, Abra Kadabra! (I had to include him just for the awesomely villainous moustache!)


And in later scenes, the addition of Poison Ivy to the classic Bat villain line up!



I like the look here, she wears a sort of burlesque dance hall girls train-dress which covers her rear, but doesn't extend to the front.



The Mad Hatter and Two Face


And the avatars of Vengeance and Justice... Spectre and the Phantom Stranger... (Mark Hamill is unrecognisable as the Spectre, but you can hear Conroy as the Stranger)


The old skulls in the pupils look dates back as far as the Spectre's very first appearances in the 1940's.


And in a rather lovely moment, Batman is taken back in time by the Phantom Stranger to a pivotal night within his own lifetime, as the Stranger tries to get him to understand why what happened to his parents REALLY happened.

Thomas Wayne (Adam West) wearing an outfit that would years later inspire Bruce's costume has been in continuity since the 1950's.



And it's nice to see Batman speechless when his mother (Julie Newmar, sounding a little older than one imagines Martha to have been, if one is completely honest) introduces herself to him.


She extends her hand for a shake, or perhaps a gallant kiss from this stranger who has just introduced himself as Matthew Malone, and is a little surprised to get this instead...


Her comment of "Oh my! You're friendly aren't you?" COULD be taken out of context, but it's a lovely moment so I find I just can't.

A great episode IMHO which I won't spoil further.

And for legality, a scene from "The Untold Legend of the Batman" miniseries that we also get in the episode, more or less.


tags: char: batman/bruce wayne, char: spectre/jim corrigan, creator: jim aparo, creator: john byrne (and I'm loathe to add any more tags in case it spoils the episode for anyone)

Comments

[icon_uk]

Simple, he's not sent back to the night they were killed, he goes back to the night which set events in motion when led to them being killed.

And they're in costume because they're at a costume party.

[nezchan]

I could swear I saw a comic story way back in the day that had that plot, but damned if I can recall it clearly.

Bruce is pretty fortunate though, he gets to travel back and see them, up close or at a distance, pretty frequently over the years. Certainly more than most orphans can manage.

[icon_uk]

There is a story like that "To Kill a Legend" in Detective Comics #500. Wonderful story, glorious art.

[nezchan]

That's not the same one as where he goes back to the night they die in a different Earth, is it?

[icon_uk]

Yes, that's the one, they travel to a world where the flow of time means that the murders haven't happened yet.

[nezchan]

Not the one I was thinking of, although I liked that one a lot. I think I had it as an Archie Digest-sized reprint called The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told or something similar. Had that, the Joker Fish one (with the wonderful Pimp Joker) and some others I just can't recall at the moment.

Could have sworn I saw something like the story you just posted in an old Batman Family or something, but it's been a lotta years.

[icon_uk]

Well, like I said, there's "The Untold Legend of the Batman", which summarised the entire history of Batman, Robin, Alfred and co, and was reprinted in a digest style format.

[nezchan]

Either way, it brings back some good memories of how I got into comics in the first place.

You know, I think I'm gonna do a "What got you into comics in the first place" thread.

[foxhack]

I think I have that book, and I think it does have the story you mention.

[darkblade]

Ah that makes much more sense. Thank you.