Yes, I totally have a mental age of like 10

[drakyndra]

So, apparently about fifteen zillion new trailers came out this weekend. However, I am going to dare to be different from everyone else on my flist and not talk about said trailers.

Instead, I am going to talk about Batman: The Brave and the Bold, which is that cartoon I mentioned, featuring my poor cancelled Jaime.

And my thoughts can basically be summed up as thus: It was completely and utterly ridiculously silly. And that is why it was AWESOME. I giggled the whole way through.

I mean, seriously, there is a Bat-lightsaber, and Batman (very nearly) breathes in space. DO NOT QUESTION THESE THINGS! JUST LET THE AWESOMELY SILLINESS OF THEM WASH OVER YOU.


'Bout the only thing I disliked was the fact that Green Arrow was beardless, which just threw me. I'm not even a Green Arrow reader or anything (I just follow via scans_daily and the episodes of JLU I saw), but it was weird.

Something else that threw me was Paco not being in on the Blue Beetle thing. I mean, I was willing to overlook that because it was Jaime and Paco on an actual TV show, but it still threw me a little. As did Jaime being so clueless as the Blue Beetle history. It didn't bother me once I saw what they were doing, it just made me do a mental doubletake before I adjusted to the different canon.

On the canon note, from the interviews I read about the show, 'cos it's all different characters starring it won't be a real arc heavy show, but that for the characters that recur most - and Jaime was singled out here for note - there will be definite character development. I look forward to see where they are going with this.

Anyhow, back to talking about the episode.

It was very retro, all shiny and bouncy (and I do love the theme music), and just enough tongue-in-cheekness to acknowledge the inherent silliness of said retro aspects and to have fun with them. Or at least have Batman lampshade them in his voice-overs (which I actually quite liked most of, though the ones dwelling on his relationships with other heroes verged on cheese. Or sounding kinda slashy with Green Arrow.)

But above all it was fun.

Random things I loved:
- The Bat-lightsaber.
- Jaime ♥
- Paco ♥
- Jaime being an epic fanboy geek, bless him (even if his Ted Kord fanboyism was switched to making him a Batfan)
- Batman breathing in space! It was that kind of show, okay.
- All the comic shout-outs, from mentioning there were past Blue Beetles, to the random posters.
- Batman, sidekick of the Blue One. Greatest thing ever.
- The Gibble with the Blue Beetle fanart.
- Actually, pretty much everything the Gibbles did. It was hilarious to see them being thrown around.
- Jaime's epic failure of an inspirational speech.
- The fact that the cheesy power within thing was literalised by the Gibbles using their bodies.
- Batman having the smaller statue. And him just generally being a smartarse.

Randomly meta thought I won't expand on: Just how much of Jaime's plot was taken from major points of the Reach arc squished to fit into one episode?

Though I can kinda see where the criticisms of being too kiddy and not liking this take on Batman come from, I don't really agree with them. I mean, yeah, I like the serious business emotionally complex Batman. I saw TDK in the cinemas six times, dammit! I just also happen to like things that are silly and fun.


Yeah, it was kiddy. I don't care, it was fun. Good enough for me to tune in to see the rest of the episodes, even if they don't all feature my darling Jaime (that said, some of the upcoming guest stars are pretty darned awesome).

In conclusion, I need someone to make me an icon of B:B&B Batman with "Blue Beetle's sidekick" on it. Do you like that acronym? I made it myself.