Saturday Morning Cartoon Reviews for 5/11 – 5/15

Batman: The Brave and the Bold Ep. 17

“Menace of the Conqueror Caveman!”

Review
This episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold had an different take on long time DCU villain Vandal Savage. Vandal’s origin is still that of an immortal man who has lived since the caveman era and has a genius intellect. 

However, what was different was that this version of Vandal had a different character design as he did not have his business-like dictator look. Instead, this version Vandal looked a lot more like a caveman on steroids. It was an interesting take on the character that lead to a funny moment at the end of the episode between him and Booster Gold in the future.

I’ll admit that I’ve never been a big fan of the Booster Gold character. I think he is good character and I liked him in 52 but I’ve never been a fan. So this episode was more on the average side as much of the comedy relied on Booster being his self-absorb self which stopped working towards the middle of the episode. Also even though the battle that Batman and Booster had against Vandal and his men and women was entertaining it didn’t have that same type of energy as some of the better episodes of this series.

The one thing I really liked about this episode was actual the opening adventure with Batman and Wildcat fighting Bane. I would have much rather preferred it if the main episode focused on this as I like the Batman and Wildcat dynamic have on this show and thought the fight they had with Bane was better than the fight we got in the main episode.

Overall a decent episode that could have been better.

Episode Rating – 6.8/10

Iron Man: Armored Adventures Ep. 5

“Whip Lash”

Review
After the last episode I am done expecting much in terms of character development as the teenage drama stuff going on in this show just does not fit how an Iron Man series should be like. Instead I decided to judge this series purely on if it could provide some good action scenes. And overall this episode did a nice job with the action stuff and I enjoyed the fight between Tony, in his Silver Centurion armor, and Whip Lash.

This was the best fight scene we have gotten on this series so far at the team doing all the CGI work on this show actually made the CGI animation of this show look pretty cool during the fight. The only thing I could have done without is Tony joking around with Whip Lash as it did not sound like I was watching Iron Man but instead Spider-Man. And while the banter works for Spider-Man it just does not feel right to hear Iron Man/Tony bantering so much with his opponents.

I know this a cartoon for kids but I want to know when did Pepper get super powers? Because man she sure knows how to dodge bullets from the machine guns the bad guys were firing at her. Oh well, since it is a kids cartoon it can be excused since we can’t see the characters bleed much less be shot. Also I got surprised that Pepper was not as annoying as she was in previous episode.  Of course, that was until the last few minutes of the episode were she went back to her annoying self I have come to loathe.

Now while the action stuff was better than previous episode I still find the teenage drama stuff is weighing done this series from being the Iron Man series fans of the character are looking for. I just get annoyed with how easy teenage Tony quickly makes new and functional Iron Man suits with ever really having to test it. It makes everything to convenient for Tony to be able to build all these suits so easily that we never get to actually see the process Tony goes through to build the new suit or the reason to build new armors instead of just adding to his first suit.

Episode Rating – 5.2/10

The Spectacular Spider-Man Ep. 8

“Reaction”

Review
After spending the first half of the season being pushed around by Norman and Hammerhead we finally see Otto Octavius become Doc Ock. I like how this episode lead up to the transformation as we see some of the anger within Otto as he imagines using his mechanical arms to threaten Norman as he is being screamed at. It was a nice little scene that helps to show how Otto would act once the arms were infused into his spine.

The fights between Spider-Man and Doc Ock in this episode was what has come to be expected from this show: fun and fast paced action. The fight scene at the pier was really fun to watch as Spider-Man had to not only fight Doc Ock but keep all of his friends from school safe. Seeing Doc Ock take Liz hostage is a nice example of how cruel he can be when he doesn’t get what he wants. Overall, I hope we see Dr. Ock again for round 2 as the fight between him and Spider-Man was a lot of fun.

I also continue to love how the creative team behind this show do a great job mixing in the action with the stuff going on in Peter’s personal life. Spider-Man has always been a big soap opera and the stuff between Peter, Liz, Flash, and MJ was stuff you expect from a high school drama and it perfectly fits with what goes on with the comics. With Flash and Liz now broken up it could be interesting to see if Peter goes after her in the next episode since Liz seems to be showing more and more interest in him.

Episode Rating – 8.7/10