"I Am the Night" Rewatch: "His Silicon Soul" and "Fire From Olympus"

"Batman: The Animated Series"

One of my favorite things about B: TAS is that it doesn't run things that are popular into the ground. It gives them time to breathe and brings them back when the time is right. That is the case with the first episode that will be reviewed today and I couldn't be happier.

Also! Warner Bros. just announced that they will be releasing the complete series on blu ray for the first time ever!! It's full of awesome special features and it includes both movies: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and SubZero. If you have been on the fence about buying the series, now's your chance.  Check it out on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Batman-Complete-Animated-Limited-Blu-ray/dp/B07FSRBWXK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1532992697&sr=8-1&keywords=batman+the+animated+series+blu+ray&dpID=51hPsSbwtJL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch ( I should probably also say I wasn't paid in any way to endorse this.)

Without further adieu...

Bruce Wayne: "Could it be it had a soul, Alfred? A soul of silicon, but a soul nonetheless."

Just when criminals thought it was safe to rob a tech warehouse, what should they find? Batman in a crate! It turns out this isn't your run of the mill Caped Crusader, it's a cyborg duplicate created by HARDAC. The real Bats quickly susses out the situation after Cyborg Batman shows up at Wayne Manor and confronts Karl Rossum, HARDAC's creator. Roszsum swears he doesn't know anything and when Cyborg Batman shows up and saves Rossum from a fire he started, things become a little hazy. How much of the real Batman exists inside the cyborg and does that change how the Dark Knight should take care of things?

Is there something on my face?

The "Heart of Steel" two-parter together forms one of my all-time favorite B: TAS episodes. Watching it recently for this blog cemented that. I knew that the show revisited HARDAC and Rossum and introduced Cyborg Batman, but this episode is not one I remember as vividly as I do the introductory episodes. I was a little uneasy when I cued this episode up, but turns out I didn't need to be.

Right from the jump, the episode sets a great tone. It's got a really great sci-fi horror feel that hits you as soon as the thugs in the warehouse unload their guns into Cyborg Batman and he just gets up. This feel carries over to when Cyborg Batman shows up at Wayne Manor to terrorize Alfred. It's crazy and weird and kind of scary, 

but it's also kind of sad. Cyborg Batman clearly doesn't know what he is and Conroy sells the hell out of that heartbreak and confusion.

Everything about this episode works for me. I really dig Rossum's high tech farm/greenhouse. It makes total sense that he would want to do something like this after the HARDAC disaster but couldn't give up technology altogether. I love seeing Batman unsure of what to do. I enjoyed the final confrontation between Batman and Cyborg Batman. You can never go wrong with a half human/half robot face. I'm just saying.

If you're a fan of any kind of science fiction, then you know this idea of AI and what is free will and what is programming is something that has been done to death. This episode doesn't reinvent the wheel in that respect, but it takes this idea and reflects it through the prism of B: TAS.

Grade: A-

Maxwell 'Maxie' Zeus: [about Arkham] "Now this is truly Olympus. Surely there can be no other place. [sees Poison Ivy] There's beautiful Demeter, goddess of the harvest. [sees Two-Face] and double-faced Janus, lord of the givings and endings. [sees The Joker] and merry Hermes, the trickster of the gods. Now, at last, mighty Zeus is home."

Maximillian Zeus is going through it. The weapons manufacturer thinks he actually is the god that is his namesake and he's ready to use his newest weapon to fire lightning at the citizens of Gotham City. His assistant, Cleo, is worried about "Maxie" so she enlists Batman to try to bring her boss/boyfriend? back to his senses.

Worst cosplay ever

This episode was not my favorite. This guy has a pretty server mental illness that makes him think he is a Greek god and everyone is pretty laissez-faire about the whole thing, including Batman. To be fair, Cleo is legit concerned, but everyone sort of downplays it, which is odd, because they know he has this giant laser/electricity canon. 

One of my biggest issues with the episode is that the reason Maxie went from billionaire weapons manufacturer to delusional wannabe God is super vague. I totally understand not wanting to get too deep into it and over explain, but really the most minimal explanation would have been good. It didn't have to go too in depth but had they sketched it in a little better, I may have been more about it.

I feel like this episode was trying to tap into the zany, over-the-top storytelling of the1960's show and it didn't quite get there. It's not that I don't think that B: TAS can tell stories in that vein, they can and have, it's just that I feel they have to walk this really thin line and this episode crossed it a few too many times. 

That being said, the blimp sequence was pretty nifty, though you'd think the GCPD would have learned their lesson about blimps by now.

Grade: C

Next up, Scarface hits the scene along with his dummy and Veronica Vreeland makes her return to Gotham.

What did you guys think? Happy to see HARDAC and Rossum make a return? Am I being too hard on Maxie? Let me know in the comments.