"I Am the Night" Re-Watch: "Cold Comfort" & "Double Talk"

 The New Batman Adventures

Welcome back! I hope you all really did watch "Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero" a few weeks ago or are familiar with it because if not, you may be a little lost watching this episode. Alright. Time for more modern B: TAS fun with some questionable character re-designs.

Bruce Wayne: "Alfred tells me you failed a civics test?"

Tim Drake: "Like I really care what a district attorney does."

Bruce Wayne: "You don't know the first thing about the American justice system, do you?"

Tim Drake: "I know it's bogus."

Bruce Wayne: "And how did you come to that well-thought-out conclusion?"

Tim Drake: "Watching you. You don't exactly follow the rules of due process."

Bruce Wayne: [flustered] "I... how did you do on the math test?"

Mr. Freeze is on the rampage. And this time he is destroying things that people have poured their hearts and souls into. Things that can't be replaced. After Nora Fries was cured, Freeze never came back to be with his wife. Batman and Batgirl can't find rhyme or reason for Freeze's attacks and after he invades Wayne Manor and threatens Tim and Alfred, Batman will stop at nothing to put Freeze on ice.

Spider-Freeze, Spider-Freeze...

After "Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero," you may have thought that Victor Fries just shuffled off into the Arctic and lived happily ever after. Raising polar bears and orphaned Inuit children to his hearts content. But Vic is a tragic figure so that definitely wasn't going to happen. Freeze has started his own girl group and is going around Gotham wreaking havoc. Like, I get that Freeze's whole thing is being coldhearted, but daaammmn. 

I haven't watched lot of these episodes so I'm experiencing them for the first time. Like the majority of Mr. Freeze episodes, this one is not bad. It is one of the benefits of how sparingly the show has used Freeze throughout his run. He has a costume re-design because this is "The New Batman Adventures" and they have to do a refresh on most of the characters apparently. It works on Freeze though. They ditch the glasses, giving him red eyes, darkening his suit. It just looks much more menacing and imposing, which really works for this episode, especially.

There's lots of little moments in this episode. Batgirl's training sequence. Tim and Bruce's back and forth about civics. It's nice to see Bruce being so involved with Barbara's training and you get to see him interact with a younger ward. In B:TAS, Dick was already in college so we didn't get to see a lot of this type of father/son interaction and it works. It adds a layer when Freeze and his Ice Maidens burst in and are threatened. And even though you see it coming, the Spider-Freeze reveal works.

The action is top notch. My favorite is probably the aforementioned Wayne Manor scene with Batgirl laying people out before she is laid out. The opening action sequence at the gala is a highlight as well, mainly because Freeze freezes Batman's cape to the ground.

There are a couple minor issues. What is the deal with these Ice Maidens? How did Freeze find them? Are they wearing anything under those parkas? And Batman is, pardon the pun, pretty cold at the end of the episode. He full on Zack Snyder's Freeze with that cold fusion bomb. Sure, he's just a head now, but come on Bats. You're opposed to all murder, including sentient head murder.

Grade: A-

Arnold Wesker: "-- And Mr. Wayne even gave me my job back."

Mrs. Segar: "I'm so glad, Arnie. Maybe now that you're back, you won't be such a stranger this time. Use the rec room. Sometimes it helps to be around others."

Arnold Wesker: "I will. But for right now, I'm just looking forward to being by myself."

With the help of psychiatrists, Arnold Wesker aka The Ventriloquist has purged his other personality, the gangster, Scarface, from his psyche. He's living in a Wayne Foundation funded halfway house and even has a job at Wayne Enterprises. But his past won't leave him alone. He's being accosted on the street by Mugsy and Rhino, Scarface's former thugs, and it isn't long before Scarface is calling him on the phone and trying to convince him to pull another job. Can Wesker stay on the straight and narrow or is Scarface inevitable?

Dummies.

I feel like I need to get this out of the way from the jump. I know that I'm harping on these re-designs, but how could I not? We had two seasons of these characters looking one way and now we've got this season where they look like this. And Arnold Wesker looks... not great. The time did him. It's a combination of things. There is the wispy hair, the odd head shape, the beady eyes. This is the first re-design that I really, really hated, but more than likely, I won't have to deal with it again. So there is a plus.

B: TAS has had a few episodes where one of Batman's Rogues has reformed, and it usually goes the same way. They are doing everything right,  and Batman is immediately suspicious. He's following them around. He's laying down threats and it basically becomes a self fulfilling prophecy when the criminal goes back to doing criminal shit. 

This pattern changes right from the start. First off, we have sympathy for Wesker. You get the impression that he has really worked hard and wants to turn his life around. Even Batman seems to see it, he is skulking around but it feels like it is because he wants Wesker to succeed too. That is reinforced when Wesker talks to Bruce Wayne at work. Everyone wants Wesker to succeed, except for Mugsy and Rhino and they almost succeed. Watching them pay a little person to dress up like Scarface and torment Wesker, I felt really bad for him. I was worried that this was going to go the way that other "criminal redemption" B: TAS stories had gone. I was pleasantly surprised when it didn't.

The action in this episode is sort of an afterthought and feels a bit tacked on. It is still fun, especially Batman tossing the bomb into the vent to save himself and Batgirl, but still. I know this is a cartoon aimed at kids and focusing on the psychological deterioration of a criminal trying to turn his life around is not necessarily fun stuff for the kiddies, but I kind of wished it would have leaned away from the big action, threatening to kill Mugsy and Rhino.

Grade: B+

Next up, Nightwing appears officially and Scarecrow is back.

What do you all think of these episodes? Am I being too harsh on some of these redesigns? Let me know in the comments.