Surprised that I named this episode after Jim Corrigan and not Onomatopoeia? Don't be. The only thing stupider than Onomatopoeia in comics is an attempt to put him and his metahumor in 1930s Gotham City. Ugh. Some of the showrunners' choices in their series have been impressive. Others have been questionable and some (including this one) downright dumb. Why I do not know. There were no "dumb" character choices, or even interpretations, in "Batman: Brave and the Bold" (although some were ahem unique, some verged on definitive).
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| Most human events have been mere byproducts of History's true goal of producing This Perfect Version of Thaddeus Bodog Sivana. |
Anyway, what happens to heroic Detective Corrigan in this episode is, I think, the second saddest event in the series as a whole, and I am not ashamed to say that it caught me by surprised, just as it was intended to. For my sake, I am glad it did.
The episode, in which Team Good Cops is trying to protect Jim Gordon, who appears to have a price on his head placed there by an unknown mob figure. It's another Battle Against Corruption story, with a strong dollop of the Rich Don't Care About the Poor Or The City, and Right & Wrong Can Be Tricky. I can't believe I am saying this, but in a strange way having Onomatopoeia, an empty cardboard villain with a target on his face where he's supposed to be punched and no ability to spout meaningful dialog was kind of a relief here.
The episode is another example of the series showing us that Barbara Gordon is such a bad-ass just as she is, the idea that she would ever become Batgirl is absurd.
3 comments:
I was surprised by Corrigan too. There was an iteration of him that was corrupt not too long ago in comics, but I really didn't expect that to show up here. I'm also wondering if Batman's discovery of the supernatural and the Midnight character will lead to the Spectre as a redemption arc for Corrigan. I will pat myself on the back for spotting the twist of the ending -- for some reason, as soon as the thug said "Gordon" I knew which Gordon he meant.
I was pleasantly surprised that I was naive enough NOT to have guessed it. I credit it not to my stupidity but to what it left of my innocence and believe in the innate goodness of characters.
This was one of my favorite episodes of the season- Onomatopoeia excepted, but he could have been a generic gangster who happens to be adept at hand-to-hand combat for all the difference it made. I didn’t guess the heel-turn, either. What I liked was the building of tension. We knew the main characters would survive, but keeping them on the run and then holed up in the farmhouse kept me from dwelling on that. I hope season 2 has more episodes like this one.
- Mike Loughlin
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