Review: Beware the Batman "Family"

Let me just get it off my chest right now.

I hate it when present-day ninjas dress up in their best pajamas while carrying around swords.

Back in the day, when ninjas actually existed, they dressed up like peasants. Because looking like everybody else is a good way to blend in. The idea of the black pajamas comes from traditional Japanese theatre, where stagehands would wear all black so the audience wouldn't notice them as they did stagehand stuff. So when a stagehand suddenly attacked a character onstage, that was their way of showing the audience that this guy's "invisible."

Present-day ninjas should logically dress in hoodies and carry guns.

Thank you for bearing with me; I'll actually critique the episode now.

Bruce and Tatsu know each other's secrets now. I'd say more about this, but the full implications of this plot twist isn't seen until later in the series. So we'll get there when we get there. I’m just glad that all the subplots are being resolved with Tatsu.

I wish that the Argus Club had been touched upon in more episodes before this.  I really can't critique the Argus Club because they were barely present. But before I forget, the Circle-A symbol for the Argus Club… was Anarky supposed to be a red herring as to the true purpose of the club? Because otherwise we’ve got two unrelated sets of villains using Circle-A motifs. And that's just odd.

Now let's talk about what I can really sink my metaphorical reviewing teeth into.

Lady Shiva
I'm going to be blunt. I don't like her in pretty much every way.

1. Her outfit is impractical for a supposed assassin.
2. She doesn't do anything but order her just-as-ineffectual ninjas around. Why are they listening to her? When did they ever establish her as being a threat? The answer is never.
3. Her voice actress is using that default "sexy evil lady" purr that I'm growing to utterly despise after hearing so many voice actresses use it.
4. She let Silver Monkey get away, which was a stupid mistake on her part. Mark my words, he'll team up with Batman. Just you watch.

But all in all, this was a solid character piece. For every character except for Lady Shiva.

Next time, we get to see how Tatsu and Batman get along when they start working together,

See you then!