In the third episode of The Batman Season Five, Batman The Animates Series alum Stan Berkowitz helps introduce the viewers to the emerald archer, Green Arrow. It’s funny to think of how the character enjoyed little love in the 80’s and 90’s only to become a major player thanks to a high profile relaunch by Kevin Smith and a stunning run by Judd Winnick. His appearances on Justice League Unlimited and Smallville don’t hurt, either.
With a recent retelling of Green Arrow’s origin in the DC Comics mini-series ‘Green Arrow: Year One‘ by Andy Diggle and Jock, it may seem redundant for this week’s episode to walk the audience through who Green Arrow is and how he came to be. But keep in mind that this is the first time that the character’s origin has been told in cartoon format despite the fact that he appeared as early as the first incarnation of Superfriends (the one with Wendy and Marvin).
The episode itself features a rare cartoon pairing of Batman and Green Arrow, which in itself is a nice treat. A traditional ‘villainous master plan’ story involving Count Vertigo, the camaraderie between the heroes is the real attraction here. A neat episode with loads of action and some humorous moments from Robin, this week’s installment is another piece of the pie continuing build up of this new Justice League.
Next week looks to be a Batman solo episode versus Doctor Phosphorous.
Fan favorite writer J. M. DeMatteis (co-creator of the 80’s Justice League) delivered a moving script focusing on loner Brin Londo, Timber Wolf. Building on the character’s origin story last year, Brin Londo’s father returns to once again tortures his son with his own evil schemes.
Timber Wolf is seen attacking and killing his father in public before an assembly of respected scientists. Teammates Phantom Girl and Chameleon Boy assist the angry and confused Timber Wolf in clearing his name, despite the fact that it means going against their teammates, the science police and ‘the rules.’ Because being friends means that you have to bend the rules sometimes.
A cartoon directed at a younger audience, Legion episodes stress themes of cooperation, friendship and teamwork. Given that this is the case, DeMatteis’s script surpasses the saccharin sweetness of children’s entertainment with a glimpse of seedy city streets and neo-futurist city skylines of future Metropolis that hearkened back to the days of the Batman cartoon from the 1990’s and an unexpected narrative from Timber Wolf himself.
A larger star of this week’s episode than I expected was newcomer to the Legion cartoon, Chameleon Boy. Once again, I hope that kids are watching this series since it is such a fun cartoon and Cham perfectly encapsulates its youthful energy.
Sadly, this will be the last year of Kids WB! programming. It’s still unclear if Legion will continue on another network or not, but I have my fingers crossed. The Batman has had a 5 year run, but Legion is just getting started. Hopefully, I’m not the only fan of this series.
Missed out on Season 1? You can find it slowly released on DVD by Warner Bros. (they use the exact same method for every cartoon series; release three partial DVD sets, then a box set of all the episodes you just bought plus one more), but all the episodes can be viewed as streaming media here.
