Hello, my friends. No matter what season we ultimately find ourselves in, we must stay united in order to properly combat against the sinister forms of evil that threatens our world whether they be human in appearance or otherworldly otherwise. With that in mind, I welcome you back to another entry of…
Last time, we had the Caped Crusader team up with a few heroes in order to stop a group of animal-themed villains from sending an asteroid down onto Gotham especially since it had a precious mineral embedded within its core. This time around, the city as well as the entire globe will face a different kind of threat that’s not just gruesome and physical but also digital as well. On that note, it’s time that we cast a critical eye upon…
Released on August 18, 2015 for DVD & Blu-Ray, this once again sees the directing and writing duo of Butch Lukic & Heath Corson helming this kid-friendly series based on an action figure line. As for the kind of fiends that the Dark Knight and company will find themselves up against this time around, let’s shamble on in and find out.
We open at Arkham Asylum where Cyrus Gold a.k.a. Solomon Grundy (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) and Siobhan McDougal a.k.a. Silver Banshee (voiced by Kari Wuhrer) have just broken out. They eventually make their way into Gotham City where it’s Halloween night and people are out trick-or-treating. Due to everyone wearing various costumes, the fiends are able to blend in since at least one guy (who’s dressed as Elvis) automatically assumes that they’re regular individuals. Because they’re in the middle of the road, they end up blocking a trio of costumed citizens as the driver yells at them to get out of the way. However, they discover that the opposing beings are the genuine article as Solomon lifts the car up and causes the three young men to fall out before he and Silver Banshee drive off in their vehicle.
As they speed through traffic, they quickly get the attention of some cops within a pair of hovering police cars though Siobhan is easily able to take them out with her Death Wail.
Just as they continue on their escape path, they get spotted from the rooftops by Dick Grayson a.k.a. Nightwing (voiced by Will Friedle) who is soon met up by Oliver Queen a.k.a. Green Arrow (voiced by Chris Diamantopoulos). Dick is a little stunned to see him again, yet Ollie quickly mentions that he heard about their foes’ recent escape from Arkham via a police subnet and that he was already “in the neighborhood”. From there, he fires an arrow that hits the car before its small bomb explodes and gets their attention. Silver Banshee then spots them and unleashes a shriek, causing them to dive out of the way.
However, the fiends aren’t in the clear yet as Cyrus notices the Batmobile approaching them. Inside said vehicle, Bruce Wayne a.k.a. Batman (voiced by Roger Craig Smith) and Tim Drake a.k.a. Red Robin (voiced by Yuri Lowenthal) proceed to pursue them while avoiding Siobhan’s Death Wail. During the chase, Nightwing manages to swing down onto the car before engaging McDougal in a backseat struggle.
Queen then joins the pursuit on his motorcycle just as the super felons manage to reach a tunnel, to which Silver Banshee uses her shriek to cause some massive debris from the roof to collapse and prevent Bruce & Tim from immediately following them. As such, Wayne activates the Batmobile’s drill in order for them to dig their way through the rubble.
Back with Dick and Oliver, they suddenly get hit by some goopy green blobs that squirts out a specific gas at them. It’s soon revealed to be Fear Gas as Grayson ends up cowering in terror before Siobhan punches him out cold. As for Green Arrow, he falls off his motorcycle before he’s soon met upon by the Fear Gas maker himself: Dr. Jonathan Crane a.k.a. Scarecrow (voiced by Brian T. Delaney). With Oliver also stricken by this induced dread, Jonathan then approaches his villainous comrades and berates them for not immediately heading to their meet-up point following their breakout. Afterwards, Crane takes over driving duties as they dump Nightwing’s body out of their vehicle before heading out.
Later, Batman and Red Robin finally catch up to their teammates who thankfully recover from the Fear Gas. Dick then gives Bruce one of the remaining goopy green balls as Wayne analyzes it and discovers that it still has some residue of Crane’s signature fear-inducing vapor. From there, Dick wonders why Scarecrow, Silver Banshee and Solomon Grundy are working together.
Following the title card, we then cut to the next night where a newscaster mentions that Gotham will be welcoming a certain “cybernetic superhero” since he’ll be the guest of honor for the upcoming Inca Exhibit over at the Gotham Museum. The reporter also mentions that the particular figure’s systems were vital towards discovering the specific location as well as the excavation of the valuable artifacts at the site. During this, a pair of officers within a hovering police car are on the lookout for the escaped fiends even though they haven’t found anything yet.
Over at a particular building, Batman proceeds to beat up some thugs over at a warehouse setting. Just then, it’s revealed to be a virtual reality game as the young designer named Gogo Shoto (voiced by Noel Fisher) isn’t satisfied with the throwing animation. Shortly afterwards, a female coworker named Ana (voiced by Janell Cox) pops in and says that she’s heading out before taking her leave.
Just as he continues his work, he soon spots Ana entering his office again though nowhere near as talkative as before. Not only that, but she’s also able to hold him up by his shirt. He manages to slam his V.R. set into her before she suddenly delivers some swift strikes. Fortunately, he’s able to dodge them before he runs out and hides within one of the office cubicles.
He then trips and falls over the actual Ana before the imposter spots him, causing him to flee into the central mainframe as he manages to lock himself inside there. With the false figure’s strikes upon the door being able to start causing some significant damage, Gogo manages to reach a computer in order to access the company’s electronic billboard and project a Bat Signal onto it.
Meanwhile, Batman is riding around the city as he learns from his butler named Alfred Pennyworth (voiced by Alastair Duncan) that there hasn’t been any mention of the escaped super felons, especially on all corners of the internet. Bruce then tells him to keep searching before he soon spots the Bat Signal on the building’s billboard and heads out towards it.
Back inside the company, the false Ana manages to punch down the door just as she tells Gogo that she’s taking him with her. Just as she finally captures him, Wayne shows up to intervene. However, she’s able to shapeshift her arm into a sledgehammer and strike him with enough force to knock him back. Soon enough, she then reveals her true identity as it’s actually Basil Karlo a.k.a. Clayface (voiced by Dave B. Mitchell). He then proceeds to absorb Gogo into his body before he jumps out a window, transforms his arms into bat wings and flies off. Batman is able to recover and soar after him via the glider function in his cape before their chase turns into an on-foot pursuit.
With Bruce gaining ground, Basil manages to spot an oncoming dump truck as he fires some clay onto its windshield and blind its driver. With the vehicle barreling towards some innocent civilians, Wayne manages to throw a Batarang at its tires which causes it to swerve away from them before crashing into a parked car.
From there, Karlo manages to reach the sewers and escape while the Dark Knight gets thanked by a few people for saving them before the scene ends with a kid getting a selfie picture of himself with the Caped Crusader.
Over at S.T.A.R. Labs, the cybernetic superhero known as Victor Stone a.k.a. Cyborg (voiced by Khary Payton) receives some upgrades courtesy of his father named Dr. Silas Stone (voiced by Cedric Yarbrough). From there, they proceed to put Victor’s new tracking/targeting system to the test as Silas sends out some holographic targets for his son to shoot at while also telling his son that he’s received some “propulsion upgrades” as Cyborg becomes excited over his newfound flight ability. While Cyborg runs through his testing session, Silas is soon met upon by G.C.P.D. Commissioner James Gordon (voiced by Richard Epcar) who tells him that his son will be needed in helping them deal with the recent break-in.
Following Victor’s successful test, James proceeds to upload some security footage into his subnet as Cyborg learns that it’s been ruined. Not only that, Gordon says that he and his fellow officers weren’t able to find out what was stolen since the inventory informs them that everything is still in place. Victor soon discovers that something had overwhelmed the video feed and caused it to blow out before he then learns from James that it was an artificial intelligence research lab owned by “Dr. Ivo” that was broken into. Silas recognizes the guy as he explains that Dr. Ivo had just made some major progress with some “self-contained sequencing code” which allows the A.I. to be both fully-functioning and self-governing. Afterwards, Cyborg had managed to clean up some microseconds within the security footage as they learn that Scarecrow and Silver Banshee were the culprits. Gordon then says that it matches up since Scarecrow had just helped her and Solomon Grundy with their escape, to which Victor wonders why some “fright freaks” would be stealing some artificial intelligence during Halloween. Later, Batman gets informed of this from Cyborg as the latter shares the security footage via a subnet upload. Bruce then wonders why Dr. Ivo’s A.I. was swiped, to which Victor says that he and his dad were also wondering about it. While they wait for something to turn up, Wayne then tells Stone to keep a sharp eye out since he assumes that their foes are working for someone.
We then shift over to a nuclear power plant where Cyrus disguises himself as a pizza delivery man and knocks out the two men guarding the front gate. He then smashes his way inside and scares off the workers before he’s then met upon by some armed guards who proceed to open fire on him. However, he’s able to withstand their shots and easily knock them all out before he reaches the main core, pulls out an atomic battery and proceeds to carry it outside.
At that moment, Nightwing arrives on the scene and spots Gold from the rooftop while informing Batman about it as the latter proceeds to ride off towards said area.
Back at the power plant, Solomon proceeds to place the atomic battery inside an ice cream truck. Afterwards, he gets attacked by an electrified escrima stick as Dick arrives to confront him.
Just then, the driver makes himself known as it turns out to be Joker (voiced by Troy Baker) who proceeds to drive away while Grundy manages to grab onto Grayson’s legs and threatens to rip him apart. Fortunately, Nightwing reclaims his escrima sticks and shocks the muscular being as he ultimately frees himself.
Meanwhile, Joker is blowing through traffic before he spots Ace the robo-wolf catching up to him. After it manages to dodge some of the perp’s mini-bombs, Bruce proceeds to soar in thanks to his cape’s glider function. Joker responds by driving off onto a lower highway before Ace transforms back into a motorcycle and allows Wayne to make his way onto it, thus allowing him to give chase.
Back at the power plant, Dick continues his fight with Cyrus. Despite receiving some fierce hits, Gold withstands the attacks before he manages to smack Grayson towards the wall with enough force to also knock him out thus allowing him to flee.
Back on the highway, Joker proceeds to drive off onto another lower freeway while Batman maintains his pursuit of him. Just then, Solomon rides in and lands in front of Bruce which causes him to crash into the massive fiend before his momentum as well as Ace’s causes them to fall off the elevated roadway. Joker then stops to let Grundy in before they both head out, slightly before Wayne and Ace manage to grapple their way back onto the road.
Later at an abandoned amusement park, all of our main perps are hiding out within an adjacent warehouse just as a tied-up Gogo Shoto discovers his grim situation. Joker then approaches the young video game designer and assures him that he won’t be harmed, especially since he needs his help in pulling off an “amazing practical joke on Gotham”.
Over beneath Wayne Manor, Red Robin is playing a V.R. game (designed by Gogo, of course) within the Bat Cave just as Batman makes his return. Afterwards, they proceed to talk about the four monstrous perps and what they could possibly be up to with the Joker along with how Shoto is connected to their plan. Tim mentions that Gogo isn’t just a video game designer since his open-world games allow players to “push the boundaries of human experience”, especially since it’s been rumored that his next game will let people play as the Dark Knight himself. Just then, Alfred comes in with a sandwich, tea and headache pills before informing Bruce that his tuxedo has been prepped for the Inca installation at tonight’s museum gala. Not only that, it’s vital that he attends since the excavation was financed by the Wayne Foundation. As such, Batman tells his butler to contact Dick and Oliver into meeting him there since he’s having a potentially bad feeling about this event. As for Drake, he declines due to it lacking the high-end tech that he likes.
Later at the Gotham Museum, the gala is in full swing with Cyborg in attendance as the guest of honor. Just then, he’s met upon by Gladys Windsmere (voiced by Amanda Troop) before Bruce comes in and reminds her that he helped finance the excavation while Victor’s radar helped the team properly dig up the artifacts. Gladys then asks Cyborg about an “energy gem” that was recently discovered from the excavation, to which Victor explains that it’s the Rhodochosite a.k.a. the Inca Rose Stone which is supposed to act as an energy conductor. Wayne then spots Grayson and Queen before excusing himself and meets up with said men. During their private conversation, they discuss about how they haven’t heard much from their foes. Dick then mentions that James and his fellow officers have been providing the museum with some security since the afternoon before Oliver asks if Joker and company will seriously try to invade the gala. Bruce then says that an energy conductor fits into everything else that was recently swiped before telling his comrades to stay sharp.
Afterwards, Channel 6 meteorologist and current master of ceremonies Houston Raines (voiced by Eric Bauza) takes to the podium and proceeds to thank both Bruce & Cyborg for making the Incan presentation come to fruition. Just then, Joker comes in and forces him away from the platform. With the officers aiming their guns at the perp, he assures them that he doesn’t want any kind of trouble even though a “friend” of his does.
Suddenly, the T-Rex model comes to life as the patrons flee for their lives. Gordon and his fellow officials proceed to open fire on the creature, yet all of their shots end up going through it while also not harming it in any way.
Victor joins in on the struggle as he fires his Energy Cannon at the rogue beast, yet his blast also ends up going through the being before he gets smacked away.
From there, Wayne, Grayson and Queen return after changing into their costumes as they also attempt to bring the creature down to no avail. During the scuffle, Joker manages to steal the Inca Rose Stone before he gets chased by Batman.
After smacking away Nightwing and Green Arrow, Clayface proceeds to hide away in order to shapeshift from his dinosaur form and become Gladys which allows him to make his way past the officials.
From there, Joker and Basil manage to regroup with Cyrus, Siobhan and Jonathan. Gold then tells their leader that there’s no room for him in their getaway car, yet Joker assures his cronies that he has his own ride as he summons his Joker Cycle before they all drive away. Bruce then comes out and informs both Cyborg & Red Robin on where their perps are heading while also instructing them to give him cover. At the same time, Dick and Oliver are in pursuit within the Batmobile as Bruce tells them to cut their foes off.
With Tim making his aerial approach upon Joker, he then manages to dodge McDougal’s Death Wail before she and her fellow cohorts are met upon by Grayson & Queen.
Joker then fires some mini-missiles from his cycle as Nightwing manages to swerve around them while also dodging Clayface’s clay shots, yet Drake ends up getting dirty from said attack.
Victor then flies in, yet Basil manages to form some wings in order to properly combat him. Batman then rides in on Ace and avoids Joker’s rapid-fire gunshots before the latter tells his personal A.I. to “do it”.
From there, it proceeds to shut down every light within Gotham. Not only that, but Ace is also affected by it as Bruce winds up sliding off onto the ground. Even the Batmobile gets affected by it as it ends up crashing into a building as Wayne checks up on his comrades, to which Nightwing says that is seems like every single machine has gone “haywire”.
Afterwards, Red Robin’s robo-bat glider also get affected by the same outage as he proceeds to fall off of it. Fortunately, Green Arrow is able to fire a pair of rope arrows that manage to catch Tim by his cape before he rips off and has a better landing.
Our heroes then notice that Ace is now creepily laughing as Batman says that it’s become infected by a computer virus. Just as Dick wonders about Stone, the latter is soon affected by the same bug within his cybernetic components as he starts laughing before he crash lands onto the ground and ultimately passes out. From there, Karlo picks up his body before getting picked up by his cohorts.
Afterwards, the virus proceeds to hack into all video transmissions within the city as Joker informs the citizens that his Digital Laughing Virus has now infected every single piece of technology throughout the entire municipality. Now that he has complete control over the city’s digital grid, he proceeds to proclaim himself as Gotham’s king.
He’s also installed Solomon as the G.C.D.P.’s new sheriff, made Clayface the “baron of candy & ice cream”, briefly shows Silver Banshee as the head of the stock market reports (though comically cuts away from her without mentioning her new position) and has Scarecrow have an iron grip over every Gotham citizen’s finances as Crane says that he’ll be redesigning the entire economic system. Specifically, the people are required to inform the fiends of any sightings of our heroes or of any citizen that could be planning to rebel in order for them to access their personal tech for a short amount of time. From there, Joker says that there will be more rules to come before completing his broadcast.
Later on the G.C.P.D. roof, James and a few officers are using a spotlight as their Bat Signal before Bruce arrives as Gordon informs him that all of their regular police tech (which consists of their cars, communication devices and even their weapons containing microchips coded to their fingerprints) is down. Wayne assures him that he and his comrades are trying to hack the computer virus that’s causing all of this, all while James has been demoted to a regular beat cop by Grundy. Despite that, Batman tells him to do what he can while still working there in order to help maintain the peace before promising to stay in touch before he glides off.
Later, our heroes are in the Bat Cave installing some makeshifts lights to a gas generator due to Bruce’s tech also being struck by the Joker’s computer virus. Despite the overwhelming odds that they’re now up against, Wayne tells his comrades that they have to find the would-be king so that they can fight him. In order for them to do that, Batman presents some books for their research before mentioning that Basil tends to attract debris within his original form and thus, they would need to get a sample from him. Fortunately, they already have that covered due to Drake getting covered in said goop as Oliver proceeds to collect some from his teammate. Bruce then tells Grayson that he was able to record some audio of Joker’s dispatches and that he can use it to figure out where it’s being broadcasted from.
Wayne then instructs Red Robin to find out why their foe needs the Inca Rose Stone before Joker proceeds to send out another TV broadcast to the entire Gotham City area. Specifically, he tells the people he’s lording over that they’ll be throwing him a parade with him as the main theme. Shortly upon the broadcast’s conclusion, Batman tells his team that he wants results within two hours.
Later, they proceed to share their findings to Bruce. Queen mentions that his sample size from Karlo consisted of large concentrations of “mineral salts, mollusk shells and coralline algae”. As such, Bruce says their their enemies are located somewhere on the coastline. Tim then brings up how the Inca Rose Stone is actually an energy conductor and it’s most likely being used to boost some kind of transmission signal, though it would have to come from a centralized source.
After that shrinks their search area down, Nightwing uses a cell phone to present a recurring sound that’s been present on every single dispatch and that he’s now isolated it. Specifically, it’s a bell that’s from a navigational buoy. With their search area now narrowed down to the docks, Wayne then brings up the Joker Cycle and informs his teammates how it’s been built from parts of a ride that used to exist in the area but was condemned a long time ago. With all of their pieces in place, they finally find out where their foes are hiding which turns out to be the abandoned fairgrounds located at the old Gotham Pier.
Over in said dilapidated building, Joker is trying to shoot a video that he intends to go viral yet his own fiends have become dysfunctional amongst themselves due to them arguing about each others’ poor performances. As such, he tells his cohorts to practice as he proceeds to head out on his Joker Cycle. Unbeknownst to them, our heroes have discreetly arrived as Batman gives Green Arrow the signal who then proceeds to fire a gas arrow inside the building and forces their foes outside.
They soon spot Oliver on top of the Ferris wheel as Silver Banshee proceeds to engage him while Scarecrow says that our heroes are lurking around them and that they must split up to go hunt them down. Drake then jumps down into the building and ends up making a mild noise with his rough landing as Clayface heads back in.
Basil then proceeds to transform into the Dark Knight in order to convince our young hero to come out of hiding, yet Red Robin uses a Birdarang to distract him with some far-off noise. He then takes advantage of this and finds Cyborg sleeping within a chamber before promising to return with some help.
Afterwards, he finds & frees Gogo before Karlo shifts back into his regular form and confronts the young hero.
Meanwhile, Bruce lures Solomon into the Tunnel of Love as the latter turns on the ride’s electric power and proceeds to ride his way after the Caped Crusader.
Back with Queen, his clash with Siobhan continues as he dodges her constant Death Wails before holding her up at close range with his bow-and-arrow. However, she manages to shatter his bow with a swift kick before he’s forced to hide amongst the midway booths.
Over in the House of Mirrors, Dick makes his way through the reflective maze as Jonathan speaks to him over the loudspeaker. Crane ultimately tells him how things come down to them “confronting ourselves”, to which Grayson smashes a mirror with his escrima stick only to get sprayed with some Fear Gas before he stumbles on through the maze.
Back inside the main building, Tim’s fight against Clayface rages on before he gets stuck on his foe and gets shot into some nearby boxes. Afterwards, he’s confronted by two similar Gogos as they each claim to be the genuine article. Fortunately, Drake is able to discover who the true Shoto is by asking him how to defeat a zombie boss in one of his video games as the true Gogo calmly answers him before the false figure turns back into his regular form. Thankfully, Red Robin had a pair of pellets ready as he tosses them into the fiend’s mouth before they explode and knock him out with some gas.
Back inside the Tunnel of Love, Wayne remains calm while Grundy hops across each boat towards him. Fortunately, Batman had a Batarang with a steel cable at the ready as he avoids the oncoming strike, wrap the Batarang around his foe’s arm and proceeds to send some swift hits upon him.
Following a brief struggle, Bruce manages to hop over to some dry land as Cyrus steps off the boat while threatening to come after him. Thankfully, Wayne uses a Batarang to cut off a live electric wire and place it within the water as Gold gets viciously shocked before falling over in defeat.
Over on the midway, McDougal continues her hunt upon the Emerald Archer. Fortunately for him, he spots a Milk Bottle Toss stand and manages to swiftly make his way over there. He soon reengages her with a quiver full of baseballs and proceeds to not only directly hit her with said projectiles, but even throw them at different angles that’re able to keep her at bay. Eventually, a thrown baseball that bounces off of a stand is able to rebound with enough force to hit her on the back of her head and take her out.
Back inside the House of Mirrors, Nightwing is fleeing for his life before he gets stopped by a reflective dead end. Scarecrow then asks him where his fearful “need to stay in control” began before Dick suddenly sees his past self as Robin as well as him within his initial Nightwing outfit. All-the-while, Jonathan continues to search for said fearful source on whether it was Grayson getting adult-sized responsibilities as a child or from an identity crisis before telling our hero that he’s “becoming the thing” he swore that he would never become which turns out to be Batman. In his frightened state, Dick proceeds to smash every surrounding mirror before he’s met upon by Crane who attempts to slay him with his scythe. Fortunately, Dick blocks the attack and delivers some surprising hits before telling his foe that he conquered his fear when he was young. After fending off some more of his opponent’s goopy Fear Gas balls, he soon has Scarecrow on the run before he eventually defeats him with a fierce punch.
Later, our heroes have regrouped with all of Joker’s captured cohorts before the Clown Prince of Crime himself rides back in with a surprise of his own. He tells our heroes that his computer virus allows him to control the computers within their vehicles before he reveals that they’ll be going up against Cyborg, Ace, the Batmobile and the Batwing.
From there, the confrontation begins as Nightwing manages to grapple onto the Batwing, Batman evades before hopping onto the roof of his Batmobile and Green Arrow fends off before getting pursued by Ace. During all of this, Joker manages to free his cohorts and tells them they must move out in order for them to ultimately take control over the entire planet.
As for Tim, he gives Gogo a hoverboard in order for him to escape while he fends off the technologically-controlled Victor. Despite Stone’s own personal attempt to regain control, the virus is too much for him to overcome.
Over within the main cityscape, Dick continues to hold on for dear life before the compromised Batwing begins to soar up into the sky. With the air getting thin, he uses his escrima stick to rip a panel open before punching the main circuit board out. The depowered Batwing then proceeds to fall out of the sky and plunge into the water while Grayson uses a grapple line from his escrima stick to ease his descent before he safely splashes down.
Back on the city streets, the hacked Batmobile drives into a construction site before slamming on its brakes to force Bruce off. Though Wayne is able to avoid his car between a pair of buildings, it responds by a firing a pair of mini-missiles in order to force him out.
Batman then opens up a manhole cover in order to evade the charging Batmobile, though he also manages to puncture its gas tank with a Batarang. Just as it swerves back around and speeds towards him again, Bruce uses another Batarang to ignite the leaking fluid before the flames reaches the car and makes it explode.
Back at the abandoned fairgrounds, Oliver continues to get chased by Ace before he gets cornered within the various booths. Fortunately, it was intentional as he uses a pair of arrows to cut the cables off of a child’s ride in order to defeat the robo-wolf with a timely pin.
Meanwhile, Drake is dodging Cyborg’s attacks before Batman and company show up as Bruce takes Victor down with a pair of explosive Batarangs. Queen then uses an explosive arrow to force a container truck to spill its water onto Stone before Nightwing uses his escrima stick’s taser function to shock their cybernetic comrade and knock him out. Afterwards, Wayne tells his teammates to get their friend to the Bat Cave.
Over at Channel 6 News, the Joker A.I. is getting prepped to go online all around the world. From there, the Clown Prince of Crime will achieve complete global domination once it finally gets uploaded to the transmitter in 10 hours. With the countdown ready to go, Joker and company are ready to embark onto their own parade.
Later on the G.C.P.D. roof, Batman meets up with James as the latter informs the Dark Knight that Solomon has reduced the police force into playing kiddie games with him for his amusement. The Caped Crusader says that he and his teammates are taking their foes down during tonight’s parade before telling him to be ready alongside his fellow officials. Suddenly, Grundy comes in since he’s still playing hide-and-seek as our hero manages to escape just in time.
Later, Gogo gets brought into the Bat Cave (while blindfolded, of course) before he informs our heroes that the Joker has an A.I. that will deliver the Digital Laughing Virus that he was forced to create. They’re not able to directly hack the artificial intelligence since it’s a closed system, yet Shoto will be able to build an interface that will allow them to physically hack it as long as they’re able to get to the hard drive that contains it.
Just then, Joker delivers a broadcast to Gotham City’s citizens about tonight’s parade as Batman discovers that their foe is at Channel 6 News. Via different hair styles and vocal pitches, Joker mentions how “the entire world” will know of him as long as there aren’t any “horrible flying rodents” to interfere with him. Bruce then has Gogo freeze their transmission as he realizes that the A.I. is within the control room’s mainframe and that the fiend intends to send his virus all across the globe. Wayne then has his Bat Computer zoom in and locate which hard drive has the A.I. contained within it before Shoto presents him with some V.R. Goggles in order for him to properly interface into the digital world.
We then shift over to the Joker-themed parade as Gordon and his fellow cops are riding on a float with Cyrus while their “boss” tells them to keep watch for our heroes since he intends to blast them with a bazooka. Over at Channel 6 News, Joker is keeping watch while his virus is getting uploaded to the transmitter. Unbeknownst to him, Batman manages to sneak in and reach the appropriate mainframe as he puts his goggles on in order to be transported into the digital landscape.
He then comes across the Joker-figured virus who dissipates from an attempted punch before reforming and causes our hero to become incredibly plump. The bug then makes several copies of his Joker form and tells the Dark Knight to run as he proceeds to do so.
Back in reality, the Joker mask-wearing citizens are stuck watching Silver Banshee, Scarecrow, Clayface and Gold pretentiously suck up the crowd’s forced admiration. Just then, James claims to see the Caped Crusader as Solomon fires his bazooka only for Gordon to say that he didn’t. From there, he gives the signal for his fellow officials to falsely point out Batman’s location as Grundy continues to waste his shots while the people admire the in-air bursts from said projectiles.
Back in the digi-verse, the virus continues to chase after Batman before they all jump off a cliff. While Bruce regains his regular physical form, the individual Jokers proceed to transform into pterodactyls as Wayne turns his cape into a glider and a brief aerial chase pursues. Batman then gets forced onto the ground before he then attempts to evade the beasts on foot.
Fortunately, he’s able to get some digital help thanks to a newly-formed dinosaur that he’s able to ride on. He then accesses the creature’s gun turret and shoots at the opposing pterosaurs with each being splitting into a trio of Jokers upon their defeat.
Back in reality, Cyrus runs out of ammo for his bazooka before James activates a trap door that Gold falls through upon his float and winds up subdued. Meanwhile, Green Arrow disguises himself as a masked citizen and gets the crowd to boo at Siobhan. This distracts her long enough for Oliver to fire a gas arrow at her as McDougal falls asleep from the subduing vapor before the people cheer from this. As for Jonathan, he’s suddenly met upon by Nightwing and gets tasered into defeat. Finally, Red Robin confronts Basil and tosses some pellets into the fiend’s body before they explode. Karlo then reforms himself and says that those explosives didn’t do anything to him, to which Tim says that they were actually fast-hardening powdered cement as Clayface tries to retaliate only for his body to completely harden.
Back within Channel 6 News’ mainframe, Batman manages to shoot down every last pterodactyl with his B-Rex as one of the digital Jokers points out that his shots created more of him than what he initially formed. Despite the overwhelming figures that now stand against him, Bruce hops off and uploads a new command into his own creature. One of the opposing Jokers charges towards him and tries to deliver a punch, yet Wayne catches his fist and turns him into his own likeness. The B-Rex then proceeds to swing its tail at the opposing Jokers while the transformed figures also attack as they proceed to whittle the virus’ malevolent strength down while also turning the beings into Batman’s own image.
While Bruce is on the verge of getting this technical menace under control, we shift back to the real world where Joker’s cohorts are being arrested. Cyborg then flies in as our heroes wonder how he got out, to which Victor says that he’s equally unsure since he only recalls his system being rebooted. Not only that, but the virus is still present inside of him and that he’s unable to fight back. With Stone once again compromised, they’re forced to evade his strikes.
Dick tries to strike him with his escrima stick’s taser, but Cyborg is unaffected by it as he throws it back at Grayson with enough force to knock him out. Drake manages to strike him down with his Bo Staff before telling him to regain control, but Victor is still unable to do so as he defeats the young hero with a fierce punch.
Queen then gets his turn by firing several explosive arrows at Stone and says that he can’t let the Joker win, yet Cyborg is able to withstand this attack before picking the Emerald Archer up and saying that their foe has already prevailed.
Back inside the digital realm, the lone remaining Joker is evading the numerous Batmen just as the countdown to the virus’ worldwide upload is winding down. Fortunately, the B-Rex comes in with a fierce headbutt and finally defeats the devious digital being.
Back within the Channel 6 Newsroom, the 10-hour countdown has run out as the Joker begins to upload his virus across the planet. Unfortunately for him, a malfunction occurs due to the A.I. being deleted as he’s then met upon by the Dark Knight.
From there, the entire city’s electric grid gets rebooted along with Victor. Meanwhile, Joker manages to evade capture by hopping down an elevator shaft and throwing some smokescreen pellets towards the Caped Crusader in order to keep him at bay.
Back on the streets, the citizens cheer now that Gotham is technologically free once again while Stone is once again in control of himself. However, Joker soon delivers another broadcast and says that he has a back-up solution towards uploading his virus before he begins a 10-minute uploading countdown. Batman then rejoins his comrades and says that they must find where their foe’s new transmitter is at, just as Joker comes on screen once again and says that he’ll provide a distraction as a giant Joker mech emerges to fight our heroes.
Bruce and company manage to save some civilians from the resulting destruction before they wonder how they’ll be able to fight this being without their regular tech, to which Wayne tells Cyborg to keep the mech busy while the rest of the group follows him in order for them to acquire “some reliable equipment”.
With the Joker mech rampaging its way through Gotham while the new virus upload reaches six minutes left, Victor flies in to engage this towering foe only for him to get grabbed and thrown into a building.
However, Joker soon finds himself up against our hero within outdated yet still-effective vehicles from the local history museum as Batman flies in on a World War II era fighter plane and opens fire upon the mech. Nightwing and Red Robin then proceed to ride in on vintage motorbikes as they evade Joker’s giant fist strikes before using the newly-formed debris as ramps in order for both of them to throw their explosive pellets towards the mech, causing some significant damage to its head. Finally, Green Arrow drives in within a tank and fires the finishing shot as the wrecked mech finally topples over.
However, Joker is still not defeated as he flies out of it within his personal armored suit as the virus’ upload has only three minutes to go. Bruce proceeds to fly after him while contacting Gogo if there’s any other transmitters that’re powerful enough to spread the fiend’s virus across the globe. Shoto says that he can’t find any that could do it since their foe would need a “boosted quantum computer” in order to do so. An aerial firefight proceeds to break out before Victor flies in to provide Wayne with some assistance before going after the Joker.
With less than a minute to go until the upload commences, Batman suddenly realizes that Stone is about to be used as the transmitter since Cyborg’s systems were unlocked right before the devious A.I. was defeated. Bruce then tells Victor that the Inca Rose Stone is attached to him before Stone discovers that it’s been installed into his left arm. Gogo then tells him to not rip it out since it would trigger the virus and that the only way it can be permanently deleted is if he connects the gem to the central core within Joker’s suit in order for it to get wiped out by the feedback. If he attaches it to any other part of the armor, then the virus will be freely uploaded and the devious clown will achieve his goal of world domination.
Wayne then analyzes the mech suit and informs Cyborg that it’s some military tech built by his own company and that it was stolen. Not only that, but the Joker’s A.I came across it while hacking Gotham’s electrical grid. The Dark Knight then uploads its specs onto Victor’s subnet before the latter proceeds to grab onto the opposing mech suit and get on top of it. He then locates the central core and proceed to punch at it as the resulting feedback finally deletes the virus and shorts out the armor before it plunges into the water. Stone then hovers over the splash zone and notices that the devious clown hasn’t resurfaced.
Back on the streets, Joker’s cohorts are being led into a paddy wagon before the same young boy from before manages to get a selfie with all four fiends. Over on the nearby rooftops, our heroes have regrouped as Dick informs the Caped Crusader that they searched the entire bay area and couldn’t find their foe. Fortunately, they vow to be ready once the Clown Prince of Crime does resurface. And so, the film ends at sunrise as the Joker managed to reach some land outside of Gotham while being frustrated over his failed plan. As he walks off, he starts wondering about some other businesses he could try his hand at.
Just like before, this is where I would normally provide my character analysis. Given the family-friendly nature of this animated outing though, there’s not much to say in terms of further development towards our returning figures along with the cybernetic teen hero that replaced the Scarlet Speedster this time around. In terms of our returning heroes, Bruce is the leveled headed leader whose leaves the loner status that some depictions of him as aside in order to help him appeal towards the younger audiences. He has a good balance of being stern enough in making sure that his teammates properly do their jobs, yet still cares enough to make sure that he doesn’t emotionally wall himself off from them. He still has his robo-wolf as a sign of continuity with the prior film entry, yet that along with several forms of tech would get compromised by Joker’s A.I. program. As such, the B-Rex that would greatly help him combat said sentient being within the digi-verse contained inside the Channel 6 Newsroom’s computer mainframe becomes the featured animal companion for said moment. Aside from that and in terms of how he’s handled over the course of the narrative, it’s pretty suitable stuff. Dick has the closest thing to any actual character development, specifically when he’s hunting down the Scarecrow within the House of Mirrors. The flashes to his past heroic selves along with Jonathan’s analysis following his Fear Gas spray do hint at Grayson potentially having any kind of self-doubt when it comes to living up to Batman’s standards. Even though Nightwing assures Crane (and by extension, the audience) that he’s been able to deal with this fear by this point in his life, it does a leave a nagging feeling within my mind on how something could’ve been done throughout the movie where he’s been struggling to live up to Bruce’s standards despite being an incredibly effective crime-fighter. By the end, he would’ve proven his own worth and thus allow said movie moment to have a bigger impact. As for how the character is portrayed through the proceeds, it’s some decent for what it is and still gets the job done. In terms of Tim, the situation with the kidnapping, rescue and involvement of a virtual reality video game developer allows him to share his youthful enthusiasm towards this hobby along with having some kind of connection with the young programming genius. Despite being the youngest member out of this core group of characters, he maintains a mature-enough level in order to do the necessary research towards a given situation while also figuring out how to deal with a hectic, action-packed scene in the moment. It’ll be interesting to see where he goes once we get to the last movie entry within this line, but what we get from him keeps him in a greatly likable state. Moving on to Oliver, he continues to have a sly and witty personality while effectively using a variety of arrows to help him within whatever situation he finds himself in. His biggest moment comes in the form of him showing off his ability to think on his feet and discover a different way to defeat adversary, which occurs when Silver Banshee is able to smash his bow with a swift kick. His use of several baseballs that he gets from a milk bottle toss stand in order to directly & indirectly hit Siobhan was clever and serves as an effective individual moment for him. In the end, he continues to serve as a solid ally to the Caped Crusader and constantly proves his worth alongside the available Bat Family. Wrapping up our hero selection is Cyborg whose excavation of the key gem within the foreign-based site ultimately sets the Joker’s eventual scheme in motion. Due to the fiend’s virus, he winds up working for said adversary for a good portion of the movie due to it affecting his cybernetic components. It may seem a little odd that Silas wouldn’t have provided some assistance towards our heroes once this occurred to his own son, especially since it would’ve given him a little more to do outside of his lone scene. Despite that, our core group is able to help Stone out of his situation once the initial scheme get axed within the digi-verse. Once he’s finally freed from this malevolent control, he finally displays his heroic worth during the climax and especially when he effectively stops the Joker’s world domination scheme from taking form within the clown’s backup method. While his performance may have been a little downplayed from his same role within either the 2003 Teen Titans series or even “Teen Titans Go!”, Khary Payton slips right into the character with ease in order to help him shine amongst his fellow heroes. Speaking of which, Roger Craig Smith, Will Friedle, Chris Diamontopoulos & Yuri Lowenthal were equally good and effective within their respective parts. As for our villains, the five-figure dynamic has a similar line-up within the prior entry. Both the Animilitia and our monster-theme villain group had a leader (Penguin/Joker) as well as two other members who’re from Batman’s regular rogues gallery (Killer Croc & Man-Bat/Scarecrow & Clayface), a muscular member who’s either associated within another hero’s adversarial line-up or regularly faces other heroes (Silverback/Solomon Grundy) and the group’s lone female member is usually associated within the opposing line-up from another member of DC’s Trinity (Cheetah with Wonder Woman/Silver Banshee with Superman). Just like in “Animal Instincts”, our core group of foes were able to function and provide a worthy challenge to our main heroes before they each face their eventual downfall. They each have their own unique set of skills that allow them to properly oppose our core group and while those demonstrations proved of said abilities were fairly effective, they didn’t quite reach the full terror that they could’ve been especially since they’re carrying a monstrous theme amongst themselves. It’s also somewhat odd for the Joker to attempt a world domination plot since one would assume that as an agent of chaos, he would be more interested in schemes that’re unforeseen and destructive yet not as widespread as this one intends to become. Despite these specific faults in their characterizations, Troy Baker, Fred Tatasciore, Kari Wuhrer, Brian T. Delany and Dave B. Mitchell all delivered respectively professional performances in order to help their villainous parts shine as well as they could. In terms of the main story, it’s hard to imagine how prevalent artificial intelligence would become eight to ten years after this film came out. Obviously, its use here presents it as a little more sentient and somewhat self-sustaining than what it’s capable of doing as of this writing which seems to be either helpful in terms of information, somewhat passable when it comes to its self-generating art and utterly loathsome when it produces insulting imagery for one horrid person’s self-amusement. Obviously, this isn’t the first piece of media to comment on A.I. and it’s intentionally exaggerated to a silly comic book level since this film is meant to be enjoyed by young kids and their family. Either way, it does present the danger its rampant use to children in a palatable way and doesn’t instill grave fear that far-more mature stories that comment on it would. Finally, the story is paced within a reasonable clip and allows the narrative’s main events to unfold at a steady rate. It doesn’t linger on kiddie jokes for too long and allows the steadily urgent nature to gradually build over the course of the film. Helping this out is the animation which is smooth throughout the whole proceedings without any noticeable moments of awkward movements. It also comes with a colorful pallet that’s pleasing to the youthful audience and presents both key plot moments along with engaging action scenes in a comforting way. With all of these elements coming together, it makes for a viewing experience that not only matches its predecessor, but slightly surpasses it with its established figures, elevated stakes and equally-presentable conflicts that allows this entry to keep up the reasonably good quality that this line has to offer.
Overall, this takes what made the initial entry enjoyable and continues to ramp up its unique brand of superheroics. With likable characters, fluid animation, a comfortable color palette, well-executed action and a story that presents its main elements within a reasonable pace, it maintains the good quality established by its predecessor and presents another venture that’s silly enough to entertain the kids while maintaining just enough of its serious situation for their parents as well as all audiences. If you get the chance, give this a watch for a heroically good time that goes above and beyond its initial Halloween starting point.
Next Time: A certain waddling sophisticate has returned and is bringing a monstrous scheme to Gotham with chilling side-effects. For the Dark Knight and his fellow heroes, their biggest battle will require them to make some technological upgrades if they wish to prevail against this new threat. The action figure-inspired mini-franchise’s film trilogy comes to a close with a clash of heated heroes and icy-sharp villains called “Batman Unlimited: Mech Vs. Mutants”.
Batman (created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger) and all related characters are owned by DC Comics.
