No contest.

Batman Beyond: "The Call." As expected, Terry is approached by an older Superman to join the JLU. The reason: he suspects a traitor within the JLU is conspiring to eliminate the team. Of course, the rest of the JLU don't trust Terry. But everyone has to pull together when a series of bombs go off in Metropolis, which leads to Warhawk's apparent death. At the end, Terry and Bruce suspect that Superman himself is causing the sabatoge, so they bring out Bruce's Kryptonite stash.

The JLU: cool. The series of bombs going off wasn't just intense, it was a great showcase for everybody's powers. Great action sequences there. Even Micron gets ample chance to shine before he's taken out at the beginning. The only real flaw is that we didn't really get to _know_ any of the JLU. What's Barda's story? What's up with the new, mystical Green Lantern? I want to know, so now I want the 4th season of Batman Beyond (half-comprised of JLU members) more than ever, since there's so much potential there.

Other thoughts: There really wasn't that much plot to go around, other than whipping up a decent mystery. Superman, aside from being suspected of treason, seems pretty much the same, and the new voice fits fairly well. The scene where Warhawk's helmet slams into the Batmobile after the explosion was just darn cool. All in all: I like. I like a lot.

My prediction: somehow Warhawk faked his own death and is, in fact, the traitor. Then again, I was wrong about Talia being Curare, so what do I know?

X-Men: Underfed teenagers: "The X-Impulse." Kitty Pryde, who this bleepin' cartoon made into A VALLEY GIRL!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAUGH!!! (Bashes head against the monitor repeatedly) Sorry, in the comics she was my favorite, and her new tendancy to slip the word "like" into every sentence doesn't suit her at all. I'll start over.

Kytty Pryde, who is of course starting to manifest her powers, draws the attention of the X-Team, who get the cold shoulder by her parents. She also gets the attention of troubled kid and fellow mutant Lance, who has the power to shake the earth and sees profit in Kitty's phasing power. Meanwhile Sabretooth shows up for no apparent reason and fights Wolverine.

Slightly fewer plot holes than before, but still plenty of problems. Don't get me started on Kitty again. The dialogue was pretty darn weak overall: Xavier to Jean, as a building collapses around her--"use your powers!" Well, duh. Kitty's mean: when Avalanche shows Kitty she's not alone and demonstrates his powers reasonably harmlessly, Kitty calls him a freak. Yeah, nice there. Avalanche doesn't want to rip open the building because it will draw attention, yet draws attention anyway by shaking up one of Kitty's stereotyped bullies. The Wolvie/Sabretooth fight seemed tacked on and was overall unsatisfyingly short, even if it did have a few cool moments (Wolvie slashing the forks in Sabretooth's cycle). Lots more fairly weak X-Angst. I know that discovering that you're a mutant would be fairly traumatic, but if EVERY ep prominently features a kid who thinks he/she is a freak because he/she has powers, it's going to get old, fast. And WHY must the X-Men attend Xavier's school and normal high school simultaneously? Not only is it unneccessary, I imagine the fact that the kids are living together would make them even bigger outcasts in the minds of the regular kids, thus undermining Xavier's message of acceptance.

At least the animation is still darn good. This ep was a bit better than the first, but it's got a _long_ way to go before it can be called "good." And is every title going to incorporate "X?" It's already a stretch here... how, exactly, does "The X-Impulse" sum up what's going on in this episode?
Let your opinion be known! Reply to this post!

- Register as a New User for the WBC Bulletin Board!
- Already Registered? Reply to this post!
- View the original post and all replies!