Triumvirate of Terror!

  • Title: Batman: The Brave and the Bold – Triumvirate of Terror!
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batman-triumvirate-of-terror

The intro segment is pure Silver Age foolishness (hey, I’m not complaining!) featuring the JLI battling the Legion of Doom in a baseball game called by Jimmy Olsen (Alexander Polinsky). Things look bleak for our heroes until Batman (Diedrich Bader) gives the team a rousing pep talk in the bottom of the Ninth about winning the game for the young kids watching in the stands like little Julie Schwatz and Frankie Miller (nice touch). And if that’s not enough the segment ends the only possible way it could, with a Bat-Man pun. Classic!

The regular episode opens with Batman and Vicki Vale trapped in a Joker (Jeff Bennett) death trap, Lex Luthor (Kevin Michael Richardson) clad in his Super Powers armor battling Superman (Roger Rose), and a fight between the Cheetah (Morena Baccarin) and a Wonder Woman (Vicki Lewis) in the middle of a museum. After dispatching their nemeses the trio meet for a diner in Star City to catch up and to discus a super-hero time capsule. Meanwhile the defeated villains regroup in the Hall of Doom (from the old SuperFriends cartoon) agreeing to mix things up by swapping heroes.

The action-packed episode gives us the Joker vs. Wonder Woman on Paradise Island, the Cheetah breaking into the Fortress of Solitude with a magic amulet making her Superman’s equal, and Lex Luthor’s unexpected appearance in the Batcave. The episode concludes with a three-on-three main event broadcast in front of the world from the Legion of Doom’s headquarters. I don’t really have to tell you who won, do I?

Ridiculous fun all around including an epilogue featuring the future versions of DC Comics big three still fighting the good fight. I’m going to miss this show when its gone.