Rated by the viewers of The Dark Knight.

Plot Summary:

Batman and Robin pin down Catwoman at a mall -- Batman holds her down and sends Robin looking for evidence. Grumbling, Robin glides over to the roof of another building only to find himself at the feet of a woman, clad in Bat-costume -- Batgirl. He realizes that she might be trying to move in on his territory, but she quickly quells his fears. It doesn't stop him from being nervous, though:
"Hey, I'm the sidekick around here, okay? You can't just --"
"I'm not here to replace you! I only met Batman a couple of times."
"Batman trained you in just a couple of meetings?"
"Trained?".

They climb into the now abandoned building, searching for clues and grumbling about each other. They find a that their real criminal is still trapped in the building. Batgirl, as she's looking at books autographed by her favorite author, mentions that she'd love an autographed picture for her scrapbook. Robin confesses that he doesn't have a scrapbook, only an old circus poster...

As they run into the criminal, they both try to apprehend him. Unfortunately, as Batgirl tries to kick the criminal, Robin throws the batarang, hitting her upside the head. After a few moments of insulting each other, they hastily agree that Batman needn't hear of their "little mishap". batgirl introduces herself as Batwoman, but Robin chidingly calls her the name we use more commonly: BatGIRL.

They come upon the criminal. He's been scared into holding a Security Guard and her daughter at gunpoint. Batgirl and Robin think together this time, and with the help of a marble, catch the criminal and return the mother and daughter to safety.

After they tie up the criminal, Batgirl asks Robin if he has any change. They go into a photo booth and get pictures for Robin's scrapbook.

Later on the rroftop, Batman takes the pictures from a startled Robin.
"Good teamwork." he says.
"Good team..."

Review:

The artwork was good, but not amazing. While the figures were captured marvelously and there were no awkward-looking scenes, the lighting seemed a bit off in some of the them. That, and the fact that Robin had no pupils in his eyes, even in the photos, which were pretty close up. However, the casual scenes where Robin and Batgirl were just sitting down or comforting the little girl were done very well. It's hard to get a sense of the superheroes just relaxing -- not exhausted, not putting effort into lounging in a huge, cushy couch, just sitting against a wall because they don't feel like standing up.

The plot, although it didn't have that many twists and turns, was priceless. Certain scenes -- Batgirl and Robin messing up and getting each other instead of the bad guy, their "Batman-doesn't-need-to-know-about-this" conversation, Robin's double-take when Batman takes the pictures from his hands, and of course the final line... "Good team..."

Plot Summary:

A hostage situation is always a nice way to start off a story, as Chuck Dixon obviously knows, judging from this one. It begins with a chilly phone call from Bank President Wilson Carberry -- Mr. Freeze has frozen his wife at the bank and only he knows how to "defrost" her. He'll tell the police -- for a price, of course. Bullock, Montoya, and the Commissioner are at the scene, trying to negotiate with him.

Batman is called in and he and Robin decide to start at the Carberrys' apartment, where the couple was originally kidnapped. Sure enough, they find Mrs. Carberry stone cold, but something strange about the situation sparks Batman's suspicions. He sends Gordon's men to interwiew the other residents of the building, and to get some information to back up a "hunch" he's formed.
"Didn't hear a thing."
"They had visitors all day, but I don't snoop."
"...a catering truck parked in my space. turns out they were in Carberry's place"
"Don't you cops have anything better to do at 4:00 in the morning?"
"The Carberrys are very nice people... you won't hear about his drinking frome me..."
"...sounded like they were cutting firewood in there."

Batman and Gordon bluff Freeze into thinking they'll surrender, putting the Dynamic Duo in prime position for attack. They round up the bad guys, and Bullock and Montoya are sent to find the caterer while the rest of Gordon's men go back to the apartment and clean up Batman and Robin's mess...

The policemen at the crime scene find Long Distance Charges to a resorrt in the Cayman Islands and a that all of the Carberrys' luggage is gone. The temperature of the room is dropped, and the frozen "Mrs. Carberry" melts, revealing that it wasn't Mrs. Carberry at all, but a well-carved ice sculpture.

A short timelater, the real Mrs. Carberry is sunbathing on a warm beach, anticipating the arrival of her husband. Suddenly, her sun is blocked... by Bulock and Montoya in beach clothing, well-armed with extradition papers, requiring her to go back to Gotham City and get her "Just Desserts". (yeah, I know it's cheap, but I couldn't resist)

Review:

This story, unlike the last, focused on action annd deduction more than character interaction. It was a good old Batman-solves-a-mystery-and-beats-up-the-bad-guys plot, with enough Detective work to satisfy the Holmes fans and enough action to satisfy the Jackie Chan lovers, set up in a way that neither overshadows the other. Also, the action isn't out of place or completely frontal, which can really ruin a story, but strategic and well-placed.

The artwork is dark, and works well with Freeze's environments and the time of night. the light that exists adds a nice touch and makes the scene all the more gripping. The change of light enhances the time and scene change , and darkness is even used when Gotham City and its laws rear their heads in Mrs. Carberry's fantasy land.

Also, there is extreme attention to detail in this piece. From Mr. Freeze's icy fingers to Bullock's cigarettes, every detail is accounted for. (The male superheroes/villians still don't have any eyeballs, but the menacing lack of pupils works a lot better here.)

Of course, this wouldn't be a review if I didn't add my token gripes. I really admire the plot, but the underlying theme is the one major gripe I have. I find it a little tough to believe that Mr. Freeze would have anything to do with the Cayman Islands or sunny beaches, and if it's becuase he's longing for something he could never have, it should've been covered more in the storyline, which would mess up the action/mystery ratio. You can't beat the irony of the fact that the "frozen woman" was a lot warmer than any of Gothmites, though.

Also, the Super-Villians have henchmen, or completely insane costumed partners, or even completely insane costumed sidekicks, but your average, run-of-the-mill, greedy scum are simple too low to act as the peers of such genius. I understand that Freeze was necessary for the great plot twist, but as Robin said, it really wasn't his M. O.

I mentioned the attention to detail, but in a few places it was too much of a good thing. The wrinkles on Wilson Carberry's face and and the faces of a few others -- on occasion Commisioner Gordon and even Batman once -- were extremely over-wrinkled.

Plot Summary:

Surrounded only by hand-drawn pictures of flowers, Poison Ivy sits alone in her lifeless cell in Arkham, calling her plants to her. Though the ground beneath and around her side of the building has been recently fumigated, the plants grow up to her hands. With her influence, they slowly evolve.

Outside of her quarters, guards watch her through surveillance cameras. Grumbling, one of them, called Malcom, dons a Bio-Hazard Suit and enters her cell. She gives him the plants that she called to her, sighing that she was lonely and that he never comes. She tells him to give the plants to his daughter as pets -- she never had any as a child, and turned to plants and flowers. She was different from most girls.

Malcolm talks to his fellow watchman, and returns home to his daughter with the plant-animals. She is delighted to see them, and keeps them in her bed as she falls asleep. Once she's nodded off, however, the creatures escape from her grasp out of the nearest window.

Poison Ivy smiles in her cell. "Now he'll come. Definitely."

Meanwhile, the streets are overflowing with the creatures, which apparently breed andytime they hit water. Batman appears in Gordon's office, and they discuss what to do. Batman ends up visiting Ivy in her cell, just as she had planned.

He walks into her cell and demands to know why she filled the streets with the creatures.
"...You never visit unless there's something wrong. So I made something wrong."
she maintains that she can fix the mess and take the "spark" from the creatures... for a price -- a kiss from Batman.

The creatures turn to strawberries, and Poison Ivy is no longer so lonely, but in a house on the streets of Gotham, windows barred, a young girl is crying. She is lonely just as Ivy was, until she sees a most curious thing. Strawberry vines are curled around the harsh bars of her windows... Fascinated, she stops crying and forgets her loneliness in the interesting new things on her windows, the same way as a young Poison Ivy did so many years ago...

Review:

This was a touching story, with Poison Ivy straying far from the aloof and bitter femme fatale of the Animated Series and comics to a sad, lonely woman with the heart of a little girl. Her innocent power gave the story a gentle charm -- Poison Ivy turned Gotham City upside down just for a peck on the cheek. And of course, she took it away with a literal snap of her fingers.

This plot had many underlying themes of childhood, and Batman's scene with Ivy showed us that despite his dark, broodingpast andimage, there's still a child, buried very, very deep within, that exists in his life. Also, the children were enjoying the creatures in the streets while the adults were too busy trying to solve the "problem" and get rid of them.

She isn't called POISON Ivy either. She's just simply Ivy or Miss Isley. Coincidence? Perhaps. But maybe it's just a subtle touch to help us buy into her innocence a little bit better.

The artwork was more cartoony in this story, but its simplicity worked well with the theme. I particulary liked the "spark" that Poison Ivy gave to the plants to make them animal-like. The pictures of flowers that adorned Ivy's walls also gave the room a childlike look (even if it is a room of an Insane Asylum).

Of course, I do find it a little odd that a guard who took so many precautions guarding Ivy's cell -- fumigation of the entire area around her, wearing a bio-hazard suit in her prescence, keeping her in a virtual vault would simply entrust his child's safety to her honesty.

The light also seemed to change with emotion and not necessarily with reality.

But, of course, Ivy's quote makes up for every little mistake I could ever find:
"If only men were more like plants..."

Reviewed by: Eanna Silverlake

This file was last modified on December 31, 1999

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