9.3/10. This felt like a suitably epic conclusion to the half-season. (Or part one of a conclusion.) Batman having to round up the remaining C-list heroes, who'd all been introduced in recent prior episodes, was a nice way to tell more of those characters' stories in a suitably big situation. This is putting the horse before the cart, but I would compare it to the first Avenger's film, where you had all of these characters who were introduced and established separately, but then are brought together and bounce off one another in believable ways. (I especially liked how Billy Batson though B'Wana's powers were so cool.) There was a neat dynamic to the team of would-be Allstars in this episode, and it made things fun even when the tone was more serious than Brave and the Bold usually gets.
And the combination of Faceless Hunter and Starro created some truly legitimate villains worth our heroes' time and attention, to where the threat felt bigger, and our heroes outmatched, but not hopelessly so. It's a tough balance to get right, but this did. I'm very sketchy on comic book history, so I'm not sure which came first, Hunter as the Herald for Starro or Silver Surfer as the Herald for Galactus, but the two stories feel pretty similar here. That said, it totally works, with Faceless Hutner's superb abilities posing a real threat to everyone he comes across, the starfish drones adding a discomforting mind-control element to the horror, and the massive Starro himself striking the right eldritch abomination notes to be creepy. In fact, the whole "Starro lives" chant gives the episode a certain "Call of Cthulu" vibe.
And the conclusion, with the Shazam strikes hurting Starro and the Firestorm blasts overloading the starfish drones was a nice way to have the C-listers' powers come in handy in a natural way. A suitably grandiose episode to put (half) a bow on the season.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2015-12-03T20:54:18Z
9.3/10. This felt like a suitably epic conclusion to the half-season. (Or part one of a conclusion.) Batman having to round up the remaining C-list heroes, who'd all been introduced in recent prior episodes, was a nice way to tell more of those characters' stories in a suitably big situation. This is putting the horse before the cart, but I would compare it to the first Avenger's film, where you had all of these characters who were introduced and established separately, but then are brought together and bounce off one another in believable ways. (I especially liked how Billy Batson though B'Wana's powers were so cool.) There was a neat dynamic to the team of would-be Allstars in this episode, and it made things fun even when the tone was more serious than Brave and the Bold usually gets.
And the combination of Faceless Hunter and Starro created some truly legitimate villains worth our heroes' time and attention, to where the threat felt bigger, and our heroes outmatched, but not hopelessly so. It's a tough balance to get right, but this did. I'm very sketchy on comic book history, so I'm not sure which came first, Hunter as the Herald for Starro or Silver Surfer as the Herald for Galactus, but the two stories feel pretty similar here. That said, it totally works, with Faceless Hutner's superb abilities posing a real threat to everyone he comes across, the starfish drones adding a discomforting mind-control element to the horror, and the massive Starro himself striking the right eldritch abomination notes to be creepy. In fact, the whole "Starro lives" chant gives the episode a certain "Call of Cthulu" vibe.
And the conclusion, with the Shazam strikes hurting Starro and the Firestorm blasts overloading the starfish drones was a nice way to have the C-listers' powers come in handy in a natural way. A suitably grandiose episode to put (half) a bow on the season.