Batman: The Brave and the Bold

I love this episode, time travel adventures is not uncommon in this show, so what's special about this one? Well, Batman travels back in time when the Gentleman Ghost, Jim Craddock was still alive. And the plot involves him and the demons Etrigan and Astaroth. On top of that we have Sherlock Holmes and Watson trying to solve numerous "murders" commited by Craddock.



The plot is interesting and tkes a few twists towards the end. The Gentleman Ghost is arguably the series greatest villain, and he is on top form here, okay he doesn't have the ghost powers, but he is well versed in the suprnatural, able to cast spells and such. Of course we know that he will most likely die at the end of the episode, and indeed he does. He is hung by the townsfolk for his crimes. The creepy Jack the Ripper esque elements are nice touches. The souls he has collected are returned in the end, so everybody's fine really, except for him obviously, but still it's pretty dark stuff here.



The battle between Etrigan and Asteroth was awesome, and brutal, Etrigan is completely destroyed by Asteroth, but in the end he wins and kills Asteroth by throwing iron down his throat, apparently demons can't stand iron, now we know and knowing is half the...never mind. Anyway, this is a fantastic episode.

When I first started watching this series, I thought it would only have appeal to a naive or childish audience. But as I continued to watch it became apparent that its creator and writer's have a plan: keep it simple yet unbounded. In this one Batman goes into the past to help the great Sherlock Holmes investigate a series of unusual murders. In the process we learn about the origin of the villian called "Gentleman Ghost". It takes some unique thinking to come up with a plot line that would combine the skills of the two most legendary fictional detectives of all time. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle truly captured the imagination of his generation as did Bob Kane when he created Batman. I just never thought I would ever see them actually working together - particularly in an animated series like this one. However, the makers of this series just continue to impress me with their work.