Saturday September 24, 2005
501
When Beast Boy's former team, The Doom Patrol, is in trouble, the Titans must embark on a daring mission to save them. Beast Boy explains that this can only mean one thing: the Doom Patrol's greatest foes are back. The Brotherhood of Evil has returned.
Read Full Recap » (warning: possible spoilers!)Man, what's Mento's problem? hide show
I agree with pretty much everyone else about this: How do you top the Trigon arc from the previous season, short answer: you can't. So comparing this to the outstanding and best season of the series is a bit unfair, but even without comparing it, it's not that great really. The Doom Patrol have cool powers, but we don't really get to know them in this episode, only Mento and Robot Man get enough screen time to make an impression, and it's not a good one. Really, what's their problem? Especially Mento, he is in no position to complain about Beast Boy, what the heck did Mento do anyway in this episode? He got captured twice and really didn't do a darn thing, besides whining that is.
The Titans are just sort of there, not doing much just tagging along, it's a Beast Boy story, and his relationship to the Doom Patrol. This episode introduces the Brain and Monsieur Mallah, first of, Brain, he is really lame. And Batman: The Brave and the Bold joked around with that, poking fun at his unthreatening persona. This episode and show tries to push him as a credible, menacing threat, and it doesn't really work. Gorilla Gr...I mean Monsieur Mallah is just...a gorilla who can speak eloquently.
The action was ho-and indeed-hum, far from the series best. The episode moves at a fairly quick pace and it's an entertaining if unremarkable first part. The second part is better.
It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. And the Doom Patrol proved much better than I imagined but before they were real jerks(well, mento was anyway). Now we know more about BeastBoy's past and also that he joined the Doom Patrol when he was only a kid. Not to mention had to make many of the same decisions. He also liked them as if the were a family to him(I think) but now it would be the Teen Titans. And also mento didn't really treat BeaseBoy very nicely until BeastBoy denied him. But all in all, it was quite good and I enjoyed it.
This episode had some of the best fight coreography in Teen Titans history! hide show
The Titans meet the Doom Patrol and are shocked to see that Beast Boy was an ex-member. In the end, the Titans and the Doom Patrol team up to take down the Brain, Monsieur Mallah, and their forces. After five minutes of mind-blowing action, animation, and combo moves, the fight ended with the Brain setting the base on self-destruct mode. Beast Boy has to either save his friends and family or stop the Brain and Monsieur Mallah. Much to Mento's dismay, Beast Boy chooses to save them and the episode hits a somewhat of a cliffhanger. If you missed this episode, you missed a gem no matter what the other reviews say...
This episode surprised me in more ways than one. When BB's old team is in danger from the Brotherhood of Evil, he and the others come to save them. hide show
This is one of the only times in this series where there are superheroes called by their given names, which really gave this episode a good feel to it. It made me feel that the Doom Patrol was as much a family as a team.
Now as for the Doom Patrol themselves, that's another matter. Now don't take what I'm about to write as negativity to the episode. It isn't. In fact, it made the episode so much more life-like. But the Patrol's members, save BB, is majorly screwed up. It's no wonder that they didn't last that long in the comics.
Robotman/Cliff Steele is an action-craving powerhouse who isn't happy unless he's pummeling or shooting his mouth off. He doesn't think before rushing in, and simply destroys anything in his path.
Negative Man/Larry (I can't recall his last name) ironically didn't have much negative about him. But that was due to his lack of dialogue and screentime. Although he did come off as a tad cynical and lazy.
Elastigirl/Rita Parr (BB's step-mom) suffered from the same weakness as every other Patrol-ler, when Mento was tearing BB out for saving them, she shut up and let him do it. The others you can forgive somewhat because they're not BB's ste-parents, but Rita and Steve are his guardians and they should be keeping that in mind over their "missions".
Mento/Steve Dayton was by far the most hateable. BB decides to save his family and friends instead of stopping the bad guys (twice) and he gets on his case about it. (As a twist of cruel irony in the comics, when Rita died, Mento blamed BB for it.) Mento is a hypocrite; focused more on his goal of stopping the bad guys then saving those dear to him. When I first heard "The Doom Patrol", I thought they were a supervillain organization, but I see that's not true, but not far off.
The Doom Patrol is unstable and unfocused and is clearly doomed to failure (pun not intended).
As aforementioned, don't count this against the episode, count it against the characters. As this episode went on, it became more and more clear why BB left and tried to go out on his own. God knows he'd need some team support from the TT after his years of mental hurt from the Doom Patrol.
"The Incredibles" style music was definitely a bonus for the episode, because it not only worked for the atmosphere, but compared to the other "Super" continuity. By the way, if you're a something of a superhero fan, check out "The Incredibles". It's one of those movies that you find you get hooked into and really enjoy it.
Although there were only two villains in this episode who really didn't have too much attention. I think they done well. Both played by Glenn Shadix, Monsieur Mallah and The Brain were portrayed very well. When my younger brother saw this, he though Mallah was Gorilla Grodd from JLU, and I promptly corrected him. No offence to Grodd, but he kinda gets boring after awhile. It was nice to see a gorilla who could talk but preferred to let his fists speak for him.
My brothers thought that the Stephen Hawking style voice for The Brain took away from him, but I really liked it and thought it added to the soullessness of his character.
Overall, good episode with hateable good guys and contemptable bad guys. A new spin on an old story.
This episode wasn't as bad as I thought it would be... and finally, the background story of Beast Boy. hide show
I've waited ages to see season 5, and finally have seen the Homecomings on the internet. I have to say that when I first found out that season 5's arc was based on Beast Boy, I wasn't too happy, but this episode was interesting and it was good to find out about the Doom Patrol and Beast Boy's past. I liked the balance of the Titans and the DP. The fighing scenes were good and the team are still their same old selves which I liked. Overall, this episode was good and I can't wait to see the rest of what looks like a good season, not the best season, but a good one!
TVTome_Shadow
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Inuyashadude101
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