Episodes 71 & 72 & 73
The Zodiac Crimes/The Joker’s Hard Times/The Penguin Declines
Plot:Joke and Penguin team up for a wave of crimes based on the zodiac
Guest Stars:Casesar Romero as Joker and Burgess Meredith as Penguin
Trivia:A rare three part episode that at one point was going to reworked into a theatrical movie. Stephen Kandal who would be a huge TV writer had a hand wirting this.
Niitpick:It’s awesome to see these crossovers with the villains, I mean the idea they each wait there turn to break out of jail does get silly. I mentioned before how Catwoman was sidelined in her crossover episode, and that kinda happens to Penguin here, who just pops up to help out a few times. It’s really Joker’s story.
Bat Silliness:The Gemini Twins. I can’t explain!
Bat Gadget:Bat Copter reappears. It has a portable Bat Lab (which has a portable mobile phone)
Bat Trap:Pinned under a heavy stone that will crush them, and a thermite bomb to trigger it. Later, Batman and Robin (and Venus...ugh) being fed to a giant clam. Oh my god, this is one of the dumbest traps I never forgot! Robin is swallowed whole by a giant clam!!!!!! Good thing it had no teeth.
Final Thoughts:This is a long one so buckle in! Joker starts the episode by telling Gordon and O’Hara he’s into astrology now and is starting the zodiac crimes. For some reason. Seriously why admit that? Again, to get the plot going I guess. The girl for the episode is named Venus and is useless. In fact all the henchmen are named after planets. Venus is another “nice” girl who reforms at the end when she sees the error of her ways (I typed that before it happened, that’s how predictable). She gets annoying going back and forth between helping and repenting. Penguin’s reveal is clearly supposed o be a surprise even though his name was announced at the start. These two have great chemistry but I would have loved a Joker/Riddler episode. In the movie Penguin gave the orders here Joker is in charge. The first episode is Joker committing his crimes while Batman and Robin fail to stop him. Penguin disappears from part 2, and why does Joker keep barging into Gordon’s office to announce his scheme? The scene of Joker misleading Batman and the cops on the police radio is just so silly that it’s awesome. Thank goodness Batman has a half a brain. Venus keeps going back and forth and as hard as she tries her mooning Batman is lame. I am really sick of the evil henchwomen reforming because they have the hots for the Caped Crusader! Is that all women know? I never understood why the episode flies through the Zodiac, it’s a three parter and he’s almost done by the end of Part 2. Leaving part 3 be finishing the final two. The 2nd episode is just the duo running from one theft to another. Until the giant clam. Which would have been better if it had been set up, just saying. In Part 3 Penguin comes back to help Joker finish the zodiac. Maybe that’s why we get the water supply plot. Oh yes, that’s a thing. This time it’s better and classic Joker. He turns the water supply into Strawberry jelly! Of course Batman easily changes it back but we get some silly scenes of people like O’Hara trying to use water and getting jellied instead. The final crime is for Batman to be captured, using a hidden spy. Bet you can’t guess who that is? Yeah of course Venus. While Joker “steals” the water Penguin works over Venus to get her to take them into the Batcave. Venus talks Batman into letting her into the Batcave but Joker and Penguin stow away in the trunk of the Batmobile. Seriously Batman needs better security! Thankfully Batman is not stupid, he saw through the scheme and let the two into the batcave so he could use the spectrographic analyzer on them for future crimes, not to mention the power dampener he put in the trunk before the two got in so there weapons wouldn’t work. But couldn't they have opened the trunk? Nah Bataan had it remotely locked tight. I love Batman sometimes.
Grade:A. Great Joker episode! Venus is one of the worst female helpers ever and spoils a fine episode. Otherwise its well written like a comic book plot. Made better by Romero and Burgess playing these characters to well. For a three parter it’s definitely bigger than a usual episode but it moves along. Unlike our next one, but we’ll get to that in a couple days. Yeah more Penguin would have been better and I can’t begin to tell you how much I hated Venus. But for a Batman episode it stayed on story and was really well done. I’ve decided that Joker is my favorite villain on the series, no argument!!
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