After months of hibernation in the Bat-cave, Cartoon Network’s surreal animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold returns to brain-frying life Friday night with its mind on the multiversal money-shot.

Riding the same parallel-universe possibilities that energized recent films like Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths and comics like Grant Morrison’s Final Crisis , Brave and the Bold ‘s latest episode, “The Super Batman of Planet X!,” upgrades France Herron’s 1958 story of the same name for a new millennium.

The continuity crossovers are a dizzying good time. Brave and the Bold ‘s Batman, voiced by Diedrich Bader, accidentally opens a wormhole (oops!) and lands on Herron’s planet Zurr En Arrh, only to find that his powers are more like Superman’s there (as seen in the video clip below).





Zurr En Arrh’s own Batman is voiced by Kevin Conroy (who is pretty much the best Batman ever). Conroy, who voiced The Dark Knight in the groundbreaking television series Batman: The Animated Series , is joined in the episode by Superman: The Animated Series voice vets like Dana Delaney (who played Lois Lane) and Clancy Brown (who portrayed probably the best Lex Luthor ever).

The continual crossover gives The Brave and the Bold ‘s latest episode serious gravitational pull: Viewers are quickly locked into its intertextual spirals, without sacrificing anything in fun.

Perhaps the show’s finest gift is watching Batman, who always had a beef with Superman’s alien morality (at least in the comics), get drunk on unlimited power (as seen in the video clip below).

On Earth, Batman’s mortality is always a sticking point; unlike Superman, he really can get his ass fully kicked. But on Zurr En Arrh, Batman is now the alien immortal. He finally gets a chance to flex his own superhuman muscles and fly, but ends up jeopardizing his integrity and his relationships, leaving Zurr En Arrh’s Batman no choice but to help straighten out his head. Just as Batman has done for Superman in various comics and shows. It’s a clever reversal, and a blast to watch.





The Brave and the Bold is a series at the top of its game, from serious episodes featuring compelling new villain Equinox to hilarious ones with Aquaman, Plastic Man and Red Tornado. Fearsome future episodes like “Chill of the Night” promise a return to Batman’s murderous darkness.

But the series also succeeds wildly when its gets stupid funny, which also happens in “The Super Batman of Planet X!” Its opening teaser features Batman and Doctor Magnus, going undercover as a gold-toothed pimp, unleashing the goofy Metal Men on a gaggle of criminal dunces. The scene in which Magnus’ gold tooth flies out of his mouth and punches one of those dunces, before turning into the hero Gold, is alone worth the viewing.





When DC Comics and Warner Bros. cut short the dark carnival of The Batman and opted to go a sunnier route with The Brave and the Bold in 2008, skeptics high on Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster success The Dark Knight frowned on the idea. But Batman: The Brave and the Bold has outlived that skepticism, and offered up rewarding, hilarious and challenging material for all ages. Batman really can do it all.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold airs at 7:30 p.m. Eastern/6:30 p.m. Central, Friday on Cartoon Network.

Image courtesy Warner Bros.

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