The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy

This next episode is somewhat interesting, but also rather frustrating at the same time. But not every episode can be supremely amazing, so I guess I should cut it some slack. "The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy" was the 31st episode produced and 25th aired on Oct. 14, 1992.

The main villain in this episode is Josiah Wormwood the Interrogator. Batman says his name like we all know who is, but this is his first and only appearance, and he does not exist in any other media. I'm all for creating new characters as long as they are well explained and original. Wormwood was neither. He really was just a watered-down Riddler. They easily could have used the Riddler for this story, but instead they created a meaningless and forgetful villain who acted exactly like him. For that, I have to take a point off.

I'll now bring the score down to a 3 for the overly complex (and boring) plot. The whole thing boiled down to Wormwood stealing some bearer bonds and Batman trying to find them — the long, hard way. First of all, what the heck are bearer bonds? I don't know that now, and I sure didn't know what they were when I was a kid! During the whole episode, you can't help but ask yourself: "Wait a minute, what is Batman doing here?" And once you start to wrap your mind around it, you then ask: "Well, if he just needs to know where these bonds are, why doesn't he just hold him upside down over the edge of a skyscraper? That usually seems to work in situations like this." But instead, Batman decided to play this long game with Wormwood. And while some of it was kind of fun, it ultimately felt unnecessary.

Wormwood puts Batman in two death traps. The first required him to break out of a train before it ran over a woman. He got out in time to save, but she turned out to just be a hologram. So Wormwood is this master villain who can't even find a real woman to tie up and put on some train tracks? Is he too big of a wuss to potentially kill an extra innocent life? And when you think about it, to create that hologram, he would have had to film a woman tied up on the ground and screaming. "Wait, Mr. Wormwood, why do want me to do this? Are you filming a movie or something?" "Just shut up and pretend a train is going to run you over!" We're down to a 2 for this nonsense.

But I will add a point for Wormwood's second death trap in the wax museum. It was very intricate and showed he had thought through Batman's actions and was able to counter him at every turn. The melted  wax rendered his utility belt useless, and once he destroyed the giant lamp, it activated toxic gas. It really seemed like Batman was trying to get out that one, but simply couldn't. He actually lost. But he was prepared for it, which brings me to my next point.

Batman had a second mask underneath his cowl. He is always prepared. I also like to think that he usually wears two masks because his cowl could easily come off at anytime (of course, we'll later see this idea thrown out the window the first time he meets Superman, but that's for another time). But ultimately, I enjoyed the idea of Batman purposely losing one battle so he could ultimately win the war. We're back up to a 4 now.

I'll add another point for a really cool moment where Baron Wacklaw Josek is revealed to be Batman in disguise. Not only do I love the idea of Batman being a master in disguise, but Josek was voiced by the incredible John Rhys-Davies. Great stuff happening all around!

Unfortunately, the episode didn't end there, as it should have. It really seemed like the creators wrapped everything up too quickly, then suddenly found they had an extra two minutes kill, so they put in a very slow, very stupid fight scene with Batman and Wormwood and key and a weight room and a swimming pool. At this point, I didn't care (or really know) what they were fighting about and I just wanted the episode to end. This filler fight was almost as bad as a Bleach fight scene where everybody's just kind of standing around and the good guys are having a really hard time until the very end when they win easily. Yeah, that's what happened here. That cost the episode one more point.

Final score: 4