Moon of the Wolf

Whenever I take a long time off between reviewing Batman episodes, it usually means that the next episode on my list is a dud. And that precisely is the case with "Moon of the Wolf," the 43rd-produced episode, but 36th aired on Nov. 11, 1992.

This was one of the last episodes produced by Akom Production Co., the infamously worst animation studio that worked on Batman: The Animated Series. This company put out notorious duds like "Prophecy of Doom," "Christmas with the Joker," "Joker's Wild," and "Cat Scratch Fever," which was so bad that it prompted Bruce Timm to stop working with Akom. "Moon of the Wolf" ranks right up there with some of the worst animation you'll see in this show. What really struck me was how slow all the characters moved in this episode. People running for their life, or even simply falling down, seemed to be stuck in slow motion. Plus, the animators could never keep any of the clothes the same color — Milo's coat was brown, white and blue in one scene — or keep any colors consistent, period — people's eyes changed colors and even Batman's white eyes turned bright blue for a moment. And don't even get me started on the werewolf that had the same expression frozen on its face the whole show. No wonder Batman thought it was a guy wearing a mask. Yes, I have to take a point off for this.

But I will add a point for the appearance of Dr. Milo. I don't know why, but I've always liked him as a character. I like his look, his voice, and his role as a failed genetic scientist. Sadly, he only had two episodes in Batman, which were both pretty crappy (the first was "Cat Scratch Fever," where he worked for Roland Daggett), but he will return in a pretty fun episode of Justice League. Hopefully I'll get around to reviewing that show some day.

Now to get back to taking away points. Dr. Milo wants to kill Batman for breaking up his thing with Daggett, so he blackmails Olympic champion Anthony Romulus to lure Batman into a trap to be killed by the werewolf. OK, a little overly-complicated, but mad scientists do these sort of things, so I'll let that slide. Romulus' plan is to donate $2 million to charity only if Batman arrives in person to collect the check. Instead of presenting this generous donation at a big, televised event, Romulus had Batman visit his house in the dead of night. Stupidly, Batman walked right into this trap and was too slow to pull out his gas mask. Come on, Batman! You know better than that! Minus one point.

I now have to drop the score to a 3 for the bizarre explanation for how Romulus became the werewolf. He came to Milo looking for steroids, but Milo said steroids were too traceable, so instead he gave him a concoction of steroids mixed with timber wolf estrogen. First of all, if this new potion has steroids in it, how will it not show up in the drug tests? Secondly, why wolf estrogen? Don't you mean testosterone? Wait a minute ... so does this mean that Romulus turned into a girl werewolf? No wonder he was so grumpy!

Even though I like Dr. Milo, he does have a habit of saying really stupid things that don't make any sense, like his hypothermia line in "Cat Scratch Fever." Here, his stupid moment came when Romulus was only half a werewolf and Milo said he couldn't cure him until he became a full werewolf. Wait, what? How is that even possible? And what was the point of that? Just turn him into a full werewolf right from the get-go and have at it. We're down to a 2 now.

There is one redeeming moment in this episode thanks to one of my favorite characters: Harvey Bullock. Throughout the episode, there was a dangling plot thread about some stolen timber wolves from the zoo. But Bullock was able to wrap that up through good old-fashioned detective work. He discovered the zookeeper's bank account suddenly gained a few thousand dollars, so he confronted him, threatened to feed him to the wolves, and got a confession from him. Nice to see somebody was competent in this episode. Plus one point.

But I'll have to take off another point for the failed climax. Batman fighting a werewolf could have been really cool. Yes, monsters and Batman don't usually mix well, but Man-Bat was able to pull it off, so why not this one? Two reasons: One, the sloppy animation took all excitement away. Two, sloppy writing made things all too convenient for Batman. After getting knocked out in the stupid trap, Batman woke up in chains in the middle of a construction yard. I guess they took his utility belt, but that didn't stop the animators from drawing it. The werewolf came pouncing down after Batman, and he was only able to escape from the chain by finding a bobby pin on the ground close enough for him to pick it up with his teeth. What's a bobby pin doing at a construction site? Anyway, they get into a pretty lame fight and Batman ultimately wins when the wolf is struck by lightning. So ... yeah, Batman really didn't do anything in this episode. He just got lucky. He didn't even find the werewolf and turn it back into a human. He just let Romulus continue to roam free. Talk about a lame ending.

"Moon of the Wolf" started on very shaky ground. Batman and the supernatural do not mix very well. In rare exceptions, it can be pulled off, but most of the time it's best to leave it alone. This episode also made a half-hearted attempt to teach kids the dangers of steroids, but that was never realized. And then the whole thing was further degraded by some of the worst animation you'll see in the DCAU.

Final score: 2