Once I started my rewatch of Batman: The Courageous and the Daring — now out there, like so many different DC properties, on HBO Max — I had one massive query: have they got THE episode? I didn’t trouble to look forward and discover out. I simply labored my approach by means of every episode so as till lastly, this February, I obtained my reply. That reply is a convincing sure.
Rewind with me, nerd pals.
Batman: The Courageous and the Daring debuted in 2008 on Cartoon Community. It takes its identify and inspiration from the basic comedian The Courageous and the Daring, which featured crossovers between heroes — typically Batman and a plus-one — who don’t usually hang around collectively (that is the sequence the place the Teen Titans debuted in 1964). The cartoon remained true to its Silver Age roots by presenting enjoyable tales about lesser-known characters.
I like love LOVED this sequence and watched each single episode…besides one.
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“The Mask of Matches Malone!” ought to have aired on October 15, 2010, as a part of the present’s second season. Written by fan-favorite creator Gail Simone, the plot includes Black Canary, Huntress, and Catwoman teaming as much as save Batman, who, after a blow to the pinnacle, believes himself to be the titular gangster. At one level, they observe Bat-Matches right into a crooks-only nightclub the place, to maintain their cowl and attempt to snap Batman out of it, they carry out a musical quantity.
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That quantity is why the episode by no means made it to air. Why? Your entire factor is one lengthy double-entendre in regards to the male heroes’, ahem, powers. Or slightly, the shortage thereof. One alternative line — “Flash’s foes, they finish last / Too bad sometimes he’s just too fast!” — even drew a smirk from Bat-Matches’ henchwoman.
Evidently, it was all an excessive amount of for the American censors of 2010, as a result of the episode solely aired in Australia. In keeping with this hideously coloured interview with sequence producer and co-lyricist James Tucker, the lyrics may not have been the principle downside, as they deliberate to switch a shot of Huntress waggling her finger whereas deriding Aquaman’s “little fish” after which air the episode later. That didn’t occur, and the episode wasn’t out there within the U.S. till it debuted on iTunes in 2011.
So, how’s the remainder of the episode? Fairly enjoyable! Two-Face performs a shocking and hilarious function within the proceedings, and Catwoman is appropriately catty in solely the most effective methods. “The Mask of Matches Malone!” matches proper right into a season that, regardless of nonetheless fooling around, obtained surprisingly darkish, with a number of heroes dying, the Spectre…Spectreing, and Batman confronting his mother and father’ killer. In a little bit of black comedy that can be brutally echoed in “Emperor Joker!” two episodes later, we see Bat-Matches die repeatedly after stealing an artifact that grants him 9 lives.
The one bitter word is the inclusion of Blue Beetle within the track lyrics, which is creepy as a result of a) he’s barely college-age, and b) Huntress’s alter ego is a professor at his college. Ew.
I do know for a indisputable fact that there could be no issues getting this episode to air now. Working example: again within the day, the one half I may watch was, satirically, the offending track, which was illegally posted to YouTube. As we speak, not solely is the entire episode streaming, DC itself has posted the uncensored quantity — naughty finger and all — on-line.
Truthfully, I don’t suppose it ought to have been banned to start with. The innuendo isn’t refined, however it’ll in all probability go over youngsters’ heads. If it doesn’t, you could have greater issues than a Batman cartoon.
