BW Media Spotlight

When I did my review of the first episode and the game attached to it, and the official interview with the showrunners, I thought they were just going to post the episode and then have the voting on the app. I was going to wait for the series or season or whatever they’re doing to end and maybe do a Saturday Night Showcase special once Christmas was over. Then I watched episode two, “Friend Or Foe” part 1, which released on YouTube and Tubi on Friday. I hadn’t counted on them actually showing the divergent paths after the episode. I was hoping for a deleted scene special or something, but I didn’t expect it would be after the episode.

I still don’t want to play the game, so as not to be disappointed later when my vote doesn’t go through, but I thought “well, if we’re going to see the roads not taken, why not review those roads versus what ultimately won, to see if the decisions made were in line with the reasons I was a DC fan for so long. In a sense this is the fans deciding what the DC heroes and villains should be, and DC Comics should be paying attention. I doubt they will be and the writers will continuing killing my favorite superhero universe, but that’s why I’m breaking out the analysis the first time I get a chance. If they all come out on Friday, based on my schedule that will be on Tuesday.

I don’t know why episode 2 is called a “part 1”. I thought this was an ongoing storyline, not an episodic one. For those of you just joining us, DC Heroes United is a combo TV series and game by some of the people who worked on the Batman series for Telltale before its premature collapse. Dr. Fate’s tower has suddenly dropped into the middle of Gotham City. This not only brings out ARGUS and Amanda Waller’s team, which in this continuity is a race-swapped Steve Trevor, Cyborg, and Wonder Woman, while having a bit of a rivalry with race-swapped Lex Luthor. This is the only character I’ll keep bringing up the race swap for because calling him Black Lex amuses me for reasons I believe I mentioned in the review of episode one. There’s also race-swapped Alfred, and I don’t know if he’s joined Marvel’s Jarvis in being replaced by an AI or just using a hologram cellphone. Batman also deals with Black Canary, who they surprisingly left white but gave her a punk rock hairdo (minus the hair color so at least she’s still blonde and the jacket might grown on me), who he doesn’t want to get along with because 2020s Batman. Look, it’s a cartoon. They have no reason beyond art style to not get this right. We have Cyborg and Amanda Waller, with Blue Beetle Jaime Reyes teased in the intro, though he’s not here yet. It’s not like the cast wasn’t going to be diverse. Actually, given Hollywood mentalities I’m surprised Black Canary isn’t black because it’s in the name. They done that before, right Jet Black of live-action Cowboy BeBop?

Just say no to stereotypes, kids. Black Lex being rich and potentially a good guy based on choices is already a shocker for modern Hollywood. Figured Black Lex would be in the ghetto trying to become a celebrity or push drugs as the only way out of the hood. Or he’d be rich, but just as evil as we usually expect the businessman version of Lex Luthor to act. That’s how modern writers write, and somehow they’re not the bad people.

Episode 2 continues where the first episode left off. Batman and Black Canary are going after Bane because they think he holds a clue to what’s going on (plus Black Canary has an unexplained score to settle with Bane) while Superman decided to best solution was to punch the tower and he may or may not be possessed by something from the tower that hit him. Now Wonder Woman needs to deal with him as we go into “Friend Or Foe” part 2, which I will post first to ensure we’re all on the same page.

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