By Will Barber – Taylor

When Batman and Katana are ambushed by Killer Croc in the subway, it’s up to Barbara Gordon to save them. Only one problem: Barbara is on a date.

While the idea of Choices sounds flimsy, it isn’t a bad little episode. It isn’t as good as the previous Hero and serves more as a  gap stop between now and the series finale. The beginning is sound enough with Batman and Katana both being on patrol when they encounter Killer Croc.

Croc is underplayed in this story however; he seems less of a real threat and more of a cardboard cut-out villain. After he kidnaps Batman and Katana and attaches them to the rails he just hangs around. No explanation is given; just that he wants to see his plan through. Why Croc doesn’t just kill them when he has the chance seems a mystery. The whole attaching a character to railways seems taken directly from a bad 1920s silent film and doesn’t really suit the character of Croc. He does however give the best line of the series. When he discovers that Barbara is coming to rescue Batman and Katana he proclaims “Old men and now young girls? How many people has the dunce got on the payroll”.

The majority of the episode is spent with Barbara and her “love” interest Chaz. The whole setup is pretty grating and doesn’t real fit with the overall tone of the series. It all seems to be a bit pointless as well. Most likely we won’t see this “romance” develop any further. It also rages continuity questions: Barbara doesn’t seem to be that old, maybe thirteen or fourteen whereas her “boyfriend” Chaz drives a car even though he looks about the same age as her. Maybe the animators messed up with how old the teen characters were meant to look but otherwise it seems odd.

Aside from the Barbara/Chaz bits the story is good enough, Croc is entertaining as before and it has a satisfactory ending. Choices sounds worse than it is and is pretty watchable if you have twenty minutes to kill.

NEXT TIME

EPITAPH