Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2100

Carl Sagan’s COSMOS Will Marathon on Twitch in Celebration of Science Week

Rejoice lovers of space, science, and silky smooth voices of reason! To celebrate “Science Week,” Twitch will be marathoning Cosmos: A Personal Voyage with Carl Sagan in its entirety. Twice. The presentation of the OC (Original Cosmic) journey will also include live Q&A segments with Ann Druyan, co-creator of the series, as well as interviews with an “array of personalities from the science scene” throughout the rest of the week.

Science Week is coming, and it starts with COSMOS.

Details: https://t.co/srygQ4VTRr pic.twitter.com/Dtm0jl23lI

— Twitch (@Twitch) April 21, 2017

According to a Business Wire press release, the marathons will take place on Twitch, with the first starting at 12:00 PDT on April 24-25, and the second at 2:00 PDT on April 27-28.

The series, which first premiered in 1980 and has since been a source of inspiration, education, and many a college freshman’s “whoa the universe, but whoa…” moments, consists of 13 (roughly) hour-long episodes. This means that if you plan on throwing down the space gauntlet and traversing all of existence on a brain-bending galactic cruise led by a kind and wise space captain, you’ll need to spend the entire day on le canapé.

For those that are curious: you CAN (and should) co-stream COSMOS! Set a reminder. Or billions and billions of them: https://t.co/8BGWAiDRjq pic.twitter.com/wjKMUrtR5C

— Zachary Diaz (@ZacharyDiaz) April 21, 2017

Aside from the two marathons, Ann Druyan, who was also the wife of the late Sagan along with a co-creator of the original series, will be, presumably, discussing all things science, space, and Sagan — extremely relevant topics that you may wish to hear about with our own Kyle Hill in Los Angeles at this weekend’s March for Science — following the marathon on April 28.

The other scientists that will be interviewed alongside Druyan during Science Week on Twitch include: Matthew Buffington, Ariane Cornell, Scott Manley, Pamela Gay, Kishore Hari, Fraser Cain (Fraser Cain?!), EJ_SA, and the one and only Bad Astronomer, Phil Plait. Because you always need a Plait at a science buffet. (Sorry, had to make a Fraser Cain kind of joke there.)

What do you think about Cosmos streaming on Twitch for Science Week? Let your voice stand out in the cosmic fugue below!

Images: Wikimedia / JPL 

STAR WARS, FROZEN, and More Star in Fan Art Friday

If you fell under the spell of the Beauty and the Beast edition of Fan Art Friday a few weeks ago, then you’ll likely recognize the artist responsible for the pieces in this week’s gallery: Erin Lefler. Known as Butternut Gouache around the interwebs, Erin is a freelance illustrator who works on fan art pieces in between jobs. Her style has a fairy tale quality I can’t resist, and I can’t stop looking at her interpretations of characters I admire. Case in point, look at Rey:

Rey (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

She adds even more of a regal air to Frozen‘s Elsa in this portrait:

Queen Elsa (Frozen)

Keep scrolling to the gallery below to see illustrations inspired by a couple of characters in Doctor Who, a lovely scene from Beauty and the Beast, and a drawing inspired by a dancer in a Disneyland parade. When you’re ready to see even more of Erin’s enchanting work, you can follow her on Instagram or Pinterest and visit her website.

Do you create any sort of fan art? If so, I want to see it. Whether you focus on a specific fandom or pull inspiration from multiple stories and mediums, I’d like to highlight what you do. If you’re interested in being featured in a future edition of Fan Art Friday, get in touch with me at alratcliffe@yahoo.com with examples of your work. If you’re not an artist, feel free to email me with recommendations for Fan Art Friday!

Images: Erin Lefler

Kylo Ren’s Scar Controversy Heats Up!

After the glory of last week’s Star Wars Celebration Orlando and the debut of the first trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, it’s been a particularly great month for fans. But now these Star Wars are becoming Scar Wars! Fans were quick to notice that Kylo Ren’s facial scars in The Last Jedi don’t quite match up with the injury that Rey gave him during their lightsaber duel in The Force Awakens. Today’s Nerdist News is all about the Scargate controversy, and the ever flexible shape of Star Wars continuity.

Join host, and the galaxy’s top skin care expert, Jessica Chobot, as she examines Johnson’s recent comments and Kylo Ren’s slightly changed face. At first, Johnson seemed to downplay the movement of the scar, before admitting on twitter that “it was my decision to slightly adjust (the scar)…It honestly looked goofy running straight up the bridge of his nose.”

As you can see from the pic above, Kylo Ren now has the scar placed just over his right eye. It’s not a bad look, really, it’s just not where Rey tagged him in the face, and that’s what really has some fans upset. This is far from the first time that Star Wars has played fast and loose with its own continuity, especially during the Special Edition era! But even as far back as Return of the Jedi, George Lucas decided to ignore the previous version of the Emperor from The Empire Strikes Back before introducing Ian McDiarmid as the most deliciously evil character in the entire saga. So you see, continuity changes can work out!

How do you feel about Kylo Ren’s new facial scarring? Ignite your lightsabers in the comment section below!

Hot Toys’ BABY GROOT Life Size Figure is Cosmically Adorable

From the moment he appeared at the end of the first Guardians of the Galaxy, everyone and their mother has wanted their own baby Groot to own and cherish. Once you saw him dancing to the Jackson 5 in his little pot, you wanted to shout out “where do I get one?” in the theater. Until you remembered that it’s just a movie, and and there is no such thing as sentient, anthropomorphic trees in real life. Nevertheless, having a baby Groot all your own has never left your mind for long, admit it.

But now, thanks to Screen Crush, we’ve learned that you can have the next best thing — a baby Groot life size figure, which will be coming soon from Hot Toys. If you’re not familiar with Hot Toys, they’re the high end toy company that makes incredibly life-like 1/6 scale replica figures of characters from movies ranging from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to Star Wars, to even The Godfather.

The figures are so realistic looking, at times you can’t tell whether you’re looking at toys or actual photos of the actors from the film. The company is taking advantage of Baby Groot’s still-small height in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 to give fans the actual life size replica they’ve always wanted.

Baby Groot will come with three different heads, including a smiling head, an “attentive” head, and a “concentrating very hard” head. He’ll also come with a Ravagers coat to wear, as well as additional branch hands that have bendable wires, which will allow for more poseability. Baby Groot figure will be available for pre-order soon from Sideshow Collectibles. There is no price for this high end toy just yet, but it is expected to set you back around $220-$250 or so, and should be arriving in 2018. You can see images of the Baby Groot prototype figure in our gallery down below.

So do you want this adorable baby Groot figure on your shelf as much as we do? Be sure to let us know what you think down below in the comments.

Images: Marvel / Hot Toys

What will the Guardians’ future hold?

Is STARCRAFT the Key to Winning the South Korean Presidency?

“A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage!” – Herbert Hoover, 1928

“Are you better off than you were four years ago?” – Ronald Reagan, 1980

“My life for Aiur” – Protoss zealot, 1998

A good slogan is essential to waging a successful presidential campaign, and in the case of South Korean presidential candidate Moon Jae-in, the best slogans come from Blizzard’s classic sci-fi real-time strategy game StarCraft. Naturally, it was only a matter of time before the game would be used as a political tool. As reported by DotEsports, Jae-in is leveraging the massive popularity of StarCraft in South Korea as a campaign tactic by releasing two custom StarCraft maps for players to download.

The maps, which are titled “Moonters,” are available in four-player size and eight-player size, and are basically just lightly tweaked versions of the game’s base maps. They feature a large outcropping of mineral resources which spell out “1 Moon Jae-In” in Korean on the larger map, and “1” on the smaller map. The maps’ release comes at an auspicious time as Blizzard has just made the game and its expansion, Brood War, free-to-play on both PC and Mac.

Could the game’s emphasis on constructing additional pylons indicate that Jae-in’s promised 10 trillion won ($8.9 billion) stimulus package for startups and small businesses will be devoted towards shoring up the country’s infrastructure? And what about those among us who in lieu of plummeting birthrates want to spawn more Overlords? Only time will tell what we can glean from these politically charged StarCraft maps. In the meantime, let’s just agree that “no rush 15 minutes” means “no rush 15 minutes,” and keep partisan politics out of it.

What other video game tie-in campaign tactics would you like to see in future elections? What political DLC needs to happen? Let us know in the comments below.

Image: Blizzard

Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@Osteoferocious).

See an Underwater Earthquake Captured on Video by a Scuba Diver

Here’s the thing about experiencing an earthquake while scuba diving: Yes, it’s one of the scariest Mama Nature is pissed at my location in particular scenarios to find yourself in. But at least if you’re scuba diving and you’re (rightfully) frightened out of your mind by the ground suddenly shaking beneath you, you’ll only have to deal with an aura of warm water instead of the need for a new pair of pants. And if you’re thinking, “Pffft, I could handle an underwater earthquake no problem!” Well, make sure to watch this video of scuba divers experiencing exactly that before you decide to Aquaman up.

A GIF of the above footage was posted to Reddit recently by user KevlarYarmulke, but the fellow (one of a few, apparently) who actually managed to record himself caught between moving tectonic plates and an atmospherically dense place was Philippines Coast Guard member Jan Paul Rodriguez.

via KevlarYarmulke/Reddit

This particular earthquake measured in at 5.7 on the Richter scale, and was only one part of the Batangas earthquake swarm—”earthquake swarm” sounds like a Sandslash move—that hit the Philippines earlier this month. Luckily nobody was killed by the earthquake swarm, although it doubtlessly sent plenty of people’s heart rates skyrocketing. Read this brief passage from a first-hand account of a 2014 earthquake experienced under water off the coast of the Philippines by Jessica Read, written for The Guardian, for a sense of how harrowing this experience truly is:

“The vibration [of the quake] became so intense, I could feel it in my bones, and the sound turned into a deafening roar. I could see waterfalls of sand pouring over the coral, and on the sea floor, a few metres below us, cracks began forming and the sand was sucked down. That’s when I realised it was an earthquake. The noise was the sound of the Earth splintering open and grinding against itself.”

What do you think about this whole scuba-diving-while-Earth-opens-itself up thing? Let us know in the comments below!

Images: Gilda/Flickr

Is One Punch Man strong enough to punch the rain away?

3 Reasons This GAME OF THRONES/Azor Ahai Theory Holds Up

Editor’s Note: this post contains potential spoilers for Game of Thrones — particularly if you aren’t caught up with the show. It also mentions some book-related content so don’t say we didn’t warn you!

Most fans of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books have long speculated that Tyrion Lannister was not really a full Lannister at all, rather the bastard child of Joanna Lannister and Mad King Aerys Targaryen (who was long noted to be obsessed with Joanna and possibly/maybe raped her in the past, because Thrones). It’s a tantalizing theory that’s really only worth anything when taken into consideration with another. Namely, the fact that it has long been assumed that in order to ride a dragon — and in turn be one of the three heads to ride Dany’s kiddies into the future to save Westeros from the White Walkers — one must have Targaryen blood. What if that third head wasn’t the long-considered Tyrion, but actually someone else? It’s a theory oft-discussed without many credible alternative options—until now.

Has Game of Thrones been setting up the Kingslayer to be the ultimate hero after all? (I know!)

Though it has been posited before on Reddit (because of course), it wasn’t until Mashable‘s Alex Hazlett highlighted one of the new photos from season 7 as a possible confirmation that our interest was piqued. Flames fanned further, we decided to look into it ourselves and, well? We think it totally holds up, thanks to the sword he’s carrying—a sword that could kill his older twin sister/true love and sets him on a path to redemption and dragon-riding-hood. Let’s break it down.

On a Prophecy Level

Now, GRRM has stated many times that prophecies can be wrong and/or an amalgamation of the actual truth. In order to consider how Jaime plays into that, we have to look at the variations of the Prince That Was Promised (PTWP) and/or Azor Ahai prophecies themselves and assume that the PTWP and Azor Ahai are one in the same. According to the prophecy as recounted by Melisandre, the PTWP will be born “after a long summer, when the stars bleed and the cold breath of darkness falls heavy on the world” and born again “amidst smoke and salt,” waking “dragons out of stone. He will carry a burning sword called Lightbringer.

This mirrors what is said by Benerro (Kinvara on the show), the high priest of R’hllor at the Red Temple in the free city of Volantis. In this iteration, the prophecy also says that Azor Ahai was born from smoke and salt and was sent to make the world anew, triumphing over the dark to bring about a new long summer (one that may never end!). Benerro even goes on to assert that “Death itself will bend its knee, and all those who die fighting in Azor Ahai’s cause shall be reborn.”

So what if Jaime, sent to Dragonstone to parlay with Dany (in this case could be see as Death), finally triumphs over the dark (Cersei’s hold on him) to come to the hero’s side?

On a Personal Level

Looking at Azor Ahai’s journey as more of a template than a literal translation of what’s to come, it’s easy to see how it works on a thematic level. But what about a literal one, if Targaryen blood is so important? Well, it’s easy if you ask yourself the following question: what if Cersei and Jaime were actually the bastard kids of Joanna and Aerys?

As we mentioned above, Joanna was possibly-maybe raped by the Mad King Aerys (there are rumors) and birthed a child that was his and not Tywin’s. Most have assumed it was Tyrion given his impish stature, but Cersei and Jaime shouldn’t be discounted. Look at their golden hair, their love of, erm, loving each other (another Targaryen trait), and Cersei’s straight-up insanity. Taken separately they mean very little. But when considered together, it certainly looks a little more dragon-y in nature.

And then there’s that sword we mentioned before. In order for Lightbringer—the sword of Azor Ahai to be created—the following will take place:

To fight the darkness, Azor Ahai needed to forge a hero’s sword. He labored for thirty days and thirty nights until it was done. However, when he went to temper it in water, the sword broke. He was not one to give up easily, so he started over. The second time he took fifty days and fifty nights to make the sword, even better than the first. To temper it this time, he captured a lion and drove the sword into its heart, but once more the steel shattered. The third time, with a heavy heart, for he knew before hand what he must do to finish the blade, he worked for a hundred days and nights until it was finished. This time, he called for his wife, Nissa Nissa, and asked her to bare her breast. He drove his sword into her breast, her soul combining with the steel of the sword, creating Lightbringer, while her cry of anguish and ecstasy left a crack across the face of the moon.

Considering prophecy as a guideline and not literal, if Jaime were to drive the sword into the heart of his true love, Cersei, if we consider her to be half lion (Lannister) and half Targaryen (which would’ve made them husband and wife if they were raised in the family), Lightbringer could easily be wrought. And we know Cersei is supposed to die at the hand of the valonqer, a.k.a. a younger brother in Valyrian—and Jaime is younger by a few minutes. Take all of that into consideration and it’s not hard to see how such a huge theory leap is possible.

On a GRRM Level

I mean, c’mon… Think about Game of Thrones as a whole story. GRRM has worked his ass off to surprise his audience and upend our expectations about people, places, and things. Red herrings abound and prophecy is often only half true. So while it may feel more literal to see either Jon Snow or Dany or even Tyrion as the Prince That Was Promised, more figurative journeys have also proven themselves worthy of consideration. And that expectation is exactly the sort of thing GRRM loves to subvert.

What do you think of the theory? Let us know in the comments below!

Images and GIFs: HBO

Alicia Lutes is the Managing Editor/Resident Khaleesi of House Nerdist, creator/host of Fangirling!, and can be found on Twitter!

Want More GoT goodness? Check out this theory from Nerdist News:

GAME OF THRONES Re-Throned: “The House of Black and White” (S5, E2)

Winter is coming, but not soon enough. So to help pass the time until season seven of Game of Thrones, we’re doing a weekly re-watch of the series, episode-by-episode, with the knowledge of what’s to come and—therefore—more information about the unrevealed rich history of events that took place long before the story began. Be warned, though: that means this series is full of spoilers for every season, even beyond the episode itself. So if you haven’t watched all of the show yet immediately get on that and then come back and join us for Game of Thrones Re-Throned.

Because the next best thing to watching new episodes is re-watching old ones.

——

Season 5, Episode 2: “The House of Black and White”

Original Air Date: April 19th, 2015

Director: Michael Slovis

Written by: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss

What got Robb Stark killed? The breaking of his sacred vow to marry one of Walder Frey’s daughters. But the reason he was even in the Twins the day of the Red Wedding at all was because he made a shortsighted decision to execute Lord Rickard Karstark in the name of justice. In this episode, Daenerys made the exact same foolish choice to kill an ally, but—since her mistake didn’t prove fatal for her—it may end up being one of the most valuable lessons she learned in Meereen, and may help save the living in the great war to come.

Robb beheaded Lord Karstark after Karstark broke into the cell of Martyn and Willem Lannister and killed the two child hostages of Robb. It was a heinous crime—cruel and unjust—but Robb’s family advised him to keep Lord Karstark as a hostage, assuring the loyalty of the entire Karstark force. However, ever the son of Ned Stark, he ignored their counsel and killed Lord Karstark instead, because acting with honor trumped acting pragmatically. The Karstark forces then immediately abandoned his cause, which led to Robb trying to gain back the Frey forces. We know how that all ended.

In “The House of Black and White,” Daenerys decided the captured Son of the Harpy should be given a fair trial, a decision with which former slave and member of her small council, Mossador, disagreed. Later in the episode he broke into the man’s cell and killed him. When confronted by Daenerys, he said he did it for her, because her hands were tied.

This was one of her most loyal subjects, one of the first slaves to rise up in her name. He didn’t refer to her as Khaleesi or Queen, he called her Mhysa. No one in this city loved her more than he does. And she has him executed for his crime.

The consequences were instant, as the freed former slaves quickly began pelting the former masters with rocks. But it goes beyond that, as they started hissing (yes, actually hissing) at their beloved Mhysa, whom they had begged for mercy. It’s an ugly scene, and it seemed to light a fuse on the uneasy powder keg that was Meereen.

Daenerys’s problems in Slaver’s Bay were only just beginning, though we know she’ll (barely) survive them. However, it’s not until Tyrion’s arrival that the egregiousness of her Mossador decision was contextualized. In episode eight of this season, the banished Jorah—a man she swore to kill if he ever returned—stood before Daenerys to beg for forgiveness. Asking Tyrion what she should do with him, the soon-to-be Hand to the Queen remarked: “A ruler who kills those devoted to her is not a ruler who inspires devotion. You’re going to need to inspire devotion—and lots of it—if you’re ever going to rule across the Narrow Sea.”

If only she’d understood this notion with Mossador, she may have avoided many of the problems she faced in Meereen (plus, the very much not executed Jorah ends up saving her life)—problems that nearly cost her her life, much like Robb’s mistake. She was too committed to acting within a strict code of right and wrong that she failed to act practically. She let her a rigid sense of justice blind her against making the best decision.

Now that Dany’s finally (finally!) begun her trek across the Narrow Sea, it might seem that this lesson about being a pragmatic ruler and not an ideologue will help her unite Westeros behind her, giving her the Iron Throne and making her a just and good queen.

But what this lesson might do, far more importantly, is save the world of the living from the White Walkers. The great war is coming, and it could require the entire united forces of the Seven Kingdoms to defeat them. If her first act in Westeros is to lay waste to the Lannister army, for example, or destroys all of Euron Greyjoy’s ships, there might not be enough people to fight in the only war that truly matters. If she seeks vengeance for what was done to her family, instead of doing what is best for the country, she could damn the whole continent to darkness.

And if the White Walkers come south enough, all of those defeated foes could rise again as a much scarier enemy.

One of the great themes of this show is what it takes to rule, the challenges of power, between balancing what is right and what is smart. Ned Stark’s strong sense of right and wrong got him killed, as did Robb’s. Fortunately for Daenerys she did not pay for her life for making the same mistake. As a result she might be the ruler that Westeros needs to find peace, but more importantly she might be the ruler that will save the living from the dead.

What do you think is the most important lesson Daenerys learned in Meereen? Tell us in the comments below.

Images: HBO

The Kraken Pie is Monstrously Delicious

There’s no scarier tale than that of the Kraken, the legendary giant monster that trolls the sea, tackling ships with its unwieldy tentacles. Its enormity knows no bounds and can easily single-handedly take down large ships with a single thwip. Now, imagine this creature surfacing and creating havoc on your dessert. Why, it’s enough to send a chill down your spine.

Behold the Kraken Pie, an amazing multi-layered dessert consisting of a decorative tower, with crashing waves at its base, surrounded by large tentacled arms, all reaching up to grab a ship sitting upon another tiny pie. incredibly, each piece is made of pie dough that’s been hand-cut and baked.

It’s almost too much goodness to behold:

This behemoth was created by Jessica Leigh Clark-Bojin, a.k.a. @ThePieous, the woman responsible for making pie cool again with her incredibly detailed pop culture dessert creations. They’re seriously works of art with pie crust, as she intricately brings characters and stories to life all atop a 9-inch pie.

While Clark-Bojin has been experimenting with pop culture themed pie design for over a year, lately she’s been working vertically—trying to attain height. Something for which pie isn’t normally known.

There are a lot of great culinary tips to be picked up by watching the video, too. A major one being the use of double pie dough to give structure to more fragile pieces. A genius idea and one that will ensure stability for taller objects. Referring to this edible feat of engineering as a piescrapers, Clark-Bojin gets some impressive lift to normally flat surfaced pie.

Now to how handily defeat this beast. Release the Kraken! (And make it à la Mode!)

For more incredible works of pie art, check out the Pies Are Awesome YouTube channel.

Are you ready to take on the pie Kraken? Let us know in the comments!

Images: Pies Are Awesome

BATMAN Reanimated – “The Demon Within” Goes Very Inside

The Timmverse version of the DC Comics universe went all over the place, touching on characters across all times and power varieties. Once Justice League Unlimited was up and running, the notion of mixing magical powered individuals with scientific ones was no big deal at all, but when it was just Batman: The Animated Series, and later The New Batman Adventures, the line of what did or did not belong was much more clearly defined. So when something overtly magical showed up — and it wasn’t Mr. Mxyzptlk or something on Superman — it jarred. That’s “The Demon Within” for sure.

Written by Stan Berkowitz from a story by Rusti Bjornhöel, and directed by “Growing Pains” director Atsuko Tanaka, this episode could very well be a backdoor pilot for a movie about Jason Blood/Etrigan the Demon. It opened the door very wide for a trip into the DC supernatural world, and using Batman as the outlet for it seems to work a bit better tonally than Superman (which was the only other show going in 1998). And to explain all this rampant magic? The episode just ends with Robin being confused about what just happened and Batman merely replies “Don’t ask.” Good explanation if you ask me.

But I’ve gotten ahead of myself. “The Demon Within” begins with Bruce and Tim at an auction of antiques and reliquaries. One item up for bid is a brand purported to be Morgaine le Fey’s from King Arthur’s time (of course, we don’t know that yet). A bidding war begins between historian Jason Blood (voiced by Billy Zane) and a young man named Klarion, who calls Blood his “Uncle Jason.” It looks as though Klarion is going to win, but Bruce bits $1 million and wins instead, so he can give the item to Blood.

Later, Blood explains the item’s origin to Bruce and Tim, mentioning that Merlin summoned a demon named Etrigan to be the protector of Camelot. Klarion appears with his cat Teekl and attempts to steal the brand. He is—of course—Klarion the Witch Boy, an ancient practitioner of dark magic. Teekl is his familiar and becomes humanoid and begins to fight. Blood them says an incantation and becomes Etrigan, fighting Teekl off successfully. However, Klarion ends up with the brand and uses magic to separate the Demon from Jason Blood, then brand the Demon to control it. If Batman can’t retrieve the brand in time, Jason’s true centuries-old age will end his life, and the Demon will be under Klarion’s control forever.

Both Etrigan the Demon and Klarion the Witch Boy were creations of the late Jack Kirby, and this episode seems to be a love letter to him and his creation of crazy mythologies. While Kirby is known for creating a lot of what made Marvel Comics so beloved for so long, when he jumped ship to DC for a time, he also created some truly indelible elements that became integral to DC canon, including the New Gods, the beings of Apokolips (Darkseid and all them), Mister Miracle, a rebooted version of The Sandman, and of course The Demon, following Jason Blood and his exploits, once his “Fourth World” books were cancelled.

Klarion has long been one of Etrigan’s most formidable enemies, and is, if I may, hella creepy. A petulant little boy being not only all-powerful, but never-aging. He never grows up or gets more mature. His “Uncle Jason” just has to deal with it. This episode does a great job of portraying him and Teekl, but they sort of pale in comparison to Blood and Etrigan, who are supremely awesome in this. It was very rare for a Batman animated episode at the time to welcome in another hero, but Etrigan works very well, both as an ally and as a mind-controlled threat. It makes me wish he’d have shown up again, but that wouldn’t happen until Justice League Unlimited.

“The Demon Within” is certainly a departure for the series, focusing on characters who had never (and would never) be on the show again, certainly much more of a DC Comics homage episode, much like Jonah Hex’s appearance in TAS.

Next we’re going to look at arguably the greatest episode in the whole of The New Batman Adventures, “Over the Edge,” which is one of the biggest nightmares Batman could possibly have. Fun! That’s next week.

Images: WB Animation

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. He’s written the animation retrospectives Batman: Reanimated, X-Men: Reanimated, Cowboy Rebop, and Samurai reJacked. Follow him on Twitter!