Home Featured TV Shows All TV Shows Movie Reviews Book Reviews Articles Frequently Asked Questions About Us

Batman The Animated Series: Prophecy of Doom

"You're about to fall out of orbit, Batman!"

Oh dear, this is a bad one.

A lot of Gotham's rich schmucks have fallen under the spell of an obvious con-man named (*deep sigh*) Nostromos. He's a failed actor who has teamed up with Lucas, a former FX man, to trick these rich tits into thinking he has psychic powers and can predict the future, warning them about bad things happening and then making them happen with some obvious act of sabotage. Like ridiculously obvious. At one point, Lucas literally throws a spanner in the works. Miraculously, no one seems to be investigating these "accidents" so these morons, lacking a suspicious bone in their very rich bodies, instantly think this guy is legit and start throwing money at him.

Since rich bastards only ever look out for their own, they naturally try to recruit Bruce into their cult of stupidity. Of course, our hero doesn't fall for any of Nostromos' bullshit. Why would he, he's the goddamn Batman. Batman knows a crook when he sees one. Also, he has access to a supercomputer that enables him to do basic background checks. Faster than you can say "pre-Google" he discovers who Nostromos and Lucas really are and that they both have criminal records.

And what exactly does he do with this information?

Absolutely nothing.

Rather than use this evidence to expose these guys as frauds and get them arrested, the caped crusader decides it is better to go undercover so he can discover what their endgame is. Ugh, it's to swindle money, Bruce. That's it. They want the rich people's money. You're not dealing with a pair of criminal masterminds here. It's not necessary to know the intricate details of their evil scheme. Just expose them to your friends and call the police. You really don't need to Batman this one.


Comic Book Connections

Nostromos is loosely based on the Zodiac Master, a costumed criminal who predicted accidents that he had caused in order to gain the trust of Gotham's other criminals. He was created by Dave Wood and Sheldon Moldoff and first appeared in Detective Comics #323 (January, 1964).

I Know That Voice

Nostromos was voiced by singer and actor Michael Des Barres, best known for being the lead singer of Power Station and playing the villain Murdoc on MacGyver. Lucas was voiced by Aron Kincaid, who would later voice Killer Croc. Lisa Clark was voiced by Heather Locklear (T.J. Hooker, Dynasty, Melrose Place, Spin City), and Ethan Clark by William Windom who is probably best known for playing Dr. Seth Hazlitt on Murder, She Wrote.

Notes and Quotes

--During their first fight, Batman throws a batarang that lodges itself into Lucas' leg. However, due to censorship, no blood was shown.


--AKOM animated this episode and did a typically shoddy job of it too. I'm starting to think that the producers knew at this point their work would be of poor quality so deliberately gave them all the shitty episodes.

--During the climatic scene in the planetarium, the background music is similar to 'Mars: The Bringer of War' by Gustav Holst.

Lucas: "No one could've predicted Batman would spot me. Not even the great Nostromos. Besides, how do you know Wayne survived?"
Nostromos: "The news said he got off the elevator right before it fell, you pathetic amateur!"
Lucas: "Well, you didn't predict he would die, exactly..."

Lisa: "You know what my inner voice tells me, Nostromos? You've ripped off your last victim!"

Alfred: "You gave them ten million dollars, sir? And to think I was fretting over the electric bill."

Nostromos: "I predict... you and I are about to become as rich as pigs!"

One out of four basic background checks.

Mark Greig has been writing for Doux Reviews since 2011 More Mark Greig

3 comments:

  1. For me, William Windom will always be Commodore Matt Decker in my favorite episode of original Star Trek, "The Doomsday Machine." I think he gave the best guest performance in the entire series.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey I like this one. Mostly because on rewatch I always think it's a Ra's al-Ghul (I'm not looking up the spelling) and then am pleasantly surprised when it doesn't involve him at all. The Bat Computer really can do it all.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jeez, one after the other :D Are you on a Bamtna binge right now?

    You know, for a critically acclaimed and well-loved show, B:TAS contains a lot of stinkers, at least in this early run of episodes. To be fair, and this isn't exclusive to this version of Batman, there are a lot of stories out there that makes you wonder why the Gotham police department couldn't handle this one their own. I'm sure they have the resources to do a general background check, too.

    ReplyDelete

We love comments! We moderate because of spam and trolls, but don't let that stop you! It’s never too late to comment on an old show, but please don’t spoil future episodes for newbies.