Review: Black Panther VS Batman

Note: There will be SPOILERS. Read with caution.

I'd say Season 5's off to a pretty good start. I mean, Season 5's first episode had BATMAN. How do you go wrong with Batman? The answer there is... you really can't. Well, unless you have bat nipples. Bat nipples never go well with people. Anyways, if you didn't already know, Black Panther VS Batman has officially been released for non-FIRST members. I gotta say, I definitely enjoyed myself. I don't know if I'd say the matchup itself was worthy of being a season premiere, but the episode itself wasn't that bad at all. And since I've been slacking off on my other blog posts, I decided to try and actually push myself to finish something. So, I decided to express myself on the episodes of Season 5 by giving them all reviews, starting, where else, with Black Panther VS Batman.

First thing's first, I need to address the biggest change: the opening music. Season 4 was a big change, but it was mostly aesthetic and didn't really matter too much, aside from making Death Battle templates. But this season, the members of Screwattack decided to make another big change by dumping the old theme. Previous seasons have always had the same intro theme and intermission theme, known as Invader, by Jim Johnston: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uihVrASDQhU. But, this season, they've gotten an all new theme. As far as I can tell, it's known as just "Wiz & Boomstick", and it's been created by the true mastermind of Death Battle music, Brandon Yates. It's not a bad theme at all, but... it doesn't really sound like a theme song to me. It's not bad, though. Maybe it just needs time to grow.

Now, on to the episode itself. I suppose I should start with what I think of the matchup. Going into this battle, this was the matchup that made the most sense for Batman. It was a little bit disappointing that it was the season premiere, but the episode definitely didn't disappoint. Going into the analysis of both characters, they were both pretty standard. As someone who didn't really know too much about Black Panther, they covered a lot of ground regarding him. I will admit that they did seem to spend a little bit too much time hyping up the suit, which doesn't really pay off well when it's only a minor factor for his victory. Also, apart from a few moments, it really didn't seem to be too funny. Apart from that, it's a fairly decent rundown. As for Batman, it's a different story. This is Batman's third and presumably final time in Death Battle. Ben, one of the hosts of the show, even says that they've completed the top three Batman requests, so it's fairly reasonable to assume that the most we're going to see of Batman will probably be a cameo in another DC fight or something. As for his third rundown, I have to say, it's particularly impressive that they managed to cover Batman for a third time and not have it feel too stale to me. Granted, this is likely around the fifth time I've heard his origin story, and he's been on the show twice before as previously mentioned, so none of the information was really surprising. Also, I don't know why I didn't think of them not using the classic "I'm Batman." line before. It seems so obvious now that they actually HAVE used it. That being said, I'm usually the kind of person who doesn't notice the obvious right in his face, so it doesn't really surprise me.

The animation is a bit tough to talk about. See, if there's not really any memorable moments, there's not really a whole lot to discuss regarding it. And that's ESPECIALLY bad if it's a season premiere. And if you couldn't tell, that's kinda what we've got here. While we did get Batman listening to probably the last song I'd expect to hear him listening to (A small part of me thinks it's from RWBY but that's just my theory), the rest of the fight was just... OK. Standard moves, standard blocks, even a standard Batman decapitation. This would've been fine as just another Marvel VS DC episode like Venom VS Bane, but as a season premiere, it doesn't really compare to the likes of Lara Croft VS Nathan Drake, or Dante VS Bayonetta. It's about on par with He-Man VS Lion-O, which was a decent season premiere.

So, while the episode did just feel like another regular Death Battle, it does have it's strong points. Though generally, this episode could've had a little bit more to it. I give Black Panther VS Batman a rating of...

7/10

As for the next time... Next time is Raven VS Twilight Sparkle. We're only at the second episode, and already we've got a pony. I'm very conflicted on this matchup, since I do enjoy both characters and don't really want either one of them to die. A small part of me hopes it's a joke matchup, since in the newest show Raven is obsessed with ponies, but the other 99% of me believes this will be a real battle. Two "Strong" combatants will be featured next time, and since I've heard Jetz is animating it, I can only expect great things. At least Raven finally gets to be in a Death Battle!

That's all from me. Be sure to check back whenever I actually do finish something else on here that isn't a review! Thanks for reading!