Batman: The Doom of the Rising Sun

"I assure you I'm no footpad!"

The finale starts off with a fascinating, and rather good, cliffhangerresolution. Last episode we saw Batman bundled into coffin and said coffin fed to the crocs. This resolution isn't the first to resolve the cliffhanger by editing in some extra footage- but it really owns what it's doing, and I admire that. There's quite a lengthy sequence of Batman using Morse Code and Robin coming to his aid, revealing that it's not the Batman in the box but Wallace, one of Daka's anonymous and expendable henchmen.

I suppose it's a cheat, if you see re-editing as that. But I really admire the fact that it takes the episode six and a half minutes to get to the point where the coffin is fed to the crocs. For a movie serial cliffhanger resolution, this is positively avant-garde.

The rest is as one would expect, I suppose; Batman and Robin infiltrate Daka's hideout, there'sa fight, there's the obvious racial slur, Daka is fed to the crocs, the zombies are cured and Martin exonerated. But it's all very nicely done, and I love the scene where Captain Arnold finally meets his unofficial best officer. There's some nice comedy stuff with Alfred, too.

Overall... well, it's a movie serial. We know what we're getting. But this is rather better than most. It's just unfortunate that the blatact racism, even taking full account of historical context, is just so very far beyond the pale.