In which my site finally goes to the d…no, sorry, can’t do it.
So I’ve been watching the season sets of Batman Beyond via the Netflix over the last few weeks, and it’s generally an enjoyable, if surprisingly bleak, series. But in the last episode of Season 2, Ace in the Hole, Batman investigates an illegal dogfighting ring where the man in charge has been experimenting with growth hormones and such to create larger and more violent dogs. And as these things usually go, Batman gets trapped in an arena with what the villain promises is the largest, meanest dog of them all. At first you only see red eyes glowing in the darkness beyond an opened door.
And then you see holy crap what the hell is that thing
Here it is with Batman for more of a sense of scale:
That thing…good gravy, it’s hideous. And the still pictures don’t really do it justice. The fight scene that ensues is fast, brutal, and completely grotesque and terrifying. This is the sort of thing someone sees as a young kid, and then years later is reminded of it somehow, dredging up some shadowy memory of images from that cartoon that makes him/her think “geez, what the hell was I watching?”
There’s some Jack Kirby influence in the monster-dog’s design, I think…at least, that’s what I kept thinking as I was watching the fight. Particularly around the dog’s face…there’s just something Kirbyesque about it. And it reminded me a bit of Miracledog (or Marveldog, for you sticklers), as seen here in issue #6 of the Eclipse Comics series:
…in that it’s another malformed, insanely aggressive animal that’s absolutely horrifying.
Anyway, I saw that episode last night and thought I’d share with you folks.
That was the broadcast image simultaneously filling the TV screens of many a household just a few years ago. Enjoy!
