BATMAN BRAVER & BOLDER: "Inside The Outsiders"

After a short hiatus, “Batman: The Brave & The Bold” is back with new episodes, at least for the U.S.

As co-creator James Tucker explained over the last two columns, the last two episodes, plus the two coming up, are the final half-hours of the first season. Come mid-November, the second season should officially get off the ground. Also remember that Tucker said that he just squeezes the lemons, it’s up to Cartoon Network to make them lemonade.

But dwelling on more positive things, Tucker’s partner, Mike Jelenic told us this episode, entitled “Inside The Outsiders,” is a play on light and darkness. The opening segment, which Jelenic officially calls “the teaser,” goes for the humorous side of the show. This is thanks in large part to the full introduction of one Dark Knight fans’ favorite felonious femme fatale.

“It features Batman, Green Arrow and Catwoman,” says Jelenic. “It’s one of our funnier ones. It has a pretty interesting take on the Batman/Catwoman relationship.

It also has Selina Kyle running around in one of her classic costumes of the 50s. That’s due to Tucker.

“We went with the retro look that James is so found of. It fits in pretty well with the show,” says Jelenic. “We get to see a pretty unique relationship between Batman and a villain. It’s one we get to play with in future episodes of season two, where we push the idea we never know what side she’s going to play. I won’t give too much more away, but it’s also kind of fun.”

From there, it’s time to move on to the episode’s main course, featuring Black Lightning, Katana and Metamorpho; aka the Outsiders. As fans might recall, when they were introduced way back last year, they were a pack of kids living in the sewers. Batman and Wildcat took them away from a life of crime, with the old man taking these wayward youths under his care.

The credits of this new episode don’t feature Wildcat, but they do feature a new villain, the Psycho Pirate.

“The Outsiders were a group of heroes that, when we originally started planning the show, was a group we wanted to see a full arc on,” says Jelenic. “Initially, we were going to have them introduced, which we did. Then we were going to start them as characters that weren’t heroes and then transform them into the characters fans are all familiar with. We would see them grow and change, learn more about their characters.

“We like to sort of shake things up. This is an episode we did. We were going to have each act include its own origins story. Each would have had its own lone Outsider story. It eventually evolved into a similar idea, but it evolved to where it’s one solid episode, focusing on one thing, their history.”

Jelenic admits Pscyho Pirate might remind Caped Crusader fans of a more notorious, modern Gotham madman, and Jelenic owns up to that.

“Psycho Pirate is one of those characters that only James could have dug up from his extensive comics collection,” says Jelenic. “He was a character I was not familiar with. He comes off as pretty creepy and pretty effective the way he works.

He’s a little like Scarecrow. He’s again creepier than Scarecrow thanks to the way he gets into your head and what he does in there. I’d say there’s a bit more Hannibal Lechter to him. He’s also one of our smarter villains. I think the show tends to focus on broader villains who focus on their power or strength.”

We’ll see this for ourselves when “Inside The Outsiders” airs tonight at 7:30 p.m on Cartoon Network. Check out a few clips from tonight's episode right here: