1. Plot

2. Production

3. Reception

4. References

"The Rise of the Blue Beetle" is the first episode of the animated television series The Brave and the Bold. The episode introduces Blue Beetle in his first on-screen appearance.

Plot

The episode opens with Batman and Green Arrow breaking out of Clock King's clockwork death trap clock that would have lowered them into acid, before going on to fight him and his henchmen. The main plot starts after the theme song airs. Teenage Jaime Reyes has become the second Blue Beetle but is not convinced that he has what it takes to be a superhero, partially because he has a few problems with controlling his powers, such as when he tried to rescue a cat from a tree. Batman decides to take the young superhero under his wing and asks Blue Beetle to help him stop a meteor. The mission is stopped, however, when Blue Beetle's scarab creates a wormhole which sends the two superheroes to a distant planet. The planet is inhabited by single-celled aliens called Gibbles that are under constant siege by the intergalactic pirate Kanjar Ro, who wants to harvest their bodies for fuel. The aliens believe that Blue Beetle is their savior, mistaking him for the previous one who wore the scarab, who was later killed, and they think Batman is his sidekick. Blue Beetle is not confident he can save them, although he decides to try when he sees the hope they have for him. Batman tells the Blue Beetle to give a speech to the aliens to encourage them to fight Kanjor Ro. Kanjor Ro is meanwhile draining energy from the Gibbles to power his ships for raids on the Medra Quadrant. However, the Gibble army attacks and Blue Beetle starts getting the hang of controlling the suit. He saves Batman from Kanjar Ro, then fights and defeats him, but Ro returns, freeing his crew and using the Gamma Gong on Blue Beetle, which he knows he has a weakness for; it eliminates his suit, and was how he killed the last Blue Beetle. Another blow of the Gong completely strips the armor away; when Ro sees his greatest foe is a child, he realizes he did eliminate the Beetle the last time they fought. After the Gibble army is soon after defeated, Ro has Batman and some Gibbles tied to a satellite for fish-like space monsters to eat, but Batman plugs a cable into the Gibble next to him, charging it with power to electrocute one of the monsters and scare the other monsters away. Meanwhile, Ro has tied up the Beetle and is trying to use the Gong to find the right frequency to remove the Scarab. As Batman enters and Ro is knocked into the Gong, the scarab is removed by the created tones. Ro attaches it to his spine and uses its power to fight Batman. Meanwhile, Jaime thinks creatively and escapes his bonds, and then he uses the Gong to strip away the armor and remove the Scarab from Ro. Enraged, he tries to attack them, but the Gibble uses a newly-made weapon that utilizes the Gibble's own power to knock Ro out. Before he and Blue Beetle leave, the Gibbles thank Batman for his part in helping Blue Beetle and themselves to defeat Kanjor Ro. The two return to Earth through the wormhole, and find that it has brought them back to the exact time after they went through the wormhole the first time. This gives them enough time to finish the mission to stop the meteor that got them sent through the wormhole in the first place, and after making sure his partner is ready, Batman and Blue Beetle take on the meteor.

Production

Reception

Dan Phillips of IGN said that people would not like The Rise of the Blue Beetle! very much if they have a problem with "wormholes, single-cell organisms and evil intergalactic pirates being mentioned in the same breath as Batman".^[2] Scott Summers of Toonzone liked the plot of the episode while also noting that there are references to older Batman animation.^[3] Rob M. Worley of Mania said that the episode has "laugh-out-loud moments" and praised the action and plot twists.^[4]

References

• Tennessee Pass (Colorado)
• Tennessee Public Service Commission
• Tennessee Records
• Tennessee Rhythm
• Tennessee Ridge, Tennessee
• Tennessee River
• Tennessee (river)
• Tennessee river
• Tennessee River Gorge
• Tennessee's 5th congressional district
• Tennessee Senate
• Tennessee Smokies
• Tennessee's Partner
• Tennessee State
• Tennessee (state)
• Tennessee State Capitol
• Tennessee State Flag
• Tennessee State Highway 155
• Tennessee State Highway 185
• Tennessee State Highway 56
• Tennessee State Route 1
• Tennessee State Route 155
• Tennessee State Route 165
• Tennessee State Route 168
• Tennessee State Route 171