Heart of Steel Part 1 Review

It is time to sit down and take a look at Batman the Animated Series Episode 38 Heart of Steel Part I. In this episode, some of Gotham City’s biggest names are acting strangely and the sinister truth is that they are being replaced by robots. The head of Cybertron, a man by the name of Karl Rossum is behind this, but could there be a more powerful force behind this? Batman the Animated Series Episode 38 Heart of Steel Part I aired on November 16th 1992 on FOX.

Batman the Animated Series Episode 38 Heart of Steel Part I

You ever get a feeling when you watch an episode, that while it’s not bad, there is just rather off for the show that it is airing in. That this episode would rather be more better suited for another cartoon slightly, or at least parts of it for that matter.

This episode, both parts, do have some very Batman elements, but the nature of the episode appears to be a bit too sci-fi for the somewhat darker tone of this series. Replacing people with robots, all clichés aside, I really don’t know about this episode and how well it fits into the tone of Batman in general. Batman does employ some rather great detective work, but you’d expect it.

Not a bad episode, other than some rather impressive stupidity on the part of Batman. And here’s my main gripe about this episode? You know that this woman, Karl Rossum’s assistant(the man who is behind the plot of this episode or so it seems), a woman by the name of Randa Duane, may or may not be behind some form of corporate sabotage, so why in the world would you leave her alone in her house, with your butler being the only line of defense?

And naturally, she finds the Batcave, which she reports back to the true mastermind of this episode, a super computer known as HARDAC, who hacks into the Batcave and overrides the security, using the defenses to try and kill Batman. Did you use “1234” as your password, Batman? And HARDAC knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman. Not one of Batman’s smarter moves.

On the bright side, this is the first appearance in this show of Commissioner Gordon’s daughter, Barbara who naturally becomes Batgirl much later on in the show. Although, I would suspect something if my father went to the door and then came back, sounding all cold and distant and almost robotic. It might not click that he is a robot but still…you would suspect something. There was some things that distinctly bothered me about the writing in this first part, although the second part is better.

The episode while not necessarily bad, did have some moments of character stupidity that bugged the hell out of me. You can watch Batman the Animated Series Episode 38 Heart of Steel Part I on Batman the Animated Series Volume 2 and Batman the Animated Series the Complete Collection.