Plot summary: Downtrodden anime teen Willie Watt seeks revenge on a bully after forming a supernatural bond with a construction robot.

(Originally published on The Reel World September 19th, 2021)

Notes

Original Air Date: February 6^th, 1999

Directed: Butch Lukic (1)

Written: Hilary J. Bader (1)

Animation: Koko Enterprise Co., LTD (4) & Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD. (4)

Music: Shirley Walker (1)

Naturally the GoLeM is based on the folk legend of the Golem, a giant statue brought to life to protect Jewish minorities.

Through the implication that Nelson Nash is a fan of Batman, it becomes clear he was based on Flash Thompson who bullied Peter Parker but loved Spider-Man.

Speaking of Marvel characters, the dolls at the fairground that Willie’s dad gets dropped into look a great deal like MODOK.

After this episode Bruce Timm told the writing staff they’d need to put more work into establishing Terry’s personality, family, social circle etc. This is because we got 2 episodes in a row where the focus is on the villains, which worked fine for BTAS where Bruce Wayne was such a known entity, but less well with a blank slate like Terry.

Recap

Hamilton Hill High’s dorkiest dork, Willie Watt, gawks at popular girl Blade and tries to make awkward conversation with her, but king of jocks, Nelson Nash, muscles in and lays on the charm. Willie only escapes a beating thanks to Terry.

Willie goes to his father, Frank, an uber-manly construction foreman, who is ashamed of his cowardice, telling him to figure out a way to hit Nelson where it hurts…

Later that night the police are called to a construction site after one of the GoLeMs (Galvanic Lifting Machines) is reported missing. You’re not going to believe this, but Willie stole it and uses it to crush Nelson’s car during his date with Blade!

Batman attacks on account of all of the deaths that are narrowly avoided, and while the GoLeM proves resilient, he manages to make it absorb a massive electrical charge, shutting it down and overloading Willie’s control halo.

The next day, Blade is angry with Nelson for abandoning her and asks Willie to a dance out of spite. Nelson roughs him up a little in response, causing Willie to surge with electricity…

Later that night he picks a fight with some Jokerz, but the GoLeM comes to his aid, with the two maintaining a connection without a control halo thanks to the electrical surge. Anime!

At the dance, Blade immediately regrets her hasty decision as everyone is laughing at her for being with Willie, so jumps at Nelson’s offer to get rid of him. That’s not innuendo, he literally tosses Willie into the harbour!

Understandably angry, Willie unleashes the GoLeM on the dance to try and kill Nelson. Terry slips away for a costume change, protecting Nelson.

Frank arrives to reclaim the missing GoLeM and scolds Willie, making him the next target. Terry absolutely wrecks the thing though, ripping it in half with some creative use of grapple-lines.

A devastated Willie is sentenced to three years in juvenile detention, where he appears to gain even greater control of technology, scaring the other kids when they try to bully him.

Best Performance

Can I pick nobody? Scott McAfee plays Willie Watt exactly as you’d expect and didn’t really impress me in his more vulnerable moments. Bill Smitrovich plays his gruff father, and is again, just exactly what you’d expect and no more.

Will Friedle doesn’t have many lines, and Kevin Conroy has even fewer. Lauren Tom barely talks despite it being a school-centric episode with a dance!

I think we’re legit looking at Seth Green vs Melissa Disney. Generic TV bully vs generic TV popular girl. Neither are doing anything to write home about, but they’re more charismatic than the other people who get to talk. Flip a coin, man. Seth Green, I guess?

Episode Ranking

It’s a tale as old as time. Jock bullies nerd. Nerd accidentally gains supernatural abilities and uses them to terrorise jock. Bat-themed vigilante saves the day. Yawn.

I’m being somewhat flippant, obviously, but this episode has never worked for me to the level I think it does for the fandom at large. It illustrates the risk of villain spotlights, with Bruce Wayne only appearing for a few seconds, and even Terry not getting much to do. The entire script is dominated by Willie, Blade and Nelson, who engage in the most generic of love triangles. It teases doing something different with Blade seeing through Nelson’s cowardly antics, or better yet, not being interested in either of them, but no.

There’s not even a moral lesson; Willie is just portrayed as a straight-up evil kid. But even that is the least interesting version of a story. I think we can all get behind stories that point out the toxic behaviours of entitled, obsessive nerds, and that just because you have a big crush on a popular girl, doesn’t mean she’s obligated to like you back. But none of that, either. Terry judges Willie’s father, I guess?

I should say I do really like giant robots and the idea of what they’re going for with Willie and the mech, and I concede it’s cool to see such an explicitly anime-inspired story in a Batman show, but I still think it’s the weakest episode so far. Perhaps if it fell later in the season when all the characters are better established (which may explain why long-time fans think fondly of it), but I try to consider when/where they deploy their stories for first-time viewers when writing these reviews.

1. Rebirth: Part 1
2. Black Out
3. Rebirth: Part 2
4. Golem (NEW ENTRY)

Rogues Roundup

Willie Watt (Scott McAfee) (first appearance)

The creative team made no bones about taking great inspiration from anime when designing the look of Batman Beyond, which explains why Willie is straight up drawn to look like Gendo from Neon Genesis: Evangelion several times in this episode. And he sure does look cool controlling his giant robot and whatnot.

But as I said above, this is a pretty under-written character. He isn’t portrayed as misguided, he doesn’t have an emotional payoff with his father, Terry and Dana don’t almost get through to him. Just a weedy kid who gets a giant robot friend that Batman wrecks pretty easily, making even the coolest part about him a little lame. It’s the Rule of Cool, basically.

(Tiny cameo from The JokerZ, too small to take into account.)

1. Inque
2. Derek Powers/Blight
3. The Jokerz
4. Willie Watt (NEW ENTRY)
5. Mr. Fixx