Plot summary: When the sorceress Circe turns Wonder Woman into a pig, Batman’s desperation to restore her takes him to some… interesting places.

Notes and Trivia

Episode: 6 (S1.E6)

Original Air Date: August 28^th, 2004

Directed: Dan Riba (3)

Written: Paul Dini (1)

Animation: Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD. (3)

Music: Lolita Ritmanis (2)

Zatanna has learned Bruce’s real name since their last encounter, where she discovered Batman was the ‘John Smith’ she knew in her youth. Perks of an expanded League, I guess?

This episode was intended as a soft tribute to Bewitched, with even the final musical cue being similar. Bruce Timm also claimed the episode was partially inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, which would occasionally take a huge tonal departure.

There was a cut scene featuring Joker attempting to spring a trap on Batman only to be so perplexed by the sight of his nemesis holding a pig that he simply gave up and walked away.

‘Am I Blue?’ was playing on the radio in the movie Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero. Kevin Conroy recorded a full length version of it.

Paul Dini met his wife, the illusionist Misty Lee, while writing this episode.

DCAU Debuts

We all knew this day would come… that’s right, it’s the long awaited debut of B’wana Beast, the Jungle Master! Debuting in 1967 as an obvious cash-in on the popularity of Tarzan, Mike Maxwell crash landed on Mount Killimanjaro, where he defeated a mutant ape in single combat to win a magical helmet that let him communicate with animals… and also fucking MERGE them into hideous chimeras. Yep! He also gets general enhanced physicality and senses from drinking magic mountain water. YEP! He later handed his powers over to the slightly more popular Freedom Beast.

Beast ropes in Red Tornado, Elongated Man and Crimson Avenger to help, but they appear for a combined 20 seconds, so I’m not going to go into them right now, no matter how fun it is that Elongated Man was created in error (they didn’t realise they already had the rights to Plastic Man) and that Crimson Avenger was DC’s first ever superhero.

On the villain side of things is Circe, one of Wonder Woman’s primary adversaries, based on the figure of the same name from Greek mythology. She is most famous for turning Odysseus’ men into pigs, hence this episode. She is one of the more powerful magic users in DC, and appeared in James Gunn’s Creature Commandos, which pushed her as a potentially major player in the DCU.

Recap

Batman and Wonder Woman discuss their potential relationship on a stakeout outside a Gotham museum. Fortunately for Bruce they spot a thief, who turns out to be the sorceress, Circe.

Circe boasts about escaping from Tartarus and that she promised to leave Hippolyta alone… so instead targets her daughter, using her magic to turn Diana… into a fucking pig!

Bruce goes to Zatanna for help, but Circe’s magic is beyond her, to the point she can’t even perform a successful locator spell on the sorceress. Worse still, WonderPig runs away!

Batman recruits expert tracker and animal specialist B’wana Beast, who quickly locates WonderPig… but loses her in a sea of normal pigs… at an abattoir!

Circe’s former cellmate, Medusa, tells Batman & Zatanna of the sorceress’ desire to perform at the amphitheatre in Mykonos. The duo confront her there, battling waves of deadly animals.

Realising this is getting them nowhere, Bruce instead asks what he must give for Circe to reverse the spell. She demands he sing to the audience! It’s beautiful and all the women cry.

Honouring the deal, Wonder Woman is restored to normal moments before she’s turned into bacon, freeing all the other pigs in the process.

She claims to not remember anything… but then hums the song Bruce sang… which makes no fucking sense because she wasn’t anywhere near him when that happened!

Best Performance

Rachel York spent a great deal of time on Broadway, hence the crew writing in Circe’s musical theatre dreams. York thus provides the singing voice for Circe as well, and she’s obviously very good. But these are just bonus points, and she’s winning off the strength of her charismatic… well… cartoon character performance. She’s over the top in the best way, and I loved her reactions to being hit by chairs, tables and a piano. True Bugs Bunny shit.

Kevin Conroy’s rendition of ‘Am I Blue?’ is genuinely lovely, legitimately something for his overall highlight reel as Batman, and he’s really solid in the episode overall… but I’m afraid York is giving a bit of a tour de force.

Peter Onorati couldn’t get B’wana Beast’s growl down, so producer James Tucker stepped in. He’s otherwise solid though, performing the desired ‘sex pest’ role with gusto. He also provides Red Tornado’s limited dialogue, which is kind of nothing, but hey, kudos for doing two parts.

Jennifer Hale replaces Julie Brown as Zatanna. Hale is one of the most prolific voice actors in the game and is obviously extremely good at her job… but I do kind of miss Brown’s multi-faceted take on the character. In fairness she also got to play her at two different ages, and that kind of range gives you an advantage.

Episode Ranking

Diana wistfully looking at a parade of loved up couples and then asking Bruce if he ever wishes he could be down there having fun while he just spouts his bullshit rhetoric about The Mission is a lil tragic. It’s actually a really nice little character study for Diana, who goes from sadness and frustration as she grills him, to playing with her hair and gently poking fun at his moodiness, before finally responding to his claims that having someone close to him would be dangerous by flexing her overwhelming power. If ever Bruce wouldn’t have to worry about someone being able to protect themselves, it would surely be the Amazon Princess. He then proceeds to spend the episode doting on her in pig form, demonstrating more physical affection than we’ve ever seen from him. Perhaps the absurd barrier of her no longer looking like her allows him to psychologically ‘give in’ or whatever? And then he reluctantly admits to Zatanna that they’re more than friends. Honestly, is this the WonderBat episode???

Speaking of Zatanna, she got a real kick in the pants from Paul Dini compared to her BTAS debut, with improvements to both her performance patter and magical ability, as she puts her hand inside her hat and plucks a man out of the audience, now shrunken, before restoring him to normal size. Wild. Previously it felt like she was a real world magician – that everything was smoke and mirrors – whereas now we have magic firmly confirmed as canon to the DCAU, she can go allllll in. We’re talking teleportation and flinging furniture, baby. Huge fan of the madcap moment of her chucking an entire fucking grand piano at Circe.

I’m not entirely sure what B’wana Beast, Red Tornado, Elongated Man and Crimson Avenger really added to the episode, and just assume they’re some of Paul Dini’s favourites that may not appear otherwise so he wanted to write them in for his own amusement. Beast makes some sense given his tracking skills and that he can communicate with animals (though this never happens!), but two of them are just asking randos if they’ve seen this pig. On top of that, you’ve got the truly insane detour to the underworld, as Themis (goddess of justice) sets up a meeting with freakin’ Medusa… who was Circe’s cellmate. I’m a Greek mythology guy and got a kick out of Batman compensating Charon with two coins… but Paul, what on earth were you doing here? It is an extremely comic-book-ass tale, but I am somewhat astounded this was all permitted to air. Again, I’m not necessary opposed to any of it, it just feels a lot like a fever dream.

I do understand why this is considered a bad episode, and I’m certainly not going to argue it’s one of the best, but there is something oddly compelling about how far Dini was willing to go with the litany of cameos, and the absurdity of Wonder Woman spending most of the episode as a pig, topped only by the resolution of Bruce singing a touching rendition of ‘Am I Blue?’ Plus all the WonderBat stuff is compelling in my opinion. I’m definitely docking points for the nonsensical ending and that ridiculous face Batman makes though.

For the Man Who Has Everything
Fearful Symmetry
Initiation
This Little Piggy (NEW ENTRY)
Kids’ Stuff
Hawk and Dove

Rogues Roundup

Circe (Rachel York) (first appearance)

We love villains that simply enjoy themselves all the time, don’t we, folks? Circe revels in her transformation magic playing havoc with the heroes, gleefully boasting that she was let out of hell (Tartarus) because they needed to clear some space, and adopts a lounging position as she floats in the air because she’s simply extra like that.

The idea of her being jealous of her cousins, the Sirens, thus harbouring a desire to perform on the biggest stage is kind of cute, and even more so because she glowers at the audience until they clap. She rewards this forced praise by turning a handful of them into a cadre of dangerous animals to attack Batman and Zatanna, which is neat. Also her asking price for reversing the spell being tied to her love for the stage is great.

God… is she the best villain in the show so far? I have historically rewarded a strong sense of personality in this segment, and she’s certainly got more of that than everyone else almost combined. She’s also plenty powerful in a way that isn’t just mindless punching, which I appreciate. Mongul sure does beat the piss out of Diana and traps Superman in a dastardly scheme, while Circe just turns Wonder Woman into a pig… and yet! I think Circe takes it. Just.

Circe (NEW ENTRY)
Mongul
Galatea
Brimstone
Ares (and The Annihilator!)
Mordred (and Morgaine le Fey!)