Written by Rich Fogel
Directed by Butch Lukic
Animation by Dong Yang, Koko Original
Air Date: February 20, 1999
Rating: ** out of 5

Description: Gotham has some new crimefighters and they're stealing the show from Batman. But are they really as good as they seem?
Highs: Slick visual sequences, mocks Fantastic Four.
Lows: Paper-thin plot, BORING characters, mocks Fantastic Four (readers: take it as you want it)
Overall: Easily one of the worst Batman Beyond episodes.

Some high tech thieves break into a Gotham electronics firm and take off through the night skies. From a nearby rooftop Batman latches onto one with his grappling hook, causing him to crash and burn into a billboard. The others waste no time ganging up on Terry, and beat him down. All of a sudden three mysterious characters burst onto the scene, and using their spectacular abilities, round up the thieves.

The three new heroes are called the "Terrific Trio", a blatant Fantastic Four rip-off. They're actually appreciated by the officials, who give them the "Terrific Tower", a giant skyscraper with a neon "3" tacked on to it. They're just asking for someone to come after them...hint, hint. The three trio members are Freon, a ghostly girl who can freeze people (how original), Magma, a mixture of the Thing and the Human Torch (who looks exactly like Clayface), and the 2-D Man...who's well...two dimensional. Whoopee.

Not only do the characters' looks suck, their backgrounds do as well. They were part of an experiment when they were exposed to high powered radiation. And instead of being killed off like the rest of us humans, they each gained abilities completely unrelated to each other's. Freon and Magma are supposed to be married, and the writers manage to shove that into play at the last minute. Yet another uninteresting point.

We KNOW that there's got to be something bad about this Trio (Batman wouldn't care for the competition anyway), and Bruce intends to do something about that. The Trio has a scientist friend, Dr. Hodges, who discovers that their DNA is deteriorating. He reports this to a mustachioed General Hitler (his real name is "Norman" or something but the Nazi reference is blatantly obvious). Hitler decides to keep tabs on these people.

Batman patrols one night and catches Magma breaking into Dr. Hodges's lab. He steals something, and Bats tags along back to the Terrific Tower. There the trio finds out that their DNA is wasting away, just in time for Hitler and his government troops to attack the tower. (Told you they shouldn't have put that 3 on there). In a huge sequence of explosions and gunfire the crime-fighters manages to escape, although the troops think they're dead. The Trio of course, seeing as how they're gonna die decide to blow the hell out of Gotham in a nuclear fireball. Dr. Hodges is one of their main targets for destruction...that's where the Freon/Magma romance comes in. But before they can overload Gotham's nuclear plant, Terry takes them all on in big fight and eliminates them one by one (some fatally). In the final fight scene, Magma, the last remaning member says "Heroes make a choice. We never did." OK...so they just have to kill everyone else off too? Great guy.

Ugh...this episode was not good at all. Bad storyline and bad characterization sink this one to a low previously unseen by BB. The one good thing in this episode is the visuals; director Butch Lukic really knows how to handle the fast paced, high intensity battle and chase scenes. The Fantastic Four aspect is debatable; is it a homage to the old heroes or a mockery? I've heard it both ways, but I highly doubt the old Marvel staff would've wanted this for a tribute.

The Overseer