I am almost certain that I remember that part two of this story has a couple of very entertaining moments. I hope I’m right, because part one is incredibly dumb and boring.
In the previous story, writer Charles Hoffman gave us a Batcomputer that spits out spaghetti. This time, Hoffman again thinks that computers are great opportunities for comedy. We learn that the computer is tired of crimefighting, and so Batman has to activate a compute-harder switch to make it come up with some possible suggestions for Mad Hatter’s next move. That’s about the level of thought put into this story.
Last time, Mad Hatter wanted Batman’s cowl. His big plan this time is to irradiate it and turn it pink, so Batman has to go to a nuclear plant to have it decontaminated and he can intercept it. We also learn that Batman has several other cowls in the wash – bad timing, Alfred – and that new cowls are on order, so, you know, he could have just thrown the pink one away and wait for the dryer cycle to finish.
This is all going to turn out to be Batman planning ahead, of course, but it’s all so unbelievably stupid that it really took us all out of the moment. Daniel, who was horrified to the point of tears by the Mad Hatter last time, was really bored. From the look of things, David Wayne, who played the Mad Hatter, was pretty bored himself. Fingers crossed for tomorrow…
Fire Breathing Dimetrodon Time 