Heart of Steel: Part I

A curious blending of The Terminator, Stepford Wives and the Fleischer Superman serials in look and feel. That's the best way I can think of to describe 'Heart of Steel', a swerve into hard science fiction (for this show, at least, although it absolutely works). The animation is upper-tier (especially favorable of Batman in action scenes) and the lighting casts just the right noir tinge to such an eerie story.

All of this is setup (replacing human beings with cyborgs) but man, does it whet your appetite for the payoff. I hadn't seen this in a very long time, so the subtle homage to "Blade Runner" feels especially novel. It's just not something you'd expect to see on a Batman cartoon.

9/10