[6.8/10] This is another episode where I love the concept but don’t particularly care for the execution of it. If somebody just pitched an episode to me about a dark take on the Fantastic 4, I would be there with bells on. But this episode felt strangely inert and didn’t give us much characterization for them, so it ended up coming off pretty generic.
That’s particularly true about the fights. Having a guy who’s two-dimensional and can stretch accordingly, a woman who’s an ice ghost, and a big molten rock monster creates plenty of potential. But we mostly got paint-by-numbers smash-em-ups, with the only real wrinkle being that Terry had to use the air vents and a firehouse. Not exactly the most clever solution to having to take down some superpowered foes.
Also, the show spent so much time introducing the “Terrific Trio” that it didn’t really have time to do much with them afterward. It’s not like we’d seen their relationship with the friend who betrayed them in a plot to romance “Frion”, so his betrayal didn’t really mean anything. And it was absolutely zero shock that the military guy with the Hitler mustache turned out to be evil.
Overall, this one feels like somebody in the writer’s room said “What if we do a take on the Fantastic 4 that’s dark and grim” (no pun intended), and didn’t go much further than that in building it out. It doesn't really succeed beyond the novelty of seeing Batman fight an ersatz Fantastic 4.
Shout by SoNickBlockedParent2024-03-09T04:54:35Z
This one could have used more time in the oven...
The Terrific Three and the Spider-Man crushed in rubble moments are good ideas on paper, but they're both so poorly executed that the episode isn't served by either idea. The latter in particular has the same poses and everything for a very short throwaway segment. At that point it's better NOT to use the idea and save it for another episode.