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| Heart of Steel: Part II | |
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| Season 1, Episode 40 | |
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| Air date | 17 November, 1992 |
| Directed by | Kevin Altieri |
| Written by | Brynne Stephens |
| Music by | Carl Johnson |
| Airdate Sequence | |
| Previous Heart of Steel Part I |
Next If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich? |
| Production Sequence | |
| Previous Heart of Steel Part I |
Next If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich? |
"Heart of Steel: Part II" is an episode of the first season of Batman: The Animated Series. It is the second part of the story featuring the new villain H.A.R.D.A.C. and it is notable because it foreshadows Barbara Gordon's eventual change into Batgirl.
"Heart of Steel: Part II" was the 39th episode produced and the 40th episode aired.
Synopsis[]
Barbara Gordon gets into the swing of action when her father, Commissioner Gordon, and other high-profile city figures are targeted by H.A.R.D.A.C. Barbara and Batman work together to stop the computer's evil plans and they are eventually able able to defeat H.A.R.D.A.C. and its duplicant army.
Plot[]
Batman hangs from the robotic arms installed in the Batcave when all the electronic devices start acting against him. Alfred arrives and watches as Bruce manages to disable the robotic arms and uses the Batcomputer to track the signal of the disruption that caused the devices to get out of control. H.A.R.D.A.C. terminates the connection before Batman could locate the source, which is at Cybertron.
At the GCPD Headquarters; the fake Commissioner Gordon talks to H.A.R.D.A.C. and arranges their next move. Barbara Gordon goes to talk to him but she notices that his behaviour is stranger than before. Barbara leaves the office when she hears Gordon telling Harvey Bullock to go to Cybertron and to talk to Randa Duane.
Mayor Hill meets himself
At Cybertron, Karl Rossum has found out HARDAC's activities and tries to shut it down, but HARDAC prevents him from touching the controls and knocks him out with a laser beam. Later at City Hall; Mayor Hamilton Hill is surprised to see himself walking into his office and then the duplicant Hill attacks the real one.
The Batsignal is activated, but when Batman arrives he finds that it was Barbara Gordon who had turned it on. She is concerned about her father and she tells him that she was sure that someone else is impersonating her father. Batman promises that he would help her and at that moment they got interrupted by Harvey Bullock. Batman is leaving when he is attacked by Bullock. Batman tries to fight back but Bullock is apparently stronger than Batman. Barbara takes the Grapple Gun that Batman dropped in the fight and uses it to grapple one of Bullock's legs. Batman then pushes the man on top of the Batsignal, which is destroyed by the impact and Bullock's body remains motionless. Barbara is shocked at the thought of having killed one man but then, the body starts moving again, only this time the skin falls off revealing a robotic skeleton moving towards Barbara. Batman uses a Batarang to cut the robot's head, killing it once and of all. Barbara thinks that her father might have also been replaced with a robot, as she knows that Bullock had gone to Cybertron before he was replaced. Batman tells Barbara to go to a safe place and hide until he solves the case and finds Jim Gordon.
Later, Bruce attends a meeting from a social club. He was invited by Hamilton Hill and when he arrives, he is ambushed by a group of robot clones, including Hill himself. Randa Duane appears and reveals to be the responsible for the robot attacks. Using his physical training, Bruce escapes from the killer robots and moves to a nearby elevator. As the robots catch up with him, he changes into Batman and climbs the elevator rope, burns it and drops the elevator destroying all the robots.
Barbara is captured
In the meantime, Barbara has decided to go to the place where she suspects her father is being held. She prepares some equipment and goes straight to Cybertron. Barbara manages to break inside the building, passing through the security system. Once inside, a robot starts following her and she doesn't take notice. The robot captures her and takes her to HARDAC; where she learns that it is the mastermind behind the robot clones.
Batman arrives at Cybertron and fights his way to the main chamber, where he is stopped at the sight of Barbara being held hostage by HARDAC's robots. HARDAC reveals his plan to replace humans with robots in order to eliminate the possibility of human error. Barbara wants to know if her father is dead and HARDAC shows them that all the people cloned are still alive, kept in a special tank, unconscious. Barbara wants to reach her father, but the fake James Gordon restrains her. Batman kicks the robot and frees Barbara. The rest of the robots try to stop Batman, but he grabs one of them and tosses it towards the water tank, which cracks open, freeing all the people inside. Bullock, Hill, Gordon and Rossum regain consciousness and Batman tells them to evacuate the building with Barbara's help while he stops HARDAC.
Barbara helps them out of the building but Gordon is shot unconscious by one of the robots. Once outside, Barbara decides to go back and help Batman. Batman fights the robots and using his gadgets, he takes them all down. The only one remaining is Randa Duane, who turned out to be a robot as well. She attacks Batman from behind and almost kills him by crushing him under an elevator. Batman manages to reverse the situation and it is Duane who is crushed by the elevator. The computer becomes overheated and the damage is too much for it to resist. Barbara arrives and helps Batman out of the burning place.
Victory
HARDAC's system has been damaged and in a few moments, the whole computer is destroyed in a big explosion.
Outside, James Gordon is worried for his daughter, but she comes out of the fire safe and sound with Batman by her side. After showing his appreciation for her help, Batman notices how Barbara is thrilled after the whole experience, which is very different from her father, who believes he is too old for these situations.