"Rise of Bartman" ideas. · 2:16pm Oct 17th, 2020
A couple years ago I tossed out the idea for a Simpsons parody of the Arkham series focused on Bartman. Expanded idea below.
Springfield is in the midst of a crime wave. Recently the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant was bought out by Hank Scorpio, who instituted radical reforms like safety railings on catwalks, sealable lids on barrels of radioactive waste, and Luau Fridays; Mr. Burns has gone on vacation and Smither has stayed on as Scorpio's assistant. Unfortunately during one of those Fridays, the inattentive plant workers accidentally caused a brownout that deactivated all security systems at the Springfield Penitentiary and all the criminals escaped. The police have been slow to round them up because, to quote Wiggum, "they run really fast, you know. And some of them have stolen cars, too! How are we supposed to keep up with cars?" "Don't the Springfield Police have cars?" "Yeah, but have you seen the price of gas these days? We don't have that kind of funding."
Bart takes up the costumed identity of Bartman to clean up the streets. Working out of his top secret lair, the Bartcave, formerly known as Ned Flanders' bomb shelter, Bart is aided by Lisa as his intelligence operative at home, going by the codename Egghead (she insists her name is Brainstorm but Bart ignores her). He also finds allies in the streets like Fallout Boy, Pie Man, Duffman, and Lucy Lawless as Xena. Bart starts the game with the Bungee Hook (his version of the Grapnel Gun, though it has limited range), Cherry Bombs (Flashbang), a Slingshot (Batarangs), and Bounceshot (rebounding Slingshot projectiles that are kinda like Remote Batarangs). His "wrist communicator" is just a smartphone he's duct-taped to his wrist.
Midway through the game, Bart is contacted by Dr. Frink. He's interested in recruiting Bartman as a sidekick, for you see, he has been designing a state-of-the-art high-tech battle suit, equipped with all sorts of cool gadgets and weapons! Unfortunately the crafts store he used as a suppler for the fabric was low on the particular shade of grey he wanted, so he had to make his prototype smaller, and it is sized to perfectly fit a ten-year-old boy. And, being that Bartman was the one who inspired him to do this, it seemed fitting that he design the suit in adherence with the aesthetics of his costume.
*ding*
"That bell means it is time for me to flip my Hot Pockets. I'll be back in a moment, will you be okay if I leave you here alone with my prototype battle suit?"
"Of course, Dr. Frink, you can trust me."
*Frink leaves and comes back ten seconds later; Bart and the suit are gone*
"This is why I don't open up to people."
So it is that Bart acquires a proper Bartman suit, with an actual Grapnel Gun, Remote-Detonating Cherry Bombs (Explosive Gel), a thermal scanning visor (Detective Mode), and Shock Modules (emits an electrical surge to stun enemies, disable electronic devices, and re-activate downed machinery. Can be fired from the Slingshot or pre-placed and detonated).
Bart eventually finds out that while the crime spree has been happening, land developers have been buying up Springfield's properties, since the crime spree has caused their value to drop and they've been bought at bargain prices. All the companies trace back to Hank Scorpio, and the final level is to infiltrate the Nuclear Power Plant and confront Scorpio in his office. Scorpio here reveals himself as Sideshow Bob, who stole Scorpio's identity and used his company to buy out Springfield one property at a time, until he controls the city. Bob tries to dispose of Bart down Burns' trap door and Bart tackles him into it, dropping them into the main area of the plant with numerous grates, catwalks, and environmental hazards - the final battle with Bob is the Mr. Freeze battle from Arkham City, with Bart using all of his skills and gadgets to take Bob out.
As a teaser just for fun, you show Mr. Burns on "vacation" in a lair behind the SPRINGFIELD sign, and in a phone conversation with Smithers, it turns out Smithers was helping Bob/Scorpio on Burns' orders, and Burns has his own plan he's ready to deploy...
It may just be that I don't watch the Simpsons, but this made me laugh like nothing else. XD
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She cameoed in one of the Treehouse of Horror Specials where she was annoyed people kept calling her Xena and insisted she was Lucy Lawless. She was not only just as big an asskicker as Xena, but in the end displayed the ability to fly ("Xena can't fly!" "I told you, I'm not Xena, I'm Lucy Lawless").
So inexplicably here Lucy Lawless Xena with actual superpowers makes sense in context