THE BIONIC WOMAN: SEASON FOUR

THE BIONIC WOMAN: SEASON FOUR

Writer: Brandon Jerwa

Artist: David T. Cabrera

Colors: Sandra Molina

Letters: Joshua Cozine

Publication Date: 2014

Published by Dynamite Entertainment

Okay, yeah. A loooonnnngggg time ago I was trying to keep a fairly regular schedule of writing...well, something... and giving rundowns on some comics and movies and such. I ended up never finishing putting down my thoughts on the last two issues of this title, Dynamite Entertainment's THE BIONIC WOMAN: SEASON FOUR.

I'll try and fix that now....

To briefly recap, THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN and THE BIONIC WOMAN are two of my favorite television shows, ever. After being spectacularly unimpressed with Dynamite's previous attempts to update Steve and Jaime, I was cautiously optimistic when these continuations of the originals shows were announced.

THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN: SEASON SIX impressed the heck out of me. The second page of THE BIONIC WOMAN: SEASON FOUR...well, it didn't. Beginning with Jaime and fellow OSI agent/semi-boyfriend Chris Williams liberating a drilling platform in the ocean from pirates, it included a shot of Williams shooting a pirate in the head.

That bit of casual violence wasn't a big deal by itself. It was perfectly understandable in a situation like that. But in the world of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, it was jarringly out of place. Particularly with Jaime's general view of violence. For that to happen and pass unmentioned completely threw me out of the story before it really got started.

Now, it's been a few years and while it still bugs me, I'm trying to let it go and not condemn the entire series because of that one panel.

So, what happens in season four? Jaime's been kidnapped by a rogue Air Force general named Morales and taken to his base of operations, which appear to be somewhere in "Anytown, USA." He's come to believe that 'progress' is destroying the small-town atmosphere that makes America great and is creating his own community of people with a little 'something extra,' like Jaime, to bring his dream to fruition. And if that means actively kidnapping and brainwashing people, so be it.

When Jaime manages to sneak a message out to Oscar and Rudy, she's caught by a town citizen, Melanie, who turns out to be a robot with a mean streak. Jaime manages to disable Melanie and escapes the neighborhood, only to run in to Sturges, who says he can help Jaime escape because he wants out, too.

He takes her to the underground hideout his rebel group is using as a base, and they show Jaime what Morales meant by people with 'something extra.' They're all robots or at least cybernetic to one degree or another.

Here I hit another hurdle with the series. By 'people with something extra' I thought this was a great lead-in to more cameos from the original series, like Jame Kuhoric fit into SMDM: SEASON SIX so well. THE BIONIC WOMAN had characters like telekinetic teen Amanda Cory (played by Kristy McNichol) and Darwin Jones (played by Granville Van Dusen) who uses meditative techniques to control his pain responses, heart and breathing rate, and the like. Crossing the aisle to THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, there's always psychic teen Audrey Moss (played by Robbie Lee) who accompanied Steve on two missions. She's bound to have picked up a stray thought or two about Jaime and it would've been fun to see them interact. 

But nope, just robots/cyborgs with no real explanation of exactly where they all came from. Maybe all the other 70s shows that jumped on the sci-fi bandwagon?

Jaime and the rebels are captured by Morales and he takes Jaime and finally shows her the big secret - the quaint little town he's using as his base is actually a space station. It had been developed by Morales as part of a program for colonizing space and when the project was cancelled, he saw his chance to save the American way of life from the troubles of the day - garbage strikes, political corruption, nuclear mishaps, etc.

After a battle with Morales's forces, Jaime manages to find the emergency pilot station and, with a little assist over the radio from Steve, manages to "land" the space station in the Arctic Ocean. They're all rescued and Morales is arrested and all is right with the world.

Overall, it's not a bad story and the "oh, by the way, you're in outer space" reveal was cool. It still came across pretty, I don't know, run-of-the-mill. I definitely would've liked Jaime's first arc to have really gone for it more in the way that SMDM: SEASON SIX started. I can understand people feeling that Kuhoric was throwing in everything but the kitchen sink but I think BW: SEASON FOUR went too far the other direction. 

There are definitely some questions I would've like to have seen answered if the series had continued, aside from where this community of robots/cyborgs came from in the first place. Morales calls himself Deputy Mayor of the town and states that the mayor, someone named Polk, is under the weather and can't attend the town meeting where Jaime is introduced to everyone. Polk is never mentioned again. Setup for a 'big bad'? I guess we'll never know.

Dynamite hasn't completely abandoned our bionic heroes. There was a SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN: FALL OF MAN series (collected in trade paperback in April of this year) and Jaime shared an adventure with the 70s TV version of Wonder Woman that recently finished and is being collected for release in October. I'll try and get write-ups of those done sometime before the end of the year.

No promises, tho....