Simon Thompson presents his picks for the top ten episodes of Batman: The Animated Series…
To describe Batman as a pop culture institution would, quite frankly, be an understatement. Ever since his creation by Bill Finger and Bob Kane (who it turns out took a tonne of credit and profit from his creative partner but that’s an article in itself) in 1939, The Dark Knight has entranced generations of readers from the Golden Age of American comics to the present day.
Given that the character is nearly a century old, every generation has been introduced to him in one way or another be it via the comics themselves or his various incarnations across film and tv, but for me, personally, growing up it was a three headed dragon of watching Tim Burton’s two masterpieces constantly, the Nolan films being era defining summer blockbusters, and, most importantly of all, reruns of Batman :The Animated Series on Boomerang.
What made Batman: The Animated Series work is its attempt to present dark, serious, and mature storytelling in a universal way, its incredible creative duo of Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, the stellar voice cast (Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill are always the voices in my head whenever I read a Batman comic for a reason) and the noirish backdrops and bold linework. Picking ten episodes of a show this defining to people’s perceptions of Batman, is going to be tough indeed (spoiler warnings for some episodes)…
10. The Clock King/Beware The Gray Ghost
I am grouping these two episodes together, because they are both fantastic in different ways, and because I wanted to find a way to include both and still have space left on the list. Writer David Wise’s ‘The Clock King’ is an episode that I love, because however simple its plot, it is so rich thematically.
Temple Fugate is a businessman so uptight and time conscious that there are Swiss Railway managers that would probably tell the poor guy to live a little. As he gets on his usual train, on the advice of fellow passenger and Gotham city bigwig Hamilton Hill, he decides to take a slight deviation from his usual watertight schedule. This said deviation to his schedule results in him losing important documents for a lawsuit he’s fighting to keep his company afloat. Seven years later, Fugate has undergone a radical transformation into The Clock King, swearing revenge on Hamilton Hill via a sabotage campaign of his mayoral re-election campaign – bringing him into contact with The Dark Knight himself.
The best way I could describe this episode is as being Falling Down in Gotham. Fugate is a compelling villain because he’s somebody who you see in the street every day tragically pushed into absolute madness- despicable, yet pitiable at the same time. With a rogues gallery as varied as Batman’s it makes a refreshing change of pace for him to be confronted by a villain whose methods and goals are relatively straightforward compared to what we, as fans, are usually accustomed to.
Two things make ‘Beware the Gray Ghost’ the great episode it is. One is that it reminds of us of the value of heroism within society, and second is that it’s nice to see some genuinely happy flashbacks to Bruce Wayne’s childhood. A domestic terrorist, going by the Mad Bomber, is carrying out a series of coordinated bomb attacks across Gotham. Batman quickly realises these attacks exactly resemble a specific episode of his favourite TV show The Gray Ghost.
Batman traces the whereabouts of the actor who played the Gray Ghost Simon Trent (guest starring none other than Adam West), who is now a washed up, broke actor living in a depressing apartment, wanting nothing more than to remove every trace of playing the Gray Ghost from his life. Batman begs for his help in catching the bomber.
This is a serious and mature episode about what it means to be a hero, and resists the urge to make two Batmans for the price of one style cheap jokes through Adam West’s guest star spot, instead giving him a fully multi-faceted and interesting character to play. As bleak and miserable as a lot of great Batman stories are, this is an episode which ends on a truly uplifting note.
Watching this episode again as an adult always holds a special meaning to me because, through seeing Bruce as child watching The Gray Ghost I can’t help but be reminded of my own personal childhood nostalgia of discovering my favourite superhero, and as lame as this sounds brings a big grin to my stupid face.
9. Trial
‘Trial’ is an episode which works because of its deceptively simple premise. Janet Van Dorn, a new and ambitious district attorney wants Batman to be placed into Arkham with the assorted lunatics she believes he and his methods are responsible for creating. After falling into a trap set by Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, Batman ends up on trial in Arkham for his life, with none other than Janet Van Dorn forced into a position of defending him in a show trial courtroom, with The Joker as the judge and Two Face as the prosecution. As the absurd legal proceedings roll on, Van Dorn quickly realises that her pre-conceptions of Batman might not be entirely correct.
This story works because it humorously examines whether Batman is a force for good or not, yet never lets the humour get in the way of its greater ethical examination of Batman’s fight against crime.
Without going too much into spoiler territory through revealing key plot events themselves, ‘Trial’ provides as eloquent an argument for the justification of Batman as a character than a wall of text ever could.
8. The Man Who Killed Batman
As an episode ‘The Man Who Killed Batman’ is an embodiment of the phrase just because you killed Jesse James, it doesn’t make you Jesse James. Sidney Debris (guest star Matt Frewer aka Max Headroom) is a nervous, incompetent, small time crook who through a million to one piece of good luck, seemingly sends the Dark Knight to his death via a total fluke. Now the most notorious figure in Gotham’s underworld, Sidney’s seemingly fortuitous circumstances quickly turn sour, as he is brought before none other than The Joker, who is furious that such a seemingly inconsequential screw-up like Sidney has taken out his greatest nemesis.
This is an episode which functions as a contemplative look at the theme of fifteen minutes of fame, but it also has plenty of comedy to offer as well, with The Joker’s mock funeral of Batman (complete with a Harley Quinn Kazoo solo) both being a joy to watch, but also strangely poignant as the man himself admits that without Batman “crime has no punchline”.
In a society where practically everybody has a platform thanks to social media, instant yet fleeting fame and recognition is handed out to people who are nowhere near equipped to deal with the accompanying fallout, making this a truly timeless watch.
7. Heart of Ice
One of the greatest things this show did for Batman’s overall mythos was to re-interpret Mr. Freeze’s backstory from the comics. This show singlehandedly turned one of the more outlandish characters in Batman’s rogues gallery into a tragic, multi-dimensional character, to the extent that the backstory presented in this episode has been made canon several times over by every single writer who’s ever had a run on Batman since.
GothCorp cryogenic scientist Victor Fries was a scientific genius, who placed his terminally ill wife Nora into a state of cryogenic stasis, until he was able to find a cure for her disease. His work was shut down by the CEO of GothCorp, Ferris Boyle. After Fries refused to let Boyle’s goons near his wife’s cryochamber he was pushed into a table of dangerous chemicals, that once in contact with his body condemned him to only being able to survive in subzero conditions.
Reborn as Mr. Freeze, Fries decided to put his scientific knowledge to both finding a cure for Nora and to enact revenge on GothCorp and the individuals responsible for his predicament. Soon his attacks come to the attention of Batman, who subsequently learns of Fries’s past.
This episode is a masterpiece in almost every department. Freeze’s dialogue, especially the famous soliloquy “Think of it, Batman… to never again walk on a summer’s day with a hot wind in your face, and a warm hand to hold. Oh yes. I’d kill for that” is both haunting and poignant at the same time. The animation is sensational complete with melancholic noirish colours and imagery – with both the opening shot of Freeze staring into the ballerina snow globe and the closing shot of him doing the same thing, now in Arkham Asylum, being just devastating.
A lot of Batman’s adversaries work as characters because they have a strong element of tragedy in their backstories, and short of Harvey Dent, Harley Quinn, and Bane it’s hard to think of a more unfortunate antagonist than Victor Freeze.
6. Mad Love
Other than changing Mr. Freeze’s origins, one of the most significant additions to Batman’s lore that this show provided was introducing the character of Harley Quinn, The Joker’s besotted partner in crime who might be even more unhinged than her lover. ‘Mad Love’ is the origin story of their relationship, before the godawful Suicide Squad and whatever the hell else that Birds of Prey movie could be described as (spoiler: not good) – went out of their way to take one of the most painful, disturbing, and fascinating dynamics in the DC universe as a whole and turn it into Hot Topic Tumblr slop.
This episode details the life of Dr Harleen Quinzel, a bright and eager psychiatrist who ends up working at Arkham Asylum. As soon as she enters the building, The Joker is instantly taken by her (as much as a murderous psychopath can be attracted to someone I guess) and begins to charm her through a carefully chosen unreliable backstory to elicit her sympathy.
This is an episode which works so well structurally for two reasons above all. One is that it’s a standalone look into The Joker and Harley’s relationship and how Harley perceives Batman not just as The Joker’s greatest foe, but as the one obstacle between her and her beloved, and secondly it shows in full stark detail just how badly The Joker treats Harley and how years of physical and mental manipulation have worn down any sense of self-worth that she still has. If I had to boil down the themes of Mad Love in a simple sentence, being in love truly makes otherwise intelligent people stupid.
5. Perchance to Dream
Usually a plot that ends with it being all a dream is something that I consider to be a bit of a cop out, that is why if a narrative does make that its core set up it has to be an exceptionally good story for me to find little or no fault with it – for example the Futurama episode The Sting and moving back to Batman: The Animated Series – ‘Perchance to Dream’.
Bruce Wayne wakes up in the most perfect version of his life possible, both his parents are still alive, he’s inherited running Wayne Enterprises, someone else has taken on the mantle of Batman, and he’s due to marry Selina Kyle. Being nicknamed the world’s greatest detective for a reason, he immediately senses that something is up and spends his time alternating between his rational instinct that he’s trapped in some kind of dream and needs to escape, and his gut instinct that this version of his life is so perfect that there could be no harm in sticking around.
‘Perchance to Dream’ hits home because it appeals to the notion that if a perfect life is built on a deception most of us would do everything in our power to delude ourselves for as long as possible to keep our utopian fantasy scenario going. Even if you can spot the end coming from a mile away, it doesn’t make it any less devastating emotionally – a true testament to just how well written this episode truly is.
4. Birds of a Feather
The Penguin is an example of a Batman villain that, when used effectively, is more than deserving of his prominence alongside the likes of Joker, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, ( and,depending on the scenario, Catwoman) as one of the strongest characters in the Dark Knight’s rogues gallery. From Danny Devito’s masterful portrayal in Batman Returns, to the five issue ‘Pain and Prejudice’ miniseries by Gregg Hurwitz, to the eponymously titled tv show, Oswald Cobblepot has had a varied amount of spotlight across different mediums but a slightly forgotten great Penguin centred arc is the animated series episode Birds Of A Feather.
Oswald Cobblepot is paroled from Arkham Asylum and vows to turn over a completely new leaf. The problem, is that the wider world around him (i.e Batman) either actively distrusts him or simply doesn’t care to begin with. As one of Gotham City’s most notorious underworld figures his release captures the attention of bitchy socialite Veronica Vreeland who decides to invite Penguin to one of her Gatsby type dos to both cause a scene and humiliate him at the same time. Unfortunately, he grasps the wrong end of the stick and thinks that Vreeland genuinely cares for him and is serious about helping him ingratiate himself into society.
In a show that for the most part is not exactly renowned for having happy endings, the fact that the ending to ‘Birds of a Feather’ ranks right amongst the very saddest in the entire show is really saying something. It’s strong because The Penguin’s character arc shows that he is genuinely interested in reform so when it’s thrown right back in his face it hurts even more, and because it has a lot of interesting things to say about class/society and the theme of whether someone as steeped in criminality as The Penguin can truly change- with writer Chuck Menville providing no easy answers.
3. Baby Doll
This is an episode which in the hands of any writer not named Paul Dini would be turned into a piece of goofy comedy like an episode of the campy 60s Adam West Batman turned up to 11. But because this episode was written by Paul Dini it takes a relatively absurd idea and turns it into one of the more fascinating, sympathetic and heart rending explorations of how society treats/views disability this side of Tod Browning’s Freaks.
‘Baby Doll’ centres around Mary Dahl, a former child star who after rising to prominence on a family sitcom has struggled to find work in adulthood. This is because she suffers from a form of dwarfism that has stopped her body from ageing keeping her looking like a child for the rest of her life. Sick of being stuck in career purgatory, she kidnaps the supporting cast of her old sitcom and places them in a kind of Misery by way of Sunset Boulevard style scenario where she can play pretend that Mary Dahl is still a huge star.
As ridiculous as this episode can be at times, there is so much hidden depth in Mary’s struggles with her self-image that it keeps you coming back to this episode no matter what. The final shot in particular is my favourite ending to any Batman: The Animated Series episode by a fair distance, as after leading Batman on a wild goose chase through a fun-fair she reaches the end of the line in the house of mirrors, seeing a distorted reflection of herself as she would look if she could age.
This is such an emotionally powerful moment as it both demonstrates how much she has confused fame for true happiness but also because what she actually wants is only attainable through the distorted artifice of a funhouse mirror. A truly heartbreaking gut punch to cap off a superlative episode.
2. Two-Face
Two-Face is one of Batman: The Animated Series’ finest hours, a dark two part episode centred around the transformation of up and coming attorney Harvey Dent into Two-Face, a homicidal criminal obsessed with duality. To the show’s credit, before this two-parter Harvey Dent was a well-established character in the show before introducing Two-Face into the story in media res, making his slip to the dark side as saddening for newcomers as it did for comic book readers who knew exactly what was lurking around the corner.
District attorney Harvey Dent, is bright, articulate, and extremely good at his job. With a beautiful girlfriend, and a re-election campaign going off seemingly without a hitch, life couldn’t possibly be any sweeter except for one little detail. Dent, stressed, prone to violent mood swings, and emotionally repressed is hiding a second personality called Big Bad Harv – a Mr Hyde-like alter ego whose malevolence is in a stark contrast to Dent’s public persona.
The emotional weight of an episode like ‘Two-Face’ comes from the fact that many people have struggled with a mental health issue of some kind in their lives, and find it difficult to express it to friends or seek professional help. This makes Batman’s guilt over not being able to save his friend hit especially close to the bone as it conjures a dream sequence where he feels guilty for not preventing both Harvey’s accident that made him into Two-Face in the first place and the death of his parents.
What makes ‘Two-Face’ so good is that it’s a marriage of atmospheric noirish visuals, and an unforgettable Icarus-like rise and fall origin story that sticks with you long after the episode is over.
1. Almost Got ‘im
Put simply ‘Almost Got ‘im’ is a perfect half an hour of TV. It’s funny, suspenseful, well written, and creative all at the same time. Although not quite as serious as other episodes on this list, it’s so good at what it’s trying to achieve tonally it would be sickening not have it as number one.
On the run, Joker, Poison Ivy, Penguin, Two-Face, and Killer Croc are all held up in the Stacked Death Club playing cards. To keep the game fresh and interesting as well as to pass the time, Joker suggests each of them detail the time that they came closest to catching the Dark Knight. Every individual scheme is an excellent reflection of the villain’s personality and the sheer joy/relative novelty value of seeing some of Batman’s greatest villains all hanging out socially will never fail to be appealing.
Paul Dini’s skill as a writer is on full display with this episode as it’s both well-paced and doesn’t allow any one villain’s arc in the story to overshadow the narrative as a whole. If you’re looking to show someone why Batman’s roster of villains is as iconic as it is, then ‘Almost Got ‘im’ is the perfect episode to show.
What are your favourite episodes of Batman: The Animated Series? Reminisce with us over on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Simon Thompson
