Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1999)

Tagline: I am vengeance. I am the night. I… AM… BATMAN!

Curiosity: He’s the goddamn Batman.

Plot: Billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne (Kevin Conroy) may be one handsome dude, but he’s actually a costumed vigilante known as… THE BATMAN. Batman protects Gotham City from a horrible horde of villains, including The Joker (Mark Hamill), Catwoman (Adrienne Barbeau), and Da Riddler (John Glover, my man from Brimstone… but you probably know him from Smallville. Or that one episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine where he kidnapped Dax). These villains may be cartoony compared to X-Men, but they’re still quite deadly.

Luckily, Batman has help from Robin/Nightwing (Loren Lester), Batgirl (Melissa Gilbert), and his faithful butler Alfred (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.). A second Robin joins them later on (Matthew Valencia).

Thoughts: The impact Bruce Timm and company had on Batman, and comics in general, when they launched this cartoon is impressive. Batman: The Animated Series helped bring the darker take on the character begun by Frank Miller, Alan Moore, and Tim Burton to a grander level, creating a show that routinely dealt with death and violence without celebrating them. It created a dark, troubled world, led by a single man capable of cutting through all the moral ambiguity. It instilled morality in me, that’s for sure.

At the same time, the animated series took the sillier elements of Batman’s history and managed to update them without mocking them (especially so on “Legends of the Dark Knight”). Sometimes it didn’t always pay off – season four’s attempts to create the kind ridiculous villains found on Adam West’s Batman run seems misguided – but the show’s experiments also yielded new, refreshing takes on the likes of Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, and many more.

More than any other superhero, Batman represents purity to me, the same way Ian MacKaye or Bill Watterson do. He’s incorruptible. Superman is too powerful and Marvel characters have too much personal drama at stake. But, setting aside his limitless wealth, Batman is a pure driving force dedicated to the preservation of society and a role model. Yes, you can make the case for him being a fascist who rules by fear, but damn it he gets results. And we can all be just like him simply by caring. We might not have his adventures, but we can certainly preserve his legacy.

Sorry, that got tangential. Based on the first 20 episodes, I feared that the animated series wouldn’t hold up. The animated looks rubbery and inconsistent, and the plots are too simplistic. But then, the producers had a lot origin stories to knock out. Once the show really got underway, Batman started knocking out ace episodes one after another. The Jokers one are the best, natch, but there’s some great stuff from the likes of Two-Face, The Riddler, and especially original creation Harley Quinn. Sure, there’s still some clunkers along the way, like when Batman battles a crazy farmer (“Critters”) or a guy who thinks he’s Zeus (“Fire From Olympus”), but overall the series has a wiz-bang, retro feel to it reminiscent of Indiana Jones or The Rocketeer, just, ya know… with Batman in it.

Batman also marks the beginning of the DC Animated Universe, which I’ll talk about later. I do want to comment on the three animated movies, though. Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman is complete shit and Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero is alright, but Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is the third best Batman movie of all time, behind Christopher Nolan’s two films. It explores Batman’s origin, something only touched on in the series (Although both Robins and Batgirl get great origin episodes) while intercutting his attempts to both stop the Phantasm, a more violent vigilante who has taken to murdering gangsters, and to settle down into a normal life.

I like Batman.

Top 10 Episodes:

1. Robin’s Reckoning Parts I-II
2. Harley’s Holiday
3. Almost Got ’Im
4. Riddler’s Reform
5. Harley and Ivy
6. Mudslide
7. Old Wounds
8. Harlequinade
9. Over the Edge
10. Second Chance
    
    

Reflection: Volumes Two and Three are the best. One has growing pains. Four is half-brilliant, half crap.