PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological, sociological*
I've long meant to review what many consider the best superhero cartoon series of all time, BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, but as it happens, I decided to start with Vol 4 (which is actually the totality of Season 3). I may amuse myself by working backward. I'm not willing to write standalone reviews of the episodes, but instead include mini-reviews in order to broadcast, with notations of (G) for good mythicity, (F) for fair, and (P) for poor.
HOLIDAY KNIGHTS (F)-- this three-part anthology episode on a Christmas theme features a very bad Joker episode (complete with the third season's ultra-simplified version of the villain), a mediocre encounter between Batgirl and Clayface, and a better than average romp in which Batman has to deal with those voluptuous vixens Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy (though no one makes the Xmas-friendly "Harley and Ivy" joke).
SINS OF THE FATHERS (F)-- Though Dick Grayson was Robin for the first two seasons, the producers decided to follow the lead of the comics, graduating the now adult Grayson to the role of Nightwing and giving the Robin monicker to the new kid in town, Tim Drake. Tim gets involved with the Bat-world through his father's association with Two-Face, whose blackmail plot is somewhat de rigeur. He also meets the new Robin but for some reason doesn't realize that this can't possibly be the same kid-hero he used to fight.
COLD COMFORT (G)-- Mister Freeze, a generally mediocre villain in the comics, gets a great conclusion here, following his appearance in BATMAN AND MR FREEZE: SUB-ZERO. Batman's desire to find new connections through his Bat-family is opposed to Freeze's desire to prey upon Gotham's citizens by eliminating their deepest hopes and dreams.
DOUBLE TALK (F)-- The Ventriloquist is freed from the asylum, as he's been freed from Scarface, the dummy through which he's committed his crimes. But is Scarface really gone?
YOU SCRATCH MY BACK (P)-- Catwoman like Joker gets a visual makeover for the worse, so that she looks like some sort of anime elf. She wants to make a score, but to do so she pretends to romance Nightwing. Will Nightwing poach on his surrogate father's territory? Will Batgirl be jealous? Who cares? Nice fight in a motorboat (but, sadly, without any motorboating).
NEVER FEAR (F)-- This time the Scarecrow, instead of making his victims afraid, immunizes them from fear, and threatens to subject all of Gotham to the treatment, which will turn the city upside down. When Batman and Robin tackle the villain, Batman gets exposed to the no-fear gas, and Robin has to keep his mentor from going over the edge.
JOKER'S MILLIONS (P)-- The original comics story of the same title, created by David Vern and Dick Sprang, is a small masterpiece, but this episode is an overheated, tone-deaf adaptation. For once the Joker re-design isn't the worst thing around.
GROWING PAINS (F)-- Robin sympathizes with a runaway girl his own age, but she has a unique relationship with the shapechanger Clayface. Excellent concluding fight-scene.
LOVE IS A CROC (P)-- Baby Doll, a poorly conceived second-season villain, lures the super-strong Killer Croc into a partnership, but things go sour when she wants to take things to the next level.
TORCH SONG (F)-- Fifties villain Firefly makes his first appearance on the series, with an origin somewhat amended from the original. This time the villain turns evil because he's thrown over romantically by "torch singer" Cassidy. The episode ends atypically, focusing on the singer's trauma even after Batman defeats Firefly. Cute moment where Batgirl (who is Batman's partner just as often as Robin is) quotes PINKY AND THE BRAIN and Batman doesn't get it.
THE ULTIMATE THRILL (F)-- Roxy Rocket, created for the comics by Paul Dini, makes the transition to animation with a slam-bang daredevil theme focused Roxy's love of danger, a love she thinks she shares with the Caped Crusader. Penguin appears in a small role, but happily reverts to his classic 1940s design.
OVER THE EDGE (P)-- For most of the episode, it appears that Batgirl has died, causing Commissioner Gordon to launch a vendetta against the Bat-clan. But since the viewer knows that it can't really be happening, the revelation that it's all Batgirl's fear-dream, induced by Scarecrow, is underwhelming.
MEAN SEASONS (F)-- In a story drawing upon one-shot comics villain "The Manikin," Batman contends with a villainess who also borrows the seasons-theme of Calendar Man. Calendar Girl has a grudge against various Gotham power brokers, whom she considers to have exploited women. But a satire of sexism hardly registers as valid coming from a cartoon with bouncy babes like Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn (even if the New Catwoman lost all her cleavage).
CRITTERS (P)-- Did any Bat-fan ever want to see the Bat-clan fight a bunch of super-sized farm animals? Farmer Brown and his daughter Emmylou attempt to solve world hunger by using steroids to gigantize various "critters," but a judge considers the process unsafe and bans Brown's experiments. Brown claims the ban will ruin his fortunes, yet years later he's somehow got enough cash to continue his experiments in secret, until he can unleash a horde of American kaiju on Gotham. He even builds a rocket into a farm-silo to bombard the city with giant bugs. So where'd he get the MONEY?? Bullock shows his age by referring to Brown as "Snuffy." Emmylou herself takes steroids and gets strong enough to beat down Batgirl.
CULT OF THE CAT (F)-- Elfwoman is still not very appealing, but at least this time she displays some of her romantic ambivalence toward the Bat. She steals a sacred cat statuette from a cult devoted to cats, and the cult's agents try to kill her, forcing Batman to get involved. When she's captured by the cult, she insinuates herself into the good graces of the cult leader-- but when he tries to kill Batman, the Princess of Plunder saves him, yet escapes to loot again. The cult-leader is named Thomas Blake, which in comics is the non-secret ID of Batman's other cat-themed foe, The Cat-Man.
ANIMAL ACTS (F)-- This one's good mostly for re-uniting Dick Grayson with his old stomping-grounds. Trained animals commit crimes in Gotham, so Batman, Robin and Nightwing check out the local circus, where Grayson once performed on the high wire. Turns out that the Mad Hatter has extended his mind-control powers over the beasts, and even though his scheme is improbable, there are enough Carroll-quotes to smooth things over. Grayson is reunited with an old circus gal-pal, Miranda Kane, whose surname is probably a shout-out to another DC aerialist, Kathy Kane, the first Batwoman.
OLD WOUNDS (G)-- This is a good condensation of the many psychological factors that led Dick Grayson to abandon the role of Batman's partner Robin and to take the new identity of Nightwing. In real time he encounters Batman and the current Robin, and the young hero senses the conflict between the ex-partners. When Drake's alone with Grayson, Grayson tells the story. Some tension between Wayne and Grayson stems from the mere fact of Grayson becoming a grown man, but in contrast to the comics, the other major factor was that in college Grayson had a romance with Barbara Gordon. Though neither of them knew that the other had a secret ID, Batman ferrets out Batgirl's identity without her knowledge. When Barbara seeks out Bruce Wayne to talk to him about his ward's troubled state of mind, Wayne shows his trust of the new heroine by revealing to her the true ID of himself and his partner. Not only does Grayson-Robin object to this disclosure, he believes that Batman manipulated both of them into being his pawns, and that ends the partnership. The story ends, but events reveal a side to Batman that Robin overlooked.
THE DEMON WITHIN (F)-- Batman and Robin help Jason Blood when the witch-child Klarion separates Blood from his alter ego, the super-powerful Demon, and begins using the Demon as his personal servant.
LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT (P)-- The writer of this story claims that he never saw the Frank Robbins comics-story in which three kids relate "blind man and the elephant" impressions of who and what the Batman is like. I don't disbelieve the writer, because the basic idea seems fairly obvious given the many mutations of the crusader. But there's nothing to this story but simple homage, first of Dick Sprang, the quintessential Golden Age Bat-artist, and then of Frank Miller's THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS. After two of the three kids tell their stories, they stumble across Firefly trying to burn down a theater, and the real Batman shows up in all his glory.
GIRL'S NIGHT OUT (F)-- Why is it "girl's (singular)," given that the episode is focused on two girl heroes teaming up? Batman's seen briefly leaving town but he tells Batgirl to seek out Superman in order to battle the Kryptonian's enemy Live Wire. Instead, the Man of Steel's cousin takes the message, and Supergirl shows up to help Batgirl make it a "girls' night." But Live Wire forms a somewhat fractious alliance with Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. Lots of nice fight-scenes, without a codpiece in sight.
MAD LOVE (G)-- Aside from the Joker's crappy re-design, this is a fine rendition of Paul Dini's Eisner-winning story of the same name. This tale was instrumental to redefining the weird but somewhat affectionate liaison of Joker and Harley into a relationship of total dysfunction.
CHEMISTRY (F)-- It's the old "set up the rich guys and gals with phony mates in order to knock off the Richies and get their money" trick. Poison Ivy comes up with her unique take in that her pawns are plant-people infused with her hypnotic pheromones, in order to make certain that the Richies are irresistibly seduced. Bruce Wayne himself is one of the victims, so Robin and Batgirl must snap him out of it.
BEWARE THE CREEPER (G)-- For some reason everyone in this Gotham knows how the Joker was created in a chemical plant accident, so reporter Jack Ryder goes to the plant for a retrospective story. Joker and Harley show up to rain on Ryder's parade, and Ryder goes for a swim in a chemical bath. However, he comes out as The Creeper, whose only similarity to the Joker is that both do a lot of laughing. The comics-version only laughed maniacally to unnerve villains, but this Creeper, able to take prodigious leaps from building to building, was designed to be a cross between Jim Carrey's MASK and a Tex Avery wolf. Creeper decides he'll take hilarious vengeance on Joker, and for good measure tries to steal his girl partner. Batman and Robin work out the Creeper's origins and reverse the transformation, though not before the addled avenger nearly drives Joker crazy. This episode boasts two cool sex-jokes. There's an obvious one when Creeper, rendered unconscious by Batman, collapses atop Harley and gets pillowed by her boobs. More subtly, Harley tries to please Joker by baking herself into a huge gooey pastry, and explicitly says, "Wanna try some of my pie?"
JUDGMENT DAY (F)-- At least the final episode of the series is a decent one. The Judge, a robed vigilante with his face obscured, begins preying on such Gotham villains as Two-Face, Penguin and Killer Croc. Some Gothamites like the idea of an avenger who, unlike Batman, gets rid of evildoers for good, and one of them is a corrupt politician seeking to profit from the Judge's crusade. The Judge's identity is a decent reveal, the fights are pretty good, and this is one of the few third-season tales in which neither of Batman's partners appears. There's an amusing sequence in which four career villains-- Harley, Mad Hatter, Riddler and Ventriloquist-- appear on TV to blame all their actions on Batman, and to claim Gotham owes them money for their mistreatment.
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