PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*
Still working my way backward from newest to oldest of the 1990s Bat-series.
ETERNAL YOUTH (F)-- Bruce Wayne gets an invite from the Eternal Youth Health Spa, but he passes it along to his butler Alfred, who takes his similarly aged friend Maggie as his plus-one. The two don't come back as expected, so Batman investigates. Turns out Poison Ivy has turned her spa into a "Venus fly trap" for fatcats whom she thinks are bad for the environment. It's a novel scheme for the Plant Mistress, but it's hard to believe nobody else missed other rich people who went missing after attending the health clinic.
PERCHANCE TO DREAM (G)-- Bruce Wayne awakes to a world in which he's never been Batman, but he has the rudiments of what could be a happy life, engaged to Selina Kyle. But when Bruce sees some other Batman parading around Gotham, he's determined to get the bottom of the mind-game, even if everyone around thinks he's gone berserk. Turns out it's an old foe who wants the satisfaction of confining Batman to a delusional dream-world just because the Cowled Crusader deprived the villain of his own paradise. I suppose the idea of trumping Batman's righteousness is the only good motive for the villain to mind-game the captive Batman, instead of just killing the crusader. As for who the villain is, it's a good surprise, so I'll just keep the evildoer's identity under my hat.
THE CAPE AND COWL CONSPIRACY (P)-- This started as a gimmicky comics-tale and it's just as gimmicky as a cartoon episode. It's pretty unmemorable, but in theory I approve of giving Batman a fair share of crime stories with no bizarro villains involved.
ROBIN'S RECKONING, PTS 1-2 (F)-- When Robin is brought into contact with the man who killed his parents, can he resist the urge to take vigilante vengeance? Well, he pretty much has to, or he can't keep on being a hero in the Old DC Universe. (Much later, the "hero" Red Hood would murder assorted crooks but would pretty much be forgiven, but those were different times.) I rate the episodes "fair" for providing snapshots of the psychological bonding between Bruce Wayne and his youthful ward.
THE LAUGHING FISH (F)-- "Fish" adapts disparate parts of two separate Joker-stories from the comics and squeezes in Harley Quinn for good measure. The episode doesn't manage to sell the more atmospheric aspects of either original, but it's still a better than average look at the Joker's demented psyche.
NIGHT OF THE NINJA (F)-- I believe this is the first time the TV show builds an episode around the process by which a young Bruce Wayne obtained the peerless martial skills that he needed to become Batman. In those days he incurred the enmity of a fellow student, Kyodai Ken, and now Ken has returned in the guise of a ninja, targeting the Wayne businesses. Though both Batman and Robin have brief encounters with the ninja, it's Bruce Wayne who gets the chance to decisively defeat Ken, with a little identity-guarding help from Robin. Good interplay between the Dynamic Duo.
CAT SCRATCH FEVER (F)-- Of course you know that right after a judge lets Selina Kyle off with probation, but specifies that she better not don the cat-costume again, Catwoman will soon prowl again. This time her own pet cat Isis is one of many felines abducted by rogue scientist Milo, who needs test subjects for a virus. Catwoman is sidelined by exposure to the virus, so Batman has to play a lone hand for the most part. The high point is the hero facing off an attack dog atop a frozen lake.
THE STRANGE SECRET OF BRUCE WAYNE (P)-- This episode is based on a two-part fan-favorite comic, in which the author revived the diabolical Hugo Strange for the first time since the early 1940s. However, the writers of SECRET blew off all the eccentric aspects of Strange's personality. Here he's just another mad scientist, who in this case is able to ferret out Batman's identity with the use of a mind-control machine. Guest-starring roles for Joker, Penguin and Two-Face aren't much compensation.
HEART OF STEEL PTS 1-2 (P)-- The supercomputer HARDAC plots to control Gotham City by replacing real people with android duplicates, and only Batman can take the perilous processor off-line. Barbara Gordon, not yet Batgirl, guest stars.
IF YOU'RE SO SMART, WHY AREN'T YOU RICH? (G)-- One of the biggest problems with the Riddler in comics is that his compulsion about leaving clues, however useful in stories, makes him look somewhat pathetic, despite his intellect. The BATMAN show dispenses with the riddle-compulsion. Now he's a game-programming genius who simply likes using riddles in his games, but he turns criminal after his boss cheats him of profits. This villain, Batman and Robin have to sweat to defeat as they seek to rescue Riddler's victim from a modern Minotaur's maze.
JOKER'S WILD (P)-- This is basically just another Joker episode, with the angle that a casino owner rather foolishly tries to honk off the Clown Prince so that Joker will create an opportunity for insurance fraud. Why the schemer thinks he can survive arousing the Joker's wrath goes unexplained.
TYGER TYGER (F)-- Did the producers really have to subject Catwoman to a virus in one episode, and then to a "Doctor Moreau" transformation about a month later? The "Moreau" of the tale, Doctor Dorian, comes up with a magical serum (one might as well call it magic) that can advance animals into humanoid forms, yet also devolve humans into carefully chosen animal-hybrids. In particular, Dorian transforms Selina Kyle into a literal cat-woman so that he can mate her with his tiger-derived humanoid Tygrus. This is the G-rated version of the potential "bestiality" experiment in the 1932 film adaptation of the Wells novel, ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, so of course nothing like that comes close to happening. But I give the writers points for dealing with the tragedy of the cat-humanoid after he loses Selina, and for correctly quoting the Blake poem that furnished the episode's title.
MOON OF THE WOLF (P)-- This adaptation of another well-regarded comics-story fails to equal both the atmosphere and the action-content of the original. As in the story, Professor Milo transforms his test subject Anthony Romulus (named now for one of the founders of Rome) into a being who can transform into a vicious werewolf. Batman manages to fight off the lycanthrope, but it escapes at the episode's end, suggesting that the producers considered bringing Romulus back for a second encounter.
DAY OF THE SAMURAI (G)-- Yoru, the sensei who originally trained both Bruce Wayne and the ninja Kyodai Ken, learns that his star pupil, a woman named Kairi, had been kidnapped by Ken. Ken wants as ransom a scroll depicting an arcane "death touch" maneuver, and so Yoru appeals to Bruce Wayne for help, knowing that Batman will intervene. However, Ken has figured out the equivalence of Wayne and Batman too. When Batman shows up with the ransom-scroll, Ken forces the crusader to rescue Kairi while Ken makes off with the scroll. Ken learns the death-touch technique and challenges the hero to a face-off. When they fight, Ken jabs Batman, who seems to perish, only to revive and continue fighting. In the end Ken allows himself to die in a fiery explosion (though the producers kept this fact ambiguous). The revelation of how Batman figures out how to guard against the fatal jab is as intriguing as the (probably fictional) menace of the death-touch itself.
TERROR IN THE SKY (F)-- Man-Bat flies again-- or does he? It's a mediocre follow-up to the show's excellent introduction of the leather-winged monster-man, but to be sure, the comics story on which this episode is based wasn't that hot either.
ALMOST GOT 'IM (G)-- Much like PERCHANCE TO DREAM, this tale concretizes the need of Gotham's rogues not just to kill Batman, but to outclass him through their use of insidiously involved death-traps. Five villains on the run from the law-- Joker, Penguin, Two-Face, Killer Croc, and Poison Ivy-- convene at a gin-joint to play poker. While they play, each relates a story about how each villain "almost got" Batman in a chosen trap. Naturally, a certain Bat deals himself into the action as well, and so do both Catwoman and Harley Quinn. Arguably this is the finest episode of the entire series, with pitch perfect voice-work and exquisitely timed dialogue, as well as a few darker elements that got past the censors. Batman's escapes are all clever, but I think the villains really outdid themselves with their traps, with Penguin's aviary plot taking top honors while Two-Face's "giant penny" strategy runs a close second.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER (F)-- Penguin gets out of prison, determined to give up jousting with the law once and for all. Unfortunately, his good intentions are undermined when wealthy Veronica Vreeland invites him to a high-society party as a joke. Offended when he finds out he's being played, Penguin returns to crime, abducting Veronica and one of her partygoers for ransom. Batman defeats his old foe once again, but surprisingly neglects to dress down the useless aristocrats who caused much of the mess. This could have been an outstanding Penguin episode except that the script doesn't go the extra mile in terms of delineating his character.
WHAT IS REALITY? (F)-- The new, hyper-intelligent Riddler seeks to eliminate all records of his existence, but this is also a gambit designed to trap Batman in a virtual-game world. As in the villain's previous appearance, Batman has to figure out the rules of the game to survive. At episode's end, Riddler falls into a mental coma, but by his next appearance he's okay again.
I AM THE NIGHT (F)-- Batman begins to doubt that his crusade serves any purpose since crime remains ever-present, and nothing Robin or Alfred can say lessens the hero's existential ennui. A threat to Commissioner Gordon's life puts the crusader on high alert, though, and by the episode's end Batman is able to regain his sense of purpose.
OFF BALANCE (F)-- Prior to his first encounter with Ra's Al Ghul, the Cowled Crusader enjoys his first encounter with the villain's daughter Talia, albeit in circumstances very different from the comics-introduction. "Balance" is very action-oriented, as Batman and Talia must unite to stop the schemes of Count Vertigo. While not a great story, this is many times better than any of the hero's encounters with Talia and Ra's in the mediocre Nolan-verse.
THE MAN WHO KILLED BATMAN (P)-- It's another gimmicky crime-story, in which Batman allows the underworld to think he's been killed by a low-level goon, Sid the Squid. It is a little funnier than "Cape and Cowl Conspiracy," though.
MUDSLIDE (F)-- Clayface returns, but he's rapidly losing control of his bodily integrity. The shapechanging villain receives a respite from a medical doctor, Stella Bates, who knew Clayface when he was just a film-actor. She directs him to steal components needed for a cure, but he has to steal from Wayne Industries, and so Batman gets involved. Clayface survives his apparent death at episode's end, but this is probably his best BTAS outing.
PAGING THE CRIME DOCTOR (P)-- The original comics version of the titular villain concerned a medical man who's seduced by the thrill of aiding the criminal element. That goes out the window for a mediocre melodrama in which the doctor's gangster-brother involves the physician in crime, as well as kidnapping Batman's medical consultant Leslie Tompkins.
ZATANNA (F)-- To learn methods of escaping traps, a young Bruce Wayne studied stage magic with renowned performer Zatara, and on the side enjoyed a mild romance with Zatara's comely daughter Zatanna. Years later, Zatanna is framed for a robbery during her magic act, and Batman comes to her aid. The villains are far less important than the romantic interplay that results as Zatanna figures out that Batman is the young fellow she once fancied. In the comics and in most other animated shows Zatanna possesses real magic powers, but here, presumably to keep the show more grounded, she's just an illusionist and a good fighter.
THE MECHANIC (F)-- Batman regularly has his car serviced by a mechanic who doesn't know the hero's secret ID. But the Penguin does some research and tracks down the Batmobile's service bay. Like a couple of stories in the ouevre of BATMAN '66, Penguin seems to have a case of "vehicle envy" when it comes to the Batmobile. The mechanic is nicely characterized but happily is not seen again.
HARLEY AND IVY (F)-- This episode arguably begins the slow dissolution of Harley Quinn's love affair with the Maniac of Mirth. In the midst of a quarrel with Joker, Harley tries to prove herself, and ends up joining forces with Poison Ivy. The two ladies find they make a good team and start committing crimes together, enraging the Joker and getting Batman on their tails. Ivy relentlessly blasts Harley for being in love with a homicidal maniac. (Like she's one to talk.) Lots of good action here, and Harley gets most of the best lines.
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