Speaking of DC though. I think I just hit my two
favorite Batman: The Animated Series episodes so far. Batman is stone cold, and I’m not sure it’s
entirely appropriate for children. In the first episode, The Mad Hatter caught
Batman and put him into a dream world that was “perfect” Thomas and
Martha were alive, Bruce was running Wayne Industries, he was engaged to Selena
Kyle, everything was perfect but he couldn’t deal with it. After fighting
a dream Batman who turned out to be the Mad Hatter he finds out that there is
no way to wake up. Since happiness is the one thing Bruce Wayne can't handle, he jumps off a building and kills himself. Of course, that wakes him up and he beats the crap out of The Mad
Hatter, who is in shock because no one’s will is strong enough to escape the
dream world. It was awesome.
In the second episode, Wormwood, the torture and
interrogation expert, has stolen money that was supposed to go to orphans in
Africa or something so Batman poses as a bad guy, pays Wormwood to break Batman
and take his cape and cowl and then escapes once, before allowing himself to be
“broken” and then uses his role as the bad guy to figure out where Wormwood hid
the money, and then pulled off a mask to reveal the Batman costume under it
and beats the crap out of Wormwood.
Walter Kovacs: It's not a controversial opinion that BTAS is probably the best animated show of all time, and it probably ranks pretty highly among my favorite shows of any type. In addition, you have excellent taste in episodes. In the Wormwood one, I was legitimately thrown for a loop. I thought- there is NO WAY that Batman would get his cowl taken by a guy like that, but he really seemed to be beaten, right until he wasn’t- it was genius. The Hatter episode is awesome too. I’m also fond of the one where all the criminals put Batman on trial. The story wasn’t as great as others, but the episode took head on a lot of the questions of vigilante justice, which was definitely thought provoking.
CM: The more I’m watching the more I’m falling in love with this Batman again. I think BTAS gets the balance between cold, emotionless, Batman and the decent person who is Bruce Wayne the best. Especially with the Robin episodes. He’s still cold, and doesn’t feel the need to explain himself to Robin, but there’s just a touch of humanity. A half smile at the end of the episode, or a straight faced, “It would have been more difficult without you there,” after Robin just rescued him and is desperate for an “Attaboy.”
I recently learned that Batman is immune to Hyperthermia. Which is a nice skill. They’re also starting to get into the back stories of both him and Robin and some of the others. We just got a glimpse of Batman’s old master (Yoru) and classmate. (Kyodai Ken) It did a good job of showing that Batman wasn’t always the best, but he worked and worked and obsessed over getting better. And that he has continued to train. When Ken betrayed Yoru and Bruce and left, he was a much better fighter than Bruce, but when he came back and tried to attack Bruce during the Batman era, Bruce was so much better than Ken that he could fight him as Bruce and lose well enough to convince the reporter girl that he was getting killed, but then as soon as she was out of the way (even though he was already beat up pretty bad) he was able to finish Ken in two moves.
WK: Indeed. And the DCAU just continues what they started in BTAS. The Justice League episode where Batman has to stop Ace from the Royal Flush gang is the absolute best at showing why Batman is SO great. You might think that the cold, dark Batman might do “what is necessary” to save the city, but no- he is successful precisely because he knows when violence is called for, and when it isn’t. He knows when someone needs a beat-down and a trip to Arkham, and when they’re just a scared kid who’s a victim of their circumstances. The fact that his own moral code is worth far more to him than his life, and maybe more to him than even other, innocent lives is something to consider, but it’s that very quality that allows him to fight like he has nothing to lose- and to reach someone that no one else could reach.
