Batman: The Animated Series- 25 Years Later

Last Tuesday marked the 25th anniversary of the premiere of my favorite animated series of all time, which should surprise no one to be Batman: The Animated Series. And while I didn't have time to get up a post on that day, I decided to hold it back until today, as today marks the 25th anniversary of one of my personal favorite episodes, "Joker's Favor," the episode that introduced one of the series most enduring legacies: Harley Quinn. So today, we say happy birthday to Harley, and we look back on 25 years of the animated series that changed the way people looked at "kids" cartoons, and specifically how it helped foster the already growing devotion of one pre-teen to all things Batman.

I remember the first time I read anything about the upcoming Batman cartoon. In those long ago pre-internet days, you got your comics news on paper, from various periodicals, and the one that had a big feature on the upcoming cartoon was the tenth or twelfth issue of Wizard magazine (it was 25 years ago, cut a guy come slack on not remembering the exact issue number). This was back before Wizard became the slick, glossy embodiment of everything good and ill in comics in the 90s, and was more a price guide with some articles. I remember walking home from a news stand, and stopping dead as I looked at the character models sheets that were published in the magazine: this was a style that wasn't a super slick and "realistic" as comics in the 90s, but was stylized and different, but very cool. I wasn't in love with the clearly Batman Returns inspired Penguin, but everyone else looked great! I liked Batman's costume which was grey and dark blue, something between the classic version from comics of the past twenty years, which had a lighter blue, and the black costume of the Burton films. I even recognized the names of some of the voice actors, although I didn't know this Kevin Conroy who was voicing Batman, or Tim Curry, who was voicing Joker.

The series premiered on a special Saturday morning showing, as the cartoon would normally run Monday through Friday at 4:30 on Fox, back when cartoons were aired on Fox and the WB (or just syndicated Channel 11 before the WB was a thing). That first week, from September 5th through September 12th of 1992, there were actually going to be eight days with eight episodes running, including a primetime, seven o'clock airing on Sunday! This was the kind of buzz you didn't get around a cartoon back in the 90s.

That Saturday morning, I can actually remember sitting down on the floor, closer to the TV than I usually would because I didn't want to miss a moment or a word, and Saturday mornings were primetime for screaming two and seven year old brothers. And when that opening sequence began, with its action and explosions, its mobsters and Batman, it's shadows and substance, I was drawn in entirely. The first episode to air was not the pilot, but "The Cat and the Claw Part 1," probably to capitalize on Catwoman's popularity after the previous summer's Batman Returns, and I was surprised to see a story much closer to what I was just starting to read in the comics than to the still syndicated Batman 1966 TV series: terrorists stealing a chemical weapon, a Catwoman who was sympathetic, and a Batman whose voice was like something out of a dream; immediately I knew that Kevin Conroy was THE voice of Batman.

I'm not going to bore you with a rundown of every episode of the series, but I will say that first week showed exactly what this series could do. "The Cat and the Claw" (part 2 aired the following Saturday morning, wrapping up the initial eight day run) was an action story, akin to classic movie serials, but the rest of the episodes were different. The true pilot, "On Leather Wings" aired on Sunday, and debuted Man-Bat. It was a horror story, with a bat monster, and was truly beautiful to watch; I dare you to look at it and not think it could have been animated today.

Monday's episode was "Heart of Ice," the debut of the animated series Mr. Freeze, whose Mike Mignola redesigned armor is still the gold standard for Mr. Freeze looks today, and more than that, it's a true tragedy, about a good man driven by love to extreme lengths, and the pain he feels at his loss, a story that redefined Mr. Freeze completely. Tuesday and Wednesday was a two part story that introduced Clayface, creating a version of the character with the same name as the second comic book Clayface and a background with similarities to the first, but twists all the animated series own.

Thursday was a complete curveball, an episode entitled "It's Never Too Late," with no supervillains at all, but featuring mobsters! And not funny mobsters, but serious, gun toting mobsters. I remember watching this with a friend who kept waiting for some costumed crook to show up, but I loved it. The episode had heart and pathos, about an old mob boss who was given one last chance to get out of the life. I don't think anything shown in an animated block before had ever strayed so far from the typical toy cartoon model of the 80s so far.

And finally, Friday, came the day I was waiting for: the introduction of the Joker, my favorite Batman villain, to this new version of the Batman mythos. I linked to a piece up above where I wrote about this episode in detail, so I won't go into that here, but other than featuring the story of an everyman trapped between the Joker and Batman, and introducing Harley Quinn, it featured the debut of a voice actor whose Joker would go on to define that character as much as Conroy would define Batman: not Tim Curry, as I had read in that first article, but Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill. It was a perfect week to start off this series, showing it's range, from comedic to tragic, and it's style.

Over the course of 85 episodes, Batman: The Animated Series would introduce most of the great villains and supporting characters of the Batman mythos. We would see the TV/film debuts of villains like Two-Face, Ra's al Ghul, Bane, and supporting characters like Harvey Bullock and Leslie Tompkins, characters who are major parts of the pop culture landscape of Batman now. Not only would we get the surprise superstardom of Harley Quinn, but Renee Montoya was created for the cartoon as well (although she would appear in the comics first due to the longer lead time for animation). And while original characters Lock-Up, Baby Doll, and Roxy Rocket aren't household names, they are still interesting characters, and I personally think Roxy Rocket is one really good story away from being a big hit.

Not every episode was perfect, but give me one series where that is true. What you got though, was a vision. A vision of what Batman can be. I was talking on Thursday to a friend, and we were discussing how there is no platonic ideal of what Batman (or any character who has existed in the public mind for so long) is; everyone has their own interpretation as a creator, and fans gravitate toward one or the other, or create their own head canon. For me, my choice for the platonic ideal of Batman is Batman: The Animated Series. It is a dark knight who is not a psychopath or a fascist. It's a Batman who cares, who exists in this nebulous Gotham City that is somewhere between the 1940s and the now. It's villains are bright or dark, and sometimes both, but aren't a joke. It synthesized aspects from all the previous 50 plus years of Batman into a streamlined, easy to comprehend version of the character that never spoke down to its audience and made them think about right and wrong. It's a world of fleshed out characters like nothing that existed in children's animation before.

That legacy is key to this series. Not only would the rest of the DC Animated Universe not exist, as The New Batman Adventures, Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League/Justice League Unlimited, Static Shock, and Batman Beyond all followed directly on the heals of Bruce Timm's style and vision, but do you think Disney would have been comfortable enough to let Greg Weisman craft his dark fairy tale Gargoyles without precedent for smart kid's TV? Or Fox would have let the X-Men animated series, which appeared about two months after Batman: The Animated Series appeared, push the envelope with some of its darker themes? And series like Avatar: The Last Airbender, Samurai Jack, and other modern action classics all owe a little something to the first show that tried to be more than just a 22 minute toy commercial. This was trailblazing work, this was something different, and something that happens once in a generation.

I mentioned the series that followed in the same universe as Batman: The Animated Series as key to its legacy, but there are other places where the series reached. "Mad Love," Paul Dini and Bruce Timm's one shot comic revealing the origin of Harley Quinn, won an Eisner Award. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, the feature film that was set in the same world and crafted by the same creators, is a lost gem, and was recently released on Blu-Ray if you haven't seen it, or haven't seen in in a while. DC Direct is in the process of releasing a shockingly comprehensive line of action figures based on all these designs, Funko just released it's second wave of Pop! figures inspired by the series, and both a card game and a dice game were released this year with Batman: The Animated Series themes. And just a few weeks ago, Batman & Harley Quinn, a new animated movie featuring art style and many of the voices of the original series, was released, showing that there's still interest (it's a lot of fun, by the way, and you should check it out).

So, twenty-five years later, where am I? In my heart of hearts, I'm still an 11 year old, sitting on the carpet in front of my family's TV in the living room, listening to those first strains of the theme to Batman: The Animated Series. It still sweeps me away to away to a world of dark heroes and villainous clowns, a world that might not be as black-and-white as the other cartoons that I had loved to this point. It's animation, it's stories, everything about it was something that redefined the way superhero cartoons were looked at, and I'm grateful every time I see a new cartoon that is action and story packed, that these creators made something as special as Batman: The Animated Series.

Animated Discussions: A Very Animated DC Christmas

The past couple of years, the Friday before Christmas has been a holiday recommendation, both of them from writer Paul Dini. Aside from a single Christmas themed issue of Simpsons Comics, and an issue of Detective Comics featuring Joker driving around with a tied up Tim Drake, I couldn't find anything else Christmasy from Dini (although you really should check out those two books). I was getting ready to shift last week's Krampus! piece to this week, when it occurred to me I had one more holiday piece that would feature some Paul Dini: a look at DC Comics animated Christmas episodes!

The earliest example of a holiday episode in the modern animated DC Universe (I'll be passing on the 60s Batman cartoon that did have a Mr. Freeze Christmas episode, just due to time for watching and time fro writing) is the classic "Christmas with the Joker." While aired about two months into the airing of Batman: The Animated Series, it was actually the second episode produced, so it has certain markings of those early episodes, very specifically it was one of three episodes where Clive Revill voiced Alfred, before Efrem Zimbalist Jr. took over and held the role for many a year.

Since we're still so early in the series, "Christmas with the Joker" isn't a very experimental episode. It's fun, clever, and well executed, but it's a pretty darn traditional episode. Joker breaks out of Arkham, Joker has a crazy scheme, Batman and Robin stop said crazy scheme. But the details are great. Joker has hijacked the airwaves and is airing an old time Christmas special starring, well, him. He's kidnapped Jim Gordon, Harvey Bullock, and Summer Gleeson (a reporter character who I think the producers hoped would catch on, but never really did), and has them tied up as his very own Christmas family. The interaction between Joker and Gordon when Joker removes his gag, which is a candy cane wedged in his mouth, briefly is pretty darn funny. But the stakes are high. Joker plans on blowing up a bridge and crashing a train, which Summer's mother is on; this isn't a whimsical thing with Joker. It's deadly serious.

The episode has great set pieces. Not just the exploding bridge and train sequence, but there's a battle at an observatory and a factory with killer nutcrackers. There's also some wonderful character beats involving batman. When asked to watch It's a Wonderful Life, he replies that he could, "never get past the title," but it's clear the episode's writer, Eddie Gorodetsky, gets Batman when Robin tells him that it's the story of how much one man can matter to a city, to which Bruce has not much to say. More telling is how hard it is for Batman to let go and believe that Christmas Eve will be quiet. This is actually a theme from a classic Batman Christmas story, Mike Friedrich and Neal Adams's, "the Silent Night of the Batman."

When Batman returned to animation with the New Batman Adventures, the first episode was an adaptation of the Batman Adventures Holiday Special, the episode entitled "Holiday Knights." Instead of writing at length about it, you can go and check out the recommendation I did for the comic a couple years ago. It remains one of my favorite Christmas comics ever.

In 2008, a very different animated Batman came to the airwaves. Batman: The Brave and the Bold was a much lighter Batman show, with crazy plots, huge set pieces right out of the 50s comics, and every episode teamed Batman with another hero. Early on, the series did its Christmas episode, "Invasion of the Secret Santas!" which featured Red Tornado as the guest hero. In the episode, Red Torndao, a robot, tried to understand the Christmas spirit, while he and Batman fight Fun Haus, a villain who is clearly a Toyman riff, since Toyman wouldn't have been available to the show since he is a Superman villain, and Superman and his cast were unavailable to Brave and the Bold at the time.

The episode itself involved robot Santas running amok, an evil toy, and some holiday hilarity as Red Tornado tries to Carol and Batman winds up saving kids from a runaway sled. It's a good episode of Brave and the Bold, as it highlights so much of what makes the show different and fun from Batman: The Animated Series. The comedy is much bigger, the villain is more over the top, but Batman himself remains this solid straight man in the middle of the wackiness. Batman says crime doesn't take a holiday, so neither does he.

The thing that stands out in "Invasion of the Secret Santas" to me are a series of black-and-white flashbacks to a young Bruce Wayne on Christmas Eve. Bruce receives a Christmas present from his father, a nutcracker, which is not what the young Bruce wanted, and so he throws it away and runs off in a pout. It's notable for a few reasons. One, it's the first time in this series we see an unmasked Batman, even if he's only eight, and the first time we see Alfred. The series usually kept Batman in the field, so both Bruce Wayne and Alfred appear very rarely, The Nutcracker is almost directly lifted from "To Kill a Legend," a story from Detective Comics #500, only there it's a toy train, not a Nutcracker. I like the fact that Bruce wasn't always this perfect kid, and it's a nice touch. My only problem with the flashbacks is that it ends with his parents taking him to see a movie to try to cheer him up from not getting the Swashbuckler action figure. The movie is a swashbuckling movie, and I doubt anyone who knows Batman would be surprised it's The Mark of Zorro. The flashbacks end with Bruce still being mad as they walk down the alley, and well, the are two flashes of light. I'm generally not in love with the idea that Bruce had any part, even inadvertent, in his parents' death. Still the episode ends with Batman finding a very special Christmas present from Alfred in the Batmobile, something that brings the episode full circle, and is a nice Christmas touch.

Before I discuss my favorite DC Comics animated episode, I wanted to touch on one that's only tangentially related to the topic. Freakazoid! was a cartoon that aired on the WB network alongside Superman: The Animated Series, and was created by the same guys who created the Batman and Superman cartoons. It was a crazy cartoon with a hero who would make the Creeper say, "I think he's a bit much." But good lord was it funny!The first season episode, "In Arm's Way," features Freakazoid Christmas chopping on Christmas Eve, while arch criminal Arms Akimbo (a former model whose arms are stuck, well, akimbo) sells Oops Insurance (protection) to local business owners. If you've never see Freakazoid!, well, this is a fun episode, but they all are really.

Now, my favorite DC Comics animated episode doesn't even feature Batman. The episode is "Comfort and Joy," from the second season of Justice League, and it's written, not shockingly, by Paul Dini. After saving an alien world from being destroyed, we follow five members of the Justice League on their holiday adventures. I admit, the episode is filled with Christmas messages about the joys of family and friends, about giving to others, and about different manners of celebrating. It's a Christmas special in the way of holiday episodes of the 80s, and I love that. I am a complete sucker for these kind of things, and the fact that it's done so well makes it all the better.

One of the stories follows Green Lantern and Hawkgirl as the two explore their burgeoning romance by seeing how each of their cultures celebrate. Lantern shows Hawkgirl all the great snow traditions he has, like sledding, building snowmen, making snow angels, and snowball fights. After a particularly rousing super powered snowball fight Hawkgirl brings Lantern to a world that looks like the Mos Eisley Cantina's nasty brother and shows him how she celebrates, which is starting a bar fight and wailing on everyone in sight. It's cute, and does a great job of showing the relationship between the two characters, ending with a very sweet moment.

The Flash story has Wally visiting  an orphanage in Central City and promising to get the kids the present they want, a DJ Rubba Ducky, a rapping animated duck. We get some crass consumerism, as Wally can't find one, and when he finally does, he runs afoul of the Ultra-Humanite, who is destroying the Central City Museum because he feels the art isn't up to his high standards. When the Rubba Ducky is destroyed in the fight, Humanite agrees to repair it and he and Flash present the to to the kids, improved to tell the story of The Nutcracker as opposed to making hip-hop farty noises. And when Flash brings Humanite to jail, he leaves him a small Christmas tree. It's a sweet story of two foes coming together in the Christmas spirit and about how everyone deserves a holiday that is full of peace.

The third story is by far my favorite, the story of Superman taking Martian Manhunter to Smallville for Christmas. It's a very simple, quiet story. There's no action in the superhero sense. Superman is hilarious with Ma and Pa Kent, acting like a great big kid; they wrap his presents in lead foil to keep him from peeking. They give J'onn a sweater as a present that he bulks up to wear. And he goes out at night and sees the Christmas joy that the people of Smallville feel. J'onn became a favorite character of mine thanks to the John Ostrander monthly from the early 00s and his portrayal on Justice League, and this episode does a marvelous job of portraying the stranger in a strange land aspect of the character. There's also a cute nod to his love of Oreos from the Justice League International era. The episode ends with J'onn sitting in a window in his native Martian form, singing a beautiful sing in Martian, while petting Streaky, Supergirl's cat. It's a lovely moment, one that expresses the universality of having a place to be in times of celebration.

This is a good time to settle in with a cup of cocoa and enjoy a very super Christmas season, and each of these episodes are available on DVD, and many can be found on Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 10/29

Archer & Armstrong #25
Story: Fred Van Lente & others
Art: Clayton Henry & others

Credit where credit is due, Valiant does up a heck of an anniversary issue. The (for now, anyway) final issue of Archer & Armstrong is chock full of different stories that sum up the relationship between our two leads perfectly. The lead story, "Back to the Beginning," reunites the series original creative team of Fred Van Lente and Clayton Henry, to tell a story that ties up many of the series loose ends, including the identity of Archer's parents, Archer's relationship to The Sect, and the origin of the Archer cult from earlier in the series. More important is the scene where Archer asks Armstrong to show him more of the world, and Armstrong sets him straight about exactly what that will mean. It's a thesis on judgement and what it means to really live, from someone who has lived longer than pretty much anybody, and if we never hear another word from these character by Van Lente, it is a perfect send off. The second long form story in the issue, "Immortal Combat,"by John Layman and Ramon Villalobos, is much lighter. An immortal returns to fight Armstrong, and thanks to Armstrong's... pickled brain, he has little recollection of someone who has spent hundreds of years planning his demise. This story is just pure fun, which has been something that this book does and gets right every time. Also included is a short that leads into the upcoming one shot that features A&A enemies the 1%, and three time hopping stories that show Armstrong at different points in his immortal life. This is exactly what I feel an anniversary issue should be, one that celebrates all the aspects of a title, and gives long time readers a reward for picking it up. Van Lente and Henry will soon be starting a new Valiant series about Armstrong's time travelling brother, Ivar, Timewalker, so they'll be hanging around the Valiant Universe some more, but I'm glad they got the band back together to tell one more story from what has been my favorite Valiant series from the new line.

Marvel Comics 75th Anniversary Special
Story: Various
Art: Various

And here's another anniversary issue. I have to give Marvel credit, while I'm a DC guy, Marvel has done more with this 75th Anniversary one shot than DC has done with most of its big 75th anniversaries. A series of short stories, taking place throughout Marvel history, all the pieces have some feeling of history. The Spider-Man and Wolverine stories are fine and interesting, but it's the other three that really grabbed me. The opening story is a meditation on when the world changed, when the Fantastic Four got their powers and created the new heroic age. Narrated by Ben Urich, this story, written by James Robinson and drawn by Chris Samnee, is just so beautifully drawn, showing where many of the great heroes were when the FF took their space ride. Bruce Timm then adapts the Captain America prose story from Captain America Comics #3 that was the first Marvel work by The Man himself, Stan Lee. Any new work from Bruce Timm is worth celebrating, and this classic Stan Lee story is a fun throwback that's 40s setting works really well with Timm's style. Finally, Alias creative team Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos tell a story of Jessica Jones helping a little old lady find the fireman who saved her the day the original Human Torch debuted. It's a sweet little story, and feels like it's setting up a new Jessica Jones series, which makes sense with her Netflix TV series on the horizon. Along with all of this, we have a series of pin-ups with concepts by Bendis and art by various A-List artists, my favorites being a 90s X-Men one, featuring such luminaries as Marrow, Stacy X, and Adam X the X-Treme, with art by Joe Quinones, and a Groot Attorney-At-Law with art by Francesco Francavilla. The whole issue is a fun tribute to Marvel's past, with some great creators doing some top notch work. I know issues like this often seem a shameless cash grab, but this one is well worth your time.

Rasputin #1
Story: Alex Grecian
Art: Riley Rossmo

One of my favorite Image series of all time is Proof, the story of a Sasquatch who knew Thomas Jefferson and now works with a government organization investigating cryptids, things like Sasquatch and chupacabras. The creative team of Proof is back at Image this month, with the debut issue of Rasputin, a historical fiction based around Russia's mad monk, Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin. This opening issue is a solid done in one of sorts, starting as Rasputin sits down to dine at the dinner that, for anyone who knows his story. will end in his seeming murder, and flashes back to his youngest days. Rasputin is already being fleshed out as a full character, not the mad, licentious figure he is often portrayed as in fiction, but someone with a backstory. The issue specifically show the conditions Rasputin grew up in, with a father who had little trouble savagely beating his wife and son. By issue's end, we have seen that this is a world where the supernatural will play heavily, and one where violence is going to be as central, and not in a graphic way, but in the sense that life started with pain, and will probably not get any easier. As good as Alex Grecian's story is, and it is very good, Riley Rossmo's art adds something to it that makes is all the better. In pure text, a first person narrator is only as trustworthy as your impression of him or her, and if you know anything about Rasputin, he isn't someone you should trust. However, the graphic element of art in flashback adds a dimension. You see Rasputin use his power to heal (or resurrect?) his mother after a beating, and you see the expression on his face. You see him make the cold hard choice after his father is attacked by a bear. Rossmo is one of my favorite artists in comics, his work on series life Proof, Cowboy/Ninja/Viking, and Bedlam showing the breadth of his talent, drawing character moments with the same strength he draws monsters. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Image is producing the widest variety of interesting new comics on the racks right now, and a supernatural historical fiction is a great addition to that. If you like history, magic, and bears, you should check out Rasputin. Oh, and Riley Rossmo, in case you read this, I read you bit in the backmatter, and yes, there is still an audience waiting for more Proof. Give it to us and I'll preach it to the mountains.

Saga #24
Story: Brian K. Vaughan
Art: Fiona Staples

Ah, the pre-hiatus issue of Saga. The last issue of an arc on Saga usually steps away from the family who are our main protagonists and instead spends some time with one of the other characters, be it The Will, Prince Robot IV, or Gwendolyn. This time, the issue's driving force is The Brand, freelancer (bounty hunter) and the sister of bounty hunter The Will, who is looking for the person responsible for her brother being in a coma, and her partner, Pretty Boy, who's a big dog. The Brand crosses paths quickly with Gwendolyn and Sophie, as well as series favorite Lying Cat, who are seeking a cure for The Will. The first scene, where they retrieve the scroll with the cure's ingredients on it, has the best Lying Cat moment since the heartwarming scene between the cat and Sophie. Vaughan develops these characters further, giving us a bit more of The Brand, exploring Gwendolyn's roll, showing more than a force hunting Marko, but as the honorable warrior she is, and starting to see Sophie come more out of the shell she was forced into by her horrible past. Aside from the A-story, we also get a great flashback to The Will's time with his ex-lover, The Stalk, and see more of the complexity of their relationship, as we learn we will soon be visiting The Stalk's home planet. And that final page cliffhanger, the thing that Vaughan does better than anyone in comics, has me ready to tear my hair out in the best kind of frustration from the wait until early 2015 to see where it goes.

Southern Bastards #5
Story: Jason Aaron
Art: Jason Latour

No one is the villain of their own story. And even the villain usually has his reasons and his backstory. Sometimes, I feel this is unnecessary, like with The Joker or Hannibal Lecter, but in most cases, that backstory makes for a much better character. Jason Aaron proved to be a master of the well rounded villain with Lincoln Red Crow, Agent Nitz, and so many others in Scalped, and this issue of Southern Bastards begins an arc focusing on the background of series villain, Coach Boss. The story flashes back and forth, from the present, where Coach Boss is heading to the funeral of Earl Tubbs, the protagonist of the first arc and the man Coach Boss killed at the end of the previous issue, and a young Boss working to make the football team. The Boss of now is a cold, calculating bastard, the kind of guy who goes to that funeral knowing full well everyone knows he killed the man, and who by issue's end shows that he wants the town to remember that. The young Boss, while not a tough guy physically, still shows the will that will make him Coach Boss one day, although here he comes to a bad end by not knowing when it's best to let a bully mouth off. We get to see Craw County from Boss's point of view, an insider's view, versus the outsider that Tubbs was. I'm a northerner, and can count the number of football games I've watched on one hand, but it's a credit to Aaron's writing that I can see where the mania for the game in these southern town comes from. This arc will continue to fill out Boss's history, and while I don't think he's ever going to be a character we like, it's going to be an interesting journey to see if he's a character that I can understand.