There has never been a better superhero cartoon show than Batman: The Animated Series. The show was so far ahead of its peers on TV at the time (and really, since) that to say that there were bad episodes seems almost sacrilege.
But let's face it, people: There are some sub-par installments in the show's 109-episode run (especially if you include The New Batman Adventures, which I do). We may not agree on which ones are the worst -- for instance, many people don't like the monster-movie-like "Critters" episode, which I think is a barrel of fun -- but we can all probably agree that the good significantly outweighs the bad. Still, it's worth remembering that the show was not always perfect -- and here are 10 episodes that prove it.
(P.S. -- Please note the above image comes from "The Last Laugh," which is not one of the episodes listed here. However, it was too fantastic not to use. Carry on.)
10) On Leather Wings
The first-ever episode of B:TAS is by no means terrible. It's got a lot of weight to bear, in establishing a look and feel for the series (and boy, does it establish. The first shot of the Batmobile has to be 15 seconds long. I mean, admittedly, it is a car worth lingering over). The animation's often beautiful, we get a good sense of the key recurring characters -- Commissioner Gordon and Detective Bullock, especially -- and the maturity of the show's content is there right from the get-go (there's even blood!).
But it's got some pilot-episode problems. Alfred doesn't sound right (the voice actor here, Clive Revill, was quickly replaced by the familiar Efrem Zembalist Jr.), Kevin Conroy's all-too-noticeable voice comes out of a cop before it comes out of Bruce Wayne, and the mystery gets wrapped up a little too quickly. Most troublingly, Batman, the first time we ever see him, gets it wrong. He pegs the too-obvious Dr. March as Man-Bat, when anyone with a basic familiarity of the villain knows it's the cheery Dr. Kirk Langstrom. This after Batman spends half the episode trying to analyze hairs and sounds that ultimately don't matter. The bad guys just happen to be the scientists he visits at the zoo.
Also: Man-Bat is kind of a terrible villain.
9) Torch Song
With Batman: The Animated Series' not-all-that-specific time setting -- art-deco style mixed with computers and other gadgets -- the creators could mostly slide by without having to make Gotham's culture seem too contemporary or hip. That changed a bit when the show transitioned into being The New Batman Adventures, and that was never clearer that in this episode, which focused on a pop star named Cassidy, whose Blondie-mixed-with-Rocky-Horror singing early on in the episode was hip exactly never.
On top of that, this episode introduces Firefly, who here is not much more than a scorned celebrity boyfriend out for revenge. Not exactly a high-stakes villain, though he was used to better effect in the "Legends of the Dark Knight" episode. Plus, this episode has Bruce Wayne dating, like, a 19-year-old, which is not so cool.
8) The Mechanic
Of all of Batman's villains, the one who probably got the worst shake on B:TAS was the Penguin. Having debuted on the heels of Batman Returns, the animated Oswald Cobblepot was a weird mishmash of the upper-cruster from the comics and the sewer dweller from the movie. Trying to make the Penguin both things ended up making him nothing at all, a character with no real discernible reason for doing anything. The series managed to do a couple decent Penguin episodes in spite of this (and fixed the character to a large degree in The New Batman Adventures), but "The Mechanic" was certainly not one of them.
Why does the Penguin want a remote control for the Batmobile? You'd think it'd be to kill Batman, but the Penguin skirts every opportunity to ram it into the wall and end it. If anything, he seems to just want to get a laugh out of it, which makes him more Joker-ly than Penguin-y. The mechanic of the title himself, Earl Cooper, is an interesting character with a decent backstory, but he's also the answer to a question that is somewhere near the end of the Batman fan's question list, "How does the Batmobile get fixed?" Add some sub-standard animation to the mix -- a car chase at the beginning makes the Batmobile look like a bumper car -- and you have a not-very-good episode.
7) Prophecy of Doom
Speaking of less-than-high-stakes bad guys, this episode's villain, a created-for-the-series scam artist named Nostromo, never resembles anything close to a threat. Batman's got him figured out the second he sees him -- he's telling rich people bad stuff will happen to them, then causing those things to happen so they'll give him money -- and Bruce Wayne's girlfriend of the week, the daughter of one of Nostromo's patrons, does too.
For some reason, Bruce plays along with the guy's plan for a while instead of shutting him down immediately, and as a result his girlfriend and her dad almost get killed in a planetarium. This only seems to happen because the show's got to be half an hour.
6) Tyger Tyger
So then there was that episode where Catwoman turned into an actual, humanoid cat. (She gets better.)
I don't have any order of greatest to worst, but I do know among the worst you would have to include:
Cult of the Cat - a TNAS episode that's utterly boring and forgettable.
Sins
of the Father - Batman, Robin/Nightwing, and Batgirl all had years of
training, while Tim Drake is in under 20 minutes becomes the next Robin
is quite apocryphal.
Fire From Olympus - looks like whoever created Maxie Zeus was desperate for a new villain; didn't need to be added to the show.
Any one of those three could've replaced the Mechanic.
Surprised that "Christmas with the Joker" wasn't on this list. I thought it was a god awful episode. There's so much stupid, Saturday-morning cartoon show shit going on in that episode that it was a real drag to watch all of it even if it was only some 20+ minutes.
"There has never been a better superhero cartoon show than Batman: The Animated Series. The show was so far ahead of its peers on TV at the time (and really, since) that to say that there were bad episodes seems almost sacrilege."
Nein.
I always found the contemporary "X-Men" to be better. Maybe not the same level in animation, but better, more developed, and deeper characters, and more engaging stories (no surprise given that many were adapted from Claremont's run), and superior action.
The two Nightcrawler episodes for example have more emotional depth than anything "Batman" ever had.
But "Batman the Animated Series" I'd definitely rank maybe 5th (behind "X-Men", 90's "Spider-Man", the always fun "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends", and 2000's "Justice League Unlimited").
"Static Shock" was another great comic superhero cartoon.
I think Batman and X-Men make 1992 a standout/breakthrough year in cartoons. I have all the DVDs to both series, and although I like Batman better, I'm not going to die on that hill to prove BTAS was better. Both series were vastly more mature than anything that had been done before, at least as far as I know.
"X-Men" would be considered terrible if it weren't for the fact that Marvel has made even worse cartoons. (The new Avengers cartoon looks like it was designed by Igor Kordey during his New X-Men run.) The stories weren't bad, but it looked crappy and Rogue sounded like she was reading lines out of a Tijuana bible of her own life. I also lump Superman: TAS, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited together with B:TAS and The New Batman Adventures as just one big Paul Dini fest. "Spidey and his Amazing Friends" though cheesy was pretty good for its time and had decent voice casting. But, I'd rank X-Men below that cartoon with Gary Coleman playing himself as a guardian angel watching over kids.
Well, if Marvel did worse then it's because, unlike DC< they have a ton of characters to do cartoons on, so some are bound to be bad.
But the fact remains that Marvel did do many good cartoons. They're 60's ones were very good, and same with their 80's and 90's work.
As for "X-Men", the animation wasn't too bad, but yes wasn't as good as most "Batman' episodes. But so what? The stories were better, and, aside from Batman and Joker, it had better voice acting. Think how many people today imagine Wolverine or Rogue as sounding like their cartoon counterparts.
By contrast, I only found this Batman series, and "brave and the Bold" to be any good.
Paul Dini is top talent, but he's also a dick for putting down his work on "He-Man" without which he'd be nothing.
Hahaha, no. X-Men was great, but all the dialogue sounds so painfully Saturday Morning Cartoon. The 90's Spider-Man was even worse in this regard, plus it had even worse animation and terrible censorship.
Oh, and the question was raised about who repairs the Batmobile? Yeah, that one must be a bit of a puzzler for you young turks. But old farts like me know that the Batmobiles were built and maintained by professional stunt driver (and auto mechanic, I guess) Jack Edison.http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Batmo... This was established pre-Crisis, of course, so long ago that I'd bet nobody in DC editorial knows it any more.
I largely agree with this list and pretty much everything else said but to include "On Leather Wings" is just wrong. Also, like any good detective does, Batman gets it wrong at first. Its true, even with Sherlock Holmes.
"when anyone with a basic familiarity of the villain knows it's the cheery Dr. Kirk Langstrom. "
Right. In this episode, Bruce Wayne has never met Langstrom, and this is his first encounter with Man-Bat. Why would he have any basic familiarity with the character at this point?
Make em laugh, a Jokers christmas( Robins first appearance) were terrible episodes and should be added to any worst BMAS list notice how the joker in both these episodes out of batman extensive rouge gallery you had dozens of freaks to choose from but the show kept going back to the joker his appearances about half were pure sh!+ correct me if im wrong. oh and anything with the Rhiddler
It's too bad for the Mechanic you picked a video belonging to some bondage-obsessed weirdo who uploads nothing but shots of cartoon girls tied up. Unless of course you picked it on purpose, which would make sense considering the crossover between superhero fans and fetishists is pretty high.
to be honest i like man bat and firefly firefly is not mainstream but has mostly good storys in the comics and well man bat was never a good villian witch is why its a good thing hes now a hero.
"On Leather Wings"? Really? Seriously? The animation quality of the flying sequence alone makes it one of the better episodes. It has the atmosphere, the sophisticated storytelling, the high-quality animation, everything. It's essentially the mission statement for the entire series. I am honestly baffled by it's inclusion in a "worst of" list. I mean, the rest of the list is perfectly solid, but are you sure there aren't worse episodes than "On Leather Wings"? I would suggest any of the Joker-related episodes prior to "Joker's Favor", Especially "Christmas With the Joker". Cheap, rubbery animation and the exact kind of kid's show scripting the series was created to avoid. "Be a Clown" is pretty bad, too, with the single worst line in the entire series, "Alright, Joker! Get ready for a little BAT-magic"!
I think "Tyger, Tyger" is the only one on that list that I actually sort of enjoyed, so yes a good list. I like the whole "Most Dangerous Game"/"Island of Dr. Moreau" morality behind it. Tiger being left as this like creature of godlike design yet has nowhere to exist was at least an interesting premise.
So, great list, except I'd place "Critters" in place of "Tyger, Tyger." Speaking of which, the audio commentary for "Critters" in the dvd set is hilarious because they keep joking about how ridiculous the episode is and how many fans bitched about how much they hated it.
Haven't read the rest of the comments so apologies if I coverthe same ground, but this list is seriously undermined for not having "Love Is A Croc" on there. Also, your number 1 ep is one of my absolute favourites. In fact, it, "The Underdwellers" and "The Terrible Trio" are all reasons I would list as why this series was so great - it didn't need to fill every episode with A or B-list Batman villains to be entertaining. Kept things interesting and made those occasional Joker episodes all the more special.
I agree with most of the list, but I have to point out that On Leather Wings wasn't really the pilot, just the first one produced. The actual premiere was The Cat and The Claw part one, which aired over the weekend. On Leather Wings was just the first in the regular schedule.
And say what you will but Batman: TAS is like sex or pizza.
"First to air" doesn't necessarily mean "Pilot." On Leather Wings is episode 001. But the Saturday morning slot came up first and Fox wanted to lead with a movie villain.
Call me crazy, but I love "Tyger, Tyger" in the same way I love "Troll 2." Maybe that's because in my mind, the episode is entitled "Escape from Cat Sex Island."
As soon as I saw the title of this article, I knew "Under-Dwellers" was going to be on there. I had recently watched that episode while rewatching the entire series, and the whole time I was like, "A villain who holds kids hostage in a sewer to do his evil bidding?!?
However, I'm really surprised "Critters" didn't make the list; that episode is embarrasingly bad! In the DVD commentary for this episode, they even said it was a bad idea, but still went ahead with it BECAUSE the premise was so ridiculous. Mutant preying mantises and pigs??? Farmer Brown doing karate??? Horribly bad puns???
They didn't say it was a bad idea, and furthermore, they defended the episode, and rightly so. If you can buy the idea of a clay monster who can shapeshift into anyone, or a pit that can bring the dead back to life, or a lady who can create and control plant monsters, why complain about mutant preying mantises and pigs? "Critters" is one of the best comedic episodes of BTAS.
What the WHA-AAT??? "On Leather Wings" a bad episode? Man-Bat a bad character? Go eat a dick! That episode kicked ass, and Man-Bat is cool as hell; not to mention a great visual. I won't contest that "Torch Song", "The Terrible Trio" and "The Underdwellers" deserve their place on this list(and "I've Got Batman In My Basement" definitely deserves Numero Uno); but there are much worse episodes than the ones you listed. "Be A Clown", "Mean Seasons", "Make 'Em Laugh", "Love's A Croc" and "Judgement Day"(Two-Face with a third personality is like the Joker with a perpetual frown!)
If "Be A Clown" is the one with the Mayor's son, I'm inclined to give it a pass. The only annoying thing about that ep is the son himself, and I feel more sorry for him than annoyed. The Joker is ultra creepy (in what is arguably his first or second appearance on the show), and the rotting carnival set is pretty much the same one used for Mask of the Phantasm (which was clearly planned to be the Joker's finale at the time, lending more weight to this being his first ep in the series although not his first appearance in milieu as he's already an established villain.)
Ah but it makes perfect sense for Bruce Wayne, international playboy and cad, to be dating a 19 year old. All he does is get seen with her in the right places and the tabloids make up the rest of his cover story - the time he'd be with her otherwise, he's being y'know, The Bat.
"Most troublingly, Batman, the first time we ever see him, gets it wrong. He pegs the too-obvious Dr. March as Man-Bat, when anyone with a basic familiarity of the villain knows it's the cheery Dr. Kirk Langstrom. This after Batman spends half the episode trying to analyze hairs and sounds that ultimately don't matter. The bad guys just happen to be the scientists he visits at the zoo."
1) Batman, SHOCKINGLY, does NOT read his own comics, being the star of them and all, and thus unlike us has no pre-esisting knowledge of Kurt (NOT Kirk Trekkie boy) Langstrom being Man-Bat. So it's entirely NOT unreasonable for him to suspect the curmudgeonly asshole who think bats are better than humans.
2) It was BECAUSE he analyzed the hairs and sound clips THAT he sought out the experts at the zoo. Someone clearly doesn't understand the concept of deductive reasoning. "Why'd he waste all that time finding out the hair and noises came from a creature with bat DNA, only to just go and randomly ask BAT EXPERTS at the zoo if they've seen anything odd? Like, that totally makes no sense dude! It's just so random!"
In most entertainment, the likelihood that the scientist who specialize in genetic research and like bats are behind a giant mutant bat is NOT that much of a stretch.
Dude, pay attention to the stuff you're watching before posting an article like this. It's like cutting open your thigh and then intentionally jumping into shark filled waters.
Alright on Sewer King episode - am I the only seeing the weird connection between Michael G. PATAKI and that there's a Sewer King on Hey Arnold! as well?
Thank you SO much for listing "I've Got Batman in My Basement" as the worst. I LOATHE that fucking episode. I only recently got into Batman: TAS again (I used to watch it when I was younger). I watched that episode in December, and I still bitch about how shitty it was. The one with the sewer kids sucked ass too.
Tyger, Tyger still makes me uncomfortable even to this day. An episode I've always hated is "The Demon Within" from The New Batman Adventures. That fucking wizard kid is the worst villain ever.
I have to come out in defense of the Catwoman episode here. It was really a great bit of tension building between them, and the environment in it was almost palpable, with the music, the characters reactions and the animation you could almost feel the cold and the snow. It was really well done and I quite enjoyed it unlike the others on the list.
The sequel episode, where Langstrom's afraid he's relapsing Jekyll and Hyde style while trying to salvage his marriage was pretty awesome! Had a really creepy transformation scene too.
the Under-Dwellers, while flawed, has that great pay off of Batman, barely containing his rage, beating the shit out of an abuser of children. Cause if there is anyone whose collarbones deserve to be fractured in three places by Batman, it's abusers of children.
Thank you for posting that line. That was probably the only time that he was pissed enough to actually consider killing someone (other than his speech to Jason at the end of Under the Red Hood).
This list should be renamed the "dullest" episodes, rather than the "worst". None of these episodes are really that bad, but they are rather blah.I remember feeling that way about On Leather Wings when I first saw it, and I was 15 years old.
