Batman: TAS, espiode #10: Nothing to Fear

This episode revolves around the Scarecrow who, interestingly enough, is kind of a combination of two or our previous villains: Poison Ivy and Clayface; Ivy in that Scarecrow is a bit of a schtick villain and Clayface in that his whole raison d'etre is more subtle than most and, thus, takes some effort on the part of the visual storyteller (originally comics and now cartoon) to convey. The Scarecrow makes people afraid, which means that the storytellers have to do both the perspective switch (so we can see what they're seeing) and leave the focus on those impacted (so we can see the effect on them), which takes time and removes the reader/viewer focus from the action and the central character of the moment. It tends to enforce a slower style of adventure story and/or a clumsier one. Most horror stories are of the first type (slower) by their very nature. It takes time to set up a proper fright. The clumsy type tends to appear in comics, as Princess Projectra shows the scary monster to her opponents because that's what's easy to show in a panel, rather than the three or four it might take to display what's happening in their minds and how debilitating that is.

That storytelling difficulty is why Scarecrow often ended up being identified with the "schtick" villains, as some contortion of "fear gas" would have to be employed as his thing, like Ivy with her plants or Freeze with his icicles. However, that "fear thing" is also a central element of the main character in our stories: The Batman. The whole basis of the character is as a symbol of fear for Gotham's underworld. As he highlights when coming to grips with his own fear: "I am vengeance! I am the night! I am... Batman!" I, of course, cringe at the last declaration, since he was almost there ("I am... THE Batman!"), but we'll live with it. The Scarecrow also has the luxury of escaping the usual naming alliteration, in favor of a literary reference: Jonathan Crane, after Ichabod of Sleepy Hollow fame. In this incarnation, Jonathan escapes the Headless Horseman but replaces it with the faceless nemesis of societal standards. It seems that the academy frowns on him using human subjects for his experiments. Or maybe it just gets in the way of the public image needed for the donors...? Here's where our noir cynicism rears its head, as the Scarecrow isn't interested in money (in true Batman villain style, it must be said), as he tells his comic relief thugs to "Take what you can and burn the rest!" In truth, he'd be an excellent foil for the modern American university system, which is often far more concerned with profit (see: the NCAA and the oppression of most instructors' unions) than it is education. Why does a major university have a bank that Scarecrow is torching, rather than robbing? It's obvious that Crane is an educator, as he's constantly stopping to explain ("Arachnophobia!") what he's doing to the people he terrorizes, but it's also obvious that he's not a good one, as he continually demeans his students, to the point that while they show the respect that university educators should receive more often in our society ("Wow! He's a real professor!"), they also end up inadvertently making him the butt of the joke ("You mean they kicked you out because you wasn't smart enough?") because of his, uh, excessive methods and attitude.

And that shows up in the storytelling method, as well. Horror writers tend to inspire dread by what's happening. In an adventure story, as noted, that's a bit more difficult, especially when you're confined to 24 pages, even of 9 panels each in the classic style, or a 20-minute cartoon. So, when the Scarecrow's drugs take hold, they're often far more ferocious than "simple" fear drugs. The Batman is shown suffering real, physical effects from the injection; more like he'd been hit with a major barbituate, in addition to having visions of his father and his disapproval. They could've inserted repeated references to the visions and Bruce's emotional reaction and the physical effects that generated, but our episode would've been probably 30 minutes long to do that properly, so you have to cut corners somewhere. Showing unshaven, sweating Bruce who looks like he's swallowed half a bottle of valium is the way to show just how inimical Scarecrow's drugs can be, even if it's kind of ham-handed. The upside of this approach is that it's a great moment for Alfred to demonstrate his crucial role in Bruce's and The Batman's life. Up to now, we've seen him be little more than a chauffeur and step-and-fetch-it. The emotional support he provides, as the closest thing Bruce has to family who can express their appreciation for and pride in his actions, is really important, both to this episode and the series as a whole.

This eventually becomes the longest-running action sequence we've yet seen, which takes up almost the entire second half of the episode when Scarecrow invades the fundraiser and then The Batman pursues him to his airship. The central role of that vehicle is just another reinforcing of the "between times" nature of the show and it was nice to see their presentation of the fact that they don't just burst like a balloon if the outer shell is penetrated. Of course, it was also strange to see the tool that made those holes being the average Thompson submachine gun shooting red light like a Star Wars Imperial laser, for some reason. Said laser also ignited the cabin, as you expect it might when surrounded by hydrogen, so I guess that was the plot jump needed to create the big explosion and crash at the end...? They missed their chance to have someone shout: "Oh, the Batmanity!", however. On the technical end, it's also fair to ask why a bank vault would have overhead sprinklers. Furthermore, one can question why the Scarecrow's drug showing everyone their worst fear suddenly switched to everyone being not terrified of the "giant bat" in the middle of the room, but enraged enough to attack it, rather than sprinting away. Again, there were a lot of plot jumps happening here in order to make this episode happen and, strictly from a writing perspective, that drags it down a bit. We also get a return to the more aggressive Harvey Bullock that we saw in On Leather Wings, as he actually assaults The Batman and points out the "Zorro here is withholding evidence!"

On the character side, I think it was important for them to cite Bruce's self-doubt about his mission. After all, he is dressing up as a bat and spending his nights on rooftops, beating people up. A little uncertainty about oneself doesn't seem to be out of the question. By the same token, it was a good chance to see a bit of the mania that drives the Scarecrow (something much more evident in Cillian Murphy's excellent performance as the character in Christopher Nolan's films) and he's clearly enjoying himself as he watches people suffer under the effect of his drugs and it's something that he points out to The Batman ("I thought you'd be at home enjoying my time-release fear toxin!") Also, the epilogue was done really well. There was no internal dialogue where Bruce reassures himself about his life. It's just him, staring down at the graves of the parents he saw murdered in front of him. That's all that's needed. The visuals tell the story, as they usually should. That came into play in the opening, as well, since we started at sunset, with the golden light of autumn (often with scarecrows!) suffusing the city before deepening into the night that we're so accustomed to with The Batman. It wasn't the best episode of the series, but it touched firmly upon a lot of the major themes of both history and character and I think it's one to be recommended for those wanting to understand The Batman and the people around him.

Next time, our favorite is back in town when we're asked why more people can't Be a Clown.