Batman: TAS, episode #2: On Leather Wings

This was the first episode produced but the second to be released and was done so in prime time to make the biggest splash. You can tell it was definitely an intro episode from its basic structure, which is high action and drama from the very beginning and introduces a number of characters at a rapid pace. One of the more intelligent moves made by the producers with this series was that they essentially assumed that the audience was aware of who and what The Batman is from the beginning. They further that assumption with most of the major characters. Most people whom are aware of the lead character are also familiar with Commissioner Gordon, for example, and around that period of time, many would also be familiar with the two Harveys: Bullock and Dent, the latter of whom makes the briefest of cameos, highlighted mostly by his almost off-camera flipping of his famous coin, in true noir style.

But Bullock gets the full intro, not only of his lust to take down Gotham City's acknowledged hero, but also his willingness to defy direct superiors in order to do it. Bullock was created by Doug Moench in the early 80s (there is some debate about that based on a character seen for three panels in Archie Goodwin's run on Detective in the early 70s) as a corrupt cop trying to undermine Gordon. That's a noir character if I've ever seen one, so it seems perfectly natural that the producers would ensure that he was a presence in this version of the Batman. As with his Moench origin, Bullock tends to follow the lead of the mayor, rather than the commissioner. But the real star of the episode is, as usual, the villain of the piece: Man-Bat.

In the comics, Kirk Langstrom was a good-intentioned scientist who let his own confidence in his work carry him into danger. A similar example in the comics world is Spider-Man's friend, Dr. Curtis Connors, also known as The Lizard. Obsessed by the benefit that he thinks his formula will bring to humanity, Langstrom tests it on himself and goes through a horrible transformation until The Batman is able to save him. Why Kirk felt that it was urgent for humans to develop a sonar sense like bats, as compared to Connors' attempt to regrow lost limbs like many lizards, is for your editor to decide, but this has always struck me as one of those very DC (irrational device for character) vs Marvel (semi-rational device for character) comparisons. In BTAS, however, Kirk is both ambitious and quite aggressive about it, suggesting that his colleague, Dr. March, was too weak to do what he'd done... which is transform into a monster to rob drug companies. I mean, I'm all about knocking down Big Pharma, too, but there are better ways to go about it. But in this series, they seemed determined to portray Man-Bat as an actual villain; the "beastly" side of what The Batman is. One dresses up like a bat to terrorize criminals, while the other transforms into one to terrorize everyone. It's a "there but for the grace of the bat-god go I" kind of element which would probably work much better in a story told at a somewhat slower pace.

And that's because there's a questionable plot/timing issue with this episode, as well, given that they set up the "Dr. March is lying and must be the bad guy!" angle, with the big switch supposed to be revealed when we discover it's actually Langstrom who's the villain. But that story isn't given enough room to breathe while we're also meeting Harvey Bullock and the police are suspecting The Batman of being a menace. Clearly, these are intro episode problems, where you try to cram in as much story and characters as possible and one angle of that story kind of suffers for it. In that respect, Dr. March seems somewhat irrelevant, other than that he's the weird, antisocial guy who works in the strangest chiroptera lab ever (How many are actually in caves?) It also means that Francine Langstrom (who stops to point out that she's also to be referred to as "Dr." (Like the new First Lady)) is basically just scenery, unfortunately. She gets the Oh, No!-girl role as the story circles around her criminal husband, about whom she can only wail in anguish. Sigh...

On the upside (literally), we get one of our police airships right out of the gate, which is pertinent because a lot of the action in the second half takes place in the air. We're also introduced to a few of the legendary gadgets of our hero's repertoire, with gas bombs employed to foil security guards and the "huthuthuthut" zealotry of Bullock's tactical squad, as well as a pair of goggles that let The Batman see day-old footprints and hairs among debris. From an animation perspective, we also get a bit more anime style in this episode with the closeup to the transforming Man-Bat's teeth to fangs and with Bullock's disheveled appearance (hair, tie, shirt, coat) constantly in motion. The teeth-to-fangs scene had me flashing back to things like Legend of the Overfiend for a moment. They also dropped the reaction shots (e.g. no Batman standing in menacing pose for a moment), even though this was directed by the same person, Kevin Altieri. Again, that may be a factor of how much story they were trying to squeeze into one intro episode, while the previous story had been spread across two.

Also, a note about the title cards, since this one was particularly emblematic of the style. One of the other inspirations for this series was the Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons from the 1940s. In that period, many presentations, live action and animated, would use title cards like the one above just like the title page for a book. The one for Cat and the Claw was perfectly good, but this one has that grainier, black-and-white cast to it that really evokes those old-timey films. The attention to details like those are what make BTAS the classic that it's become. That said, like many intended pilots, I think this one suffered from the usual issues, which is why both Fox (and now HBO) decided to start with another episode.

Next up, we drop the temperature but raise the story level with Heart of Ice.