Batman: TAS, episode #28: Night of the Ninja

We start with an industrial espionage scene, which is appropriate for the overall theme. In the early 90s, the more modern conception of ninja was that they were useful tools in the conflicts among the zaibatsu. West End Games' TORG had a setting known as Nippon Tech that emphasized this approach and it was something that many other writers and comic creators of the time sought to emulate. So, while it's a tired topic now and really kind of was then, too, writer Steve Perry at least seemed to have grounded the story in an appropriate basis. What this turns out to be is much more of a personal examination of Bruce Wayne, how he deals with his past, and how his obsession has shaped his life. Unfortunately, it also involves Incompetent Robin, who sticks out in the episode like the plot device that he basically is. Come on, kids! Get excited about being the superhero's sidekick who only inadvertently saves people (by tripping an alarm), has obnoxious and non-sensical dialogue ("He can be a major jerk, but ya gotta love him!"), and is somehow running around the rooftops with the world's greatest martial artist as a... green belt. Seriously. The teen/college-aged sidekick is fighting criminals as a green belt of whatever style it is they were practicing. They could've just drawn him as a black belt and still had Bruce Wayne tossing him off the mat and no one would've raised a fuss. This is especially funny when considering Burt Ward, the Robin of the 1960s TV series, who was an actual black belt in karate and used to spar with Bruce Lee.

But let's forget stupid sidekick for a moment and consider the story as a whole. As a tale about Bruce's past, while largely stereotypical (young man trains with aged Japanese master to learn combat mastery), it does allow some room to both study how Bruce interacts with people in that frame of mind (Alfred and Dick are treated with as much disdain as annoying reporter, Summer Gleeson.) This, more than anything, lets us know that The Batman's efforts are a solo endeavor. He's the one-man scourge of crime and no one will ever go as hard as he does and he really doesn't expect anyone else to understand. When contrasted with Kyodokai's (Bob Ito credited only as The Ninja, despite his character having a name repeatedly referred to) equal obsession: to be the best for personal glory and to have everyone acknowledge it, one can see the pseudo-nobility of Bruce Wayne's perspective. He's also presented as more hardcore than necessary, such that he becomes the personal-feelings-bad-guy of the episode, which ties right in with our "antagonist of his own stories" theory. But his adversary is nowhere near as interesting as the usual members of the rogues' gallery, because he's just a plain, old ninja with a serious vanity problem.

I wonder, too, at some of the visual stylings presented. Was Summer Gleeson's mouth as she comes onto a crime scene supposed to precisely mimic the neon billboard of Wayne Cosmetics? Was there a hidden message in the overly broad smile and bright, red lips that I missed? Considering the solid level of the writing, overall, it's certainly possible. I really enjoyed Commissioner Gordon harping on actual police procedure ("Don't touch it! You'll break the evidence chain!") and Kyodokai's allusion to an all-time Alan Rickman line from Die Hard ("I'll have you know I'm an exceptional thief, Mrs. McClane, and since I'm moving up to kidnapper, you should be more polite!") when Summer disdains him as "just a common thief!" Perry's presentation of him as blissfully unaware that he'd descended to be everything that he pretended to hold contempt for was smart. That and, despite including Incompetent Robin, using him to free Bruce for a proper showdown with his old rival by not interfering in this personal test, but instead making sure that Summer couldn't interfere with it, demonstrates an awareness of story. That also allowed for the best line of the episode: "Shut up and fight!" Given all of that, we can perhaps ignore the phenomenon of a regular katana repeatedly piercing concrete, both by point and slash which, OK, this is a superhero show.

I went into this one mildly dreading "the ninja thing" but it came out better than I expected, story-wise. Next up, we introduce one of my favorites among the lesser-known Batman villains (and someone who's been excellent in Gotham (we just started season 3)), Professor Hugo Strange, in The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne.