Batman: TAS, episode #29: The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne

We've been watching a lot of Gotham lately, since we didn't watch any of it while it was originally airing. It's an interesting retelling of the origins of many characters in the Batman mythos, not least among them, Hugo Strange. (B. D. Wong has been brilliant as the good professor in that show.) Strange is kind of the stock "mad scientist" villain in The Batman's history. He originally appeared in 1940 and was one of the first villains in the mythos to make a reappearance, which was relatively uncommon in the early days when most comics were seen as one-offs, as one never knew when the publisher would pull the plug (a phenomenon that hasn't changed that much in the subsequent decades.) And those couple appearances in the 40s essentially were an extended one-off, since Strange didn't appear again until Steve Engelhart took the tiller on The Batman in the 70s and that was where the character really blossomed in an extended tale involving the discovery of The Batman's identity and the haunting of Rupert Thorne to madness. This episode, The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne, steps right into those shoes, not only by learning The Batman's identity, but attempting to auction it off to The Joker, Two-Face, and The Penguin.

I have to confess that, in some ways, watching Gotham has made it a bit more difficult to keep up with my review of BTAS. In many ways, the former series has filled my taste for the character and his mythos and done so in a more interesting way, since Gotham was intended for a much more mature audience than our cartoon series. But it was definitely interesting to see this episode function in a way that was quite similar to the average Gotham episode, given the panoply of Batman characters who inhabit the same space and the real similarity in Strange's approach to his environment to that of the version of the character played by Wong. Starting out with a corrupt judge trying to conceal a past misdeed is certainly in the vein of the way the series ostensibly about James Gordon has handled the overall plotting. This episode of BTAS is notable for Alfred's rather direct involvement in the proceedings, being captured while spying and driving the car that allows The Batman to pursue his enemies, which is quite similar to how Sean Pertwee portrays the butler in Gotham. (Pertwee is also the pilot of the Lewis and Clark in the film, Event Horizon; one of my guilty favorites among SF movies.) However, it has to be said that Ray Buktenica gave Strange a very odd accent for this episode; sounding vaguely Eastern European of some stripe, which is not what I'd normally identify with the character.

There are a number of other little details that clearly weave this episode into the ongoing thread of BTAS, since Roland Daggett's name is dropped as the owner of the facility where Strange is operating. Also, Competent Robin makes two brief appearances, once in the also returning Batwing. Unlike the rest of the series to date, though, this episode assigned actual color to the irises of Bruce Wayne's eyes. They seemed to be intended for brown, but the way the contrast functioned, they often seemed to be red, which is an interesting trait for our main character. The story itself is relatively thin and doesn't take a lot of turns, especially when the three other villains show up for the auction to reveal to Strange just what dangerous company he's checked into with his scheme (putting aside the likelihood of those three sharing a ride from the airport, given they tend to detest each other in other joint appearances.) It was a moment of mild comedy when they arrived at said airport, with one of Strange's thugs holding the name sign, as if they could somehow miss the appearance of Joker, Two-Face, and Penguin. Indeed, when they arrive, The Joker largely takes over center stage, as is his wont. ("Get outta my face, clown!" "Which one?") Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne checking out the tapes of other people who've been victimized by Strange resembles nothing so much as Vice Principal Richard Vernon rifling through the confidential personnel files in the basement.

But, despite it representing one of those comics where multiple villains show up in place of a plot, the story proceeds decently and has enough space for everyone to be fully-realized in the action, except for Robin, which is no great loss. We get the background flavor of the whole series, with the noir elements of corrupt officials, and the visual cues of the BTAS Gotham City, with the airship bringing the Gotham PD into play to clean up after The Batman, like usual. Again, the similarities with what we're currently watching in Gotham are kind of remarkable, which is what I think helped sell me on this one.

Next time, Catwoman returns in Tyger, Tyger.