Batman: TAS, episode #30: Tyger, Tyger

Speaking of mad scientists, this episode is a complete Island of Dr. Moreau pastiche, including island. I'm OK with that, given that they were aiming for a younger audience who would be both unaware of and attracted to the idea of what is essentially just a ripoff. Also, it doesn't stray too far from the general concept of The Batman resembling Man-Bat. In this case, it's Catwoman becoming more Catwoman-like. One thing I'm less OK with is the general discordancy of the relationship between The Batman and Catwoman. We've already seen Catwoman and this episode continues with the "general knowledge" theme, assuming that viewers don't need to be told the origins of our hero's major opponents. But we've also seen Catwoman get arrested by The Batman for her various crimes in her earlier appearance and yet here Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle are back on the social circuit together, as if he has no idea who and what she is. This is DC Comics in a nutshell up to the mid-1970s, where they finally started following Marvel's lead. It's disappointing that this series, which extends credit to the knowledge and awareness of its viewers in so many ways up to this point, decided to partially abandon that courtesy here. It's not even ham-handed. It's just poor storytelling, since you're not extending credit to your viewer. You're suggesting that they ignore what they already know. In another discordant moment, Bruce Wayne simply brushes off the cops when investigating what happened at the zoo, despite them pointedly informing him that "This is police business." We know he can kinda do this because he's The Batman, but it makes no sense within the story for playboy Bruce Wayne to ignore the cops.

When we make it to the island, we're introduced to the main villain, Dr. Emil Dorian, who is bog-standard mad scientist, unlike Hugo Strange. And the main opposition is his perfect creation, Tygrus. The only real problem with him is that name, which sounds like "tigress", which is not exactly the audible image one wants to create for the aggressively male character that the mad scientist is using Selina Kyle as a potential mate to breed with. So we're already running into multiple odd style choices within act I. That pattern continues when we find The Batman going to Kirk Langstrom for help in identifying the combination knockout drug/genetic transformation serum used on Selina. Again, it's great that we're hearkening back to earlier episodes and creating a timeline within the series. But this is the same problem as before, since it would help to remember that this version of Langstrom, in a deviation from the comics, was criminally motivated in becoming Man-Bat, instead of inadvertently transforming as the original version does. And, yet, just like with Selina, The Batman is fine consulting with a criminal who's remarkably out of jail, despite arresting him the first time they encountered each other.

Another positive in this mixed bag is that the episode is filled with action, but it's not boring or confusing action, since much of the fisticuffs involves the "genetically-superior" Tygrus; a proper challenge for our master combatant hero. Despite the story not really involving what one would consider our preferred noir elements, since it's the Darknight Detective on a tropical island fighting mutant animals, it's at least paced well enough and in scenarios that involve The Batman trying to save his own life and that of Selina Kyle, while not trying to treat Tygrus as just any thug to be waved away or an opponent to truly be beat down, like most of his other villains. So the tragic aspect is played well, even if the genuine opposition in Dorian is fairly routine. Also in yet another upside of continuation and respect for the viewers, the effect of the first encounter with Tygrus is visually carried throughout, as the slashes on The Batman's chest never go away, which is a level of animation sequencing and continuance that was uncommon for cartoons of the time and hasn't even regularly been used in earlier BTAS episodes. We also take a slight deviation from our Island of Dr. Moreau retelling to also include elements of The Most Dangerous Game, which is fine because, again, we have to include our younger viewers who may not have seen something like this before, despite it being pretty old hat for those of us who've been around longer. On the other hand, I'm not sure why you'd include the line "Search your feelings, Tygrus (Luke.)" since viewers young and old will automatically associate that with the Star Wars franchise and be jarred out of any story you're trying to tell. And, perhaps appropriately for our discordant tale, the best line in the episode comes from a throwaway character, when the security guard at the zoo mentions that "Her taste in boyfriends lacks severely! Guy looked like an ape!" when talking about Garth, the substandard gorilla servant (in story and in action within the story.) Fittingly, Garth doesn't even get a voice credit(!)

So, a very mixed bag as an episode, for any number of strange plot and style choices. But the final product isn't horrible. Credit has to be extended for using the William Blake poem (even if Bruce Timm fumbled the pronunciation of the last line (symmetrI, not symmetree) and it was appropriate to wrap the episode with a return to the title card image. Again, it's a nice snippet of tragedy. It just doesn't particularly stand out, plot-wise, for only our second appearance of Catwoman. But next up is our third appearance of The Scarecrow in Dreams in Darkness.