Batman: TAS, episode #51: The Man Who Killed Batman

One of my longstanding (and most repeated) assessments of The Batman as a character and a cultural icon is that he's often the antagonist of his own stories, since his villains are often more textured and interesting than the force of nature which is our hero. The entertainment is in seeing what kind of insanity (often literal) that the various rogues can come up with that threatens the citizens of Gotham and how the cold, calculating power that is the "main" character can stop them. Thus, it's funny that not only is The Man Who Killed Batman among the few episodes of the series that doesn't feature The Batman as the main character, but it also features his nemesis, the Clown Prince of Crime, who is the person most likely to be vexed by the absence of said main character. The fact that this episode went on to be one of the most acclaimed of the series not only reinforces my theory, but also reinforces the idea that any episode with The Joker is going to be a good one.

Our seeming protagonist is Sid "the Squid" Debris (Matt Frewer.) Right away, I questioned whether the last name ("Debris") had some kind of in-joke about the mess ("rubble") that he managed to make of his situation by his own incompetence, but there's never any indication that that was part of the concept. We also encounter Rupert Thorne (Englehart!) for the first time since episode #21, Vendetta, voiced by the unmistakable John Vernon. But, eventually, all roads lead to The Joker and we discover just how annoyed the clown can get by someone beating him to the punch that he never really wants to land. As he mentions during the test job to see if The Batman is really gone: "There's a certain rhythm to these things: I cause trouble. He shows up. We have some laughs and the game starts all over again!" This is a man wedded to the contest, not the win. Of course, if it ever did arrive at the point of a win, he'd have to be the man to do it. But, even then, there's still an edge to the main (real) villain's attitude that says there's more propelling him than just that. Once he disposes of Sid, his first reaction is: "Well, that was fun! Who's for Chinese?" Mark Hamill once commented that it was this scene (and the line: "Without Batman, crime has no punchline.") that most contributed to him "getting" the character of The Joker. That's significant not just because of the complexity of the villain (again, more interesting than the hero) but also because "the man who killed Batman" is intentionally such a nothing that the highlight of the episode will be yet another "side" character in the form of The Batman's nemesis (yet again, not the hero.)

On that note, Arleen Sorkin once again does brilliant work as Harley Quinn, reacting to The Joker siccing his favored hyena pets (a treat to see them appear) on the impertinent thug, Murphy (Maurice LaMarche) with: "Yawn... I'll get the mop." A story from the studio relayed that Sorkin played "Amazing Grace" on kazoo for Sid's funeral in one take, which was a good thing since all of the cast broke into laughter after that one take and director, Bruce Timm, knew that they would probably never get another one. Harley also delivers with a moment of Sid's intended departure: "You know what's great about you, puddin'? You really put the 'fun' in 'funeral.'" This was another Paul Dini screenplay, demonstrating not only his mastery of all of the characters involved, but also some of the higher level aspects to his writing. At one point, The Joker questions whether they can know that Sid killed The Batman without "batus delecti", a bat-themed pun on corpus delecti, which is the principle saying that a crime has to be proved before someone can be convicted. Your average 20-something isn't going to know that, to say nothing of the presumed audience of a "children's show" and this was a long time before the Interwebs could be used to instantly provide answers. There are also some good references within the framework of the story, where The Joker cites the fact that Sid got lucky, as The Batman probably slipped on the slime trail he left behind, citing Sid's impromptu nickname "The Squid."

On the technical side, there were some good moments, such as the distinct sound of Sid climbing the ladder to act as lookout on the initial job, as well as the phantasmagoric image of The Batman appearing on that rooftop, similar to the way he appears in the opening credits, as a vision of menace, rather than a man. The atmospherics are also excellent in this whole offering, from the title card to the intense storm that Sid is running through to confess to Boss Thorne that he's not the guy. So much screen time for Thorne (and the voice of Vernon) is just another upside. Dumping Sid into a vat of acid is also unintentionally an inside joke, 27 years later, for those of us still cartoon-inclined. Dini's knowledge of character doesn't just stop at the dialogue, either, as we see Harley with her hand firmly planted on Sid's back to push him into the bank when they're attempting to set up the ambush for The Batman. She knows, like The Joker knows, like Dini knows, like the viewers know that there's no way Sid actually did this thing. But until we get to that conclusion, she's just going to follow the clown and play the game the whole way through. This, like the last couple episodes, is really one of the high points of the series. Next time, the return of another classic, but rarely seen (or is he...?), villain.