Batman: TAS, episode #31: Dreams in Darkness

We finally return to one of The Batman's classic opponents with the Scarecrow. We also open this episode in Arkham Asylum, which speaks to a greater immersion in the mythos by this point in the series. We don't need the setup on the streets of Gotham before we travel to one of its key locations. We start there with, of course, The Batman as the latest patient. Something else that's new is Bruce/Batman doing a voiceover for the first half of the episode, as he recounts the events that brought him to our cold opening. It's a pretty standard technique for beginning a "shocking" scenario and then discovering how it came about, rather than building into it linearly. But I have to say that I found the narration felt a little clumsy. We're so accustomed to simply following our lead character wherever he goes and experiencing what he does alongside him (It's like... we're Robin!) that putting him in the narrator role seems off.

However, a number of the basic elements of the rest of the story were really well done. The plot is that of a large part of Batman Begins, with the Scarecrow attempting to dump his fear serum into the city's water supply and reduce things to chaos. The episode was, in fact, an inspiration for that film and also a loose adaptation of the first four issues of Shadow of the Bat, written by Alan Grant, but replacing Victor Zsasz with Scarecrow. But getting to the point where The Batman is able to foil that plot involves him dealing with any number of hallucinations caused by the chemical. While that's a bog standard plot for a superhero story, the visuals created to execute it here were excellent. We see the standard "parents in Crime Alley" moment, but it's set up in such an abstract style with the massive gun and Bruce unable to prevent them from venturing into the tunnel and to their deaths that it doesn't seem as tiresome a retelling as it often can be. Later, when fighting with his visions of the other inhabitants of Arkham and beyond (Joker, Penguin, Two-Face, Poison Ivy), the transition between all of them (and in that precise order) gives one some indication of where they rank in the rogues' gallery and the transformations are bizarre enough to provide some element of actual threat to the visions that our hero is seeing. This is a distinct step above the 1960s illusions of Princess Projectra or Mastermind and it's good to see that the producers didn't skimp on the time and attention to detail needed to make this look good. This is also Jagged Teeth Scarecrow, which I think continues to be the more threatening visage of the character.

Still, there are some "comic book" moments that one can wonder about. Why does The Batman think pulling steel pipes out of a wall instead of flexible tubing out of the Scarecrow's prototype is the better approach? Do asylums normally use tranquilizer darts to subdue the patients? Especially darts that can embed themselves in concrete? One also has to wonder if The Batman is one of those people who can do the dislocated shoulder thing to free himself from a straitjacket. At one point in the final showdown, The Batman whistles into a PA to "stun" the collection of thugs, but not himself or the Scarecrow? And why does The Batman, of all people, have to ask where the city's water supply comes from? However, as with the other visuals, it has to be said that the Scarecrow's pocket watch is brilliant, with a slashing Grim Reaper and scythe as the second timer. Also, the final sequence with the shadow of the bat(!) covering the sleeping Bruce Wayne was another nice visual touch (although one wonders why he'd be sleeping in the Batcave.) I'll also admit to being a bit mystified by the skin tone transition of the Scarecrow's initial thug (the driller killer), since he seems to shift from non-White to regular White guy over the course of the encounter and his final destination in the hospital. Also, it's kind of funny for those of who know the mythos well to hear The Batman dismiss The Joker as not being capable of this kind of madness because "there's only one criminal twisted enough" to be so... the Scarecrow. That may be the only time you'll ever hear someone assert that The Joker is not capable of being twisted.

However, another quote signaled the fact that writers Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens were on firm ground with the character and his demesne, when narrator Bruce mentions that "Some thought I'd gone mad. Others thought I always had been." That's someone(s) who "gets it", as it were. Next time, we veer away from the standard villains again, but bring back a voice from the past with Beware the Gray Ghost.

Batman: TAS, episode #19: Fear of Victory

This episode was almost the perfect example of the "Batman as antagonist" phenomenon that I've mentioned, as the bulk of the story is about The Scarecrow, his methods, and his life, with The Batman on hand to disrupt it. Unfortunately, given my previous post, it's also the perfect example of how little Robin adds to the whole equation. With Dick Grayson, in a charming scene about how the NCAA insists that college life has always been (star QB on his way to the pros, still living in the dorm just like everyone else!), subject to the fear chemicals from the opening moments and relatively neutered by their effects, Robin becomes more of a liability and a sideshow than anything that would be helpful to The Batman or, in truth, entertaining to the audience. And this extends beyond the fear element, when Robin also serves as the walking exposition device ("He's locked up in Arkham! ... Isn't he?") for scene transitions and is even highlighted as a problem element by The Batman ("Calm down!") In short, he's a gateway into bringing the threat of The Scarecrow closer to our hero without the episode turning into a replay of their first encounter (Nothing to Fear.) On the one hand, that's a troubling depiction of The Batman's crimefighting partner. On the other hand, it's also a bit of an exposé into the fairly one-note nature of the villain.

That's kind of a funny, stylistic dichotomy, in that this appearance by Jonathan Crane is in the different and unique-to-BTAS Scarecrow costume with the jagged teeth and wild eyes. So it's not entirely second verse, same as the first. It also presented us with one of the best title cards of the series, to date, with the much more menacing Scarecrow leering from the shadows. It's also our first look inside the famous Arkham Asylum, with some great reactions from both The Joker and Poison Ivy, but an oddly indifferent one from Two-Face (Perhaps Richard Moll wasn't available in the way that Mark Hamill was for one throwaway line?) It's also a great example of "the kids won't care" perspective to have all of them sitting in their cells in full costume. Up to this point, the producers have put in some real effort to maintain a consistency in appearance that isn't too jarring from reality. This was one of those moments where that care was abandoned. How much more difficult would it have been to draw all of them in asylum gray or orange? No one is going to mistake The Joker for any other inmate.

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Speaking of reality, it was more than a little disconcerting to have it revealed that The Batman keeps cats in the Batcave... as test subjects. Certainly, the ethics of those situations have become more prominent in our (relatively) more enlightened society in the past 30 years, but even in the early 90s, you'd have been hard-pressed to find people accepting the idea that cats made suitable subjects for experimentation, especially by an avowed hero to that society. (For that matter, what would Selina Kyle say?) Also on that general topic, it was somewhat enlivening to hear The Scarecrow, inmate at Arkham, admit that his scheme wasn't about continued vengeance on Gotham U (referred to as "Gotham State" by the sportscaster; editor!) or whatever his current obsession may be that had him committed, but instead because: "I need the money, Batman!" It's a very pragmatic approach for a hero whose regular opponents aren't normally so wedded to the practicalities of conducting huge criminal efforts and who almost never demonstrate an interest in living a wealthier lifestyle. Some of that pragmatic edge seemed to have rubbed off on The Batman, as well, since he was pretty willing to bash his friends in this episode, telling Robin to calm down and rather harshly suggesting that Commissioner Gordon should "Put two and two together!" when assessing who could be behind the recent spate of events among pro athletes.

And, of course, some of it descends into standard superhero tropes, with two guys and a crowbar deconstructing a large portion of the roof of a major building in downtown Gotham, while no one and nothing on the perfectly empty street is threatened by the rubble below, including the Batmobile. On top of that, we somehow imagine that the audience watching, children and adults, have no idea what a proper football pass is (hint: They don't turn end over end.) I couldn't have been the only comic fan who was also a diehard football fan (both kinds.) Again, overall, those little details seem to indicate a lower level of care for the end product; with the idea that this was just a standard Batman villain episode, but with Robin to drag it down even farther. Fear of success?

Next time, we introduce one of the strangest members of The Batman's gallery, the Penguin, in I've Got Batman in My Basement.

Batman: TAS, espiode #10: Nothing to Fear

This episode revolves around the Scarecrow who, interestingly enough, is kind of a combination of two or our previous villains: Poison Ivy and Clayface; Ivy in that Scarecrow is a bit of a schtick villain and Clayface in that his whole raison d'etre is more subtle than most and, thus, takes some effort on the part of the visual storyteller (originally comics and now cartoon) to convey. The Scarecrow makes people afraid, which means that the storytellers have to do both the perspective switch (so we can see what they're seeing) and leave the focus on those impacted (so we can see the effect on them), which takes time and removes the reader/viewer focus from the action and the central character of the moment. It tends to enforce a slower style of adventure story and/or a clumsier one. Most horror stories are of the first type (slower) by their very nature. It takes time to set up a proper fright. The clumsy type tends to appear in comics, as Princess Projectra shows the scary monster to her opponents because that's what's easy to show in a panel, rather than the three or four it might take to display what's happening in their minds and how debilitating that is.

That storytelling difficulty is why Scarecrow often ended up being identified with the "schtick" villains, as some contortion of "fear gas" would have to be employed as his thing, like Ivy with her plants or Freeze with his icicles. However, that "fear thing" is also a central element of the main character in our stories: The Batman. The whole basis of the character is as a symbol of fear for Gotham's underworld. As he highlights when coming to grips with his own fear: "I am vengeance! I am the night! I am... Batman!" I, of course, cringe at the last declaration, since he was almost there ("I am... THE Batman!"), but we'll live with it. The Scarecrow also has the luxury of escaping the usual naming alliteration, in favor of a literary reference: Jonathan Crane, after Ichabod of Sleepy Hollow fame. In this incarnation, Jonathan escapes the Headless Horseman but replaces it with the faceless nemesis of societal standards. It seems that the academy frowns on him using human subjects for his experiments. Or maybe it just gets in the way of the public image needed for the donors...? Here's where our noir cynicism rears its head, as the Scarecrow isn't interested in money (in true Batman villain style, it must be said), as he tells his comic relief thugs to "Take what you can and burn the rest!" In truth, he'd be an excellent foil for the modern American university system, which is often far more concerned with profit (see: the NCAA and the oppression of most instructors' unions) than it is education. Why does a major university have a bank that Scarecrow is torching, rather than robbing? It's obvious that Crane is an educator, as he's constantly stopping to explain ("Arachnophobia!") what he's doing to the people he terrorizes, but it's also obvious that he's not a good one, as he continually demeans his students, to the point that while they show the respect that university educators should receive more often in our society ("Wow! He's a real professor!"), they also end up inadvertently making him the butt of the joke ("You mean they kicked you out because you wasn't smart enough?") because of his, uh, excessive methods and attitude.

And that shows up in the storytelling method, as well. Horror writers tend to inspire dread by what's happening. In an adventure story, as noted, that's a bit more difficult, especially when you're confined to 24 pages, even of 9 panels each in the classic style, or a 20-minute cartoon. So, when the Scarecrow's drugs take hold, they're often far more ferocious than "simple" fear drugs. The Batman is shown suffering real, physical effects from the injection; more like he'd been hit with a major barbituate, in addition to having visions of his father and his disapproval. They could've inserted repeated references to the visions and Bruce's emotional reaction and the physical effects that generated, but our episode would've been probably 30 minutes long to do that properly, so you have to cut corners somewhere. Showing unshaven, sweating Bruce who looks like he's swallowed half a bottle of valium is the way to show just how inimical Scarecrow's drugs can be, even if it's kind of ham-handed. The upside of this approach is that it's a great moment for Alfred to demonstrate his crucial role in Bruce's and The Batman's life. Up to now, we've seen him be little more than a chauffeur and step-and-fetch-it. The emotional support he provides, as the closest thing Bruce has to family who can express their appreciation for and pride in his actions, is really important, both to this episode and the series as a whole.

This eventually becomes the longest-running action sequence we've yet seen, which takes up almost the entire second half of the episode when Scarecrow invades the fundraiser and then The Batman pursues him to his airship. The central role of that vehicle is just another reinforcing of the "between times" nature of the show and it was nice to see their presentation of the fact that they don't just burst like a balloon if the outer shell is penetrated. Of course, it was also strange to see the tool that made those holes being the average Thompson submachine gun shooting red light like a Star Wars Imperial laser, for some reason. Said laser also ignited the cabin, as you expect it might when surrounded by hydrogen, so I guess that was the plot jump needed to create the big explosion and crash at the end...? They missed their chance to have someone shout: "Oh, the Batmanity!", however. On the technical end, it's also fair to ask why a bank vault would have overhead sprinklers. Furthermore, one can question why the Scarecrow's drug showing everyone their worst fear suddenly switched to everyone being not terrified of the "giant bat" in the middle of the room, but enraged enough to attack it, rather than sprinting away. Again, there were a lot of plot jumps happening here in order to make this episode happen and, strictly from a writing perspective, that drags it down a bit. We also get a return to the more aggressive Harvey Bullock that we saw in On Leather Wings, as he actually assaults The Batman and points out the "Zorro here is withholding evidence!"

On the character side, I think it was important for them to cite Bruce's self-doubt about his mission. After all, he is dressing up as a bat and spending his nights on rooftops, beating people up. A little uncertainty about oneself doesn't seem to be out of the question. By the same token, it was a good chance to see a bit of the mania that drives the Scarecrow (something much more evident in Cillian Murphy's excellent performance as the character in Christopher Nolan's films) and he's clearly enjoying himself as he watches people suffer under the effect of his drugs and it's something that he points out to The Batman ("I thought you'd be at home enjoying my time-release fear toxin!") Also, the epilogue was done really well. There was no internal dialogue where Bruce reassures himself about his life. It's just him, staring down at the graves of the parents he saw murdered in front of him. That's all that's needed. The visuals tell the story, as they usually should. That came into play in the opening, as well, since we started at sunset, with the golden light of autumn (often with scarecrows!) suffusing the city before deepening into the night that we're so accustomed to with The Batman. It wasn't the best episode of the series, but it touched firmly upon a lot of the major themes of both history and character and I think it's one to be recommended for those wanting to understand The Batman and the people around him.

Next time, our favorite is back in town when we're asked why more people can't Be a Clown.