- Title: Batman: The Animated Series – Harley & Ivy
- wiki: link
Throwback Tuesday takes us back to Gotham City for another episode of Batman: The Animated Series. While current team-ups between Harley Quinn (Arleen Sorkin) and Poison Ivy (Diane Pershing) are common nowadays, such a pairing was anything but obvious prior to “Harley & Ivy.” After being fired by the Joker (Mark Hamill), a despondent Harley Quinn strikes out on her own deciding to rob a museum the same night as Poison Ivy decides to liberate some plant toxins from another exhibit. Together alluding the police, a friendship and partnership is born. While Harley is still mooning over the clown who treated her like dirt at the end of the episode, “Harley & Ivy” marks a step forward for the character to move beyond the Joker’s shadow (even if she doesn’t know it yet).
[click to continue…]
- Title: Batman: The Animated Series – Perchance to Dream
- wiki: link
Throwback Tuesday takes us back to Gotham City for Kevin Conroy‘s favorite episode of Batman: The Animated Series. After a night fighting crime, Bruce Wayne (Conroy) awakes to a world where his parents are alive, he is engaged to Selina Kyle (Adrienne Barbeau), and someone else is patrolling the streets as Batman. Initially distrustful of all he sees, Bruce eventually comes to accept his new reality. However, the discovery of his inability to make sense of the written word reawakens his suspicions that he is trapped with a dream world and he redoubles his efforts to discover the truth. For a series that enjoyed playing on noir themes, “Perchance to Dream” is full of them as the unseen villain gaslights our hero (albeit as a gift rather than a form of torture).
[click to continue…]
- Title: Batman: The Animated Series – Dreams in Darkness
- wiki: link
Our Throwback Tuesday post takes us back to Gotham City. “Dreams in Darkness” is one of those episodes of Batman: The Animated Series I often forget about, which is surprising since it has such an unusual set-up. The episode opens with a ranting Batman (Kevin Conroy) incarcerated inside Arkham Asylum. Through an extended flashback we see the series of events which led Batman to be exposed to the Scarecrow‘s (Henry Polic II) fear toxin and the reason for his trip to Arkham to confront the villain the doctors mistakenly believe is still locked up in his cell. The set-up is clever as the doctors have every reason to question Batman’s ramblings, and the Dark Knight Detective’s hallucinatory state leads him to make the impulsive choice to head to Arkham without sharing his deductions with the GCPD.
[click to continue…]
- Title: Batman: The Animated Series – The Demon’s Quest
- wiki: link
Our Throwback Tuesday post takes us back to Gotham City. When pitting the Dark Knight Detective against Ra’s al Ghul (the perfectly cast David Warner), Batman: The Animated Series looked no further than the man who created the character for inspiration. Based primarily on Dennis O’Neil‘s Batman #232, “Part One” features Batman (Kevin Conroy) working with the mysterious Ra’s and his henchmen Ubu (Manu Tupou) to find the kidnapped Robin (Loren Lester) and Talia (Helen Slater). The episode features quite a bit of globe-trotting as the group follows clues to Calcutta and Malaysia before ending up in a secret stronghold in the Himalayas where the truth behind the kidnapping comes to light and Ra’s true motivations are revealed.
[click to continue…]
