Batman: The Animated Series first premiered 25 years ago today, a fact which may make you feel alarmingly old. I watched this series religiously as a child, and remember it being nothing short of perfect.
For nostalgia’s sake, I recently rewatched a couple of episodes, expecting to be bitterly underwhelmed, as you are when revisiting supposed childhood classics. But not only does Batman: The Animated Series hold up, it remains, in my opinion, the ideal depiction of Batman.
Kevin Conroy is Batman, as far as I’m concerned. His measured tone is a world away from Christian Bale and Ben Affleck’s sleep-deprived, vengeful psychopath. Not only does his character remain reassuringly level-headed, he also maintains the focus of the narrative, which isn’t a particularly easy feat for Batman.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that Batman has the world’s best Rogues Gallery, better than Spider-Man’s, even. It’s so good, in fact, that the Caped Crusader tends to be pushed to the sidelines. Compared to his colorful, charismatically insane antagonists, he’s just not that compelling. But Conroy’s Batman, and more importantly, his Bruce Wayne, shoulder the burden of crime-fighting and running a powerful corporation, with a fatherly world-weariness.
This Batman is a detective, this Bruce Wayne an active member of Wayne Enterprises. He’s all quiet intelligence and gentle cynicism, rather than the somewhat unlikable playboy persona. I rooted for this Batman as a true force for good in this shadowy, silhouette-filled rendition of Gotham.
Just as Conroy is Batman, Mark Hamill is the Joker. When reading a Batman comic, I still hear Hamill’s shrill voice, always on the edge of hysteria. Even Heath Ledger’s tremendous performance isn't as Joker as Hamill. The Joker tends to be depicted as either a bumbling fool or a calculated sociopath - Hamill walked the line between funny and genuinely frightening, capturing the chaotic unpredictability that makes the Joker so strangely endearing.
But Batman: The Animated Series didn’t just redefine the Joker, it polished up an already impressive villains gallery, and even contributed to it.
Harley Quinn made her debut in the animated series, initially as a throwaway henchman. But her twisted, incredibly unhealthy relationship with the Joker was fascinating, unlike anything seen on a children’s cartoon, before or since. Of course, the character blew up; now, she’s one of the most popular characters in DC comics. Margot Robbie’s recent depiction almost single-handedly sold Suicide Squad - the sexy, crazy girl remains a popular archetype, and Quinn is pretty much the physical incarnation of it.
The show also tweaked Mr. Freeze’s origin story, transforming the character from an annoying pun-dispensary, into a broken man desperate to resurrect his cryogenically frozen wife. He was one of Batman’s most deadly adversaries, and yet, it was impossible not to root for him. The sympathetic supervillain angle was instantly adopted into comic canon, and without it, Mr. Freeze would have been abandoned in the pile of elderly, ridiculous Batman villains, along with Calendar Man and Condiment King.
Like the Joker, Batman has a tendency to be pushed into two extremes - flamboyant superhero, or vengeful vigilante. Both personas work in their own way, but that line in the middle could be argued to be Batman’s “true” face, and The Animated Series nailed it.
While The Animated Series perfectly defined Batman for a generation, credit also has to be given to Tim Burton, whose live-action films preceded and inspired the general tone of the animation. Burton’s gothic aesthetic pulled Batman away from the campy theatrics of Adam West, back into seriousness, while still maintaining a sense of humor.
But Batman is impressively versatile, more so than any other superhero. After the playful antics of the sixties, he went back to black with Burton, before getting silly again under Joel Schumacher. We’ve seen him come close to realism, or at least James Bond realism, in Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. Today, in Affleck’s depiction, he’s tired, cynical, and casually goes on killing sprees, slaughtering petty thugs like flies. So cynical, in fact, he even tried to kill Superman. On the other hand, his silly side still thrives, in the form of Lego Batman.
If the suspiciously persistent rumors are to be believed, we may soon see him recast and rebooted again in Matt Reeves upcoming trilogy. Same with the Joker, who might move away from tattooed teenager to old-school Italian gangster, courtesy of Martin Scorsese. Maybe.
Regardless of which rumors are true, what’s fascinating about these two eternally dueling characters is their remarkable durability. They can be constantly retooled and rebooted to suit the changing times, dramatically twisted without losing their character. Both are older than WWII, and their popularity certainly hasn’t diminished over the years.
Batman: The Animated Series remains the definitive version of these characters; neither particularly resemble their original appearance, but rather, their pure essence, distilled from their varying forms over the decades.
