Week of Review - Batman, The Animated Series

Edited by Robert Beach

In talking about Batman on TV there are essentially 2 shows you have to bring up. 2 shows that everyone, even none Batman fans, know about. The first one was the Adam West Batman show I talked about on Monday, and the other is today’s topic: Batman the animated series, even the very name of this series bares the weight of its importance. This isn’t just any Batman animated show; it’s THE animated series, and that’s forever how it will be known.

Name changes be damned, but we’ll get to that. In case you’ve somehow lived your life in blissful ignorance of this show, well, chances are you've probably been touched by it and didn’t even know it.  If you liked the Arkham video games, you have Batman the animated series to thank; if you liked Harley Quinn or Mr. Freeze, you have Batman the animated series to thank. Hell, if you’ve enjoyed any DC Comics animated adaptation or any of Mark Hammil’s post Star Wars work, you’ve got Batman the animated series to thank.  So, let’s discuss all its worst elements. 

Static Thoughts - Batman Mask of the Phantasm

There’s been a lot of superhero media these days focused on the well-worn trope of the murderous vigilante.  Batman: Arkham Knight’s titular antagonist is essentially a militarized version of Batman who’s willing to kill his foes and it was just recently announced that Punisher will be the main villain of Netflix’s Daredevil season 2.  With all that in mind now seems like the perfect time to revisit Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, the hands down best iteration of this particular storyline as well as probably the best Batman film all around.  For those of you unfortunate enough to be unaware of this film, Mask of the Phantasm was a 1993 animated feature that spun out of Bruce Timm’s award winning Batman the animated series (which is why this is a Static Thoughts article.)  The film deals with a mysterious new vigilante named the Phantasm who’s been killing off Gotham mobsters and letting Batman take the blame.  That’s the outward plot anyway; the deeper focus of the film is on the very definition of Batman and how he relates to personal loss, revenge, and justice.