Batman: The Animated Series: The Best Episode For Every Major Villain
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As far as supervillains go, no superhero goes up against a more impressive roster of enemies than Batman. From evil clowns to genocidal near-immortals, The Dark Knight fights them all. No show has done Batman better than Batman: The Animated Series, and that includes the villains, too. With such a wide variety of top tier baddies, let’s look at those episodes of the show that show each respective villain at their best.
Catwoman – Catwalk
Catwoman almost never appeared as a solo villain, and this episode is no different. However, this one really goes into her mindset. She misses being Catwoman, misses the thrill of the hunt… and the thrill of the chase with Batman. When Selina and socialite Veronica Vreeland butt heads at a museum, The Ventriloquist offers her the heist of a lifetime. Of course, it becomes obvious quickly that Catwoman is set to take the fall. Still, it’s the best development Selina Kyle ever got in any episode.
Poison Ivy – House and Garden
“Pretty Poison” does a great job of showing off Ivy’s seductive side, “Eternal Youth” does the same for her environmentalist views. “House and Garden,” however, gives Ivy some of her best and most frightening moments. Wealthy young men are being robbed and poisoned across Gotham. Everything points to Ivy… except she’s married to her psychiatrist from Arkham and has a loving family with him and his two sons. However, this picture-perfect family isn’t all its cracked up to be, especially when Robin reveals the psychiatrist, who taught Dick Grayson at Gotham State, has daughters and his wife in custody. Yes, Ivy wants a happy family. She can’t have kids (a trade-off for her immunity to poison), so she makes… half-plant, half-human monsters using, in her words, “raw materials” provided by her husband. No matter what your mind thinks those “raw materials” are, it’s disturbing any way you look at it.
The Penguin – Birds Of A Feather
Many Batman: The Animated Series episodes saw the villains attempt to reform, only to go back to their criminal ways by episode’s end. The tragedy is that many of them made a genuine effort, with what happens to The Penguin being possibly the most heartbreaking. After getting released from prison, The Penguin finds himself alone and friendless… until Veronica Vreeland calls and wants to spend time with him. The plan is to invite the villain to a gathering of the social elite… where The Penguin will be mocked for his lack of social graces. The problem? Veronica starts to enjoy being around him and The Penguin falls in love with her. When the joke is revealed, Penguin kidnaps Veronica, with Batman having to go save her. Penguin even states he’s not too fussed about the ransom. He just wanted a friend.
The Scarecrow – Dreams In Darkness
Batman is in Arkham Asylum, suffering from severe hallucinations. It turns out he’s been exposed to The Scarecrow’s fear gas, which the supervillain is planning to release into Gotham water’s supply (Huh. So that’s where Christopher Nolan got the idea from). While “Nothing To Fear” and “Fear of Victory” are both decent, it’s this episode that gives Scarecrow his best outing. He runs his entire operation from inside Arkham, which Batman can’t convince the doctors of even though he’s right. The visuals on Batman’s hallucinations are top-notch, with Alfred and Robin even taunting Batman at one point.
The Riddler – Riddler’s Reform
The Riddler had the “honor” of being the most difficult villain for the writers to work with, so he only appeared in three episodes, and “Riddler’s Reform” is easily the best of his appearances. The Riddler has sold his criminal persona to a toy company, becoming their mascot for a new line of games and puzzles. Yet, crimes are still being committed, and it’s up to Batman and Robin to figure out if Riddler really is up to his old tricks again. It’s a fantastic episode that really goes into the compulsiveness of The Riddler and really shows how he views Batman as a worthy opponent. The episode ends on a humorous note, with Riddler screaming for the other inmates of Arkham to tell him how Batman survived a seemingly impossible-to-escape death trap.
Related: The Most Underrated Villains Of Batman: The Animated Series, Ranked
The Mad Hatter – Perchance To Dream
Those with a clever ear will be able to tell from moment one who the villain is in this episode. The Mad Hatter’s leitmotif plays over the title card. The episode sees Batman pursuing some bad guys. He gets knocked out and wakes up at home… only to discover his parents are still alive; he’s engaged to Selina Kyle, who isn’t Catwoman, and someone else is running around as Batman. This is an episode that frequently appears on a lot of “Top 10 Batman: The Animated Series Episodes” lists, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy’s favorite episode. The Mad Hatter only appears towards the end, but he gets some incredible moments, especially where he explains why he put Batman in this ideal fantasy world in the first place.
Ra’s Al Ghul – The Demon’s Quest
This two-part episode is a wonderful episode for one of Batman’s deadliest foes. Robin and Talia have been kidnapped, so Ra’s proposes that he and Batman team up to find those responsible. The journey takes them across Asia, from Calcutta, to Malaysia, and finally, the Himalayas. As it turns out, the globetrotting was all a giant test to see if Batman would make a worthy heir for the supervillain. The second part sees Batman head to the Sahara Desert, where Ra’s is planning on wiping out two billion people in a single blow. Bonus points for that epic sword fight between Batman and Ra’s in the second part’s climax.
Two-Face – Two-Face
The writers of the show often felt that their “Part 2s” were a lot weaker than their “Part 1s” for their two-part episodes. Luckily, Two-Face’s debut episode averts that. In the first part, Harvey Dent is seeing a psychiatrist for anger issues, but it’s happening in the middle of a campaign, and mobster Rupert Thorne gets his medical records and threatens to release them. The resulting fight sees an explosion char half of Dent’s face. The second part see Two-Face and a pair of twin henchmen rob every front Rupert Thorne has… all while Two-Face misses his fiancé. It really shows how far Harvey Dent has fallen. Don’t think Batman is let off the hook, either. He gets to suffer a nightmare where his parents and Harvey Dent ask him, “Why couldn’t you save us?” Now that’s a gut punch.
Mr. Freeze – Heart Of Ice
Mr. Freeze appeared in two episodes of the show. Both are good, but one is the best episode of the entire show. “Heart Of Ice” dramatically changed Mr. Freeze for the better and gave him an origin story that comics use to this day. The episode’s story see Mr. Freeze out for revenge on heartless industrialist Ferris Boyle (voiced by Joker voice actor Mark Hamill, no less), who not only interrupted an experiment Victor Fries was performing to save his terminally ill wife, but knocked him into some chemicals, leaving Victor unable to survive outside subzero temperatures. Mr. Freeze’s leitmotif is hauntingly beautiful, and his dialogue is top-notch. It’s honestly an episode where we want the villain to win… if he wasn’t planning on freezing everyone in a building alongside his intended target.
Related: Batman: The Animated Series: Genuinely Funny Joker Moments, Ranked
The Joker – Joker’s Favor
As the villain who appeared the most, there were a lot of good Joker episodes to choose from. Honestly, “The Laughing Fish” is a great runner-up for the best Joker episode. Both that and “Joker’s Favor” see The Clown Prince of Crime torment an ordinary person for the sadistic pleasure of it. In this case, that ordinary person is Charlie Collins, who in the middle of the bad day, cusses out the Joker on the freeway after he cuts him off. Charlie begs for his life, saying he’ll do anything to make it up. Two years later, Joker finds Charlie, who had changed his name and moved to Ohio, and tells him he wants to cash in on the favor. All he has to do is… open a door at a banquet for Commissioner Gordon so that Harley Quinn can wheel in a giant cake. What makes this the best Joker episode, is that it shows just how sick the Joker really is. At least Charlie gets the last laugh on him at the end.