Rating: ★★★★★
This time around it’s the debut of Batman’s most iconic villain: The Joker. And what an episode it is!
Joker’s got a plan to rob the city blind. How does he do it? By filling the streets with laughing gas, so that no one can do anything but laugh as their wallets, purses, and other valuables are taken right off their person. Not to mention it’s easy to break into jewelry shops when the cops are incapacitated.
Batman, of course, comes to the rescue, but he’s actually defeated in the initial fight, where he has difficulty overcoming Joker’s mechanical cronie, Captain Clown. After narrowly escaping drowning, Batman goes another round with Joker’s henchmen before a climactic showdown with the clown himself in a waste processing plant.
The music does some fun, interesting things in this one – most notably, the accordion that plays at a few points, and Joker’s little theme ditty on the flute with some percussion. They both create a delightfully off-kilter feel throughout the episode.
The animated series version of The Joker has always been my favorite. This is, in great part, due to Mark Hamill’s amazing performance, though in this episode the Joker voice is still a bit underdeveloped. But it’s also because this version of the character blends the dangerous, sadistic depictions with the goofier, hard-to-take-seriously versions. Joker turns from being a goofy character to a terrifying one on a dime, and it’s that switch that makes him truly terrifying, unlike other, more constantly sadistic interpretations.
A great episode from start to finish, and a wonderful way to introduce this show’s version of an iconic character.
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