Plot summary: Shipping magnate Maxie Zeus believes himself to be the Greek god of his namesake, planning to reign lighting down on Gotham.
Each Saturday and Sunday Matt Waters recaps an episode of the legendary Batman: The Animated Series, building an overall ranking along the way. Plus best performances, the ever-popular Villain Watch and more!
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Notes
Episode Title: ‘Fire From Olympus’
Original Air Date: May 24th, 1993
Directed: Dan Riba (4)
Written: Judith Reeves-Stevens (3) & Garfield Reeves-Stevens (3)
Maxie Zeus’ line “look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” is from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem, Ozymandias, a name you will either recognise as the most critically acclaimed episode of Breaking Bad or a character from Watchmen. Or neither if you have a life.
Also Shelley was married to Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein. So. There you go.
Recap
Jim Gordon awaits a meet-up with a man named Stavros, who is chased down by two burly men and cornered in a nearby alley. Stavros pleads for mercy, but a shadowy figure steps out of a car babbling about the mortal plain and the depths of Tartarus, threatening Stavros with a huge lightning bolt-shaped staff.
Gordon discovers a barely-alive Stavros moments later and takes him to Gotham General. The doctor states that he was struck by lightning, and had it not been for some nearby tires he would have been killed!
Batman and Gordon swap information on Stavros, an employee of Maximillian Shipping who had been selling information to hijackers until he made a deal with Jim in exchange for immunity.
Gordon shows footage of the ‘Electron Discharge Canon’, a devastating weapon recently stolen during shipping. Batman grows curious about Stavros’ employer.
Speaking of which, over at a ludicrous building with Ancient Grecian architectural stylings, a businesswoman named Clio pleads with Maxie Zeus to take the allegations against his company seriously.
Zeus, dressed in a toga, finds her tales of mortal disputes dull. She kindly fills us in that because of his past business successes (legitimate and otherwise), he became so arrogant he literally believes himself a god. Oh and they were formerly lovers.
The Batwing arrives, and Zeus declares the Caped Crusader to be his brother… Hades! Dope. He offers Batman nectar and dismisses Clio as mortals are not fit for godly words. They both watch her walk away. Creeps.
Zeus refutes the idea he’d have interest in the EDC weapon as he can generate lightning with ease. He then threatens Batman, who leaves without a fuss. Aaaand as soon as he leaves, Zeus unveils the stolen cannon to his cronies.
Clio goes home for a good cry while cradling a picture of her and Zeus. Misery loves company though, as Batman appears from nowhere asking for her help. She explains the pressure of working with the mob caused Maxie to have a psychotic break and that Batman can probably relate. Queen shit.
She sneaks Batman back into the building, where Zeus fires the EDC at a police blimp!!! Clio pleads with him and momentarily gets through, but he returns to his cosplaying and has her taken away.
Batman is almost immediately discovered and dropped into a chamber containing twelve labours. The first? A hydra… Or rather one real snake wrapped around a statue of two more, giving the impression of a three-headed creature. It seemingly triples in size and nearly kills Batman, but he sprays it with knockout gas.
Next is the Erymanthian Boar… Or rather a regular boar that successfully tackles Batman out of the damn window and almost to his death. Can you imagine if that had been how Bruce went out?
Maxie straps Clio to the EDC and prepares to fire it again, believing the Fires of Olympus will cleanse her so she can rule at his side. Luckily Batman intervenes, taking out his security guns (harpies) and then Zeus himself so he can disarm the weapon.
Zeus attacks with his electro-staff (which I guess is a miniaturised version of the EDC?), sending Batman careening over the edge for the second time in two minutes…
…and he once again calmly climbs back up, gets ahold of the staff and hurls it at the EDC, disabling it once and for all. Zeus leaps to rescue his beloved staff and is promptly electrocuted.
Locked up in Arkham, Zeus believes Poison Ivy is Demeter, Two-Face is Janus and Joker is Hermes (who is a trickster as well as a speedster!), believing he is at last home.
Best Performance
This episode lives and dies by Steve Susskind’s ability to turn the camp up to 11. He mostly succeeds in that regard, doing his best to embody a giant man who believes himself to be the king of the Greek pantheon. Lots of big booming declaratives and references to mythology. You can feel the hulking size of the character, which is no small task. Ideally it would have been Brian Blessed, but you take what you can get, I guess.
I actually liked Bess Armstrong quite a lot as Clio, and Nicholas Savalas in the duel-role of Stavros and one of Maxie’s heavies. Good of them to get two Greek actors!
Ranking
The Reeves-Stevens’ owe me ten more labours of Heracles. I’m not saying I actually want a feature length episode where Batman runs a gauntlet of trials loosely modelled after the twelve, but that strikes me as the most compelling thing they could do with a delusional man obsessed with ancient Greece. (Straight to video, obviously.)
I think the character was fun, but the episode failed to harness that fun in an effective manner. Stavros raises more questions than he answers. Batman visits Zeus, leaves, sneaks back in, immediately gets captured, gets thrown out a window, climbs back up, gets thrown off the building, climbs back up and wins. Clio gets taken away, INSTANTLY strolls to freedom and then gets captured again. These are the little things that completely unstitch episodes in my opinion.
- The Laughing Fish
- Almost Got ‘Im
- Heart of Ice
- Shadow of the Bat Part I
- I Am the Night
- Robin’s Reckoning Part I
- The Man Who Killed Batman
- Perchance to Dream
- Two-Face Part I
- Joker’s Favor
- Feat of Clay Part II
- The Demon’s Quest Part II
- Harley and Ivy
- Robin’s Reckoning Part II
- Beware the Gray Ghost
- Mad as a Hatter
- Heart of Steel Part II
- Appointment In Crime Alley
- Two-Face Part II
- Pretty Poison
- Shadow of the Bat Part II
- Feat of Clay Part I
- His Silicon Soul
- Off Balance
- Vendetta
- Birds of a Feather
- Heart of Steel Part I
- On Leather Wings
- See No Evil
- The Clock King
- It’s Never Too Late
- Joker’s Wild
- Eternal Youth
- The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy
- The Cat and the Claw Part I
- Zatanna
- Day of the Samurai
- The Demon’s Quest Part I
- The Mechanic
- The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne
- Terror in the Sky
- P.O.V.
- Christmas with the Joker
- Fear of Victory
- Be a Clown
- What is Reality?
- Fire From Olympus
- Night of the Ninja
- Mudslide
- The Cat and the Claw Part II
- Nothing to Fear
- Prophecy of Doom
- Tyger, Tyger
- Blind as a Bat
- If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?
- Dreams In Darkness
- The Last Laugh
- Cat Scratch Fever
- Moon of the Wolf
- Paging the Crime Doctor
- The Under-Dwellers
- The Forgotten
- I’ve Got Batman in My Basement
Villain Watch
Maxie Zeus (Steve Susskind) (first appearance)
Despite being an insane, outlandishly dressed criminal who terrorises the city, many don’t consider Zeus to be a ‘proper’ Batman villain. I think that’s ludicrous. Maxie’s disconnect from reality is a great deal of fun, with his henchmen mostly just shrugging and not wanting any problems, which only heightens the effect. Heck, even Batman just deadpans him for the most part. It’s good stuff!
I also enjoyed the final scene with him casting the Rogues Gallery as gods. But I can’t place him too high as he somehow comes across as a bit of a lame duck despite being an enormous man wielding a lightning staff. Furthermore, despite being as mentally ill as any Batman villain could ever be, with a supporting character longing to get him help, but that emotional plot completely fails to land. Just a lot of wasted potential.
- The Joker
- Mr. Freeze
- Poison Ivy
- Harley Quinn
- Two-Face
- Mad Hatter
- Penguin
- Catwoman
- HARDAC (and Randa Duane)
- Clayface
- Ra’s al Ghul
- The Riddler
- Clock King
- Killer Croc
- Lloyd Ventrix
- Count Vertigo
- Josiah Wormwood
- Scarecrow
- Roland Daggett (and Germs & Bell!)
- Rupert Thorne
- Sid the Squid
- Maxie Zeus
- Jimmy ‘Jazzman’ Peake
- Tony Zucco
- Man-Bat
- Hugo Strange
- Red Claw
- Arnold Stromwell
- Mad Bomber
- Tygrus (and Dr. Dorian)
- Kyodai Ken
- Gil Mason
- Nostromos (and Lucas!)
- Cameron Kaiser
- Dr. Dorian (and Garth)
- Talia al Ghul
- Mad Dog
- Ubu
- Professor Milo
- Romulus
- Sewer King
- Boss Biggis
- Montague Kane
Plugs
Eager for more long-form coverage of Batman? Why not check out my podcast with Mike Thomas, The Tape Crusaders, which reviewed every Batman movie and delved a tiny bit into the animated series.
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