Plot summary: Season One concludes with some good old fashioned cultural appropriation, as Mad Hatter manipulates Gotham’s wealthy elite with some Central American figurines.
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: ‘The Worry Men’
Original Air Date: September 16th, 1993
Directed: Frank Paur (14)
Written: Paul Dini (11)
There is some animation slowdown during Mad Hatter’s monologue, which whether intentional or not, makes it look smoother. A nice preview of what the show could have looked like if they’d spent a lot of money on it. Hey, maybe dat HBOMax cash…
Hayden Sloane’s company name is erroneously given as Sloan Securities, one of several signage problems in the series.
Mad Hatter once again quotes from the Lewis Carroll poem, Jabberwocky.
Recap
Veronica Vreeland (remember her?) returns from an expedition to the rainforest and throws herself a welcome home party attended by Gotham’s wealthy elite. As you’d expect, the theme is Central and South American cultural appropriation.
Despite her vapid nature, Veronica uses the party to convince her friends to pledge money to protecting the rainforest. Bruce and a friend, Hayden Sloane, discuss her motives, with Sloane expressing worries about his company.
Veronica has the perfect cure for what ails Hayden, opening a pouch full of ‘Worry Men’, little wooden figures that you’re meant to tell your problems to, place under your pillow, and your troubles will disappear overnight.
Bruce is sceptical, but his concerns shift when he spots a man that will later be labelled a ‘Mayan Witchdoctor’ on the roof spying through the glass ceiling, excusing himself to go do Batman things.
The two battle, with Batman easily evading a throwing weapon and blocking a blow-dart. Thinking fast, the man hurls a throwing axe through the glass ceiling, requiring Bruce to think even faster to stop a giant tiki mask from crushing the party guests, allowing the spy to escape.
Taking one of the discarded weapons with him, Bruce reports back to Alfred who balks at the Worry Man, but places it under Bruce’s pillow without his knowledge anyway.
The next morning a suspiciously chipper Bruce collects a briefcase containing $20million from his never before seen secretary, Dana. He proceeds to open his office window and leave the case on the ledge.
Dana questions his behaviour, but he has already forgotten the entire turn of events. Before they can discuss it further, another mysteriously costumed man swoops onto the ledge, grabs the case, and escapes!
Across town, Hayden Sloane is arrested for embezzlement, joining Bruce and multiple other business owners who have stolen a combined $100m from their companies. Batman quickly deduces all of the individuals were guests at Veronica’s party.
If that wasn’t subtle enough, we zoom right in on Vreeland’s Worry Men hair-pin as she attempts to drop a briefcase full of jewels off a pier. Bats intervenes, angering a boat full of the ‘tribal’ men.
Veronica is able to distract the attackers long enough for Batman to regain the upper hand and chase them off. She reveals to Bruce that she acquired the Worry Men from a funny little English man in a small village in Central America.
Batman opens one up, revealing a computer chip. Examining the chip back at the Batcave, Bruce determines the Worry Men are the work of Jervis Tetch.
Speaking of the Mad Hatter, we see him celebrating his new wealth in an unknown location adorned with crude life-sized figures of the Rogues Gallery. His good mood subsides when his goons return from Veronica empty handed.
Using a torn piece of the henchmen’s attire, Batman tracks Tetch to the Great Eastern Costume Company, yet another closed Gotham business. Maybe Bruce should just buy up all these vacant buildings if for no other reason than to root out criminals.
Running a gauntlet of machine-gun wielding statues, knife toting puppets and a giant Joker-in-a-box, Batman is eventually overwhelmed by Hatter’s four henchmen.
Bruce essentially scolds Tetch for being a basic bitch, but Hatter claims he was planning to retire to a private island and leave crime behind, but needed money to buy one, hence scamming Veronica Vreeland with his Worry Men.
It gets better! The head henchmen from the start of the episode with the more elaborate outfit is a legitimate native of the unspecified village, who Tetch has brainwashed into leading a group of Gotham randoms, all costumed by Tetch. Woof.
Hatter orders Batman beheaded, but our hero is instead able to trigger a small device from his utility belt that emits a high pitch frequency that breaks the hypnotic control.
Thus Hatter’s four loyal soldiers turn on him, sending him scurrying into the aisles of statues, opening fire on a faux-Batman in paranoia, allowing the genuine article to easily take him out.
Bruce wraps a bow on the whole affair by stating the stolen money will be returned, minus the cost of a plane ticket home for the doll maker (not to be confused with The Dollmaker), who left a little Worry (Bat)Man under Tetch’s pillow, haunting his dreams.
Best Performance
I’m once again forced to tip my top hat to Roddy McDowall, who understands his job is to come in, ham it up to 11, and tackle the Lewis Carroll-isms with as much enthusiasm as possible. He certainly succeeds at all of that, even if he’s not being asked to do big boy acting this time. The voice goes a long way to making this character equal parts memorable and deplorable.
Elsewhere we’re spoiled with all-too-brief cameos; Vernee Watson-Johnson was a nice surprise as Bruce’s secretary, Dana, and I wish this wasn’t a one-off appearance. Levar Burton must have had a nephew who loves Batman or something, because he’s barely even in the episode. Merilu Henner continues to excel as socialite Verona Vreeland, and I’m glad she’s back a couple more times in the future.
The show has done a surprisingly good job of having ethnically appropriate actors voicing characters, but Roger Rose as ‘Jaguar Shaman’ falls short of that low bar… unless Mr. Rose has some origins I’m unaware of, in which case, another good job?
Ranking
Before we can talk about anything else, we have to address the icky layer of cultural appropriation and treating real people like exotic wonders. This isn’t the worst example you’ll ever see, but there is still the part where every non-American in the show has been some degree of anachronistic stereotype. Mad Hatter brainwashing and dressing ‘Jaguar’ takes a slight bit of edge off it, as it transfers how problematic it is to the villain (and an Englishman no less!) but even with that, it’s a bit gross. I won’t dock the episode any ranking points for this, but just wanted to acknowledge it.
With that being said, this is only a so-so little caper, obviously weaker than the previous two Mad Hatter episodes. The opening fight scene was fun, with yet more of the good stuff (Batman appearing almost supernatural in his abilities). The second act revolving around rich people giving away their money is some good old fashioned comic book ‘WTF is going on here?’ They also got a lot of mileage out of Tetch’s hideout locale, and I enjoyed the different styles of villain facsimiles.
Two final notes: this is Paul Dini’s weakest script so far, and concludes the show’s first production season.
- 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
- Shadow of the Bat Part II
- Joker’s Favor
- Read My Lips
- 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
- 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
- The Worry Men
- 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
Mad Hatter (Roddy McDowall) (third appearance)
English man goes to poorer country, exploits their local produce and appropriates their culture for his own titillation. Sounds. About. Right.
As mentioned before, this is the weakest Tetch appearance, as it lacks the same emotional backdrop as ‘Mad as a Hatter’ and ‘Perchance to Dream’, reverting him to a more generic villain. I don’t think this undoes the previous work, but it certainly soften his grip on the number 7 spot.
- The Joker
- Mr. Freeze
- Poison Ivy
- Harley Quinn
- Two-Face
- The Ventriloquist
- 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
- Rhino, Mugsy and Ratso
- 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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