The Matt Signal – Episode 78: Showdown

Plot summary: Ra’s al Ghul recounts a tale of his battle with relentless bounty hunter Jonah Hex in the old American west.

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: ‘Showdown’

Original Air Date: September 12^th, 1995

Directed: Kevin Altieri (20)

Written: Kevin Altieri (1), Paul Dini (17), Bruce W. Timm (2) (story) and Joe R. Lansdale (3)

This marks the second appearance in the franchise by US Senator Patrick Leahy, who is an enormous Batman fan. He also appears in Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in small roles. He always donates his fees to charity, normally to the library where he read comics as a child.

Unfortunately this was the final acting role for Elizabeth Montgomery of Bewitched fame, who died at only 62 years of age.

Ra’s previously claimed in ‘The Demon’s Quest Part I’ that he had no sons…

Recap

Ra’s al Ghul and a cadre of Society of Shadows agents (who strongly resemble Symbiote Spider-Man) break into a retirement home, knocking out all of the residents with gas. Batman and Robin arrive and engage the henchmen, but Ra’s is able to slip away.

Trailing The Demon in the Batmobile, the Dynamic Duo pop in a convenient exposition cassette tape Ra’s left behind.

In 1883 in an Old West town called Devil’s Hole (lolol), bounty hunter Jonah Hex makes inquiries about Arkady Duvall. After some tension with the sheriff, Hex receives help from a barmaid as Duvall hurt her girls.

She tells Hex about “The Sky Monster”, which began appearing around the same time Duvall arrived in town, as well as some mysterious lights from a nearby cave.

Hex investigates the cave, discovering a small army of workers building an airship for Ra’s al Ghul (dressed in Victorian attire) and Arkady Duvall. Ra’s plans to destroy the expanding railroads and conquer America.

Ra’s men discover and capture Hex, who declares his intention to turn in Duvall and collect his $200 reward for “what [he] done to that girl back East.” Duvall orders his execution but Ra’s overrules him and Hex is instead thrown into a cell.

The next morning, Hex escapes his cell by luring the guard into an ambush. Evading security, Hex is able to board the airship, which begins opening fire on a gathering for the completion of a new rail track.

Hex begins taking out the crew and sabotaging the cannons before engaging Arkady in a duel. Ra’s and the crew abandon the ship, which is on a collision course with a nearby mountain. Hex wins, refuses a bribe, and gets his man.

What did any of that have to do with our present day narrative? Well, as Batman correctly deduces, one of the residents of the retirement home is Arkady Duvall, who was able to survive a lengthy prison sentence thanks to exposure to the Lazarus Pits. Oh, and he’s Ra’s son!

Shockingly, Bruce agrees to Ra’s request that he be allowed to take his “boy” home and just drives away as Ubu wheels Arkady onto a private plane. Episode over.

Best Performance

This is a tough one. Bill McKinney hams it up as Jonah Hex, but unless you’re particularly enamoured with the era, he doesn’t really do much to make the character likeable. It’s just corny cowboy catchphrases and gruff threats. Elizabeth Montgomery and William Bryant come across far more charming in smaller roles.

So really this comes down to David Warner and the legendary Malcolm McDowell. Neither are on top form, but I’m inclined to go with the former on the strength of the final scene as he talks about his son. Warner’s performances have helped elevate Ra’s, even when his writing has been lacking. McDowell is fine, but doesn’t really get enough substantial dialogue to make a mark.

Senator Leahy isn’t much of a voice actor, but it’s still cool he got to make a cameo, in my opinion.

Ranking

I’m honestly tempted to disqualify this episode from contention altogether on account of it basically being a pilot for a non-existent Jonah Hex show that happened to feature a Batman villain. Luckily that decision is made easier for me given it’s not very good.

I guess the intention was for Jonah Hex to be a wild west Batman stand-in, given his strong moral code, resourcefulness and peak physical abilities without having actual superpowers. Heck, the non-deformed half of his face is basically identical to Bruce Wayne’s. The problem is he’s simply not as interesting or as cool as Batman, and despite being a Chattier Cathy, he’s not all that charming either. I don’t know, maybe if you’re really into cowboys he’ll do it for you.

The only half interesting thing to me is seeing Ra’s in a different time period (more on that below), and I was certainly surprised to see Batman let him walk away at the end.

The entire look of the episode is a dramatic departure from the familiar Gotham landscape, and that’s cool, especially 78 episodes in, but a change of scenery alone isn’t enough to make me care. It’s also interesting to me how many writers are credited. Perhaps a case of too many cooks.

1. The Laughing Fish
2. Mask of the Phantasm
3. Almost Got ‘im
4. Heart of Ice
5. Harlequinade
6. The Trial
7. Shadow of the Bat Part I
8. I Am the Night
9. Robin’s Reckoning Part I
10. Baby-Doll
11. The Man Who Killed Batman
12. Perchance to Dream
13. Two-Face Part I
14. Bane
15. A Bullet For Bullock
16. Joker’s Favor
17. Read My Lips
18. Feat of Clay Part II
19. Catwalk
20. The Demon’s Quest Part II
21. Harley and Ivy
22. Robin’s Reckoning Part II
23. House & Garden
24. Beware the Gray Ghost
25. Mad as a Hatter
26. Heart of Steel Part II
27. Appointment In Crime Alley
28. Two-Face Part II
29. Pretty Poison
30. Shadow of the Bat Part II
31. Feat of Clay Part I
32. His Silicon Soul
33. Off Balance
34. Vendetta
35. Birds of a Feather
36. Heart of Steel Part I
37. On Leather Wings
38. See No Evil
39. The Clock King
40. It’s Never Too Late
41. Joker’s Wild
42. Eternal Youth
43. The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy
44. The Cat and the Claw Part I
45. Zatanna
46. Day of the Samurai
47. Avatar
48. The Demon’s Quest Part I
49. The Mechanic
50. The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne
51. Terror in the Sky
52. P.O.V.
53. Christmas with the Joker
54. Fear of Victory
55. Be a Clown
56. The Worry Men
57. What is Reality?
58. Fire From Olympus
59. Night of the Ninja
60. Mudslide
61. The Cat and the Claw Part II
62. Nothing to Fear
63. The Lion and the Unicorn
64. Prophecy of Doom
65. Tyger, Tyger
66. Blind as a Bat
67. If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?
68. Dreams In Darkness
69. The Last Laugh
70. Cat Scratch Fever
71. Moon of the Wolf
72. Paging the Crime Doctor
73. Time Out of Joint
74. Sideshow
75. The Under-Dwellers
76. The Forgotten
77. Showdown (NEW ENTRY)
78. The Terrible Trio
79. I’ve Got Batman in My Basement

Villain Watch

Ra’s al Ghul (David Warner) (fifth appearance)

My interest in this episode lived and died by Ra’s. It was cool to see him immersed in another era, with motivations and costumes fitting of the time. More than that, his vast otherworldly knowledge means he knows how to build an enormous flying gunship, which is pretty cool.

But Jonah Hex’s complete disinterest in him makes him an afterthought, despite the fact he’s literally trying to conquer America.

I’m going to slightly lower his spot on the rankings, because I feel the idea of him has been infinitely more compelling than the execution so far (which may explain why he crops up so much more in the tie-in comics.)

Arkady Duvall (Malcolm McDowell) (first appearance)

People sure do talk about Arkady a lot in this episode, but he really doesn’t do much. Hex tracked him across 14 states, making vague censor-friendly references to his ostensible assault and possible murder of a woman. The townsfolk hate him to such a degree that the barmaid returns Hex’s offered payment for intel. Ra’s himself is furious with his disobedience, and declares him too unstable to ever be his heir (that plus him descending into madness during his prison sentence get Ra’s around his claims of having no male heir.) So much tell, very little show.

Sure, he’s a dick. But not a very compelling or impressive one. Bottom tier villain.

1. The Joker
2. Poison Ivy
3. Harley Quinn
4. Mr. Freeze
5. Two-Face
6. The Ventriloquist
7. Catwoman
8. The Phantasm
9. Baby-Doll
10. Bane
11. Mad Hatter
12. Penguin
13. HARDAC (and Randa Duane)
14. Clayface
15. The Riddler
16. Ra’s al Ghul
17. Lloyd Ventrix
18. Killer Croc
19. Count Vertigo
20. Clock King
21. Rupert Thorne
22. Nivens
23. Josiah Wormwood
24. Scarecrow
25. Roland Daggett (and Germs & Bell!)
26. Talia al Ghul
27. Sid the Squid
28. Queen Thoth Khepera
29. Maxie Zeus
30. Jimmy ‘Jazzman’ Peake
31. Tony Zucco
32. Man-Bat
33. Hugo Strange
34. Red Claw
35. Arnold Stromwell
36. Mad Bomber
37. Tygrus
38. Rhino, Mugsy and Ratso
39. Kyodai Ken
40. Gil Mason
41. Nostromos (and Lucas!)
42. Cameron Kaiser
43. Dr. Dorian (and Garth)
44. Mad Dog
45. Ubu
46. Professor Milo
47. Romulus
48. Arkady Duvall
49. Sewer King
50. Boss Biggis
51. Montague Kane
52. The Terrible Trio

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.