The Matt Signal: BTAS Season 2 Findings

With the original run of the series now over, let’s take a look at some more DATA, shall we?

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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Top 10 Cards

I shifted some of the previous 10 around. Sue me.

The strongest new entries are definitely ‘Babydoll’, ‘Riddler’s Reform’, ‘Harley’s Holiday’, ‘Make ‘Em Laugh’, ‘Batgirl Returns’ and ‘Deep Freeze.’ ‘House and Garden’ had potential, but the choice of typeface ruins it. ‘Harlequinade’ is a pretty famous image, but I don’t think it’s a top contender.

Season 2 also delivered some of the very worst ones including ‘Avatar’, ‘Catwalk’, ‘Bane’, ‘The Lion and the Unicorn’ and ‘Second Chance’. I don’t know if the declining quality was a mark that they were out of ideas and were glad to not do them anymore or if it was simply a deliberate attempt to reduce time and effort.

Best Directors

As I said before, I’ve been tracking who directed each episode and calculating an average score for them based on those rankings. Again, more goes into a ranking than direction, so it’s pure dumb fun with numbers (the best kind of fun IMO).

Nobody new directed an episode in the second season, and previous stalwarts Dick Sebast and Frank Paur worked on 0 and 2 episodes respectively. The other two regulars, Kevin Altieri (22) and Boyd Kirkland (21) lowered their averages, while Dan Riba apparently gained a great deal of trust between seasons, more than doubling his episode count and leaping up to the number 3 spot.

Show creators Bruce Timm (5) and Eric Radomski (4) only contributed one more episode each… but secure the top two spots thanks to Mask of the Phantasm also being included after the season one rankings.

1. Bruce Timm (5) (Previous: 1)
2. Eric Radomski (4) (Previous: 4)
3. Dan Riba (10) (Previous: 7)
4. Boyd Kirkland (21) (Previous: 2)
5. Kevin Altieri (22) (Previous 3)
6. Dick Sebast (9) (Previous: 5)
7. Frank Paur (16) (Previous 6)
8. Kent Butterworth (1) (Previous 8)

Best Writers

We only got 6 newbies, raising the total to 46 writers to have worked on the show, but the end result will likely please fans of Paul Dini, as he climbed from third to first.

To put Dini’s dominance into context, he wrote 8 of the top 10 episodes, massively increasing his credits by writing over half of season two. Nobody else approaches his 24 scripts.

Michael Reaves, Brynne Chandler, Randy Rogel and Alan Burnett round out the list of regularly recurring scribes, with most of the rest having 4 or fewer episodes to their name. Burnett’s increased involvement is likely due to how much time he had been spending on Mask of the Phantasm before.

Our top ten:

1. Paul Dini (24)
2. Dennis O’Flaherty (1)
3. Marv Wolfman (2)
4. Gerry Conway (2)
5. Michael Reaves (15)
6. Randy Rogel (9)
7. Brynne Chandler (7)
8. Garin Wolf (2)
9. Alan Burnett (7)
10. Dennis O’Neil (2)

The bottom of the pile remains mostly unchanged as the writing pool tightened up, and most of the worst episodes are from season one. Of the semi-regulars, Richard Meueller, Jules Dennis, Sean Catherine Derek, the Reeves-Stevens’ and Steve Perry fare the worst.

Best Performances

These are purely gut feelings as I don’t keep a running tally or ranking. The top performers remain the same, but with Alison LaPlaca replacing Henry Polic II for her stellar work as Babydoll.

1. Kevin Conroy (Batman)
2. Mark Hamill (Joker)
3. Arleen Sorkin (Harley Quinn)
4. Diane Pershing (Poison Ivy)
5. Alison LaPlaca (Baby-Doll)
6. George Dzundza (Ventriloquist)
7. Roddy McDowell (Mad Hatter)
8. Richard Moll (Two-Face)
9. Robert Costanzo (Harvey Bullock)
10. Melissa Gilbert (Batgirl)

Rankings

All told the final rankings are about what I expected. I’m lower on things like ‘Christmas with the Joker’ and ‘Demon’s Quest’ than the average person, but feel pretty good about my top 20.

Season 2 got 4 episodes into the top 10 (plus Mask of the Phantasm, of course), versus 3 in the bottom 10. The overall quality level was higher, with most of the season placing in the top half and not all that many clunkers.

Last time around I identified the four types of episode: Villain Spotlights, Villain Ensembles, Batman Spotlights and Supporting Character Spotlights.

The most common type remains the Villain Spotlight, with 13 of Season 2’s episodes focusing on a member of the Rogues Gallery, raising the total to 56 of 85. That makes total sense, given you’ve had time to reflect on what did and didn’t work in the first season, and they very much gave the people more of what they wanted. Half of the Top 10 is now comprised of this type, which feels about right.

The proportional split of the other types remained consistent, with both Villain Ensembles and Supporting Spotlights increasing to 11.

Interestingly, of the new entries only Mask of the Phantasm put the spotlight on Batman himself (though it obviously also has a strong villain presence). But given the network mandate that Robin appear more frequently in the second season, any tale that focused entirely on the title character was likely nixed to ensure Dick was inserted (lolol).

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

Villain Watch

The Joker remains exactly where everyone expected him to be, laughing his way to the top of the pile. He got a lot less play in season 2, with new villains like Bane, Baby Doll and Lock-Up making impactful debuts and Harley Quinn getting a greater spotlight, storming her way all the way up to second place.

Several of the heavy hitters got one last strong showing like Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, Two-Face and The Riddler, who finally got an episode worthy of their take on him. Likewise Catwoman got moved back to her natural place as more villain than hero to her great benefit.

Ra’s al Ghul continued to fall from grace, while Scarecrow was reduced to cameos after multiple (weak) spotlight episodes in the first season. Some of that may have been realising they didn’t do a great job with him, but more likely it was the lack of availability from his voice actor.

Perhaps most notable was the first and only appearance of the truly atrocious Terrible Trio, who were so bad that even the production staff have disowned them.

1. The Joker
2. Harley Quinn
3. Poison Ivy
4. Mr. Freeze
5. Two-Face
6. The Ventriloquist
7. Catwoman
8. The Riddler
9. The Phantasm
10. Baby-Doll
11. Bane
12. Mad Hatter
13. Penguin
14. HARDAC (and Randa Duane)
15. Clayface
16. Ra’s al Ghul
17. Lock-Up
18. Lloyd Ventrix
19. Killer Croc
20. Rupert Thorne
21. Count Vertigo
22. Clock King
23. Nivens
24. Roland Daggett (and Germs & Bell!)
25. Josiah Wormwood
26. Scarecrow
27. Talia al Ghul
28. Sid the Squid
29. Queen Thoth Khepera
30. Maxie Zeus
31. Jimmy ‘Jazzman’ Peake
32. Tony Zucco
33. Man-Bat
34. Hugo Strange
35. Red Claw
36. Arnold Stromwell
37. Mad Bomber
38. Tygrus
39. Rhino, Mugsy and Ratso
40. Kyodai Ken
41. Condiment King/Pack Rat/Mighty Mom
42. Grant Walker
43. Gil Mason
44. Nostromos (and Lucas!)
45. Cameron Kaiser
46. Dr. Dorian (and Garth)
47. Mad Dog
48. Ubu
49. Professor Milo
50. Romulus
51. Arkady Duvall
52. Sewer King
53. Boss Biggis
54. Montague Kane
55. 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.

My other recap column, Marvel Mondays, just finished coverage of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. To fill the time before Loki begins, I’ll be going back to WandaVision, with two episodes per week. Injustice corrected!