Plot summary: Dick Grayson takes flight as Nightwing, doing his best to dismantle a smuggling operation while navigating a trio of love triangles with Batman, Catwoman and Batgirl.
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: ‘You Scratch My Back’
Original Air Date: November 15th, 1997
Directed: Butch Lukic (1)
Written: Hilary J. Bader (2)
The first episode of the season suggested relaxed censorship rules, but this one really hammers that idea home by showing two instances of blood, twice as much as any episode of BTAS allowed.
Selina’s change of hairstyle and colour was explained in Batman: Gotham Adventures, this season’s tie-in comic. Review coming in a few weeks!
The explosion from the speedboat at the end of the episode was re-used in the same episode of Superman: The Animated Series as the recycled bridge explosion from ‘Double Talk.’ I feel like I need to see this Superman episode so I can check out all these recycled explosions.
Recap
Dick Grayson, debuting his Nightwing persona, stakes out some gunrunners at the docks. Batman & Batgirl arrive to muscle in, much to Dick’s irritation as he has a demonstrable handle on the situation.
In an unexpected twist, Catwoman takes out the last goon as a “gift” to Dick and even blows him a kiss for good measure. Barbara later expresses some jealousy, but Dick mostly ignores her. Aww, Babs.
Following a lead to the man behind the smuggling operation, Nightwing spies on Enrique ‘El Gancho’ (Ricky ‘The Hook’), when Catwoman shows up again to flirt and offer a team-up.
They sneak into Ricky’s penthouse and steal his shipping schedule, fighting their way out and fleeing from gunfire.
Jealous, Bruce visits Selina and warns her off Nightwing. Dick arrives and tells him to go screw, and after a tense standoff, Bats leaves.
Once he’s gone they uncover a tracking device planted on Selina, who affixes it to one of her cats, sending Bruce & Babs on a wild goose-chase.
Launching a stealth mission to infiltrate a ship full of smuggled artefacts, Dick and Selina’s partnership quickly disintegrates as Catwoman was playing both sides all along, having stashed a jewel in among Ricky’s goods to get it into Gotham and manipulating Dick to help her retrieve it.
She plants one on the young hero to try and talk him out of taking her down, but he declines. Batman and Batgirl arrive and Dick reveals he and Bruce suspected her true motives all along, ‘faking’ their friction.
Ricky’s men arrive and we get an all-out brawl. The trio take down the henchmen and then Batman brawls with Enrique, ripping off his hook prosthetic and then dropping a crate on him. Jeez.
Dick chases Catwoman, fighting with her on a speedboat until it crashes. Batgirl scoops them up in the Bat Boat, with Dick expressing his gratitude.
Best Performance
Loren Lester is far more suited for the older, lone wolf Dick Grayson than he was trying to take over a decade off his voice for the teenage version. No judgement on Mr. Lester, but he sounds far more at home as a cocky yet mopey twenty-something trying to prove he’s an adult than he did as an exuberant, optimistic sidekick.
Adrienne Barbeau’s work as Catwoman has historically been great, but this wasn’t one of her better outings. She’s great when she’s turning up Selina’s sex appeal to 11, with her distinct purr working overtime, but she seems to lose the character’s tone a few times in the episode.
Tara Strong continues to quietly improve with each appearance as Batgirl, managing to communicate how wounded Barbara is by Dick’s flirtationship with Selina while maintaining a sense of independent strength.
Ranking
This was Nightwing’s grand debut and went to great lengths to establish how much cooler he is than (original) Robin. From his wing-suit, to his douchey converted warehouse apartment, to his dope secret motorcycle tunnel, he’s written and drawn to be a badass. The mullet… was of its era. I like that his fighting style remains acrobatic, but his increased muscle mass makes him more effective.
The interpersonal dynamics between Bruce, Dick, Selina and Barbara here are superlative fun. Bruce is jealous of Selina’s attraction towards Dick, while simultaneously resenting her rapport with his estranged apprentice. Yet even though we know they’re secretly in cahoots the whole time, he can’t help but stand in judgement during the opening bust, going as far as to stand by and make a snide comment as Dick pursues an escaped goon.
Meanwhile Dick is caught in two separate love triangles, one with Selina and Bruce, wherein he’s being treated as an adult by the former and a child by the latter, and one with Selina and Barbara. They haven’t done much to highlight it outside Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub Zero, but Dick and Barbara were supposed to have been in a relationship in college. I’m not a huge fan of his treatment of Babs here, blowing her off for the older, more sultry woman, but him freezing up with Selina after spotting Barbara watching them is a nice touch. Speaking of which, his attempt to play at being a grown-up is severely tested by Catwoman’s openly sexual advances, which clearly intimidate him. Heck, we can throw in a third triangle, as Barbara has been shown to have a crush on Bruce (or more specifically Batman) too!
An unfortunate shadow is literally cast over the episode though, as both Dick and Selina’s redesigned costumes are predominantly black, making the mostly excellent action unclear at times. Throw in a misty effect at the docks in the third act, and it makes for some less than ideal viewing in places.
But that’s not enough to detract from the top notch character development and surprising number of creative, well-executed fight scenes, which combine to make it top twenty material… for now.
- The Laughing Fish
- Mask of the Phantasm
- Almost Got ‘im
- Heart of Ice
- Harlequinade
- The Trial
- Riddler’s Reform
- Double Talk
- Shadow of the Bat Part I
- I Am the Night
- Robin’s Reckoning Part I
- Baby-Doll
- Sins of the Father
- Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero
- The Man Who Killed Batman
- Perchance to Dream
- Two-Face Part I
- You Scratch My Back (NEW ENTRY)
- Bane
- Batgirl Returns
- A Bullet For Bullock
- Joker’s Favor
- Read My Lips
- Feat of Clay Part II
- Catwalk
- The Demon’s Quest Part II
- Harley and Ivy
- Robin’s Reckoning Part II
- House & Garden
- Beware the Gray Ghost
- Holiday Knights
- Second Chance
- Mad as a Hatter
- Heart of Steel Part II
- Appointment In Crime Alley
- Two-Face Part II
- Pretty Poison
- Deep Freeze
- Harley’s Holiday
- Lock-Up
- Shadow of the Bat Part II
- Feat of Clay Part I
- Cold Comfort
- 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
- Make ‘Em Laugh
- Joker’s Wild
- Eternal Youth
- The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy
- The Cat and the Claw Part I
- Zatanna
- Day of the Samurai
- Avatar
- 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
- The Lion and the Unicorn
- 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
- Time Out of Joint
- Sideshow
- The Under-Dwellers
- The Forgotten
- Showdown
- The Terrible Trio
- I’ve Got Batman in My Basement
Villain Watch
Catwoman (Adrienne Barbeau) (eighth appearance)
I like 90% of Selina’s redesign, with the short, dark hair and black costume definite improvements on BTAS. The only part I’m not into is how her skin is basically pale blue (but only when in costume), making her look a little inhuman. An odd choice.
She continues her rehabilitation tour, remaining firmly in opposition to our heroes without being an out and out villain. Selina is at her best when she’s using her feminine wiles to distract from her master planning, playing a long game with the stolen gem and then targeting the more naïve Dick Grayson to help her get it back rather than the less trusting Batman or Barbara, who would of course still hold a grudge following ‘Batgirl Returns’.
Her spycraft team-ups with Dick are fantastic, moving through the shadows and trading off attacks when things get physical. Honestly, she rules, and she’s overtaken Two-Face in the rankings.
Enrique el Gancho (Sal Lopez) (first appearance)
While he may have limited screen time and borrows Bruce Wayne’s original face (many of the male characters in the series do this), Ricky ‘The Hook’ is a surprisingly fun villain and one of the stronger one-off, non-costumed crooks. A smuggler with a prosthetic hook is good campy fun, and he gives our heroes (and Catwoman) quite a fight. The brutality of the beating Bruce gives him is p. great, too.
- The Joker
- Harley Quinn
- Mr. Freeze
- Poison Ivy
- The Ventriloquist
- Catwoman
- Two-Face
- The Riddler
- The Phantasm
- Baby-Doll
- Bane
- Mad Hatter
- Penguin
- HARDAC (and Randa Duane)
- Clayface
- Ra’s al Ghul
- Lock-Up
- Lloyd Ventrix
- Killer Croc
- Rupert Thorne
- Count Vertigo
- Clock King
- Nivens
- Roland Daggett (and Germs & Bell!)
- Enrique el Gancho (NEW ENTRY)
- Josiah Wormwood
- Scarecrow
- Talia al Ghul
- Sid the Squid
- Queen Thoth Khepera
- Maxie Zeus
- Jimmy ‘Jazzman’ Peake
- Tony Zucco
- Man-Bat
- Rhino, Mugsy and Ratso
- Hugo Strange
- Red Claw
- Arnold Stromwell
- Mad Bomber
- Tygrus
- Kyodai Ken
- Condiment King/Pack Rat/Mighty Mom
- Grant Walker
- Gil Mason
- Nostromos (and Lucas!)
- Cameron Kaiser
- Dr. Dorian (and Garth)
- Mad Dog
- Ubu
- Professor Milo
- Romulus
- Arkady Duvall
- Sewer King
- Boss Biggis
- Montague Kane
- 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, begins coverage of Loki this week.
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