Plot summary: When Livewire comes to Gotham and teams up with Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, Supergirl joins forces with Batgirl to take them down.
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: ‘Girls’ Night Out’
Original Air Date: October 17th, 1998
Directed: Curt Geda (6)
Written: Hilary J. Bader (6)
While Batman has appeared in every other DC Animated Universe show, this is the first and only time any of the other shows’ characters has appeared in BTAS/TNBA.
Livewire and Penguin quote lines from A Few Good Men and It’s a Wonderful Life respectively.
A rare episode featuring none of Robin, Nightwing, Alfred or Commissioner Gordon. Heck, Batman is only in it for a few seconds on a video screen.
Recap
Livewire is being driven from Metropolis to Gotham in the hopes of her condition being reversed. Unfortunately the prison truck drives right by some electrical works which she immediately absorbs power from and escapes.
Making matters worse, Batman is out of the city and won’t make it back for another 48 hours, so promises to call in some help for Batgirl, who gets to drive the Batmobile while he’s away, so that’s pretty sweet.
Babs attempts to tackle Livewire solo but gets thoroughly electrocuted (despite the Batmobile explicitly being shock-proof). Luckily, Bruce’s back-up arrives in the form of Supergirl, house-sitting for her cousin.
Kara doesn’t fare all that much better, but Livewire runs out of charge and has to bail. Harvey Bullock mocks the two heroes and wonders where Batman is, because the patriarchy.
Elsewhere, Harley Quinn is once again complaining how bored she is hiding out with her ‘just good friend’, Poison Ivy. Harlz wants to go out on the town, but Ivy warns against it given how much police attention they draw.
Enter Livewire! The trio get straight to robbing a shopping mall, with Harley ending up a bit of a third wheel to her two super-powered cohorts.
Their antics attract Supergirl and Batgirl who fight smart not hard this time, covering Livewire in silicate dust, which is completely electrical-resistant.
Harley and Ivy (but mostly Ivy) take out the heroes and escape with Livewire, who is wiped out after Quinn douses her in water to wash off the dust…
Barbara and Kara regroup and express envy for each other’s lives before heading to the Iceberg Lounge, where the villains caused another scene. Penguin wishes their male counterparts were there, because the patriarchy.
Oswald accepts they’re his only option and tips them off to the location of Poison Ivy’s hideout. They try to stealthily infiltrate the compound, but Ivy’s plants tip her off and chaos erupts.
Ivy brings topiary animals to life and sets them on Supergirl while Babs desperately avoids Livewire’s bolts. Luckily, a stray spark ignites one of Ivy’s “babies”, causing her to use water to put it out… which takes out Livewire… which electrocutes Ivy.
Kara and Barbara have a girls’ night in and are appalled at Harvey Bullock labelling them rookies on a news broadcast… but then he says they have potential so they high five.
Best Performance
Lori Petty absolutely sings as Livewire, making it abundantly clear why she’s such a memorable character despite making so few appearances. Petty imbues her with as much sass as any of Gotham’s regulars, playfully insulting literally every character she encounters. I particularly liked the affectation of calling Harley & Ivy “babies”. But it’s not pure attitude, she also has a dangerous, matter-of-fact edge, with the vocal performance making it believable that she could and would murder the heroes.
Nicholle Tom and Tara Strong make for quite the double act too, making the Supergirl/Batgirl friendship enjoyable enough that I was left wishing for more team-ups.
Arleen Sorkin is owed an apology for basically being asked to make sex noises as Harley repeatedly tries to break things open with her hammer.
Ranking
Most of this series has been about proving the power of the ensemble after Batman as a solo series went about as far as it could. This episode pushed that premise to the limit by telling another rare story with basically no Batman, and it was mostly successful. More importantly, for such a macho-dominated genre, it gave five female characters the spotlight, and in that respect it was… also mostly successful.
To be fair to the show, it’s actually surprisingly good when it comes to things like sexism and racism, especially considering it’s a superhero property made in the 90s. There have definitely been some icky moments, but fewer than you’d expect. Fittingly, this episode showcases strong female characters in a way that doesn’t feel overly forced but has a slightly disappointing ending. I can live with Harvey Bullock and Penguin’s blatant chauvinism as they’re written as scummy, and the latter gets an immediate comeuppance, but for it to end with Barbara and Kara celebrating the tiniest modicum of praise felt a bit patronising.
For as much as I hated ‘Showdown’ for basically being a Jonah Hex show with 2 minutes of Batman, this episode maintained everything BUT its protagonist, demonstrating what a strong world they’ve built over 100+ episodes. Batgirl has been a breakout star, and the Harley & Ivy combo are the best villains not named Joker, so these were about the safest hands we could be left in without Bruce around, and throwing some strong fan favourites into the mix as guests was the cherry on top.
The fight scenes were a lot of fun, with creative uses of powers and everybody getting the spotlight, including a powerless Batgirl twice getting the better of an extremely powerful Livewire, and Supergirl not completely dominating the action. Kara made for a fun addition in general, and the scene where she and Barbara compared lives featured excellent character development for both.
Overall, it was basically a better version of ‘Batgirl Returns’, with stronger villains and supporting characters. There was potentially a smidge too much to try and do in the runtime, with Harley left out in the cold a bit, but it was 90% of the way to being a great episode.
- The Laughing Fish
- Mask of the Phantasm
- Over the Edge
- Almost Got ‘im
- Heart of Ice
- Harlequinade
- The Trial
- Riddler’s Reform
- Double Talk
- Legends of the Dark Knight
- 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
- Girls’ Night Out (NEW ENTRY)
- Torch Song
- You Scratch My Back
- Bane
- Batgirl Returns
- A Bullet For Bullock
- Joker’s Favor
- Read My Lips
- Feat of Clay Part II
- The Ultimate Thrill
- Catwalk
- The Demon’s Quest Part II
- Harley and Ivy
- Robin’s Reckoning Part II
- House & Garden
- Beware the Gray Ghost
- Mean Seasons
- Old Wounds
- Growing Pains
- 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
- Joker’s Millions
- Heart of Steel Part I
- Never Fear
- On Leather Wings
- Love is a Croc
- 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?
- The Demon Within
- Animal Act
- Night of the Ninja
- Fire From Olympus
- Mudslide
- The Cat and the Claw Part II
- Nothing to Fear
- The Lion and the Unicorn
- Prophecy of Doom
- Cult of the Cat
- 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
- Critters
- The Terrible Trio
- I’ve Got Batman in My Basement
Villain Watch
Livewire (Lori Petty) (first appearance)
It’s hard to believe Livewire only appeared in two episodes of Superman: The Animated Series, as she feels so iconic, perhaps due to this episode being so popular. I covered a lot of her personality in the voice section, but she’s also has a killer design, paired with her incredibly fun electrical powers. She seems borderline unstoppable… but has three major weaknesses (water, strong insulation and her need to recharge), letting her completely wreck shop without outright murdering all the heroes. Simple, effective stuff.
I suppose there’s an argument that she should not be ranked as she’s being borrowed from another show, but that’s dumb.
Harley Quinn (Arleen Sorkin) (eleventh appearance)
It seemed at first that they going to tell a story of Harley being jealous of Livewire and Ivy’s burgeoning friendship, but that was quickly dropped in favour of Livewire just being abrasive to everybody. As a result, Harley fades into the background during the closing stretch, literally knocking herself out to leave it a 2-on-2 battle. Weaaaak.
Still, very fun when Kara uses x-ray vision to look through the wall where Harley is pulling faces at her.
Poison Ivy (Diane Pershing) (eighth appearance)
Ivy on the other hand looked as strong, if not stronger than ever, thanks to tying Supergirl up in vines, nearly murdering Babs by tricking Kara into releasing deadly spores, and her enormous plant creatures stomping the heroes at the end. Powerful AND smart!
She also inadvertently takes out Livewire by trying to save her plant children, staying true to her character to the end.
The Penguin (Paul Williams) (tenth appearance)
I look at the below ranked list of villains, and I instinctively feel Penguin is too low… and yet he has more middling-to-bad appearances than good and I feel more strongly about every single character ahead of him on the list.
This was kind of nothing, with him yet again playing at going straight, but still being a scumbag. At least the ladies trashed his club and the heroes pointed out how stupid he was being?
- The Joker
- Harley Quinn
- Mr. Freeze
- Poison Ivy
- The Ventriloquist
- Catwoman
- Two-Face
- Bane
- The Riddler
- The Phantasm
- Baby-Doll
- Mad Hatter
- Clayface
- HARDAC (and Randa Duane)
- Ra’s al Ghul
- Livewire (NEW ENTRY)
- Calendar Girl
- Roxy Rocket
- Killer Croc
- Firefly
- Penguin
- Scarecrow
- Lock-Up
- Lloyd Ventrix
- Rupert Thorne
- Mutant Leader
- Count Vertigo
- Clock King
- Klarion (and Teekl!)
- Nivens
- Roland Daggett (and Germs & Bell!)
- Enrique el Gancho
- Josiah Wormwood
- 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
- Farmer Brown (and Emmylou!)
- Grant Walker
- Gil Mason
- Nostromos (and Lucas!)
- Cameron Kaiser
- Dr. Dorian (and Garth)
- Mad Dog
- Ubu
- Thomas Blake
- 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, will present some quick thoughts on Black Widow, as Ben & Matt’s Marvellous Journey won’t be covering it for quite some time.
There Will Be Movies continues Ben & Matt’s look back at the 90s each Wednesday. This week catch some surf with Point Break.
The Reel World 