The Matt Signal – Episode 108: Beware the Creeper

Plot summary: Joker celebrates the seventh anniversary of his transformation by tossing Jack Ryder into a vat of chemicals, inadvertently turning him into The Creeper.

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: ‘Beware the Creeper’

Original Air Date: November 7^th, 1998

Directed: Dan Riba (17)

Written: Rich Fogel (5) (story) & Steve Gerber (3)

Bruce Timm quit the show Freakzoid! because he wanted to make the protagonist more like this depiction of The Creeper.

Steve Ditko, creator of The Creeper, gets a nice shout-out in the form of ‘Ditko’s Vintage Clothing’, as well as a mannequin resembling The Question, another of his creations who appeared in Justice League Unlimited.

Batman is drawn to resemble his very first comic book appearance in Ryder’s documentary.

Joker’s Mo, Lar and Cur are of course named for The Three Stooges.

Recap

TV’s Jack Ryder presents a package on The Joker, including his past with the Valestra mob and his transformation at Ace Chemicals. Hilariously, the Murder Clown himself is lurking in the background while Ryder talks to camera.

Joker gasses the whole crew and then tosses Ryder into a vat of chemicals. Batman and Robin arrive on the scene and beat up some henchmen but are forced to let Joker escape in order to try and save Ryder.

Little do they know that Ryder has been transformed into The Creeper, manically talking to himself and leaping around with superhuman agility. He terrifies customers out of a boutique and makes himself a wacky costume.

Joker is displeased somebody is ripping off his routine, so much so that he tosses Harley out after she surprises him by emerging from a giant pie and sings him a song in celebration of the 7^th anniversary of his transformation.

Creeper hits up the Stacked Deck and attacks Joker’s henchmen, demanding to know where their boss is so he can have his revenge. Harley stumbles on the commotion and Creeper falls in lust immediately.

Batman and Robin also get in on the action, but Creeper punches Batman out without even looking at him and then flees with Harley, leaving the heroes to finish the brawl with the henchmen.

Harley quickly gets irritated by Creeper’s zany antics and drops a giant crate on him and heads back to Joker. He shrugs it off and tracks her across Gotham, with Batman and Robin not far behind.

The two green haired psychopaths do battle, leading to a car chase with our heroes clinging onto the back of Creeper’s car for dear life, pleading with Ryder to stop before more people get hurt.

One dramatic crash later, Joker begs Batman to save him from Creeper. Bruce instead handcuffs him and then injects Creeper with a tranquiliser before he can sexually assault Harley. No, really.

Sometime later, Ryder is restored to normal thanks to an antidote patch Batman manufactured. Naturally he peels the patch off as soon as Batman leaves, laughing his ass off as the episode ends.

Best Performance

For as much as I find Creeper annoying, Jeff Bennett is really the only viable option given he has what feels like 80% of the dialogue. He also certainly shows a fair amount of range, starting the episode off as the more straight-laced Jack Ryder before turning into a rambling nonsense factory, constantly changing the volume and tone of his voice. I just really wish the material he had to read was better!

It was nice to hear Billy West do his Three Stooges impression for Joker’s henchmen, especially knowing West was such a huge fan of the group. My enormous soft spot for him tempted me to give him the nod here.

Ranking

A showcase episode for a character that is annoying at best and a sex offender at worst is… not good stuff! I know some people have some affinity for Creeper, but to me it is laughable that the crux of this episode was the idea he and Joker were similar, because they are absolutely night and day. They have green hair, laugh a lot and are ‘like… totally crazy, man’, but the Joker is an iconic all-time villain, and this take on The Creeper is borderline embarrassing. See, he’s a lunatic… get it???

I want to praise them for taking advantage of the show’s continuity and Batman’s history, heavily referencing Mask of the Phantasm and showing Joker’s transformation, complete with an early days Batman. For him to create Creeper on the seven year anniversary of his own change – which Harley attempts to celebrate – feels like a good story, it’s just that I can’t really get past my hatred of Creeper. There’s also the fact Ryder has only appeared a handful of times this season, functionally replacing Summer Gleeson (remember her?)

Maybe you have a high tolerance for him babbling to himself or don’t agree with me that nothing he says is very funny, but how does one defend him repeatedly trying to force himself on Harley? Honestly, I wanted to rank him as a villain for that, but he is canonically as much of a hero as Etrigan the Demon.

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

Villain Watch

The Joker (Mark Hamill) (twentieth appearance)

If you ever need a harsh reminder of how awful Joker’s re-design is, just watch Ryder’s news piece on him that recreates elements of Mask of the Phantasm but with his new look. It’s pretty depressing.

It’s also kind of a bummer that Joker’s final appearance is one where he basically doesn’t stand a chance against Creeper. It’s a strong start, with him hanging out in the background of a news broadcast and then attacking the crew in violent fashion. But then it’s straight on to being clowned (pun intended).

I specifically chose to cover the episodes in intended production order rather than air date, but I can’t argue ‘Mad Love’ would have been a much better send-off for the show’s most iconic villain

Harley Quinn (Arleen Sorkin) (thirteenth appearance)

See the above, really. She’s subjected to Creeper’s unwanted advances over and over, having to be saved by Batman in the end. Sure, she drops a crate on the sex pest, but really, this wouldn’t have happened on Paul Dini’s watch. Popping out of a giant pie probably would have, though.

1. The Joker
2. Harley Quinn
3. Mr. Freeze
4. Poison Ivy
5. The Ventriloquist
6. Catwoman
7. Two-Face
8. Bane
9. The Riddler
10. The Phantasm
11. Baby-Doll
12. Mad Hatter
13. Clayface
14. HARDAC (and Randa Duane)
15. Ra’s al Ghul
16. Livewire
17. Calendar Girl
18. Roxy Rocket
19. Killer Croc
20. Firefly
21. Penguin
22. Scarecrow
23. Lock-Up
24. Lloyd Ventrix
25. Rupert Thorne
26. Mutant Leader
27. Count Vertigo
28. Clock King
29. Klarion (and Teekl!)
30. Nivens
31. Roland Daggett (and Germs & Bell!)
32. Enrique el Gancho
33. Josiah Wormwood
34. Talia al Ghul
35. Sid the Squid
36. Queen Thoth Khepera
37. Maxie Zeus
38. Jimmy ‘Jazzman’ Peake
39. Tony Zucco
40. Man-Bat
41. Rhino, Mugsy and Ratso
42. Hugo Strange
43. Red Claw
44. Arnold Stromwell
45. Mad Bomber
46. Tygrus
47. Kyodai Ken
48. Condiment King/Pack Rat/Mighty Mom
49. Farmer Brown (and Emmylou!)
50. Grant Walker
51. Gil Mason
52. Nostromos (and Lucas!)
53. Cameron Kaiser
54. Dr. Dorian (and Garth)
55. Mad Dog
56. Ubu
57. Thomas Blake
58. Professor Milo
59. Romulus
60. Arkady Duvall
61. Sewer King
62. Boss Biggis
63. Montague Kane
64. 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 in fact not be presenting thoughts on Black Widow as Life Happened. Full steam ahead for What If…?

There Will Be Movies continues Ben & Matt’s look back at the 90s each Wednesday. This week we find out if we can handle the truth with A Few Good Men.