The best episodes of Batman: The Animated Series
Ranked by viewer rating, highs first. Lit marks on the season rail place this list across the run. Vote on a placement to back it or contest it.
- 01
The Joker, Killer Croc, the Penguin, Two-Face, and Poison Ivy all meet at a poker table, each telling a tale of times when they almost defeated Batman. At the same time, Harley Quinn is about to kill Catwoman after she rescued Batman from the Joker's electric chair.
- 02
The Joker steals an atomic bomb, and it is up to Batman and Robin to find and stop him. Since there is no time to spare, the duo enlist the help of Harley Quinn to track Joker down.
- 03
When a small time gang member (Matt Frewer) seemingly kills Batman by accident, he gets involved with gangs all over Gotham, as well as the Joker and Rupert Thorne, none of whom believe his story that everything that is happening is by preposterous happenstance.
- 04
During a fight with some gangsters at a construction yard, Batman and Robin learn the name of their boss: Billy Marin. While Robin looks forward to going up against Marin, Batman becomes distant, and after a falling out at the Batcave, Batman doesn't allow Robin to accompany him on the search for Marin. Robin investigates on the Batcomputer, and soon realizes that Billy Marin is not the boss' real name. Rather, it is an alias of Tony Zucco, the man who killed his parents (which Batman already knew, but chose not to tell Robin). Will Robin ever trust Batman again?
- 05
Angered by Batman's deceit, Robin sets out to find Tony Zucco on his own, all the while plagued by the memories of his parents' death and how Bruce took him in as his own son. Eventually, Batman manages to find Zucco at an old amusement park, but breaks his leg during the fight. Robin finally arrives and prepares to kill Zucco in revenge. Can Batman prevent his partner from crossing the line between justice and revenge?
- 06
Cameron Kaiser builds a casino hotel modeled after the Joker, called "The Joker's Wild". The Joker sees this on the news and, enraged, escapes from Arkham again, with one thought on his mind: destroying the casino, unaware that this is exactly what Kaiser wants him to do as part of an insurance claim.
- 07
The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne
After a prominent judge is injured during a struggle with some thugs demanding money from her in exchange for a strange tape, Bruce Wayne decides to take a trip to Yucca Springs, a resort where the judge had vacationed, and consult Dr. Hugo Strange, a psychiatrist. Bruce soon learns that Strange has invented a machine that extracts people's darkest secrets from their minds and transfers them to videotape — and now Strange has proof of Bruce's secret identity as Batman, and plans to auction it to three of Gotham's prominent crime bosses.
- 08
After escaping Arkham Asylum on Christmas Eve, The Joker takes over Gotham's airwaves and terrorizes the city for a crime. He challenges Batman and Robin to find his hidden TV studio and free his hostages — Commissioner Gordon, Detective Bullock and Summer Gleason — before midnight.
- 09
Joker creates a toxin that affects only fish, mutating them into Joker fish. Then, he targets innocent men who refuse to copyright his Joker fish. The Joker also captures Harvey Bullock, and Batman must rescue him and foil the Clown Prince of Crime's insane scheme.
- 10
When the glamorous magician Zatanna is framed for a robbery during her act, Batman swings to her defense. Zatanna is grateful, though a little puzzled, by the Dark Knight's commitment to prove her innocence, but the two heroes unite and use the skills her father, Zatara, taught them to expose and combat the culprit: an evil illusionist named Montague Kane.
- 11
Simon Trent, an actor best known for his past role as "The Gray Ghost", is on the verge of bankruptcy thanks to his declining career. To save himself, he sells off all of his Gray Ghost merchandise. Immediately afterwards, a series of crimes related to the old show begin to occur. Batman, having himself been inspired partly by the show to become the crimefighter he now is, goes to Trent for help, and they team up to put an end to the crimes, and also revive Trent's career.
- 12
Several robberies take place at major companies, including Wayne Enterprises, and Bruce Wayne, as Batman, discovers the thief to be a mechanical briefcase. Bruce meets with his old friend, Karl Rossum, an expert in robotics who lost his daughter to a vehicle accident years ago. He also meets Rossum's assistant, Randa Duane, and Rossum's ultimate creation: a prototype A.I. known as Holographic Analytical Reciprocating Digital Computer (H.A.R.D.A.C.) Bruce invites Duane to dinner, and around the same time, certain civilians start acting strangely. Most surprising is when Duane unexpectedly leaves Wayne Manor while Bruce is on the phone, and the entire Batcave turns on Batman.
- 13
Gotham's new DA, Janet Van Dorn, is out to capture Batman, but both she and him end up captured by a gang of criminals instead. They are soon put on a kangaroo trial by the Joker (the judge), Two-Face (the prosecutor), the Ventriloquist (the bailiff), Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, the Mad Hatter, Killer Croc, the Scarecrow, the Riddler, and other criminals. If the defense (Batman and the D.A.) can prove that Batman is not the cause for everyone's turn to crime, they will be set free. When the jury gives the verdict of 'not guilty', the villains have little intention of following through on their deal.
- 14
Mobster Rupert Thorne attempts to use Harvey Dent's secret split personality to blackmail him. But when Dent meets with Thorne at a chemical plant, "Big Bad Harv" takes over, and the resulting confrontation leads to an explosion that horribly scars half of Dent's face.
- 15
The Scarecrow invents a fear chemical that is activated by adrenaline. Then, he uses it to affect the outcome of athletic events. Whenever a single person becomes agitated, the fear chemical kicks in, turning his excitement to fear. The Scarecrow bets against the sports stars' teams as part of his criminal scheme to scare up some quick cash, and Batman and Robin must foil his plot.
- 16
Bruce Wayne is released from prison on bail. Hagen, as it turns out, survived the murder attempt on him, but at a high cost: the formula entered his body and soaked every single one of his cells, turning him into a shape-shifting mutant. With his newfound powers, Hagen, now calling himself Clayface, decides to take his revenge on Daggett and his men. Can Batman bring Daggett to justice and stop Clayface before innocent people are hurt?
- 17
The leader of the Red Claw group (known herself only as Red Claw) attacks a military train and steals a viral plague, which she intends to release in Gotham if she isn't paid a ransom. Can Batman and Catwoman put aside their differences and work together to stop Red Claw before it is too late?
- 18
A mysterious ninja is robbing Wayne Enterprises subsidiaries, and Batman discovers that the ninja is actually his equal in combat. A grudge against Bruce Wayne and skills to match him can only mean one person: Kyodai Ken, an old rival of Wayne's teacher from his days in Japan, and who was thrown out of the dojo after attempting to rob it, only to be stopped by Wayne. Ken, it turns out, wants revenge.
- 19
When the Joker fires Harley, she tries going on a crime spree of her own, joining up with Poison Ivy, and the two become Gotham's Queens of Crime, much to the Joker's fury.
- 20
The Penguin steals an experimental helicopter from an air show, causing an explosion that temporarily blinds Bruce Wayne. Batman knows he won't be able to wait until his vision returns to track the Penguin down, but will he be able to do so without the use of his eyes?
- 21
When Commissioner Gordon is framed for taking bribes from Rupert Thorne, his daughter Barbara pleads with Batman to show up at a rally being put on in the commissioner's behalf. But when Batman disappears after finding the person behind the frame-up, Barbara takes the law into her own hands as Batgirl.
- 22
Robin discovers that Gil Mason is in league with the underworld and goes to investigate him. He encounters Batgirl along the way, and go their separate ways to stop Mason. They then meet again to learn that Gil is working with Two-Face to take out Gordon, and have Batman (as Matches Malone) captured.
- 23
A washed-up actress named Mary Dahl has become bitter and insane after falling into obscurity and suffering from a disorder that prevents her body from growing to adulthood, thus biologically cursed with literal eternal youth. She kidnaps her TV family, who all led much happier lives and more successful careers than her, and holds them prisoner on the abandoned soundstage of her old show While Robin works fast to free the actors from Baby-Doll's explosive death-trap, Batman pursues the tiny fiend through a deadly carnival funhouse.
- 24
A mysterious bat-like creature terrorizes Gotham City, causing the police force to pursue Batman. The Dark Knight must find the real perpetrator to clear his name.
- 25
Bruce Wayne is framed for the attempted murder of Lucius Fox. The real perpetrator is an actor and master of disguise named Matt Hagen, who was disfigured in a car accident years ago. In order to keep his fame, he secretly started working for Roland Daggett, who provides him with a monthly supply of an addictive face cream known as Renuyu (a pun on "Renew You") that can temporarily reshape his face back to normal, and who wants to take Wayne Enterprises over for marketing expansion. For botching the murder, Hagen's supply is cut off, and when he breaks into Daggett's lab for more Renuyu, he pays the price dearly when Daggett's men drench his face in the formula and force him to swallow liters of it to avoid drowning. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne is arrested and taken into custody, charged with the assault on Fox.
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