Welcome to the first of our series reviewing Batman: The Animated Series, which will cover the first season of the show. Today, we’re reviewing the very first episode “On Leather Wings,” and it’s a good one! To be fair, if you’ve seen this show before, you know that most of them are good ones.
1. “I gather you’ve been reading How to Make Friends and Influence People”
The first thing Batman does in this whole show, besides sit and read a newspaper, is smile. It seems entirely antithetical to the character and, in a time where the appropriateness of tone and humor in superhero films is up for near constant debate, it’s interesting to note how things were done in what is widely known as one of the greatest superhero adaptations of all time. This episode never has “BWAHAHAHAHA” laugh out loud humor – I don’t know that I even chuckled watching the episode. However, what I did was smile, and smile a lot. Humor here builds relationships and endears the audience to characters. There’s a genuine affection for Batman and Alfred at the end of this episode, not because they made you laugh, but because they made you happy.
2. High Score!
I can not give Shirley Walker enough praise for the score of this show. This episode is scored better than some movies, and you clearly notice it.
3. Sympathetic Villains?
Batman: The Animated Series has long been championed for its ability to create sympathetic villains. Its reinvention of the Mr. Freeze character bled over into the comics and won the show an Emmy. Due to that reputation, I was quite surprised to see how one note Man-Bat was portrayed here. There’s an attempt to make it seem as if Dr. Langstrom has become addicted to the power of being Man-Bat, or to make it seem like Man-Bat is possessing him, but the delivery of the voice acting and animation only ever portrays a character who is proud of what he’s done. He truly only has a single facet.
4. Technical Hiccups
When looking there are a few moments that let you know that this is a pilot episode. There are times when there are little pauses during conversations that sound weird. There’s a moment when the swat team rolls out and they’re all just kind of bouncing around and making noise and it looks like something out of a completely different cartoon. They hadn’t completely found their identity yet, which is completely understandable with this being the first episode, but it is noticeable.
5. It’s just plain good
My personal barometer for any form of entertainment’s quality is generally whether I watch it and I’m engrossed. Do I review it in my head as I’m watching it, or do I just get to enjoy it? With that being said, I’ll say that Batman: The Animated Series is good. The story, animation, voice acting, score and everything else makes a product that’s wholly enjoyable. I had to watch this episode 3 or 4 times to review it simply because I kept falling into the show and forgetting I needed to be looking for things to talk about in the review.
