After twenty issues of The Batman Adventures, it was clear that the Batman: The Animated Series spin-off was a success. Capturing the imaginative and fluid artistic style of Bruce Timm through wonderful artists like Mike Parobeck, the creative team hit the nail on the head when it came to recreating the magic of the series for the printed page. While the stories I’ll be looking at here are (aside from their content obviously) no different from the kinds of tales provided previously, issues 21-27 offer something different. Specifically, issue 25 is a memorable story that teams Batman up with none other than the Man of Steel himself. You see, BTAS wasn’t just any success. It launched a universe of animated shows – known as the DC Animated Universe (DCAU) – such as Justice League, Justice League: Unlimited, Batman Beyond, and of course Superman: The Animated Series. Superman’s appearance here is the first time the DCAU expands. And along with Superman, we get his archfoe too…
The Batman Adventures 21-27 (published from June 1994 to January 1995) was written by Kelley Puckett and Michael Reaves with art by Mike Parobeck and Rick Burchett. Reading these issues in The Batman Adventures Volume 3 trade paperback, the collected edition also included an annual, but we’ll get to that one day soon…
House of Dorian --- Written by Kelley Puckett and Michael Reaves, with art by Mike Parobeck and Rick Burchett
The Batman Adventures is a title that wouldn’t exist without the success and presence of BTAS. Despite this obvious fact, Kelley Puckett as the main writer of the title has often created new villains or used the great classics for most of the issues. The Batman Adventures 21 is a bit different. Like issue 12, which featured Harley Quinn, House of Dorian reintroduces us to Emile Dorian. This mad scientist appeared in an episode of the series and developed a Man Bat-like serum which transformed people into literal cat-people. In this story, Dorian escapes from Arkham Asylum and surprises Professor Kirk Langstrom, seemingly no longer victim to his Man Bat craze. However, Dorian changes this – he transforms Langstrom back into Man-Bat and controls him. While Dorian orders his new minion to find Batman, another story is taking place on a mysterious island. One of Dorian’s victims, Tygrus – a half-man, half-cat creature (created by Dorian) who fell in love with Selina Kyle – plots his revenge against the villain. Selina becomes involved in the story as the two plots merge, resulting in Dorian attempting another of his mad experiments, this time on the Dark Knight himself. But, no longer under his control, Man Bat arrives to save the day and defeat Dorian. Often a bit too convoluted a story and slightly messy, the two stories do converge into one quite nicely. However, maybe this tale could have benefitted from not just one, but two issues. Throughout, Puckett writes some decent emotional scenes featuring Tygrus – this could have been expanded more with another issue. Regardless, it’s good that Puckett is using characters from the animated series and overall, this story feels memorable because of its large cast and different themes.
Good Face Bad Face --- Written by Kelley Puckett with art by Mike Parobeck and Rick Burchett
It’s about time we were treated to a Two-Face tale! In previous stories, DA Harvey Dent has been a visible character. Once an ally of Batman, an accident involving Rupert Thorne, an explosion, and the unleashing of a very strong personality disorder resulted in Harvey Dent becoming Two-Face. Here in Batman Adventures 22, Puckett depicts Two-Face on one of his first villainous exploits. Escaping from Arkham Asylum, Two-Face has made it his goal to go after some of the crooks he put behind bars during his time as DA. Instead of killing them, Two-Face has decided to employ them in his new gang. The point of interest here is Batman takes a very soft attitude towards Two-Face. After all, Harvey Dent was his friend and Batman strongly believes that he can help this tortured soul. It’s nice that Puckett fills in a gap in the chronology of the animated universe – by all evidence this does seem to be Two-Face’s first fight with Batman, after his first appearance in BTAS of course. Overall, it’s very simple and quick read, not bogged down by unnecessary dialogue or boring moments. Batman’s attitude towards Harvey, while well known in later stories, feels fresh here as it’s intriguing to see the Dark Knight view a villain not as a foe, but as a friend in need.
Toxic Shock --- Written by Kelley Puckett with art by Mike Parobeck and Rick Burchett
At first, the Batman Adventures 23 appears to be a typical Poison Ivy story. But when you beginning reading, you discover that the cover featuring Poison Ivy controlling Batman is very inaccurate. While visiting Gotham, Gabriel Molinos, Head of the South American Economic Council, is poisoned. Batman, in search of somebody willing to aid this nature loving political figure, enlists the help of Poison Ivy.
Although a villainess, Poison Ivy works well here as her character is smarter, more intelligent than usual. More often than not, it’s her attractiveness that dominates a story. That doesn’t apply here – don’t get me wrong, she is still manipulative and has her own plans, but at least things are different. In the end, it’s revealed that Molinos is poisoned by a traitor on his own side. This drama frankly feels too simplistic and a bit dull. Stories focusing on betrayal and government feel cliched, and this one doesn’t stray from that well-trodden path. As I said, I like how Poison Ivy has been worked in the plot, but overall, it lacks much action and drama to make Toxic Shock highly interesting or at all memorable.
Grave Obligations --- Written by Kelley Puckett with art by Mike Parobeck and Rick Burchett
The Batman Adventures 24 easily has to qualify for the least-wordiest story in the whole run. While that may not exactly be saying much since most issues of the run are easily digestible, Grave Obligations is full of action, ninjas, and little dialogue. In effect, it’s a battle between two ninjas against Batman. One of the trained ninja assassins believes that the Dark Knight killed their brother – therefore it’s the mission to silence Batman. While there isn’t much written about how Batman didn’t kill the brother, the drama in the story emerges when the leader of the ninja clan is revealed to have a life debt to Batman. Therefore, the ninjas are going against their boss’s orders. When the ninja boss is revealed at the end, he sentences his minions to death, but Batman rescues them by surrendering his debt. I suppose that Puckett wanted to show that Batman doesn’t resort to killing his enemies and that he values all life. While there isn’t really enough background explicitly given about the ninjas throughout, it’s a quick read and Puckett makes each page enjoyable. But on the whole, there really isn’t anything hugely valuable to dig your teeth into.
Super Friends --- Written by Kelley Puckett with art by Mike Parobeck and Rick Burchett
For The Batman Adventures 25, this is where the DC Animated Universe expands! At a dinner party for the rich and famous, Bruce Wayne, the richest man in Gotham, meets Alexander Luthor, the richest man in Metropolis. Lex – still with his long ginger hair – sees himself in a rivalry with Bruce and his business. And then Bruce meets another familiar face from Metropolis, Clark Kent. A journalist from the Daily Planet, Clark’s meeting with Bruce is cut short. Clark rushes off to become Superman and defuse a bomb at the party. Right from the start, it’s clear that Lex is behind this, but his plan moves along quickly as Lex presents Gotham and the police force with his own Lexcorp Hunter-Seekers. These robots are basically crime-stoppers, and Lex boasts that he can clean up Gotham and Metropolis without any help from the World’s Finest duo. Lex is using these robots as something of a trial goal – the main objective is to get a secret contact with the US military so he can make even more money in sketchy ways. At the end of the story, Batman and Superman threaten Lex with this knowledge and force him to abandon his plans. This is the overall story of Super Friends, but there are some scenes of teaming up to fight some villains. The secondary foe of The Batman Adventures 25 is Maxie Zeus, a pretty embarrassing character with heavy delusions about being Zeus himself. Although Luthor’s robots interfere, it’s good to see Batman and Superman team up in a fight. As a character, Superman is no different than his usual square-self. With boyish confidence, Superman (for some reason) has that awful mullet hair-do that the mainstream character had after the Death of Superman story. While that is something of a weird-plot, it doesn’t take long to get over and by the end, this team-up between DC’s hardest hitters is good fun.
Tree of Knowledge --- Written by Kelley Puckett with art by Mike Parobeck and Rick Burchett
The Batman Adventures 26 lacks a Batman. Like the previous story, we’re treated to a heroic duo working together to fight crime. Instead of the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel, it’s time for Robin and Batgirl. Studying criminology at the same university, Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon are taught by a wacky teacher who takes note of their speedily developing skills and knowledge. He enlists their help for some research, but the in background, Dick and Barbara work together as Robin and Batgirl to discover that their teacher is involved in some diamond smuggling scheme. This story is more about Batgirl than Robin. Unlike Dick, who has been in the crimefighting ring since his childhood, Barbara is new to this game. For now, she lacks the calculative and cold mind that is required to echo the same thoughts as a criminal. To beat a criminal, you have to think like one. Batgirl is the one at the end who arrests her teacher as she begins to change her approach to crimefighting. Overall, Robin does take a backseat, but that’s no problem when Puckett puts Batgirl on a character developing path.
Survivor Syndrome --- Written by Kelley Puckett with art by Mike Parobeck and Rick Burchett
To make up for the absence of Batman in the last issue, the Batman Adventures 27 features not one, but two Dark Knights. In the backstreets of Gotham, a newer and more classic-looking Batman has become famous for fighting crime. Aware of this new vigilante, the real Batman locates him and brings him back to the Bat-Cave. Batman discovers that this other Batman is actually similar to himself. Named Tom Dalton, this other Batman fell victim to a mob boss as his girlfriend was murdered. Seeking vengeance, Dalton wanted to be Batman to fight the mob. Instead of deterring Dalton from the path of vigilantism, Batman encourages him and together they take out the mob boss.
At the end, we’re shown that predictable moment when Dalton nearly throws away all of his training and comes close to killing the mob boss. But, with Batman’s words of encouragement, he resists the temptation. The morals and practicality of Batman transforming one victim into a vigilante is bizarre and nonsensical here. Why Dalton? Is it because he is physically strong? I think that Batman’s approach here would have been sympathy obviously, but then he would have taken care of Dalton’s problem for him. Batman’s plan here just doesn't seem very Batman to me, even if it does deliver an interesting read. The first ten pages or so, with the suspense and mystery surrounding Dalton’s Batman, is masterfully written.
Twelve Days of Madness --- Written by Kelley Puckett with art by Mike Parobeck and Rick Burchett
Okay, okay. I know that The Batman Adventures 28 is actually reprinted in the fourth volume of the collected series, but what the heck. Unlike the previous stories thus far, Twelve Days of Madness is a pretty comedic tale. With the Joker in Arkham Asylum, he somehow reaches a phone to contact Harley Quinn, giving her some kind of plan. Is this an escape plan? Maybe so, but that’s the case, then the Joker’s plan is by-and-far the most convoluted and bizarre break-out scheme ever. Instead of breaking him out with ease and some explosions, Harley Quinn disguises herself a wacky old professor and pretends to the staff of the asylum that she is treating the Joker. This rouse, while highly entertaining, works for far longer than it should. With Batman present, Harley Quinn’s guise fails and it’s all back to square one – the only difference this time is that Harley Quinn is now inside Arkham with the Joker. Puckett captures the comedy of this issue wonderfully, and while it may heavily stretch the boundaries of believability, it’s good fun and is memorable.
Once again, the double team of Mike Parobeck and Rick Burchett bring wonderful life to some great stories. They continue to capture Bruce Timm’s style well and manage to add in their own storytelling techniques and drama throughout. If you’ve read my previous reviews, then you’ll know what I think in more detail. There’s nothing really new to add here – the art remains steadily great and dramatically throughout the whole title.
VERDICT
Overall, this third and penultimate batch of stories from The Batman Adventures title continues to be high quality. It’s amazing that Puckett – for his occasional and sometimes glaring use of absurd or even below-par plots – has the energy and variety throughout which makes each and every issue unique. Including Superman in the title added some fresh air and more characters into the universe, while other tales featuring the likes of Two-Face, Poison Ivy, and the Joker came across very well. Sure, some stories lack memorability, but you can certainly say that there is nothing terrible here.
Next Week: The Batman Adventures: The Book of Memory (The Batman Adventures 29-36). Written by Kelley Puckett, Alan Grant, and Ty Templeton, with art by Dev Madan, Rick Burchett and Mike Parobeck.
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