A villain who weaponizes guilt itself. A crazed clown who wants to guarantee he has the last laugh. Two episodes in, and Batman: TAS is already redefining Batman’s rogue’s gallery and transforming them forever.
This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover Batman: The Animated Series Episodes 3 and 4: \"Nothing to Fear\" and \"The Last Laugh.\"
\"Nothing to Fear\" give u our first exposure to Dr. Jonathan Crane, aka the Scarecrow. He has a plan to destroy Gotham State University after being fired for his unorthodox teaching methods. Batman tries to stop this, but a quick spray of Scarecrow’s fear toxin and he’s dealing with a hallucination of Thomas Wayne, ragging him out for his life choices. It's a remarkably dark beat for the third episode of a children's cartoon, and it sets the template for Scarecrow being one of the show's most unexpectedly dark villains.
Then \"The Last Laugh\" brings the Joker back for another shot at the Batman as he unleashes a city-wide laughing toxin via a massive garbage boat. This episode also introduces the Joker’s robotic buddy Captain Clown, and sees the animators learn an important lesson: Standards And Practices will let you do anything you want to a robot.
We dig into how these two episodes establish Scarecrow and the Joker as legitimate threats, the surprisingly dark places the series is willing to go this early, and question how a show can be this good from the very start.
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📌 Topics covered this episode:
– Batman: TAS Episode 3 \"Nothing to Fear\" recap & review
– Batman: TAS Episode 4 \"The Last Laugh\" recap & review
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