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episodicnostalgia · 16 days ago

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Batman: The Animated Series, 102 (Sep. 6, 1992) - “On Leather Wings” [Production order #01]

Written by: Mitch Brian Directed by: Kevin Altieri

This is the episode where…

The Police blame Batman for a Man-Bat’s crimes, thanks to their perfectly-on-brand profiling methods, resulting in a lot of avoidable property damage. In other news, the Batmobile looks amazing, and Alfred has perfect comedic timing.

The Breakdown

A rash of chemical plants are being broken into, and after an injured security guard describes the culprit as a “giant Bat-Creature,” the cops peg Batman as their prime suspect. Naturally they begin a mindful and meticulous investigation to ensure they have the right guy- hahah. No. I’m just kidding. They jump squarely into the deep end on this one, pretty much right away (again, all perfectly on-brand). You see, Detective Bullock went behind Commissioner Gordon’s back, and prematurely announced a “war on Batman” to the press, so now Mayor Hill feels pressured to authorize a task force, to save face (honestly, you really have to admire the cynicism on display in this scene).

Naturally the front-page story about Batman’s alleged B&E (plus aggravated assault) quickly catches his attention, especially since he didn’t actually do it (this time), so he zips over to the plant to investigate the crime scene… by breaking and entering for real. Thankfully Batman is canonically a far superior Detective than virtually any paid professional, and he finds two vital pieces of overlooked evidence. A) Tiny animal fibres that are not dissimilar to something a Bat might shed, and B) the injured security guard’s handheld cassette recorder, with a nifty audio clip of the creature’s high-pitched shriek (the guard was preparing a voice audition at the time of the attack).

[There’s also a whole altercation with the cops here, but I’ll talk about that later. Needless to say, Batman totally dominates.]

Anyways, those clues inspire the Dark Knight to visit the Zoo as Bruce Wayne, seeking the expertise of famed-bat-expert Dr. March, along with his collegiate daughter & son-in-law (Francine and Kirk Langstrom). Bruce hands over the evidence he found the previous night (claiming it’s connected to a bat infestation at his mansion) hoping the friendly family of Bat-scientists might be able to tell him something that his super-computer can’t. However, after Dr. March calls back, claiming that the fibres-and- audio were left by common brown bats, Bruce concludes the Doc is full of shit, and therefore must be connected to the creature; so he returns to the Zoo as Batman.

It turns out March isn’t quite the guy Batman is looking for, but he wasn’t too far off, either. You see, Kirk Langstrom was so enamoured by his father-in-law’s theories (which entail turning humans into giant bats, in order to “survive the next evolutionary cataclysm”, apparently) that he decided to take a stab at a genuine man-bat-hybrid-serum. Evidently, the attempt blew up in Langstrom’s face, transforming him into a living “Jekyll & Bat” trope; and the Man-Bat has been stealing more chemicals to make the change permanent, ever since. But the real kick-in-the-pants? Langstrom had just taken the last necessary component to finalize his transformation, mere seconds before Batman arrived (Talk about poor timing).

So, Kirk transforms into the Man-Bat, and things get violent. Eventually, the creature tries to fly away, and Batman gets dragged around for a tour of the Gotham skyline. Ultimately, Batman figures out his opponent’s weakness is crashing into walls at high-speed, by making that happen. After hauling Langstrom back to the cave, Batman whips up a counter-serum to reverse the doctor’s condition with remarkable ease, because Batman is also canonically very good with all-of-science.

Oh, and I almost forgot! Luckily, the Police witnessed the entire Bat-chase, thus exonerating the Dark Knight, and presumably reinstating him as just a generic fugitive from the law, as opposed to one who justifies a task force. Not bad for an honest (if illegal) night’s work.

The Verdict

I’m gonna have to level with you guys, I’ve never really given ‘On Leather Wings’ a fair shake before now. It’s not that I ever disliked it or anything, but it’s perhaps not as flashy or as widely talked about as some of the later episodes, especially as the writing and animation became more consistent. But yeah, Bruce Timm and Co. really popped off with the pilot, and it immediately establishes the series as more than ‘just another cartoon.’ The story itself is easy to overlook; the plotting is admittedly quite simple and largely predictable, but the dialogue and animation more than make up for it.

Unlike a majority of animated shows during the 90’s (Including one of my other childhood favourites, Spider-man), the dialogue in this episode is far more focused on interpersonal dynamics, over exposition. Most of Alfred’s interactions with Batsy/Bruce tends to revolve more around verbal sparring and repartee, through which we glean enough to understand the plot while simultaneously establishing the nature of their relationship. Likewise, the duality of Batman’s double life is shown to us, and not told. It’s likely that anyone watching this already knows who Batman is and what motivates him, but even if you didn’t, this Pilot-episode provides all the information you need to understand it without additional context, and minimal exposition.

The same can be said for the recurring cast. Who is Commissioner Gordon? Detective Bullock? Mayor Hill? Harvey Dent? Within a single one-minute scene, we are made to understand who all these people are, their stance on Batman, and even their opinions of each other, all of which works to establish the obstacles our hero will face. Many cartoons would approach the same scene by having the characters explain things to each other with convenient exposition dumps, but instead the characters predominantly discuss the situation as if it’s already shared knowledge. It’s slightly trickier to write, especially in a way that resonates with children, but the result is dialogue that avoids feeling affected, unnatural, or rushed (something that was not lost on me even back then).

This approach leaves the animation team some room to flex, which is good because the visual storytelling is where ‘On Leather Wings’ really shines. Firstly, Warner Brothers clearly spared no expense on the pilot, which easily boasts one of the most impressive sequences from the first 60-episode-season, if not the entire show. [I’m talking specifically about the sublime tracking shot of the Man-Bat flying along the length of the police blimp with Batman in-tow.] But more than being visually impressive, the animation is never averse to lingering on a prolonged moment if it makes for a stronger story beat.

At the beginning of the episode when, the security guard is recording his audition tape (hey, we all got dreams), the scene plays out for a solid minute before he’s interrupted by the Man-Bat. It’s a beat that would probably be regarded as superfluous in most other cartoons, but it’s a perfect Chekov’s gun moment that pays off when Batman finds the tape recorder beneath a desk later on. It might have been more direct to simply have Batman find one of the Langstrom’s ID badges, or whatever, but this approach shows us how Batman’s analytical capabilities are as much a part of him, as his ability to throw a punch, all without a single line of dialogue. It’s not complex story telling, it’s strong story telling, reinforcing how one can intelligently cater to children instead of pandering to them.

Were I judging this on the story alone, I might not go much above 3 stars, but going solely based on the animation I’d probably give it a 5, to say nothing of the sound design and musical score. All in all, this is an incredibly impressive pilot, so I’m giving it…

4 stars (out of 5)

Parting Thoughts

Cryptozoology in Gotham City: This isn’t really a critique, but I can’t help but wonder how Batman explained the Man-Bat ordeal to Commissioner Gordon. Bearing in mind, Gordon witnessed Batman punch a giant bat out of the sky, and then drag it off into the shadows, never to be seen again. Surely he must have a few lingering questions about the whereabouts of the flying anthropomorphic beast with a penchant for mutagenic chemicals. Did Batman offer any explanation whatsoever, or is this a “don’t ask don’t tell” situation? How would that conversation even go?

Gordon: Hey, just curious. What exactly did you do with the Giant pants-wearing-Bat? Batman: Oh, that was some guy who just got a little carried away with a science experiment. But I fixed it. Gordon: Uh, okay… so how do we know that’ll never happen again? Batman: *vanishes into the night*

Silly things I find interesting: I have done zero research on this, but I believe this episode may feature one of the earliest on-screen-depictions of Batman being specifically hunted by the police (beyond just being chased from a crime scene). After Batman collects his evidence at the chemical plant, he finds himself cornered-and-hunted by Harvey Bullock’s task force. The ensuing chase shows Batman dodging gunfire, ducking into elevator shafts, employing gas pellets, and escaping a sizable explosion (courtesy of Gotham PD incompetence). The scene is notably reminiscent of Frank Miller’s ‘Year One’ comics, and I’m guessing that’s not a coincidence, since that story was released only a few years prior to this. That same comic would go on to inspire a number of other Batman v Cops sequences, including Christopher Nolan’s ‘Batman Begins,’ and (seemingly) my personal favourite Bat-feature-film ‘The Mask of the Phantasm.’ Today this would all be considered par-for-the-course in a Batman story, but in 1992 it was still a moderately new precedent for Batman to be considered a full-blown fugitive from the law; certainly within a “kids show.”

The sound of bat-music: For all the credit given to Bruce Timm & Paul Dini for the show’s success, one can never overstate the critical importance of the late Shirley Walker’s monumental contribution. Every episode has a fully orchestrated, and almost-entirely original score (with some recurring themes for specific characters and villains), and the impact is undeniable. I don’t believe I’m being in-any-way hyperbolic when I say that the music for this episode would not sound out of place in a feature film. It’s a genuine shame that Walker never became a household name, ala John Williams/Danny Elfman/etc. because she was an incredible talent, who I fully believe could have given those guys a run for their money if given the same opportunities.

Will the real Pilot please stand up? Most fans are up-to-speed on this, but for anyone wondering why I’m referring to episode 102 as ‘the pilot,’ that’s because the episodes were usually produced in a different order than they were released. The first episode to actually air was ‘The Cat and the Claw, Part 1’ in an attempt to capitalize on ‘Batman Returns’ (because Catwoman was in both stories), which had dropped a couple months earlier. Consequently, Part 2 was released a week later as the 8th episode, which I believe was due to a whole wonky thing about differing time-slots that I won’t get into. In an any case, ‘On Leather Wings’ was always intended to be the show’s official pilot.

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