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Batman: The Animated Series is one of the greatest superhero cartoons ever conceived, but it still had its fair share of bad episodes. To this day, Batman: The Animated Series is the definitive version of the Batman mythos for many fans, and for good reason. However, it’s impossible to pretend that the flaws of Batman: The Animated Series don’t exist, as evidenced by a handful of particularly tough episodes to sit through.
When diving back into Batman: The Animated Series, it’s not unreasonable to want to skip several episodes in particular. While the best episodes of Batman: The Animated Series have stood the test of time, the occasional dud does still rear its head each season. What makes these particular installments so bad might be a combination of corniness, uncharacteristically bad animation, or boring filler storylines that don’t hold a candle to the series’ best.
10
Cat Scratch Fever
Doesn’t fulfill its promise
Batman: The Animated Series had one of the best versions of Catwoman ever, a seductive yet dangerous Selina Kyle that had hints of redemption early on. It might be surprising to see an episode putting her front and center by rated so lowly, but the title of Cat Scratch Fever is a total misnomer. Despite being themed around cats and featuring Catwoman, Selina barely has any screentime here.
The plot centers on Catwoman looking for her missing cat, Isis, in the wake of a court hearing that determines her future as either a criminal or a law-abiding citizen. The episode also introduces the deranged animal scientist Dr. Milo, who has a strange knack for showing up in the series’ worst episodes. The low stakes, lack of agency for Catwoman, and particularly cheap-looking animation of this episode makes it a true chore to rewatch.
9
See No Evil
Features of the lamest original villains the show ever introduced
Batman: The Animated Series‘ original villains might have had an incredible effect on the DC universe as a whole, but for every Harley Quinn, there’s at least a handful of forgettable duds. Enter See No Evil, which introduces one of the most uninteresting original villains the show ever put forth. The episode sees Batman go up against Lloyd Ventrix, a smarmy bad guy with an invisible suit.
Ventrix’s convoluted plan involves kidnapping his own daughter after his ex-wife files a restraining order against him like a twisted spin on Mrs. Doubtfire. Despite this creepy set-up, the episode spends an inordinate amount of time on jokes compared to the average episode of Batman: The Animated Series. As a result, Batman feels more like an off-brand Spider-Man here rather than himself, and nothing of note happens throughout the entire boring slog.
8
Prophecy Of Doom
Woo-woo spiritualism presented with no flair
Yet another lame original villain is presented in Prophecy of Doom, which makes good on the show’s initial promise to never delve into the magical or fantastical. Here, a failed actor takes the persona of the prophet oracle Nostromos, making public predictions that eerily come true. Of course, it turns out that Nostromos is nudging fate himself, orchestrating elaborate plots to ensure that his stated forecasts come into reality.
Nostromos might just be one of the least-threatening villains Batman goes up against in the entire show. On top of that, the glacial pacing ensures the majority of the episode is just rich dolts buying Nostromos’ made-up prophecies. With a distinct lack of stakes, interesting action sequences, or anything of note to say other than clowning on gullible people who fall for pseudoscience like Nostromos’ sermons, Prophecy of Doom is one of the most skippable episodes in Batman: The Animated Series.
7
Night Of The Ninja
Batman battles generic ninjas
Batman has always been a character somewhat rooted in martial arts storytelling thanks to his extensive training prior to becoming Batman. This is explored much better in films like Batman Begins than it is in Night of the Ninja, one of the most lazily-constructed episodes of Batman: The Animated Series ever conceived. Batman goes up against the painfully generic ninja Kyodai Ken while occasionally recalling his training in the East.
One would think that Night of the Ninja would have some of the best fight scenes in Batman: The Animated Series, giving Bruce a rare worthy opponent equal to him in skill. Yet every battle with Ken is interrupted by some plot convenience, and the multitude of flashbacks pulls the viewer out of the action even more. On top of that, Robin is uncharacteristically helpless in this episode, a dissappointment considering how much the show did to make Robin cool again.
6
The Underdwellers
A bizarre tonal clash with a strange villain
Though it has had a lasting appeal on all ages, at the end of the day, Batman: The Animated Series is a Saturday morning cartoon largely aimed at kids. Episodes like The Underdwellers are painful reminders of this while also trying and failing to integrate some more adult themes. Here, Batman faces down the twisted Sewer King, a creepy old man living in the sewers employing an army of homeless children to commit crimes for him.
Between his adolescent minions and his sewer alligators, the Sewer King is a puzzlingly-conceived villain in Batman’s animated rouges’ gallery. Child homelessness is a serious enough concept for the show to consider turning on its more adult tone for, yet the episode spends a lot of time trying to squeeze laughs out of hi-jinks with the stuffy Alfred taking care of a street ragamuffin. In the background, the music in this episode is just as tonally confused as the story, making for an infamously messy experience.
5
Tyger, Tyger
Another animal-themed snoozefest
If Batman: The Animated Series could name an undiscovered species of feline for every time it made a terrible episode featuring Catwoman and a villain with a penchant for genetically modifying animals, it’d have a choice of two new cats to add to the animal kingdom. In Tyger, Tyger, Catwoman gets turned into a literal cat woman by the mad scientist Dr. Emile Dorian. Dorian also unleashes his own humanoid animal minion, Tygrus, against the Dark Knight.
For whatever reason, this episode can’t seem to establish any solid stakes, with Catwoman’s transformation treated as more of an annoyance than the terrifying predicament it is. Tygrus and Dr. Dorian are also both quite forgettable, especially considering the series already has multiple villainous biologists who might’ve fit better. Worst of all, Catwoman’s awkward flirty relationship with the lab-grown cat man is uncomfortable enough to make this episode a definitive skip.
4
Moon Of The Wolf
More of a Scooby-Doo episode than a Batman: The Animated Series episode
Batman: The Animated Series really seems to struggle with animal-themed episodes, as evidenced further by Moon of the Wolf. Initially, the premise of Batman battling a lycanthrope might be an intriguing one, espeically considering the commitment to staying away from magic the series adhered to early on. However, Batman’s encounter with the eye-rollingly-named athlete Anthony Romulus is more reminiscent of a corny episode of Scooby-Doo than Batman: The Animated Series.
First of all, the episode begins with Batman being lured into the most obvious trap of all time, as Romulus simply invites Batman to his house to accept some money for charity. Secondly, the episode sees the return of Dr. Milo, who quickly turns out to be one of the most incompetent and ineffectual villains Batman has ever fought. Between the ludicrous set-up, goofy concept, and weak execution, Moon of the Wolf is a ridiculous episode right down to its very title.
3
I’ve Got Batman In My Basement
Weakens both Batman and one of his most famous villains
Speaking of ineffectual Batman villains, one of the Caped Crusader’s more recognizable foes that is consistently done dirty by Batman: The Animated Series is The Penguin. Driving that point home is I’ve Got Batman in my Basement, which sees The Penguin defeated by a gaggle of normal neighborhood kids. Perhaps even more embarrassing is the fact that Batman needed their help in the first place, ending up in one of their basements as a safehouse as the title implies.
I’ve Got Batman in my Basement is another one of those episodes that suffers immensely from Batman: The Animated Series‘ kid-friendly appeal, feeling aimed at a far younger age group than the series normally entertains. The Penguin is foiled embarrassingly easily by the kids, and the way they become involved in the first place at all by chasing one of his prized buzzards suspends disbelief quite far. There’s a good reason this episode is considered to be the series’ worst by even the most die-hard fans.
2
The Mechanic
A rare example of negative worldbuilding
Batman: The Animated Series had one of the coolest takes on the Batmobile in any piece of Batman media, a sleek design reminiscent of the 1989 movie. Sadly, its mystique is slightly ruined by the revelation that it’s serviced by a normal civilian mechanic, as is described in the episode The Mechanic. Here, The Penguin finally takes advantage of this obvious security risk, menacing the hapless trade worker to strike at his foe.
The existence of The Mechanic simply raises too many questions. Does Batman need insurance on the Batmobile? Why would he trust the vehicle to be worked on outside of the Bat-Cave? The episode doesn’t address these gaping plot holes, but it does somehow find time for a series of boring flashbacks explaining how the mechanic came to be in Batman’s employ. The Mechanic exemplifies the idea that when it comes to worldbuilding, sometimes less is more.
1
The Terrible Trio
Batman somehow struggles with bored rich kids
Batman has so many compelling villains from the comics to pull from, from masterminds like The Riddler or The Mad Hatter to terrifying brutes like Killer Croc and Bane. But with so many episodes, it was only a matter of time before Batman: The Animated Series would draw a less-compelling villain in the Terrible Trio. This group of rich kids commit crimes for the sheer thrill of it, wearing generic animal masks as they go up against Batman.
It’s completely ridiculous that Batman has to struggle with these spoiled brats at all, considering they’re inexperienced adrenaline junkies with no special equipment. The 2004 The Batman cartoon at least made the group somewhat interesting by giving them full-on animal transformations. Unfortunately, The Terrible Trio is a rare dud amid the normal excellence that is Batman: The Animated Series.
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