Mr. Freeze
Why did Mr. no-empathy-leave-his-frozen-henchmen-to-die Freeze kidnap Batman and drag him back to his lair (which is… in the basement of the Gothcorp building I guess?) instead of just killing him? That's the one place where character logic gets shoved out of the way for plot.

Did anyone watch that saturday morning anti-drug special in like 1991 with a ton of random cartoon characters all telling kids not to do drugs? It had, like, Michelangelo and Winnie the Pooh hanging out together, or something.

I remain utterly delighted that Lex Luthor, Mr. Krabs, and the villain in Highlander are one and the same.

With a missing cheek he shouldn't really have been able to talk, at least without spitting on everything.

I've always been impressed with just how much they used Rupert Thorne. It feels like he shows up in like a quarter of the episodes. Pretty much anywhere they need a non-gimmicky mobster they just used him.

The Joker actually uses most of the money he steals to fund libertarian think-tanks that convince Gothamites that this would be an unacceptable infringement on their liberty to dress up as clowns.

I haven't seen Batman Beyond in a years, but I remember thinking the Mr. Freeze episode was one of the best.

Yeah, and I've read that Clint Eastwood would have played him. No idea how accurate that is. (Though if they teamed him up with Mr. Freeze you'd get an insane reunion for Blondie and Tuco!)

Gumbercules wins for making me laugh.

Also, before BTAS my only familiarity with Batman was the Adam West show - which of course had no Two-Face. So I had literally no idea who this villain was going in to the episode when it first aired and I was 8 years old. And they they just pile on psychology and tragedy and it's amazing.

Thoughts
Man did I love this episode when I was a kid. I think it was the first time I was exposed to the "split personality" concept and I just found it fascinating. I remember after seeing Part 2 I went and just regurgitated the plot to my mom.

The last clip is actually McBain's *first* appearance, from Season 2's "O Brother Where Art Thou" (the first one with Danny DeVito as Homer's half-brother). It's the movie that got Grandpa so angry that he had a heart attack, which led to thoughts about mortality, which led to him telling Homer he had a half brother.

The one thing that bugs me about Mask of the Phantasm is the chorus singing the theme song. Somehow that pushes it too far from awesome and dramatic into silly for me. Everything else is boss.

Three of the first 10 episodes of this show are Joker eps, what's up with that?

@Paradox Pumpkin MSPA fans gotta represent. Though around here I pretty much just talk about Batman.

Right, these more "realistic" episodes were sort of intriguing/terrifying when I was a kid. I never *wanted* to watch this one, but it left an impression. Now I can see that it kind of sucks, though.

There were like hundreds of different Batman action figures for this show. Scuba Batman, space Batman, jungle Batman, get your parents to buy you ALL of them kids, you have to have all the Batmen for every possible scenario. So it wouldn't surprise me if there was actually a hobo Batman action figure.

Bruce played craps with some bums in an alley in "Robin's Reckoning". Much better use of the idea. And I love that they stuck gambling hobos in a kids' show.

Sexy Batman
http://www.harkavagrant.com…

So what's the first "A" episode we'll get to in your opinion? Two-Face?