Nothing to Fear

The next installment in my quest through Batman: The Animated Series is "Nothing to Fear," the third episode produced and tenth aired, making its debut on Sept. 15, 1992.

This is the first appearance of the Scarecrow, and as a whole, he did a really good job. However, I have to take a point off for his terrible design in this episode. He looked more goofy than scary with his long feet and balloon-ish head. Luckily, this is the only time we see him this way.

When Batman first encounters Scarecrow, he comes in prepared, wearing a gas mask. But the Scarecrow is also prepared, shooting Batman with a fear toxin dart gun. I really like a villain with a backup plan. I also really enjoyed how Scarecrow was fascinated with seeing what his fear toxin did to people. There were a couple of times where he almost didn't make his getaway because he was busy trying to see what Batman and other people were afraid of. So I'll give back that point I took off.

This episode is also important in that it shows the first mention of Batman's parents and what Batman is really afraid of. This series never really does an exact retelling of Batman's origin, choosing instead to allude to it occasionally and show the effects it is still having on Batman. Here, Batman is struggling with living the double life he has created for himself. To convince others he's not Batman, he has to act as un-Batman-like as possible when he's Bruce Wayne. But by doing so, he sometimes puts the Wayne family name in a bad light. He probably also has to think that his parents never really wanted him to become a vigilante, but just be a good guy running the company. So it was really nice to see that Scarecrow's toxin caused Batman to see his father expressing disappointment in him. Nowadays in the comics, whenever Batman meets Scarecrow, all he sees is Jason Todd dying, so this was a nice change of pace for me. The score is now a 6.

I will add another point for the powerful moment when Batman finally fought off the toxin by delivering the immortal line: "I am vengeance! I am the night! I AM BATMAN!" I think that is the line that truly made Kevin Conroy THE voice for Batman. Later, this line became kind of a signature for this show, being used in many commercials and other forms of media.

I will add a final point for the last scene of Batman placing roses on his parents' tombstone. Like I said, this was the first time they dealt with the loss of Batman's parents, and this touching scene was a nice way of reiterating that point. The death of his parents was his main inspiration, and he (and the viewers) need to be reminded of that from time to time.

Final score: 8 out of 10.