The Cat and the Claw

"The Cat and the Claw" is another two-part story for Batman: The Animated Series, with the episodes being the 15th and 16th ones produced. But the first part was actually the first episode aired on Sept. 5, 1992, because the producers felt they needed to start with a connection to Batman Returns. However, they kind of forgot about Part II and started airing other episodes that were meant to be shown earlier like "On Leather Wings" and "Heart of Ice," leaving "The Cat and the Claw: Part II" to be the eighth episode aired, a full week after the first part. A little messed up, but it all worked out in the end.

Part I

I really do like Catwoman in this show. She is a bad guy who does good things, which nearly always makes for an interesting character. I love how she uses a trained cat to assist in her crimes, and I even like her long blond hair, which is a departure from the usual short black we see in the comics. I think blond hair helps deflect suspicion from Selina Kyle being Catwoman. She really is one of the most important characters in the Batman mythology, and the show handled her well in her debut, which earns a point.

I have to take off a point, though, for one of the worst lines I've ever heard Kevin Conroy give. The first time Catwoman scratches Batman, he says, "Hey..." in the stupidest way possible. I don't really know how to describe it. It sounded more like someone took a candy bar off his desk when his back was turned than someone getting injured in a fight with a criminal. It was like he was saying, "Hey... this is a new cape and you tore it. But that's OK, I can get another."

The score will go back up to a 6 with the wonderful conflicting relationship between Bruce, Batman, Selina, and Catwoman. Selina loves Batman, but not Bruce; and Bruce loves Selina, not Catwoman. It really is a captivating dynamic, which makes Catwoman the purrfect girlfriend for Batman. In fact, I like this relationship so much, that I can't stand seeing Bruce with anybody but Selina. Why try to mess with a winning formula?

I'll add another point for some nice scenes of Bruce acting like a billionaire playboy. He put himself up for a charity auction date, and later arranged a last-second meeting with an important person for Selina. Those are exactly the kinds of things I'd expect to see Bruce Wayne do all the time — raise money for charity, go on dates, and call up anyone he wants and says, "This is Bruce Wayne. I want to meet with you in 20 minutes."

So, although this episode was no "On Leather Wings," it did do a good job of showing who Bruce and Batman are, while also giving him a nice romantic interest. It is a perfectly suitable pilot.

Final score: 7


Part II

Right from the start, I can begin to see why the producers felt no rush to get this episode out close to Part I. Although the previous episode did end with the Red Claw announcing her plan to steal the plague the very next day, and her henchmen had targeted Selina Kyle, there really was very little drama pushing us into the next episode. The basic ideas were good, a fight with Red Claw on a train and a need to protect Catwoman, but lots of little details held up the episode. The first was Batman's complete and utter shock that Red Claw was a woman. Come on, Batman, you've already fought Catwoman and Poison Ivy by this point, but for a woman to be an international terrorist is just too much for you to handle? The score is down to a 4.

I have to take off another point for Red Claw's incompetent hit men. If she's supposed to be this legendary worldwide super villain, you think she'd have a better plan for killing Selina Kyle than having her try to get into a car crash in the middle of the day. Seriously, she was on a date with billionaire Bruce Wayne, with tons of people as witnesses around, and they thought that would be the best time to start bumping their car into Bruce's. What an inefficient way to try to kill someone! I'd expect the Penguin's stupidest henchmen to do better.

The score will fall to a 2 for a really stupid way to have Batman learn Catwoman's identity. Alfred takes off Bruce's jacket, notices a hair on it, remarks on its unusual color, Bruce looks at and sees its a cat's hair, then Alfred says he's never seen a cat that color before, and Bruce says that Batman has. Therefore, Selina has the same cat that Catwoman has. The only problem with this is that Catwoman's cat, Isis, is a very normal-looking color to me. Just a dark gray. What's so unusual about that? I normally overlook minor errors like this, but I can't when they're key plot points like discovering your girlfriend is a criminal.

I add a point back for the climax of the episode. In a lot of superhero and action shows, the bad guy usually leaves the good guy tied up to suffer an unnecessarily slow death, while they leave and assume everything will go according to plan. But here, it actually makes sense. Red Claw wanted to get rid of the plague but couldn't be around when it opened, so she used some acid to eat through its container while she got away. I liked that. There also was a nice chain of explosions at the end, which was pretty exciting. Yes, it was cheesy how a mountain lion captured Red Claw, but I did like how Batman finally captured Catwoman at the end. All in all, not a bad ending for a rather bad episode.

Final score: 3