Feat of Clay

Time now for another Batman episode. Today is the classic two-parter "Feat of Clay." Although these were the 20th and 21st episodes produced, they were so good, they got bumped up to be the fourth and fifth episodes aired on Sept. 8th and 9th in 1992.

Part I

I love the beginning of this episode. Not only do we finally get to meet Lucius Fox, but we see an evil Bruce Wayne. Wait, Bruce is working for the vile gangster Roland Daggett?! What a way to start! That definitely deserves a point.

I'll add another point for Daggett and his henchmen. They each had their little quirks like Raymond Bell, who constantly listened to the police bands through his headphones, and "Germs," the appropriately named germaphobe. And then Daggett himself, who is one of my favorite villains in the whole show. He may not be quite as tough as Rupert Thorne, but he does an excellent job of maintaining a positive public image while secretly keeping his criminal activities underground.

This is a deliciously dark episode, with one of the best parts being Batman coming as close to losing control as we've seen in this show. He was rightfully upset with the idea of Bruce Wayne being framed. It's one thing to mess with Batman, but Bruce? No way! He quickly went after Bell, taking advantage of his police band listening habit to track him down with the Batplane. He then ripped Bell out of his car, holding him by the wrist, and flew him around the city while interrogating him. Batman only let Bell go after he fainted and the police demanded he release his "prisoner," which he did by dropping him into a swimming pool. From the height he fell, Bell is very lucky to have survived. That was pretty cold of Batman. It was pretty nice to Batman be this angry, so I'll raise the score to an 8.

Not only did this episode have a great beginning, but it ended on a wonderful cliffhanger. Not only was Bruce arrested, but a new super villain was formed — Clayface. This ending makes me glad I have the next episode on DVD and I don't have to wait till the next day to see how this story resolves. For such a great ending, I'll make the final score of Part I a 9.

Part II

It is necessary to have your best animation team on hand for a Clayface episode, and they really knocked it out of the park for this one. Not only were the clay transformation sequences well done, but the episode as a whole was just beautiful. There was a lot of play with shadows and colors. One of my favorite scenes was Daggett and Germs walking over a vat of green chemicals in the dark. The green glow cast on the shadowy Daggett not only served as a visually interesting scene, but also emphasized Daggett's dark side. I'll award a point for this stellar animation.

Like all good Batman villains, Clayface has a somewhat sympathetic origin story. His mutation into a monster was mostly due to a series of circumstances outside of his control. And although he ultimately made the bad choices that put him on that path, you still can't help but feel bad for him. I also thought his creation was plausible enough for this more "realistic" show that hasn't had any other "monsters" beside Man-Bat. I don't mind having Batman fight the occasional monster, just as long as it's well explained. I also loved the voice of Clayface provided by Ron Perlman, who would later be Slade on Teen Titans. For being such an interesting villain, I will raise the score to 7.

Similar to how Batman took down one of Daggett's henchmen through his quirk, Batman targeted Germs through his fear of diseases. But this time, it was a bit more in accordance with the show, having Batman threaten the goon with a jar of seawater, so he never really was in any true danger. While I did like Batman's burst of anger in the first episode, I'm glad he calmed down enough to be the Batman we all know and love. For that, I'll add another point.

All the fights with Clayface were simply captivating. Not only was the shape-shifting great, but seeing Batman's reaction to this true monster was a treat in itself. This was a new, tough foe for Batman, but I like how they didn't make Clayface too powerful, giving him rather low stamina to limit his fighting ability. However, he still was plenty creepy, especially when he turned into the woman at Daggett's show. One of my favorite parts was watching that lady turn into Clayface while yelling, "Why don't you tell them about me?!" Gives me chills every time. One more point for Clayface!

This really is an iconic revival of a classic Batman villain that at the time was kind of messed up in the comics. There have been something like four different Clayfaces all with slightly different abilities. But Batman: The Animated Series brought the best elements of all the Clayfaces together into the standard villain we're used to today. Sadly, there are very few stories now where Batman fights Clayface straight-up like this — they mostly just use Clayface to impersonate someone else. But we'll always have these near-perfect episodes to enjoy some classic Clayface action. Why didn't I give this a 10? Perhaps because it was sad, but not as sad as "Heart of Ice" or "Two-Face." Perhaps because it was just a bit disturbing, although I did appreciate the darker tones. Regardless, a 9 still is a very good score.

Final score: 9