Batman: Caped Crusader — Episode 2 Review

While the first episode of Batman: Caped Crusader kept things vague regarding the exact era, the second makes it a bit more clear this is somewhere in the 1940s, as the plot deals with the disappearance of an actress from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Or rather, Hollygotham. Bruce Wayne’s home turf has always been implied to be the DC equivalent of New York City (it’s in the name alone), so an entire movie studio with spacious backlots, the type that you only see on the other side of the country, existing in Gotham feels off. But I guess this place is imaginary and can have anything, can’t it?

While Bats gets some time here, a lot of the episode is taken up following police detective Renee Montoya as she searches for actress Vyonne Frances, inspects the sets and grills suspects. Batman could have also done this — of course he’d be less subtle with the “grill suspects” part, so maybe it’s good Renee got to them first. The first person she questions is the last Yvonne was seen with…Bruce Wayne. Wayne puts up his typical “ignorant rich boy” act so he can plant a listening device on Montoya’s clothes (he’s so quick, we don’t even see him do it).

Renee’ second interview is with Boris Karloff….err, Basil Karlo, an actor known for playing villains in horror movies. Karlo claims he hasn’t been with Frances outside of the sets in months. Renee sniffs that out as a lie when she inspects some photos of Frances taken within the last week and spots Karlo in the crowd. She now has a lead suspect.

By the time she figures this out, though, it’s after work hours, so Karlo won’t be at the studio anymore. Renee drives to Karlo’s apartment building. Just as she approaches his door, she hears a scream and a thump, and breaks down the door to find Karlo lifeless with a knife in his back! She now DOESN’T have a lead suspect.

While Renee calls for backup, Batman leaps down from the rooftops to stop the assailant from getting away. He’s wearing clothes that cover him almost completely, save for the eyes….but that little bit clearly suggests a hideous disfigurement. Batman gives chase, but after a few blocks a civilian is in peril and he can’t ignore it, so the ugly man escapes.

I feel dumb for seeing this guy and thinking “Aha, Scarecrow!” for about ten seconds. In my defense some interpretations of Scarecrow have him with a disfigured face. But if there’s a crime involving the acting business, with actors as suspects, the odds are about 99.9 percent that we’re dealing with Clayface. This episode seems to assume the viewer has never heard of Clayface before, an impossibility if you’ve watched any other Batman series, but I guess there’s mystery in figuring out which of these suspects could BE the shapeshifter.

The next day Montoya talks with more studio members, while the director flips out over the rising cost of production as he has no stars to shoot with and his expensive sets are just sitting there. But the sets aren’t as vacant as he thinks. Someone’s lurking in the shadows watching him rant…who then spills water, knocks the director down and throws a floodlight to the ground, electrocuting him.

The studio hairdresser sheds a little more light on the situation. Karlo had an unrequited crush on Frances. She did not love him back, but was friendly to him and gave him words of encouragement, which only made his crush stronger. Convinced it was his looks repelling her, Karlo met with the top-rated makeup artist in the city, a man who promised he could alter Karlo’s appearance for enough money. Karlo would have the entire backstory of Clayface now if he wasn’t dead. This is when I began to suspect he was not so dead.

That evening the killer is back at the studio, and nearly claims his next victim before Batman gives chase. They run onto the set of a swordsman picture and have an old-fashioned clash of sabers while ascending a curved flight of stairs. I love how Timm isn’t afraid to add a little camp to his Batman shows now and then.

While the killer eludes him once again, Batman DOES make a discovery that changes everything: the bodies of two men. According to the Dark Knight they’ve been dead for a full day, yet Montoya just interviewed one of them a few hours ago. You realize what this means??

Yes, it means Clayface is Clayface. He’s been running around killing people to steal their identities. He didn’t kill Yvonne, because he simply couldn’t….he wanted to hold her prisoner due to his crush! But wait….Karlo is dead! No….he’s not dead! Karlo is Clayface! He made up one of the bodies to look like himself before he escaped, to create the perfect alibi!

As Clayface rants, he admits he first got into the murdering habit for revenge, but soon realized “it was the role I was born to play….that of the villain!” Now he’s going to actually commit one of the crimes from his films by pulling a Pit and the Pendulum routine on the captive Yvonne. Her only hope is if Batman and Renee can stop Clayface for good.

While Clayface swings at Batman with a giant axe, Montoya struggles to free Frances from the bed she’s been tied to as the scythe swings closer. Clayface swings his hardest, but Batman is simply better at dodging things, especially when they’re this blunt. He grabs the axe, breaks it in half, and then pounds Clayface in the kisser so hard his clay face becomes totally unrecognizable.

The police arrive, but there’s one remaining problem: Batman isn’t really loved by the cops in this version, and he doesn’t even have Commissioner Gordon as an ally yet. In fact half the force believes he’s just a story, so Bullock is shocked when he barges into the crime scene just in time to see Bats rise into the skylight.

With less than a minute to go, Montoya finally discovers the listening bug Batman placed on her. As the Dark Knight drives away, he heard “I know you’re listening. We’re not done, you and me.” (One last note: Yvonne is played by Lacey Chabert, who has turned up in a lot of cartoons lately. She was the original Meg Griffin but left the role after Season 1. She was barely in any cartoons since then until now, when she’s suddenly in all cartoons. Well, except one. Mila Kunis should watch out.)

While this is a solid episode, I do have to give the better score to the original BTAS “Feat of Clay” two-parter. It was unlikely even Timm himself was going to top his own Clayface introduction from thirty years ago, the one that climaxed in one of the best animated sequences TMS ever created. The animation here is…well, it does its job. I don’t feel like I can judge it fairly yet anyway, as nothing tricky or complicated has truly happened yet.