43-1 - Batman: The Animated Series - Episodes 9-10

Mayor Hill publicly compares Batman to the Joker. The Joker takes this personally and infiltrates his son's birthday party in response, which is a proportionate and measured reaction. Then, Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face in one of Batman: TAS’ most famous episodes.

This week on Toonami Absolution, Alyx, Jon, and Sam cover "Be a Clown" and "Two-Face, Part 1," and this pairing is doing a lot of heavy lifting for the season.

"Be a Clown" triggers when Mayor Hill, mid-speech, calls Batman just as dangerous as the Joker. Insulted at being compared to a vigilante, the Joker disguises himself as "Jekko the Clown" and infiltrates Hill's son Jordan's birthday party. However, Jordan, feeling unloved and ignored by his politically obsessed father, stows away in Jekko's van thinking he's found a genuine mentor, only to find himself in the Joker’s abandoned amusement park hideout (because of course Gotham has an abandoned amusement park).

"Two-Face, Part 1" is the series operating at its full dramatic height: Harvey Dent, Bruce Wayne's oldest friend and Gotham's most promising DA, is revealed to have been carrying a violent alter ego called "Big Bad Harv" since childhood, held in check through therapy and sheer willpower. However, when crime boss Rupert Thorne gets hold of Dent's psychiatric records and tries to blackmail him, Big Bad Harv surfaces and starts causing chaos. Batman arrives to help, only to make thing much worse, leading to the birth of Two-Face.

We discuss "Be a Clown" and its inherent weirdness and talk about "Two-Face, Part 1" and why Harvey Dent's origin is one of the most carefully constructed villain backstories in the whole series.

🔔 Subscribe for our ongoing episode-by-episode watch-through of Batman: The Animated Series!

📌 Topics covered:

– Batman: TAS Episode 9 "Be a Clown" recap & review

– Batman: TAS Episode 10 "Two-Face, Part 1" recap & review

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Toonami Absolution is a weekly podcast where Alyx, Jon, and Sam revisit the Toonami and Adult Swim shows that made them, and you, you.

From the block's early days with shows like Space Ghost: Coast to Coast and Transformers: Beast Wars to the imported anime that made Toonami and Adult Swim appointment television for a generation of kids, such as Cowboy Bebop, Sailor Moon, and Dragon Ball.

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