Comics, Monday offers an opportunity to review comic related media, be they films, video games, tv shows, or whatever other kind of media comic books characters have permeated.
This week kicks off the first in whats planned to be a long running series, a retrospective of the many different series that made up the DC Animated Universe. These are series that watched sporadically as a child, primarily on VHS and DVD, but have always heard great things about, including that they can be enjoyed by adults just as much as kids. I intend to put that supposition to the test, starting with Batman and working my way through to Justice League, watching the episodes through in the order of their release. Hit the jump to discover my thoughts on the first ever released episode of what would become the DCAU, The Cat and the Claw.
The Cat and the Claw, Part 1
Released in September of 1993, The Cat and the Claw was far from the first Batman episode to be produced, but was ordered by Warner Bros. to lead off the series in order to capitalize on the then popularity of Tim Burton's Batman Returns. This decision means that the series starts off on kind of an odd foot, and one could be forgiven for mistaking the show for Catwoman The Animated Series. While Batman certainly plays a roll, Selina Kyle is undoubtedly the protagonist of this episode with Bruce Wayne operating on the peripheral. While this doesn't create a bad episode, it certainly doesn't create a strong one either, leaving Batman TAS with an uneven opening act.
One thing this episode does do well - apart from one glaring exception - is introductions. The standout here is Commissioner Gordon; while at a crime scene, he dismisses his men before standing with his back to an alleyway and begins talking to an unseen "friend". Batman appears from the darkness, and the two have a brief exchange before Bruce takes off, but in that we learn not only who Gordon is and why he's important to the mythos, but also his relationship with Batman as well as Batman's relationship to the police force as a whole. Bruce Wayne is shown being auctioned off for charity, a clear indicator that he lives the life of a wealthy eligible bachelor, while Catwoman is first seen breaking into a high rise, her acrobatics and intelligence on display. For a first episode, The Cat and the Claw does good work in getting the viewer up to speed on the universe they are watching without devoting an entire episode to Batman's origins.
After the introducing of various characters, however, there's little in The Cat and the Claw to really admire. The action is as uneven as the episode itself, and closely matches its ebb and flow. The first few minutes are dedicated to a chase between Catwoman and Batman, and are easily this episode's highlight. The animation here is fluid (which sadly isn't true for the entire episode), and the whole sequence is filled with a kinetic energy that is rarely seen in animation. The later sequences, sadly, don't measure up. A mid episode chase between Batman and a truck full of ammo isn't bad, but doesn't really offer anything special and lacks the energy that the initial chase is full of, and the climax is better described as a crawling and climbing sequence rather than an action sequence.
This episodes most suspect choice, however, is to frame the episode around the character of Selina Kyle rather than Bruce Wayne. Catwoman lacks motivation throughout the episode, with no motivation provided for her theft in the beginning of the episode and her only reasons for going after Multigon having to do with her love of cats. Compare this to Batman's drive to prevent the tragedy that he underwent in his youth from happening again, and its clear which hero is easier to get behind. The villain also is weak; a generic terrorist by the name of "Red Claw", she barely appears in the episode, and when she does she fails to differentiate herself from any other generic terrorist.
The Cat and the Claw presents us with a great action scene at the beginning, and an intriguing universe throughout, but standing on its own the episode is sadly very weak. Neither the Cat or the Claw are very interesting, and the Bat is regulated to a secondary role, leading to many of the elements of Batman - be they Alfred, the Batcave, the Batmobile, his rogues gallery, etc. - being sadly absent from his premiere episode. To it's credit, the series handles Batman and Catwoman's relationship well; watching Catwoman pursue Batman while Bruce Wayne pursues Selina Kyle, ignorant of each others identity, is a fun twist, and it saves the episode from being a complete disaster, but one cannot help escaping the feeling that the episode would have been better suited if viewed from Batman's point of view. Final Score: 4/10
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