“My name is Talia, and I too have business with the Society
of Shadows.”Batman is on the hunt for the Society of Shadows, a secret organization whose operations have brought them to Gotham in search of an ultrasonic drill made by Wayne Enterprises. After the drill is stolen by the Society’s leader, Vertigo (Michael York), Batman finds himself in an uneasy partnership with the mysterious Talia (Helen Slater), who wants to stop Vertigo on her father’s behalf.
There’s so much about this episode I ought to discuss in this review: the recent passing of its scripter Len Wein, the one-and-done appearance of Michael York as (Count) Vertigo, the link to Batman Begins through a weaponized sonic Wayne Enterprises product. The fact of the matter is, though, that all these elements are overshadowed in “Off Balance” by the introduction of Ra’s al Ghul and his daughter Talia into Batman’s animated universe – and indeed into the realm of all Batman adaptations, for this is the first screen appearance of the now ubiquitous Ra’s al Ghul, who’s appeared in the aforementioned Batman Begins, in the Arkham City video game, and on television in Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, and Gotham (to say nothing of subsequent cartoons). There’s so much I want to say about Ra’s and his importance in the Bat-canon, but I’ll hold off another ten weeks; suffice it to say, though, that “Off Balance” may as well be “The Demon’s Quest, Part 0,” proving once more the show’s great strength in seeding its own continuity for a significant whopper of a payoff.
As for what’s actually in this episode rather than just in its last-minute coda, “Off Balance” is something of a mixed bag, dwarfed by its status as an ostensible prequel to the Ra’s al Ghul two-parter to come. It’s a competent episode, ably told and certainly better than Wein’s last episode, “Moon of the Wolf,” but it’s not as distinguished an episode as one might expect. It’s an episode of solid stock that doesn’t misstep (but does defeat itself with its own bang-up ending) and leans into superhero clichés with such gusto that one doesn’t even notice the villain is monologuing until he’s done.
I’m wondering how much this episode factored into Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy – I’m inclined to guess “not at all,” but the correlations are intriguing. We have a sonic drill built by Wayne Enterprises, which becomes the focal point for the terrorist villain’s infiltration of Gotham. Of course, this is precisely the plot of Batman Begins, with Ra’s al Ghul’s League of Shadows subbing in for Vertigo’s Society of Shadows (both, strikingly, are “shadow” updates from the comic’s League of Assassins), and with Ra’s popping up at episode’s end, there’s a mental alarm bell that shouts, “Holy coincidence, Batman!”
While the premise of the episode is engaging and the storytelling effective, the animation is a little disappointing. Vertigo’s monocle creates the illusion of... well, vertigo, and initially this is animated in dizzying fashion as Bullock stumbles around a dock he believes is roiling and bending. When Batman and Talia are faced with Vertigo’s effect, however, it’s amid a solid yellow background with spiraling rings vibrating on the screen, accompanied by Vertigo’s disembodied head. The animators would have done well to reprise the Bullock gag or at least devise an equally inventive way to show the ways Vertigo distorts reality to disorient his victims. Batman’s method of escape from this death trap, though, is as ever audacious Bat-genius.
There’s a lot of good stuff in here that isn’t treated thickly. The episode features a number of subtle allusions to Hitchcock – mostly in echoing Hitchcockian shots of people falling off things – and one could imagine an episode that devotes itself wholly to that premise (featuring, perhaps, the underrated Film Freak?). There’s also a thing I don’t quite know how to interpret, so I’ll come right out and say it – visually speaking, Vertigo is essentially a Nazi sans swastika, and Michael York’s impeccable German accent isn’t helping things either. It’s purely on the level of subtext, I’m sure, designed perhaps to give Vertigo that subliminally off-putting “vaguely European villain” shorthand. Had he appeared again in the DCAU, one wonders what the storytellers would have made of him; as it stands, though, he’s a curious artifact.
All told, I’m of two minds about “Off Balance.” There are several truly great moments in the episode, but it’s by and large fairly boilerplate, a middle-of-the-road episode from a show that can do so much better (see, for example, next week’s episode, easily a Top Five) but has also done quite a bit worse. If only for its historical significance and the ever-classy presence of Michael “Basil Exposition” York, I’m inclined to say that “Off Balance” is worth the rewatch.
Writer: Len Wein
Director: Kevin Altieri
Villains: Vertigo (Michael York) and Talia al Ghul (Helen Slater)
Next episode: “The Man Who Killed Batman,” in which crime has no punchline.
🦇For the full list of Batman: The Animated Series reviews, click here.🦇
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