Batman: The Animated Series - "Avatar"

“Thoth Khepera was not simply a woman, Detective, nor merely a ruler. Through her flowed the power of the gods.”

Shortly after Bruce Wayne donates it, the Scroll of Osiris is stolen from a Gotham museum, and Batman is amazed to learn that Ra’s al Ghul (David Warner) – presumed dead by the Dark Knight – is to blame. Batman journeys to Gibraltar, where Talia al Ghul (Helen Slater) tells her beloved why her father has returned and what terrible secret the Scroll of Osiris contains.

I had thought that this was the Ra’s al Ghul flashback episode with Jonah Hex, but that’s about a dozen more episodes down the pike (“Showdown”), so imagine my surprise when this episode actually does begin with a flashback, to a fin de siècle Egyptian expedition. It’s a great opener to the episode, silent storytelling that introduces the ageless Ra’s al Ghul, establishes his centuries-long quest for the tomb of Thoth Khepera, and builds in a credible sense of dread. Ultimately, though, it doesn’t link up with the episode that follows; Ra’s never mentions it, and the literal dangling thread – the severed rope that lowers Ra’s into the pit – is never resolved. We’re left to wonder what Ra’s found down there, which might be for the best. (Or am I reading too far into it, and that’s not Ra’s in the flashback? It turns out there’s some debate about this online.)

Aside from that moment of confusion, “Avatar” presents a case study in the inherent indestructibility of Batman as a character, able to drift seamlessly between every imaginable genre without compromising the core identity of Batman. If “The Demon’s Quest” introduced Ra’s al Ghul in a version of Lawrence of Arabia by way of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, “Avatar” is Boris Karloff’s The Mummy by way of Raiders of the Lost Ark. It’s so organically composed that it’s almost a little jarring to realize, “Wait, ten minutes ago he was in Gotham, and now Batman’s in an underground temple fighting an immortal mummy!” Any unease you might feel, though, is immediately checked by the episode’s effortless cool and its fidelity to the character. If nothing else, the brown hue cast on Batman’s suit in the pyramid caverns looks strikingly fashionable, almost prefiguring the Knightmare Batman suit.

In an episode with an undying mummy, there’s something quite chilling about Batman’s description of Ra’s al Ghul as “my most powerful enemy.” I had said back in my review of “The Demon’s Quest” that Ra’s was Batman’s “complete opposite number,” and it’s great to see Batman acknowledge just how close the two really are. David Warner remains one of the all-time definitive villain voices, the intensity and precision of his words matching the furious drive of his quest for true immortality. He tells his daughter in an unnerving farewell, “It is said that one finds immortality in one’s offspring. Alas, I know that to be a lie,” and that alone should cement him as Batman’s second greatest adversary (no one can top The Joker).

But if Warner is taking up much of the air with his grandiloquent performance, let’s not forget Helen Slater, returning as Talia, in a heartbreaking role as she discovers the ways in which her father has abandoned her while she reckons with his position between her father and her beloved. I won’t spoil her choice, of course, but I will note that it’s interesting that even Ubu seems a little kinder to Batman in the wake of Ra’s al Ghul’s apex villainy – the moment when he tosses the “infidel” Batman a canteen of water seems apologetically compassionate and beautifully layered in a series highly regarded for its nuance.

The most striking nuance of all, though, comes from Kevin Conroy, who continues to slam home run after home run. In two back-to-back sequences, Conroy struts every wrinkle in his vocal arsenal. First, he’s dressed as Batman in the cave with Alfred, expressing a clear tenderness solidified by their mutual dedication to the mission. Then Conroy makes the particularly brilliant decision to remain in the Bat-voice, even when he’s in civilian clothes with Talia, his voice now tighter, more guarded, and more forceful – it’s an hall-of-fame creative choice that shows how intimately Conroy understands the character. Like the local guide in the episode’s prologue, Conroy leads us into the world of Batman and shows us around.

Original Air Date: May 9, 1994

Writer: Michael Reaves

Director: Kevin Altieri

Villains: Ra’s al Ghul (David Warner) and Thoth Khepera (Nichelle Nichols)

Next episode: “House & Garden,” in which Ivy settles down.

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