Batman: The Animated Series - "Terror in the Sky"

“Reports of a huge bat creature the size of a man. Remind you of anybody?”

The sound of leather wings has returned. Kirk Langstrom (Marc Singer) awakens in a cold sweat from a nightmare, but the evidence around him suggests that his darkest fears are real – he’s become the Man-Bat once more. Infuriated that his city has been imperiled, Batman pursues the creature through Gotham, but the scientific evidence is in – it’s not Langstrom. So just what is the secret of the Man-Bat?

I’ve always had a soft spot for the depiction of Man-Bat in Batman: The Animated Series, doubtless stemming from my fondness for the action figure, whose wings flapped if you pressed a spot on his back. Hat-tip to the Kevin Nowlan design, too; the creature’s expressive eyes and pronounced underbite give it an almost cuddly menace. As we’ve noted throughout this rewatch, BtAS tended to hold its villains in reserve after they had knockout debut episodes – Mr. Freeze, Clayface, The Riddler. (Notable exception, of course, being The Joker, who appeared in more than twenty episodes, and not a one of them did damage to his reputation as the show’s greatest antagonist.) Man-Bat is no exception to this pattern of exclusivity – indeed, given this episode’s “big reveal,” we might even say that Man-Bat only appears in one episode. (While the spoiler policy on these reviews tends to be pretty liberal, this episode does have a twist, which I’ll inevitably spoil here. Take twenty minutes to watch the show if that’ll bother you.)

After “On Leather Wings,” which is a meaty episode that holds up exceptionally well as a pilot for BtAS, “Terror in the Sky” is not as strong an episode narratively, but visually it continues the proud tradition of the show. The Jekyll/Hyde nature of the Man-Bat gets played up in this episode, with Kirk Langstrom terrified that he’s relapsed and Francine Langstrom horrified at what she becomes when she begins to transform. Kudos to director Boyd Kirkland for the downright petrifying sequence in which Francine mutates in an airplane bathroom, shattering the mirror and escaping via the emergency exit. It’s a scene that brought back childhood fears of flying, giving a punny dual meaning to the episode’s title but grounding the show’s grotesque monster madness in a real-world setting. Indeed, I’ve dubbed recent episodes of the show as “creature features,” and of those “Terror in the Sky” is indisputably the best.

When I think of a “Top 10” list, I envision it as containing the best episodes, the standout examples of all that the show can accomplish, but if I were to rank the episodes purely on visual style, “Terror in the Sky” would surely make that list. Saddled with abjectly awful animation on “Cat Scratch Fever,” Kirkland more than redeems himself here; the scenes of aerial pursuit – replete with swooping wings and spiraling flight patterns – positively dazzle, aerodynamic in the freeing way that animation permits. The new visual gimmick of Man-Bat’s sonar vision is a success, too, making this creature at once more alien and more recognizable as something of our world.

Narratively, though, “Terror” isn’t a triumph. Once we realize Langstrom hasn’t relapsed, there are really only two other possibilities, one of which is so painfully obvious that it can’t be correct. The explanation for Francine’s madcap evolution is so contrived and treated so disposably that it’s evident the writers developed it as a throwaway, which is a painfully thin device on which to hang an entire episode. And when the dialogue is as on-the-nose as “I’m sick of my life! I’m sick of you!” let’s just say there’s a reason I spend so much time talking instead about the visual style.

It’s a testament to the animation of “Terror in the Sky” that a so-so script is stratospherically elevated by the visuals. The episode goes down as a strong one by virtue of its memorable animation and its methodically crafted direction. There’s probably an element of nostalgia in the way that “Terror” invokes “On Leather Wings,” but it’s neither unwarranted nor unsuccessful.

Original Air Date: November 12, 1992

Writers: Steve Perry and Mark Saraceni

Director: Boyd Kirkland

Villain: Man-Bat (Meredith MacRae)

Next episode: “Almost Got ’Im,” in which four of a kind find an ace in the hole, but it’s the audience who wins with a straight flush.

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