Batman: The Animated Series - "Blind as a Bat"

“Alfred, I’ve got to find some way to stop him. Sight or no sight.”

Wayne Enterprises unveils its latest innovation, a stealth helicopter nicknamed The Raven. The prototype’s nomenclature would seem to be tempting fate, as the equally avian Penguin (Paul Williams) steals the aircraft wholesale; in so doing, he triggers an explosion that temporarily blinds Bruce Wayne. Against medical advice, Batman develops a technology that hacks his own eyesight, risking permanent blindness in order to recover his weaponry and stop The Penguin.

Director Dan Riba has notably remarked of drafting this episode, “We kind of lost track of what the characters’ motivations were,” and this episode is a little all over the map on that count. It’s ultimately a decent episode, but there are some really baffling character choices, not the least of which is the revelation that Leslie Thompkins – the elderly and serene family physician – is something of a master welder. (The scene of her in enormous protective goggles is alone worth the price of admission.) It’s Bruce Wayne, though, who behaves strikingly out of character. For a man who has dedicated his life to a war on the very idea of guns, his company’s production of a giant floating firearm is more than a little unnerving. To Riba and company’s credit, there is the implication that Bruce has been metaphorically blind to his corporation’s activities, but it’s incredibly understated and easy to miss. (When the show crosses over with Superman, we’ll meet a Bruce Wayne who is adamantly opposed to weaponized tech, at the expense of a business deal with Lex Luthor.)

Batman also becomes the unwitting subject of physical comedy when he’s struck blind. The episode does some great things with the plot, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the garishly broad portrayal of Batman stumbling around, arms flailing wildly when his sight is lost; it’s a wonder Penguin manages to mount an assault without laughing off the farcical pantomime. Moreover, Batman’s cybernetic vision glitches throughout the episode, the fix for which is Batman repeatedly smacking himself in the back of the head, somewhere between “stupid, stupid” and “you got a bee on your hat.” Having said that, the visuals representing Batman’s blindness are pretty compelling, and the ways Batman compensates for his blindness prove once more why he’s the greatest crimefighter in the world. Even without his eyes, Batman lures his enemies into traps, mounts staggeringly successful offenses, and lands his Batplane mid-downspiral without injuring himself further.

The red-eyed Batman is an astonishing visual, and the metaphorical resonance of “blind as a bat” is ultimately quite successful on a number of levels, including his resolutely stubborn refusal to rest, even if it costs him his own health. It’s almost like the idea of Batman – a tech-savvy force of unstoppable justice – gets dialed up to eleven in this episode: essentially, Batman fights crime so hard that he almost gives himself brain damage. The Penguin too reaches his apex form in this episode; it’s his last major outing as a criminal before he’s rebranded as a semi-legitimate nightclub owner for the New Batman Adventures redesign, and the creators go for broke. They give Penguin a deliciously absurd aviator’s cap and amp up the bird fixation to the point where Penguin won’t tolerate so much as a pigeon pun from his henchmen. His wicked glee at Batman’s plight is met with a “Waugh Waugh” straight out of the Burgess Meredith playbook, taking this verbal tic to the Hamill-level of definitive. Paul Williams is clearly having the most fun possible with the role, and it’s his enthusiasm for the part that transcends most of the silly bits in this episode.

“Blind as a Bat” is, then, not the best episode of Batman: The Animated Series, populated as it is with a few head-scratchers. (Really, I can’t get over Leslie Thompkins with a blowtorch.) But the infectious fun of The Penguin, coupled with the strong use of a blind Batman, pushes this episode to becoming one of the better Penguin episodes. It’s a far cry from “I’ve Got Batman in My Basement,” at least, though I’d say it’s on a par with “Birds of a Feather” (sans, however, the trademark BtAS pathos).

We say au revoir, then, to one of Batman’s finer fowl foes, just in time for the arrival of arguably his other nemesis. The Joker may be no laughing matter, but this next guy is a real demon.

Original Air Date: February 22, 1993

Writers: Len Wein and Mike Underwood

Director: Dan Riba

Villain: The Penguin (Paul Williams)

Next episode: “The Demon’s Quest,” a two-parter which might very well be the best episode not written by Paul Dini.

🦇For the full list of Batman: The Animated Series reviews, click here.🦇