The New Batman Adventures - "Never Fear"

“Fear is the glue that holds society together. It’s what makes people suppress their worst impulses. Fear is power.”

All across Gotham, people have stopped listening to the better angels of their nature, throwing caution to the wind and behaving with reckless abandon. After saving a man swinging between rooftops, Batman follows a trail that leads from a brazen employee directly into the lair of The Scarecrow (Jeffrey Combs). The master of fear has developed a singularly unique way to bend his research into phobia, but when Batman is blasted with the gas, Robin wonders if he’s still in control.

The net effect of the redesign for The New Batman Adventures is largely neutral, with the bulk of the updates being mere streamlining. If the worst of these is the Joker redesign, we’re in pretty good shape; it’s by and large difficult to mess up the look of an iconic character like those in the Batman universe. In the case of The Scarcrow, however, it’s a marked improvement, both from the original baghead Scarecrow of “Nothing to Fear” and his toothier refresh in “Fear of Victory” and beyond. The long black duster, the wide-brimmed farmer’s hat, and the skeletal leathery frame finally make Scarecrow a figure of proper terror. Icing in the cake is the broken noose around his neck – which, I believe, is an invention of this show that’s since carried over into most visual interpretations of Scarecrow. Points also to Jeffrey Combs, who drops Henry Polic II’s slightly theatrical bravado for a lethally restrained monotone that’s positively chilling. (Combs, a schlock horror veteran, would later go on to redefine The Question as a raspy conspiracist with a crush on The Huntress over on Justice League Unlimited.)

In terms of visuals, Scarecrow is a winner here, but as far as narrative goes, Scarecrow had already begun to approach greatness with “Dreams in Darkness,” which figured out how to play up his scientific genius and his contempt for the city. “Never Fear,” however, is leaps and bounds Scarecrow’s best episode to date (though perhaps not his best overall, if we’ll count “Over the Edge” in a few weeks). Between the spooky redesign of the character, the moody red skies, and somber men’s chorus on the score, Scarecrow moves the show closer into a zone of horror, which is the right move for this character. The best villain stories are the ones that use the villain in a non-interchangeable way, finding a plot that’s uniquely suited to that particular foe. Here, Scarecrow reverse-engineers his own gimmick, depriving Gotham’s citizenry of fear in order to coax them into reckless and ultimately fatally dangerous behavior. 

It’s writer Stan Berkowitz’s animated Batman debut (he’d done some strong episodes of Superman: The Animated Series), and he’s firing on all cylinders. Not only does he find a great Scarecrow plot, but he makes excellent use of the Batman/Robin dynamic, something TNBA has largely struggled to do. First, though it isn’t explicitly stated in this episode, we see the return of Bruce’s “Matches Malone” disguise as he infiltrates Scarecrow’s operation. That’s the kind of deep dive into the mythology I really appreciate, since Matches isn’t used nearly often enough. Moreover, though, Berkowitz puts Jason Todd Tim Drake to great use when he realizes he may have to challenge his mentor after Batman might have fallen under the spell of Scarecrow’s anti-fear gas.

The episode concludes with the stunning visual of Scarecrow piloting a subway train barreling toward the heart of the city, all the while looking for all his withered self like a literal grim reaper, an avatar of the city’s doom. While the dénouement of the episode isn’t quite as thrilling as one might hope, its narrative payoff and the introduction of a scarier Scarecrow might even go so far as to make “Never Fear” the second-best episode of The New Batman Adventures thus far. (Hey, “Holiday Knights” is a tough opener to beat.) It’s a solid reminder that, as rocky as the first few episodes of TNBA have been, the same was true of Batman: The Animated Series. The really good stuff lies ahead of us.

Original Air Date: November 1, 1997

Writer: Stan Berkowitz

Director: Kenji Hachizaki

Villain: The Scarecrow (Jeffrey Combs)

Next episode: “Joker’s Millions,” in which The Joker faces his greatest fear.

🦇For the full list of The New Batman Adventures reviews, click here.🦇