The Demon’s Quest: Part II

Plot Summary: Batman and Ra’s al Ghul sword fight shirtless to determine the fate of half the world’s population.

(Originally published on The Reel World Feburary 6th, 2021)

Notes

Original Air Date: May 4th, 1993

Directed: Kevin Altieri (16)

Written: Dennis O’Neil (2) (story) & Len Wein (4) (story & teleplay)

Animation: Tokyo Movie Shinsha Co., LTD. (5)

Music: Harvey Cohen (5)

Len Wein had to step in and finish the Part II script as O’Neil had scheduling conflicts.

Kevin Altieri pushed for these episodes to be made during his job interview, which he left with a handshake agreement from Bruce Timm that he’d get to direct them.

For some reason they changed Ubu’s voice actor between the two parts.

Recap

We return to Ra’s threatening to throw his daughter into a Lazarus Pit, which Ubu tells us will kill her. Batman intervenes, and then Talia literally slaps the sense back into her father. Tension resolved?

Ra’s again asks Batman to marry Talia, and Bruce again refuses and is thus sentenced to death as he knows too much. Ra’s reveals they have a desert stronghold while locking the Dynamic Duo in the collapsing chamber. Way to Bond Villain Explain, Ra’s.

Escaping before a total cave-in, Batman and Robin walk down the mountain in the freezing cold as the camera pulls back to reveal a Wayne Enterprises skyscraper vaguely nearby. Thank goodness for this Nepalese branch!

One change of clothes later, they research Orpheus, a word Dick heard a few times while imprisoned. Turns out it’s a satellite that points to the Sahara desert. Oh look at that, the desert stronghold!

Jumping out of another aircraft, Batman infiltrates a platoon of armed guards on camelback, and waltzes straight into Ra’s base. Ubu discovers him and a huge brawl erupts with Batman hugely outnumbered and captured.

Everyone but Ra’s is stunned to discover Bats survived the Himalayas, ordering his men strip him of his equipment. And his shirt! Here we go!!!

Ra’s monologues his entire evil plan, to use Orpheus to make every Lazarus Pit around the world blow up, flooding the earth and restoring world peace… by killing 2,056,986,000 people (just under half the population at the time the episode aired!!!)

Batman is chained up in a cell but escapes after Talia passes him a lock-pick during a kiss. With five minutes on the clock, he tosses a grenade into Ra’s armoury, decimating the fortress.

Making short work of Ubu, Batman… engages Ra’s in a shirtless sword duel amidst the burning citadel! Peak. Batman. Shit.

Bruce tosses his sword at Orpheus’ control console with two seconds to spare, disabling the satellite. Ra’s tumbles off the edge and refuses Batman’s hand, falling to his ‘death’.

Talia laments the loss of her father but continues trying to mack on Bruce, claiming she also wants a better world. Bats rewards this with a kiss, but still turns her down and flies away.

Ra’s hand reaches out of the pit…

Best Performance

Pretty much copy and paste what I said last time, but with Conroy’s role simplified to Batman trying to stop a lunatic from destroying the world.

David Warner is still a great Ra’s al Ghul, and changes the voice ever so slightly to reflect his Lazarus Pit restoration. Younger, but still unknowably ancient. That’s a tricky thing to pull off, but Warner manages it.

Episode Ranking

My memory of Part II being better served me correctly. Batman and Ra’s sword-fighting shirtless over a Lazarus Pit is an iconic image that we have seen repeated over and over in various media. Heck, even Arrow did it at one point. And why wouldn’t you? It’s two dangerously insane human beings sword fighting shirtless while the world is ending around them! I mentioned in the trivia section that Altieri pushed for these episodes to get made and he specifically cited this sword-fight as the greatest contribution Neal Adams made as a Batman artist. The O’Neil/Adams creative team was the single largest influence on BTAS, regardless of what people want to say about Tim Burton.

If we were ranking individual scenes, this might be enough to fight for the top spot, but we’re ranking episodes, and I’m afraid while this is a good one, it’s also, in my opinion, pretty overrated. For one, it lacks the emotional punch that the majority of the top 10 pack, as it’s designed to be a ridiculous (in a good way) pomp and circumstance affair, harking back to a campier era. That alone doesn’t knock it down, as ‘The Laughing Fish’ and ‘Almost Got ‘im’ also aren’t emotional stories. I just think this is pretty simplistic stuff that hangs its hat almost entirely on a dope showdown.

I wonder if Len Wein taking over is why this episode came out better. For me it’s more the fact that it isn’t trying to juggle as many balls; it resolves the ending from the previous episode, our heroes escape, regroup, and Batman launches his assault on the enemy stronghold and wins. It’s cleaner, and allows for more natural pacing.

You could argue that Part 1 tried to pack too much in and Part 2 was a smidge too simplistic. I’ll repeat that this probably should have been a direct-to-video movie so they could spread things more evenly, let the world-travelling breathe, and add more things for Robin, Talia and maybe even Ubu to do.

  1. The Laughing Fish
  2. Almost Got ‘Im
  3. Heart of Ice
  4. Shadow of the Bat Part I
  5. I Am the Night
  6. Robin’s Reckoning Part I
  7. The Man Who Killed Batman
  8. Perchance to Dream
  9. Two-Face Part I
  10. Joker’s Favor
  11. Feat of Clay Part II
  12. The Demon’s Quest Part II (NEW ENTRY)
  13. Harley and Ivy
  14. Robin’s Reckoning Part II
  15. Beware the Gray Ghost
  16. Mad as a Hatter
  17. Heart of Steel Part II
  18. Appointment In Crime Alley
  19. Two-Face Part II
  20. Pretty Poison
  21. Shadow of the Bat Part II
  22. Feat of Clay Part I
  23. Off Balance
  24. Vendetta
  25. Birds of a Feather
  26. Heart of Steel Part I
  27. On Leather Wings
  28. See No Evil
  29. The Clock King
  30. It’s Never Too Late
  31. Joker’s Wild
  32. Eternal Youth
  33. The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy
  34. The Cat and the Claw Part I
  35. Zatanna
  36. Day of the Samurai
  37. The Demon’s Quest Part I
  38. The Mechanic
  39. The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne
  40. Terror in the Sky
  41. P.O.V.
  42. Christmas with the Joker
  43. Fear of Victory
  44. Be a Clown
  45. What is Reality?
  46. Night of the Ninja
  47. Mudslide
  48. The Cat and the Claw Part II
  49. Nothing to Fear
  50. Prophecy of Doom
  51. Tyger, Tyger
  52. Blind as a Bat
  53. If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?
  54. Dreams In Darkness
  55. The Last Laugh
  56. Cat Scratch Fever
  57. Moon of the Wolf
  58. Paging the Crime Doctor
  59. The Under-Dwellers
  60. The Forgotten
  61. I’ve Got Batman in My Basement

Rogues Roundup

Ra’s al Ghul (David Warner) (third appearance)

We see the more overtly dangerous side of Ra’s thanks to the side effects of a Lazarus Pit driving him temporarily feral, even if this subsides quickly and he returns to genocidal misogynist mode. His intense desire to heal the world by slaughtering billions is an intriguing hook, as it simultaneously gives him the moral high and low ground.

Thankfully Batman gets to remain irrefutably on the side of the angels, as Ra’s is also an enormously antiquated sexist who treats his daughter like garbage. Still, how about that shirtless sword fight, eh?

Talia al Ghul (Helen Slater) (third appearance)

She’s still here. She’s still in a skimpy outfit. She’s still largely ignored by her father (who tries to murder her in a fit of insanity), and disturbingly, she asks Batman if he’s going to make her his prisoner. He responds by kissing her and then leaving her in the middle of the Sahara. At night. In a skimpy outfit. Sure Ra’s survived, but Bruce didn’t know that! He basically killed a frightened woman! VERY not great, Bob!

Seriously, whatever good work ‘Off Balance’ put in has been resoundingly crushed by this two-parter, which relegates an interesting and mysterious villain to a Bond girl. And not the badass kind with agency. The hysterical eye candy kind. I’m not going to knock her any lower as she at least does more this time and her debut appearance was good, but this is pretty low for a character of her stature.

Ubu (George Dicenzo) (second appearance)

After their tense standoff in Part I, things between Batman and Ubu are openly hostile from the jump here. It doesn’t lead to anything special, with Batman easily kicking his ass, but hey. Still fun for a henchman.

  1. The Joker
  2. Mr. Freeze
  3. Poison Ivy
  4. Harley Quinn
  5. Two-Face
  6. Mad Hatter
  7. Penguin
  8. Catwoman
  9. Clayface
  10. Ra’s al Ghul (↑)
  11. The Riddler
  12. Clock King
  13. Killer Croc
  14. HARDAC (and Randa Duane)
  15. Lloyd Ventrix
  16. Count Vertigo
  17. Josiah Wormwood
  18. Scarecrow
  19. Roland Daggett (and Germs & Bell!)
  20. Rupert Thorne
  21. Sid the Squid
  22. Jimmy ‘Jazzman’ Peake
  23. Tony Zucco
  24. Man-Bat
  25. Hugo Strange
  26. Red Claw
  27. Arnold Stromwell
  28. Mad Bomber
  29. Tygrus (and Dr. Dorian)
  30. Kyodai Ken
  31. Gil Mason
  32. Nostromos (and Lucas!)
  33. Cameron Kaiser
  34. Dr. Dorian (and Garth)
  35. Talia al Ghul (-)
  36. Mad Dog
  37. Ubu (-)
  38. Professor Milo
  39. Romulus
  40. Sewer King
  41. Boss Biggis
  42. Montague Kane

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