Plot summary: Pyrotechnics expert Garfield Lynns adopts the persona Firefly and sets half of Gotham on fire to try and win back his famous ex-girlfriend.

(Originally published on The Reel World June 27th, 2021)

Notes

Original Air Date: June 13^th, 1998

Directed: Curt Geda (3)

Written: Rich Fogel (2)

Animation: Koko Enterprise Co., LTD (9) & Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD. (51)

Music: Shirley Walker (41)

Firefly was planned for BTAS, but they were forbidden from using any fire-based characters by the Fox censors. Sigh.

Officer Vincenzo is named after Darren Vincenzo, who served as Batman comics editor in the 1990s. Meanwhile, Howlin’ Jack is a tribute to radio personality Wolfman Jack, right down to his distinctive voice.

Rich Fogel wanted for Cassidy’s trauma to cause her to take over as a new Firefly, but due to TNBA only getting 24 episodes, this never came to fruition.

Fogel also wanted Cassidy to be a legitimately good singer, but Bruce Timm was annoyed by a Britney Spears song on the radio at the time so decided she should be bad.

Recap

Bruce Wayne’s eyebrow-raisingly young girlfriend, Shannon, drags him to a concert by singing sensation Cassidy. The musician rebuffs the aggressive advances of her ex-boyfriend, Garfield Lynns and gets him… fired… from his job as her pyrotechnics expert.

The gig starts, but Lynns snaps and turns the flames up to maximum, causing the audience to flee and leaving Cassidy trapped amidst the burning stage. Bruce is unable to act due to his date, but luckily Barbara was attending the same concert and makes the save as Batgirl.

Harvey Bullock and the GCPD raid Lynns’ apartment, which is covered in pictures and posters of Cassidy, but with Garfield nowhere to be seen as he’s busy in a secret workshop across town cooking up… something.

Cassidy agrees to attend a club opening despite a threatening anonymous note. Naturally, Lynns attends in a home-made costume and sets the club ablaze.

Batgirl saves Cassidy (and the rest of the patrons) for the second time but Batman fails to capture ‘Firefly’ and almost dies in the process.

Intrigued, Bruce infiltrates Cassidy’s penthouse despite all her security and asks what the connection between her and Firefly is. She fills him in on their past and attempts to seduce our hero, who naturally declines.

At GCPD, Barbara logs materials from Lynns’ apartment for her father (not a concern at all that the police commissioner would have his teenage daughter do this) and finds a lead on Firefly’s warehouse workshop.

While investigating the lair, Barbara inadvertently triggers an enormous explosion that levels much of the building. Babs is injured during the escape, forcing her to stay in the Batcave as Bruce heads back out to rescue Cassidy, who Firefly kidnapped during their botched investigation.

Firefly demonstrates a gel of his own creation capable of setting ANYTHING alight to a terrified Cassidy, but before he can dump a drum of it into the sewers, Batman intervenes, clad in a special fire-proof armour and wielding a cold gun.

Hero and villain take turns knocking each other on their asses, but with the place ablaze, Firefly tries and fails to flee the scene, leaving Bruce to carry Cassidy to safety, though we see some time later she has developed an intense fear of fire…

Best Performance

Karla DeVito was a professional singer, making her a logical casting for Cassidy, though whoever wrote the awful song she performs did her NO favours. Still, she’s fun, she’s flirty and she’s good at sounding famous and bossing around her employees. Her failed seduction of Bruce resulting in her labelling him a creep was a particular highlight. In an episode with several strong performances, hers probably stands out the most because of how much presence she had.

Tara Strong’s playful jab at Bruce at the concert was great, and she also nails both the “Hi, I’m a big fan” line, and the Pinky and the Brain reference. Mark Rolsten made for a sufficiently sinister Firefly, and basically did his job and nothing more. Tom F. Wilson’s little cameo as Howlin’ Jake was pretty solid as well.

Episode Ranking

This was a straightforward episode, but executed incredibly well thanks to how effectively they conveyed the intensity of the four big fire scenes. You’d think going to the same well that many times would have diminishing returns, but between the animation and the audio, each one delivered surprisingly high stakes. I hadn’t actually noticed the lack of fire before now, but it made for a refreshing new challenge for Batman, as he can’t simply punch his way through a force of nature. Each escape is narrower than the last, and they allow for lots of ‘saving the innocent but letting the villain escape’ moments.

The Cassidy/Lynns story was done pretty well, with the opening scene at the concert doing a lot of character work for both them and our two heroes, before transitioning nicely into the ongoing threat of the episode. Creepy tech guy stalking a woman whose affections he overestimated tracks pretty well, and Firefly made a strong debut (see below.)

The touch of ending with Cassidy still traumatised was shockingly bleak for a show that may enjoy tragedy, but generally tries to end on an optimistic note. Honestly, I’m kind of mad that we won’t see her again to follow up on this clearly unfinished business.

[2024 Edit: I know I’m higher on a lot of TNBA than most and have been adding notes to that effect… but I acutally think I have this one too low if anything!]

1. The Laughing Fish
2. Mask of the Phantasm
3. Almost Got ‘im
4. Heart of Ice
5. Harlequinade
6. The Trial
7. Riddler’s Reform
8. Double Talk
9. Shadow of the Bat Part I
10. I Am the Night
11. Robin’s Reckoning Part I
12. Baby-Doll
13. Sins of the Father
14. Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero
15. The Man Who Killed Batman
16. Perchance to Dream
17. Two-Face Part I
18. Torch Song (NEW ENTRY)
19. You Scratch My Back
20. Bane
21. Batgirl Returns
22. A Bullet For Bullock
23. Joker’s Favor
24. Read My Lips
25. Feat of Clay Part II
26. Catwalk
27. The Demon’s Quest Part II
28. Harley and Ivy
29. Robin’s Reckoning Part II
30. House & Garden
31. Beware the Gray Ghost
32. Growing Pains
33. Holiday Knights
34. Second Chance
35. Mad as a Hatter
36. Heart of Steel Part II
37. Appointment In Crime Alley
38. Two-Face Part II
39. Pretty Poison
40. Deep Freeze
41. Harley’s Holiday
42. Lock-Up
43. Shadow of the Bat Part II
44. Feat of Clay Part I
45. Cold Comfort
46. His Silicon Soul
47. Off Balance
48. Vendetta
49. Birds of a Feather
50. Joker’s Millions
51. Heart of Steel Part I
52. Never Fear
53. On Leather Wings
54. Love is a Croc
55. See No Evil
56. The Clock King
57. It’s Never Too Late
58. Make ‘Em Laugh
59. Joker’s Wild
60. Eternal Youth
61. The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy
62. The Cat and the Claw Part I
63. Zatanna
64. Day of the Samurai
65. Avatar
66. The Demon’s Quest Part I
67. The Mechanic
68. The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne
69. Terror in the Sky
70. P.O.V.
71. Christmas with the Joker
72. Fear of Victory
73. Be a Clown
74. The Worry Men
75. What is Reality?
76. Fire From Olympus
77. Night of the Ninja
78. Mudslide
79. The Cat and the Claw Part II
80. Nothing to Fear
81. The Lion and the Unicorn
82. Prophecy of Doom
83. Tyger, Tyger
84. Blind as a Bat
85. If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?
86. Dreams In Darkness
87. The Last Laugh
88. Cat Scratch Fever
89. Moon of the Wolf
90. Paging the Crime Doctor
91. Time Out of Joint
92. Sideshow
93. The Under-Dwellers
94. The Forgotten
95. Showdown
96. The Terrible Trio
97. I’ve Got Batman in My Basement

Rogues Roundup

Firefly (Mark Rolston) (first appearance)

Honestly, there’s not much depth, but given what a rock solid gimmick he has, there doesn’t need to be. He’s a jilted creepo who uses his special skills to become a costumed supervillain, terrorises his ex, and almost succeeds in blowing up all of Gotham.

Between the flamethrower, fire sword, jetpack and armour, he makes for a durable, unpredictable threat to Batman, who has to roll out specialised armour (and his own cold gun!) to take him down. I’m a sucker for that kind of thing in Batman/Spider-Man/Iron Man, with the hero having to adapt to the threat of the week. As I said above, I’m annoyed this is his only substantial appearance and would have liked to have seen what else the writers could have done with him.

1. The Joker
2. Harley Quinn
3. Mr. Freeze
4. Poison Ivy
5. The Ventriloquist
6. Catwoman
7. Two-Face
8. The Riddler
9. The Phantasm
10. Baby-Doll
11. Bane
12. Mad Hatter
13. Clayface
14. HARDAC (and Randa Duane)
15. Ra’s al Ghul
16. Killer Croc
17. Firefly (NEW ENTRY)
18. Lock-Up
19. Penguin
20. Lloyd Ventrix
21. Scarecrow
22. Rupert Thorne
23. Count Vertigo
24. Clock King
25. Nivens
26. Roland Daggett (and Germs & Bell!)
27. Enrique el Gancho
28. Josiah Wormwood
29. Talia al Ghul
30. Sid the Squid
31. Queen Thoth Khepera
32. Maxie Zeus
33. Jimmy ‘Jazzman’ Peake
34. Tony Zucco
35. Man-Bat
36. Rhino, Mugsy and Ratso
37. Hugo Strange
38. Red Claw
39. Arnold Stromwell
40. Mad Bomber
41. Tygrus
42. Kyodai Ken
43. Condiment King/Pack Rat/Mighty Mom
44. Grant Walker
45. Gil Mason
46. Nostromos (and Lucas!)
47. Cameron Kaiser
48. Dr. Dorian (and Garth)
49. Mad Dog
50. Ubu
51. Professor Milo
52. Romulus
53. Arkady Duvall
54. Sewer King
55. Boss Biggis
56. Montague Kane
57. The Terrible Trio