Whether you want to call it Season 3 of Batman: The Animated Series or a separate show entirely, the conclusion of The New Batman Adventures means it’s time once again to check back in on those all important NUMBERS!

(Originally published on The Reel World August 22nd, 2021)

While writing these reviews I’ve been maintaining a spreadsheet that tracks a LOT of data, which I’ve used as a crude guide to create a series of lists and rankings, which will follow my more formal review of The New Batman Adventures.

Table of contents to jump ahead for your convenience:

1. Season Review
2. Best Directors
3. Top 10 Writers
4. Animation Studio Ranking
5. Top Composers
6. Best Performances
7. Episode Rankings
8. Rogues Roundup

Season Review

Some people are real snobs about TNBA, making very sure that it is considered a different entity to BTAS. I get the compulsion, given the worse visuals (the infamous redesigns, the red sky, the more basic animation), more limited voice acting and shift towards being a team-up show. In those ways, this is undoubtedly a worse show. If you didn’t know they’re meant to be the same continuity and put it side by side with BTAS, you’d not guess this is considered a quasi third season.

HOWEVER, people suuuuure do love ‘Mad Love‘, and you don’t get to pick and choose what you claim if you ask me. Harley’s tragic origins are one of the very best stories this creative team ever told, but there are several other really strong episodes in this season, and I’m left feeling it’s underrated overall from a writing perspective. You just have to be able to stomach how much less pleasant it is to look at.

Season One of BTAS was largely a solo Batman show, with Robin only appearing every so often. Season Two mandated Robin appear in basically every episode at the network’s request. This was definitely irksome, but by contrast I actually like how they handled The Bat Family in TNBA. Their take on Batgirl was excellent in BTAS, which they paid off by making her Bruce’s preferred sidekick, complete with a new costume and voice actor. Babs is great, equal parts genuinely funny foil to the overly stern Batman, and hyper capable in her own right. Our new Robin is a huge improvement on the old one, and graduating Dick Grayson up to Nightwing is fun too, even if he’s not around very much.

The relationship dynamics between these characters are the biggest strength of the season, exploring the frosty dynamic between Bruce & Dick, the extremely awkward love triangle with Babs, and the ways that Batman has evolved in general. Bruce Timm had to really be talked into returning to Batman, and I think turning it into a teamup show was a smart way to differntiate it and breath some new life into proceedings.

Their new network and their more relaxed censorship allowed them to tell some slightly more mature stories, such as Sins of the Father, Torch Song, Over the Edge, and of course Mad Love. It all remains family-friendly, but incorporating death, loss and trauma led to some of my favourite episodes.

In basically all areas, TNBA is a more solid but less ambitious show. They stopped taking big swings in favour of making something smoother but perhaps less interesting. The visuals, the writing, the music. It’s generally a lot simpler and safer. To me that means the average level of quality for an episode may be higher, but there’s perhaps less ‘character’ to everything. Maybe a little more sterile? Most of the episodes place in my overall top half, with the best ones scoring really high, and only the very weakest ones cracking the bottom 10. They definitely hit a bit of a rut later on with animal themed episodes and guest appearances from Etrigan and The Creeper that I really didn’t care for.

All that is to say it’s difficult to compare this season to BTAS. I can fully understand not being able to stomach the visuals. I like some of the redesigns, but I destest The Joker’s new look and the red sky. I REALLY miss the Title Cards. Some people are more forgiving of things being rough around the edges or have a higher tolerance for absolute clunkers. TNBA is extremely easy to watch. There are only 24 episodes and most of them are good. So if you’re willing to navigate some of those jagged edges or cherrypick a little in Seasons 1 and 2, there’s more gold to be found.

Best Directors

Oh hey, some new directors! Six of them! In fact Dan Riba is the only director this season who had directed for BTAS before!

With the launch of Superman: The Animated Series, and the impending debuts of Static Shock, The Zeta Project and Justice League, it was clear that some of the producers’ energy had to be diverted elsewhere and resources needed to be shared.

Thus a few TNBA episodes were directed by the animation houses that worked on them, giving credits to Atsuko Tanaka, Hiroyuki Aoyama, Kenji Hachizaki and Yuchiro Yano to mixed results, with Yano going straight to number one overall by directing only a single episode, ‘Over the Edge.’

Curt Geda and Butch Lukic graduated up from the storyboard department and made strong impressions. Geda was the strongest new director who did multiple episodes, while Lukic lucked into getting to direct ‘Mad Love’.

1. Yuchiro Yano (1 ep)
2. Curt Geda (7 eps)
3. Hiroyuki Aoyama (1 ep)
4. Butch Lukic (5 eps)
5. Dan Riba (7 eps)
6. Atsuko Tanaka (2 eps)
7. Kenji Hachizaki (1 ep)

So what does that do to our overall/combined rankings? Basically a lot of the newcomers vault over our veterans because of the fewer episodes, higher average trend. I do think Curt Geda and Butch Lukic earn their spots though, as their future DCAU work will prove later. I also think Atsuko Tanaka’s episodes looked really good even if their rankings are lower.

Likewise, Dan Riba slips down the list due to replacing Boyd Kirkland & Kevin Altieri in the role of workhorse after they moved on to new pastures.

1. Yuchiro Yano (1 ep) (NEW ENTRY)
2. Bruce Timm (5 eps) (↓)
3. Curt Geda (7 eps) (NEW ENTRY)
4. Hiroyuki Aoyama (1 ep) (NEW ENTRY)
5. Eric Radomski (4 eps) (↓)
6. Butch Lukic (5 eps) (NEW ENTRY)
7. Boyd Kirkland (21 eps) (↓)
8. Dan Riba (17 eps) (↓)
9. Kevin Altieri (22 eps) (↓)
10. Kenji Hachizaki (1 ep) (NEW ENTRY)
11. Atsuko Tanaka (2 eps) (NEW ENTRY)
12. Dick Sebast (9 eps) (↓)
13. Frank Paur (16 eps) (↓)
14. Kent Butterworth (1 ep) (↓)

Top 10 Writers

Again, we’re going to start with this season in isolation. With a lower episode count there are only 10 writers total, and most of them are new talent, with only Paul Dini, Joe Lansdale, Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett having writing credits in BTAS.

Robert Goodman, Rich Fogel, Hilary J Bader and Stan Berkowitz would become mainstays of the DCAU as it grew, versus a lot of episodes of BTAS being written by freelancers.

I actually think that while the majority of TNBA episodes are less iconic than their BTAS equivilents, the average level of writing went up. They seemed to be running a more cohesive, tight ship, landing on a solid group of story editors. It’s a house style that I would argue Paul Dini built, and despite him placing fifth, he’s still clearly the best writer of the group. My decision not to track story vs teleplay credits factors in here, with Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett getting their averages skyrocketed due to being ideas men while Dini performed both roles, with some of his story ideas being handled by inferior writers.

1. Bruce Timm (2 eps)
2. Alan Burnett (1 ep)
3. Robert Goodman (3 eps)
4. Rich Fogel (5 eps)
5. Paul Dini (6 eps)
6. Hilary J Bader (5 eps)
7. Stan Berkowitz (4 eps)
8. Rusti Bjornhöel (1 ep)
9. Steve Gerber (2 eps)
10. Joe R. Lansdale (1 ep)

In terms of the overall, for which we can only do a Top 10 because there are so many, many of these newcomers do make an immediate impact there too. Former regulars Randy Rogel and Brynne Chandler got pushed out of the top ten by the newbies.

You may see Paul Dini in seventh place and freak out, but he wrote my top nine episodes, and as mentioned above, many of the episodes that drag his average down saw him sharing writing duties with worse talent. Also remember Boyd Kirkland and Dennis O’Flaherty only wrote one script each, so averages work in their favour.

Basically I don’t agree these are the 10 Best Writers in all of BTAS, but as I’ve said a dozen times now, these lists are based purely on dumb episode ranking data and not reflective of the writing specifically.

Our top ten overall:

1. Boyd Kirkland (1 ep) (NEW ENTRY)
2. Robert Goodman (3 eps) (NEW ENTRY)
3. Dennis O’Flaherty (1 ep) (↓)
4. Gerry Conway (2 eps) (↓)
5. Bruce W. Timm (5 eps) (↑)
6. Marv Wolfman (2 eps) (↓)
7. Paul Dini (30 eps) (↓)
8. Rich Fogel (6 eps) (NEW ENTRY)
9. Alan Burnett (8 eps) (↓)
10. Michael Reaves (16 eps) (↓)

Animation Studio Ranking

[2024 Note: Changes to episode rankings meant TMS overtook Dong Yang & Koko]

Overall while there are some smoother animations and a few of the costume re-designs are good, this is a much less visually striking season of television, ditching the iconic ‘dark deco’ style in favour of red skies and more modern aesthetics, as well as getting rid of the beloved title cards. All of this was a deliberate choice to streamline production and make the show quicker and cheaper to make. Unfortunately I think this means while the floor is higher than BTAS, the ceiling is also lower. They achieve smooth uniformity, but they lose some of their ambition.

Also in the name of streamlining, they went from working with 8 different studios down to just 3… and given Dong Yang shared every episode they did with newcomvers Koko, it means there are basically only two options.

The second was TMS-Kyokuichi Corporation (formerly Tokyo Movie Shinsha), who peaced out of BTAS in the middle of Season One. They felt it was too much work for the money being offered, and they had no shortage of job offers from around the world. Realising it was a mistake to let them go, Bruce Timm sweet-talked them into returning to the fold, but one of their conditions was being given more freedom. This meant that they handled most of the pre-production process for their five episodes, which is reflected in the Directors list above.

I don’t think the TMS episodes differed all that much from Dong Yang & Koko’s, compared to the past where the holy trinity of Sunrise, TMS and Spectrum were quite clearly better than everyone else. Some of that may be that Timm insisted on all studios following the model sheets more closely, compared to when they used to put their own flare on certain episodes.

1. TMS-Kyokuichi Corporation (5 eps)
2. Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD. (18 eps)
3. Koko Enterprise Co., LTD. (18 eps)

How does that impact the overall numbers? Well, lets throw Mystery of the Batwoman in as well, which was released several years after TNBA, and see what happens:

1. Spectrum Animation Studio (8 eps) (-)
2. DR Movie Co., LTD. (1 ep) (NEW ENTRY)
3. Tokyo Movie Shinsha Co., LTD (11 eps) (↓)
4. Koko Enterprise Co., LTD (20 eps) (NEW ENTRY)
5. Sunrise (8 eps) (↓)
6. Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD. (62 eps) (↓)
7. Studio Junio (7 eps) (↓)
8. Akom Production Co. (13 eps) (↓)
9. Blue Pencil, S.I. (2 eps) (↓)
10. Jade Animation (1 ep) (↓)

DR Movie and Koko get to debut really high thanks to having low episode counts, with Koko’s deadlock with Dong Yang broken because of how many damn episodes Dong Yang did before they started sharing with Koko.

Dong Yang working on SIXTY-TWO episodes/movies is ridiculous. They were perfectly decent, but knowing what we could have had if they’d kept Spectrum/Sunrise/TMS in the fold more is kind of tragic. But I suppose we dropped the true clunkers like Akom, Blue Pencil and Jade Animation, so you win some and you lose some.

Top Composers

While again clarifying that I’m no music expert, I still feel the quality of the music in TNBA is lower. It feels more utalitarian and less atmospheric. Shirley Walker did more episodes than everyone else combined, but none of the music stood out to me at all.

1. Michael McCuistion (3 eps)
2. Shirley Walker (13 eps)
3. Lolita Ritmanis (3 eps)
4. Kristopher Carter (2 eps)
5. Harvey R. Cohen (2 eps)

Overall, fan favourites Shirley Walker, Michael McCuistion and Lolita Ritmanis all climb, while Harvey Cohen and Kristopher Carter fall as a result of doing more episodes. I have no strong feelings on this list, but I guess it looks better than it did after just BTAS?

1. Peter Davidson (1 ep) (-)
2. Michael McCuistion (14 eps) (↑)
3. Shirley Walker (48 eps) (↑)
4. Carl Johnson (6 eps) (-)
5. Stuart Balcolmb (3 eps) (-)
6. Jeff Atmajian (1 ep) (-)
7. Harvey R. Cohen (11 eps) (↓)
8. Kristopher Carter (4 eps) (↓)
9. Lolita Ritmanis (11 eps) (↑)
10. Peter Tomashek (3 eps) (-)

Best Performances

Isolating TNBA, the creative team’s decision to have Kevin Conroy use basically the same voice for both Batman and Bruce Wayne leads to less impressive work in my opinion. It may shock some to see him so far from the top spot, but it is what it is. Mark Hamill and Arleen Sorkin have fewer big episodes but continue to really shine when they appear.

Tara Strong was generally great when given enough lines. Mathew Valencia was surprisingly decent as Tim Drake, with his Robin predecessor, Loren Lester, taking much better to the Nightwing incarnation of Dick Grayson. I was also impressed with the guest appearances of Lori Petty, Sela Ward, Charity James and Karla DeVito.

1. Mark Hamill (The Joker)
2. Arleen Sorkin (Harley Quinn)
3. Lori Petty (Livewire)
4. Tara Strong (Batgirl)
5. Kevin Conroy (Batman)
6. Mathew Valencia (Robin)
7. Loren Lester (Nightwing)
8. Sela Ward (Calendar Girl)
9. Charity James (Roxy Rocket)
10. Karla DeVito (Cassidy)

I don’t think any of these debuts are strong enough to dethrone the overall Top 10, which remains:

1. Kevin Conroy (Batman)
2. Mark Hamill (Joker)
3. Arleen Sorkin (Harley Quinn)
4. Diane Pershing (Poison Ivy)
5. George Dzundza (Ventriloquist)
6. Alison LaPlaca (Baby-Doll)
7. Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (Alfred)
8. Adrienne Barbeau (Catwoman)
9. Roddy McDowell (Mad Hatter)
10. Robert Costanzo (Harvey Bullock)

Episode Rankings

First, TNBA in a bubble.

When reviewing BTAS as full seasons, I identified four types of episode: Villain Spotlights, Villain Ensembles, Batman Spotlights and Ally Spotlights. Unsurprisingly, Villain Spotlights were always the most common type. That’s still kiiiind of the case, but given it’s now an ensemble show, Ally Spotlights skyrocket and are either equal or even ahead.

I also had a more difficult time classifying episodes this time around, perhaps because of both the ensemble factor, and the creative team’s goal to build the larger DCAU. Consider something like ‘Chemistry‘, ostensibly a Poison Ivy focus episode, but she’s only in it for a few minutes. Is it instead a study of Batman? Kind of… but it also puts some spotlight on the Bat Family and their response to their boss acting so strangely. Is ‘Animal Act‘ a Nightwing episode or a Mad Hatter episode? I could make some calls if made to, but the waters are just a little muddier.

[2024 Edit: After doing some re-ranking, the below list differs from my original list and what can be found in the individual episode reviews. Their movements are indicated in brackets.]

1. Mad Love (-)
2. Over the Edge (-)
3. Double Talk (-)
4. Legends of the Dark Knight (↑)
5. Judgment Day (↓)
6. Torch Song (↑)
7. Old Wounds (↑)
8. Sins of the Father (↓)
9. Girl’s Night Out (↓)
10. Mean Seasons (↑)
11. Growing Pains (↑)
12. Holiday Knights (↑)
13. The Ultimate Thrill (↓)
14. Chemistry (↑)
15. Joker’s Millions (↑)
16. Cold Comfort (-)
17. You Scratch My Back (↓)
18. Never Fear (-)
19. Love Is a Croc (-)
20. The Demon Within (-)
21. Animal Act (-)
22. Cult of the Cat (-)
23. Beware the Creeper (-)
24. Critters (-)

But what about the combined overall rankings?

The communist in me is delighted by my final top 10 being comprised of 3 episodes from season one, 3 from season two, 3 from New Batman Adventures and the theatrical movie.

[2024 Edit: After doing some re-ranking, the below list differs from my original list and what can be found in the individual episode reviews. If an episode moved by more than 2 spots, it is indicated in brackets.]

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

Rogues Roundup

First, let’s take TNBA in a bubble.

TNBA debuted several strong characters in Firefly, Calendar Girl, Roxy Rocket and Superman The Animated Series’ Livewire, while Farmer Brown and Thomas Blake were… less good.

Some past favourites suffered a little due to the show being a bit simpler, namely The Joker, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, Mad Hatter and The Riddler. Some strong moments, but lacking compared to their huge feature episodes in BTAS. Conversely Harley Quinn, The Ventriloquist and Two-Face got great episodes and maintained high rankings.

1. Harley Quinn
2. Ventriloquist
3. Joker
4. Two-Face
5. Livewire
6. Bane
7. Calendar Girl
8. Poison Ivy
9. Catwoman
10. Firefly
11. Clayface
12. Mr. Freeze
13. Roxy Rocket
14. Scarecrow
15. Penguin
16. Mutant Leader
17. Klarion (and Teekl)
18. Baby-Doll
19. Mad Hatter
20. Farmer Brown & Emmylou
21. Killer Croc
22. Enrique el Gancho
23. Riddler
24. Rhino, Mugsy and Ratso
25. Thomas Blake

In terms of the combined ranking with BTAS, the top 10 have remained broadly unchanged for a long time, with Mr. Freeze dipping down a little and then climbing again. Harley Quinn came a lot closer to dethroning Joker for number on than I expected. Catwoman continued to benefit from being an out and out villain, The Ventriloquist remained strong and Two-Face found new life at the last possible moment. Poison Ivy was underrated for a long time by me, but no sooner had I put her where she belonged than she hit a bit of a slump.

Bane made his way into the top ten thanks to another strong showing in ‘Over the Edge’, while big names like The Penguin, Scarecrow and Ra’s al Ghul were a little disappointing compared to the other heavy hitters.

[2024 Edit: After doing some re-ranking, the below list differs from my original list and what can be found in the individual episode reviews. If a villain moved by more than 2 spots, it is indicated in brackets.]

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