Episode Number: 17
Original Air Date: February 24, 1993
Directed by: Dan Riba
Written by: Martin Pasko
First Appearance(s): Lloyd Ventrix
“See No Evil” is a relatively early production episode of Batman, but for whatever reason it was held until February of 1993. When a show receives a full 65 episode order right out of the gate, what gets to air first often is whatever is finished first. Sometimes a marquee villain or two-parter will be held until a nice ratings spot is needed, or a prime time window is available, so maybe this one just took awhile. And since it contains a no-name villain there likely wasn’t much excitement around it at Fox to get it to air.
“See No Evil” is an interesting episode because it’s both very grounded in terms of the story it’s telling, a father denied parental rights wanting to spend time with his daughter by any means necessary, while also containing some elements of the super natural in the form of an invisibility suit. Lloyd Ventrix (Michael Gross) is our antagonist and he’s a simple con-man who was formerly incarcerated, but has since been released. As a result of his run-in with the law he lost his wife and he lost all visitation rights with his kid. We’re not entirely sure, but it seems he may have tried to get his life in order. He got a job, at least, but when the episode opens he’s doing some not very legal things.
Jimmy talking to her “imaginary” friend, Mojo.
Kimmy (Elisabeth Moss) is a seemingly regular girl being raised by her mother. As is not an uncommon trait among young children, Kimmy has an imaginary friend she calls Mojo. Her mother thinks nothing of it, but it turns out Mojo isn’t just a figment of Kimmy’s imagination. He’s seen, or unseen, bringing her physical gifts and he actually speaks to her despite seemingly having no material form. Meanwhile, jewelry stores and the like are being knocked off and our caped crusader is having trouble figuring out who’s behind it since no one is picked up on security cams.
Naturally, there’s an explanation and it turns out Mojo is actually Ventrix in disguise. When he got out of prison he landed a job at a laboratory that was working on an invisibility material and decided to knock it off. It’s unclear if he’s still working there, but he’s been able to enrich himself thanks to the suit. This allows him to at least look the part of a well-adjusted individual and basically stalks his ex-wife Helen (Jean Smart) and tries to stage a simple run-in to demonstrate he’s a changed man. Helen doesn’t by it, and since she has a restraining order out against him she wisely flees warning him to stay away from her and Kimmy. This is essentially the last straw for Ventrix, and Mojo decides to lure Kimmy out of her house in a bid to kidnap her. When Mojo successfully does so he reveals himself to Kimmy, but she’s been well coached by her mother and runs.
Nice suit, who’s your tailor?
All this time, Batman has been slowly unraveling the mystery of Gotham’s invisible man. He’s able to figure out where the tech came from, and the ex-con on the payroll is a bit of a smoking gun. He’s able to intercept Ventrix during his abduction attempt and a fight and chase ensues. This is the episode’s strength as pitting Batman against a foe he can’t see is pretty entertaining to animate. Not only does Ventrix possess the ability to make himself invisible, he can even make the car he’s in invisible as well. When he tries to escape Batman via automobile, Batman jumps onto the roof of the car as it speeds away. Other motorists can only see what appears to be Batman flying above the road zoom past them and it’s a pretty amusing visual.
Being invisible is definitely an advantage to have over Batman, but it doesn’t make-up for the huge gap in fighting ability between Ventrix and the Dark Knight. Batman is able to foil the plans of Mojo, and a tidy little bow is placed on the whole thing. There’s also a sweet little scene to end the episode that I like, and old Ventrix is never heard from again.
There’s some great artwork in the fight scene that climaxes the episode. Batman has never looked so bad ass.
As a kid, I probably wasn’t that interested in this episode since it doesn’t feature one of Batman’s familiar enemies, but the simple and relatable premise of the episode makes it rather endearing. The show is careful to portray Ventrix as a selfish criminal who’s quick to anger and probably possesses a violent side. As a result, we can only sympathize with him on a surface level. Yes, it’s terrible to not have even limited visitation rights with your child, but the courts typically reserve that fate for the truly bad individuals in society and Ventrix happens to be one of them. He presumably had a path to his daughter that involved getting a stable job, a place to live, and he probably had to stay out of trouble for a certain length of time and at that point he probably could have had some visitation restored. He’s impatient though and thinks he can win back his ex-wife with money, money that just so happens to be ill-gotten. Helen assumes the worst of him, but she’s also right. Batman is there to provide the action, and the scenes of him battling with Ventrix in his invisibility suit are pretty special from an animation perspective. It might not be the first episode people think of when they hear Batman: The Animated Series, but it’s a pretty good one.
Episode Number: 16
Episode Number: 15
Unlike The Penguin and Joker, Catwoman was not made an existing villain in this series. This episode marks her debut to both the television audience and to this version of Batman as well. They have never crossed paths before their meeting here, though one gets the impression that Catwoman has been up to this sort of thing for quite some time. She’s quite good at getting around and breaking and entering and even has little cat-shaped caltrops to make use of. Her outfit is very similar to Batman’s and I suppose that’s intentional. She even has a yellow-gold belt. Really, the only difference is she lacks a cape. This version of Catwoman is less an adversary and more another aspect of how Batman could operate. While he may be a vigilante out to do what’s right while largely adhering to the law of the land, Catwoman plays more fast and loose with the law and is willing to break it, going as far as thievery, if the ends are justified by the means. Batman’s ultimate goal is also to help the good people of Gotham by reducing crime, where as Catwoman is basically an animal rights activist who may or not prefer animals (in particular, cats) to people.
Episode Number: 14
Thankfully, Mr. Freeze avoids the Two-Face treatment which saw that villain return more than once as basically a conventional Batman foil. The show never forgets the true motivation for Freeze and Nora is a part of the few times he does reappear. He never schemes with the Joker or serves as hired muscle for Poison Ivy. And best of all, Mr. Freeze is provided a legacy that still endures today making him one of Batman’s greatest foes, and he owes it all to this episode of a children’s cartoon.
Episode Number: 13
For the better part of three decades, Bucky O’Hare has been largely absent from the public conscious. His television show lasted a mere 13 episodes, likely green-lit thanks to the popularity of other obscure comic turned television sensation the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. His toy line consisted of one wave of 10 figures and two vehicles and no more. Why did Bucky fail? There are a few theories, but the most prevailing is that Hasbro mishandled the toy line packing too many unpopular figures into a case (specifically Toad Air Marshall) at the expense of the most popular characters like Bucky, Dead Eye, and Bruiser. And I can certainly vouch for that to a point, as I only bought a Toad Air Marshall as a kid when he was literally the only character on the pegs. And it wasn’t that the section had been picked over leaving a handful of figures, no it was dozens of Toad Air Marshall action figures. When I got my first Bucky I had to sift through a bunch of them to find him and was elated. I eventually had the whole set, plus the vehicles, though sadly they would be either sold in a yard sale or discarded entirely. I would replace my Bucky many years later as an adult collector, but never the rest of the set.
For the debut of the line, Boss Fight Studio settled on Captain Bucky O’Hare himself and First Mate Jenny. The selections may seem obvious, after all, who is going to launch a Bucky O’Hare toy line with out Bucky O’Hare, but Boss Fight Studio deserves some recognition for pairing him with Jenny. Jenny was infamously dropped from the Hasbro line because of the concern of marketing a girl toy to boys. She was supposed to be included in the planned second series, and since she was basically prepared for the first set, completed figures made it through production and into packaging. Some of these would find their way into the hands of collectors, most did not, and Jenny remains the biggest omission from that lone set of figures. Finally, Bucky O’Hare fans have the Jenny figure they were denied back in 1991.
Jenny is in some ways the more anticipated of the two because of her history. She does not disappoint. She’s nice and shiny and packed with articulation like Bucky. She’s got a huge mount of hair on her head, as she did in both comics and TV, and an abundance of curves. If this property had been more popular we’d probably be partly blaming Jenny for the rise of furries. Her arms and lower legs are really thin, but she doesn’t seem particularly fragile or anything. Her hands are easily swapped out with the extras provided by BFS, and she also has two additional face plates, one of which being a cheeky winking face. She doesn’t have a gun, despite carrying one in the animated series, but has two hands with “psychic energy” resembling Marvel’s Psylocke and two circular energy blasts she can hold. She has four sets of hands as a result, compared with Bucky’s three, and four face plates. Her default features an open mouth, but she also has a smiling one and a toothy smile in addition to the winking face mentioned before. Her hair is obviously quite heavy, but her tail makes posing her rather easy. She’s a bit limited in what she can do as a result, but still looks great. There are some slight paint imperfections on a few of her face plates as she requires finer details, but nothing major.
Episode Number: 12
It had a good run, but with this past Saturday’s airing of “Wanted: Bebop and Rocksteady” the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series launched by Nickelodeon in 2012 has come to a close. In a somewhat refreshing manner, the show has come to an end largely because it’s told a story that was basically completed with the defeat of Shredder and the passing of Splinter to conclude season 4. Season 5, which came with a re-titling of the series as Tales of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, largely dealt with the fallout and the Turtles taking on the few stragglers remaining from Shredder’s empire. It was some-what directionless, but still solid entertainment. The finale though brought us another cross-over with the 1987 TMNT with a story centered around the comedic duo of Bebop and Rocksteady.
Episode Number: 11
The Nostalgia Spot 