Batman: The Animated Series

[Compound]

"Hey, who's talking about Batman? I love Batman. All those muscles. The tight rubber armor and the flashy car. I heard it can drive up walls!"

[RoninFox]

"Hey, who's talking about Batman? I love Batman. All those muscles. The tight rubber armor and the flashy car. I heard it can drive up walls!"

Shut up, Joel.

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

Clayface is great but unique unlike so many other batman villians (with a few exceptions) he is basically a really powerful thug.  No big mastermind plans.  made him kinda interesting. 

[daltysmilth]

The first part of the Two-Face origin episodes was pretty interesting.  The second part kinda bothered me a little bit.  Like, the whole letting "bad" Harvey take over and make Harvey Dent into a villain just because half of his face suddenly became ugly... okay it's a little bit far-fetched but whatever.  What bothers me the most is that in such a short amount of time as a villain, Two-Face is able to acquire henchmen.  Actual henchmen.  Now, Harvey Dent, up until recently, had been the district attorney.  A soldier on the side of law and order.  A scourge of the criminal underworld.  Every crook in Gotham probably knew and cursed his name, and they'd all probably been prosecuted by him at some point.  So why would they be willing to trust him just because he claimed he was one of them now?  Sure, half of his face was ugly and he had the whole "crimes based around the number two" gimmick, but it takes more than that to be a criminal.  If I were a petty crook and a man who had spent most of his career putting people like me behind bars suddenly claimed to be a criminal too and that he wanted henchmen... I would want some guarantee that this wasn't just a ruse to catch me in the act of committing some crime so he could send me to prison for life.  Or just kill me himself in pursuit of some twisted sense of justice.

[Rainbow Dash]

Another Animated Series Original Villain that I'm surprised has apparently had no introduction in the comics, was Red Claw.  She was no Harley, but I thought the idea of a strong woman villain was interesting.  Only recently learned that it was none other than Kate Mulgrew doing her voice.

[Sideswipe]

There were a lot of Star Trek veterans as guest voices in that show.

[Rainbow Dash]

There were a lot of Star Trek veterans as guest voices in that show.

Who else?  I just did the list on the Wiki of major and recurring characters.  I know Dianne Muldaur did Doctor Thompson, but other than her and Mulgrew, I don't remember any.

[Sideswipe]

Theres probably more, but I got tired of searching through episodes.

Kate Mulgrew  EP 1
Rene Auberjonois  EP 2
Michael Ansara   EP 3
Brock Peters   EP 4/5
Ron Pearlman EP 4/5
Ed Begley Jr.  EP 4/5
Paul Dooley  EP 6
Diana Muldaur   EP 12

[Johnny Unusual]

Theres probably more, but I got tired of searching through episodes.

Kate Mulgrew  EP 1
Rene Auberjonois  EP 2
Michael Ansara   EP 3
Brock Peters   EP 4/5
Ron Pearlman EP 4/5
Ed Begley Jr.  EP 4/5
Paul Dooley  EP 6
Diana Muldaur   EP 12

Cause when people think Ed Begley Jr., they think Star Trek (better than Meet the Applegates, I suppose)

If you wanted to load up your cartoon plate with Star Trek voices, Gargoyles was the way to go.  Jonathan Frakes was wonderfully sinister as Xanatos.  A shame that the comic book comeback of Gargoyles kind of died.  I think when Disney and Marvel merged, they could have made it a universe that Marvel characters would occasionally visit.  I mean if the Marvel 616 is the super-hero universe, then Gargoyles could be the crazy magic and occasional sci-fi universe.

[Sideswipe]

Yeah, that show had a lot of the main cast of TNG it it.

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

I always assumed that was the show they kinda kicked around on their coffee breaks on the set of TNG

[Sideswipe]

that was after TNG ended

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

My way is funnier

[RoninFox]

It really was amazing.  Bit meh after Season 3, but it really is one of the most smartly written animated shows I have ever seen.

I actually prefer the style of the later seasons, especially when Bats' costume goes drab instead of primary colors.

I mostly hated the new style because it didn't feel like Batman anymore. They changed the style so it would match the Superman series and that really stood out to me. There are a couple characters that came out the other side of the change better. I prefer the more human looking Penguin and the redone Scarecrow is much more frightening. Some characters are pretty much the same. I have to look very close to tell the difference between the designs for Harley and Two Face.  But then several characters just looked horrible by comparison. I hate the look of the colorless-faced pointy Joker. The Riddler lost every bit of style he had. Poison Ivy suddenly turned into a short green alien. 90% of the women of Gotham went goth. We went from a college age Robin that seemed believable to me to having a new Robin that looked like he should still have training wheels.

Also I absolutely hated that they threw out the character development of both Catwoman and Harley with zero explanation. Both reverted to thier beginnings making several episodes pointless when considered together.

[daltysmilth]

Yeah, the best episode of the later seasons was "Mad Love", and that was an adaptation of a story Paul Dini had written a few years before for the Batman Adventures comic book.