Ranking Batman TAS Villains

Our hosts return to the Podcave and sit down to review and rank almost every major/minor Batman the Animated Series villain!
Who will rank as S tier? And who will end up in the sewers of Gotham at the bottom of the list? *Hint: the king of the sewers might be included on that list!
#batman #batmantheanimatedseries #podcast
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[@gladd8869]

“I’d rather watch a killer croc episode than poison ivy episode” is a take the Joker would say lmao

[@daniell.cavalcanti3019]

I'm so happy I found this channel

[@batmantaspod]

Ah that’s nice of you to say! Happy you found us too!

[@luis1237]

I always laugh at the Hugo Strange trick

[@The_Phantasm]

I absolutely love John Glover as Riddler and the personality that John gives him but you can sometimes feel the frustrations the writers had with writing episodes about him due to him being a genius. However, as much as I like John Glover, the best depiction of The Riddler outside the comics in my opinion the one from the Batman Arkham games. Wally Wingert who voiced the character in all 4 games always delivered such an incredible performance that always managed to perfectly capture Riddler's obsessive personality, massive ego and superiority complex and gets a significant amount of screen time. I love the taunts and the boasts and the way he just completely melts down when he's beaten because he can't even begin to comprehend that he's not the smartest person in existence. It's honestly his voice I hear in my head when I read comics with Riddler.

[@sacpops]

Fun Video!! I’m watching BTAS for the first time as I’m 19, but glad I found your channel as well 👍

[@rolyngeorges7315]

Out of all the BTAS universe my favorite villains are Mr. Freeze, Man-Bat, The Joker, Two-Face, Ra’s Al Ghul, and The Riddler along with The Mad Hatter.

[@Xehanort10]

27:17 This Ivy and Arkham Ivy are the only good adaptations of her.

[@The_Phantasm]

The DCAU version of Hugo Strange was rather lackluster and I think it's fair to say that the series didn't fully explore Hugo Strange's psychological expertise and his obsession with understanding Batman's true identity, which are significant aspects of his character. It also just didn't fully capture Hugo Strange's ability to manipulate others. Instead, he was portrayed as a generic mad scientist which he kind of was back in the Golden Age but he had since been long reinvented for the better. The show overlooked Hugo Strange's intellectual prowess and his obsession with understanding the human mind. His visual design was too comical. The animation style of the show, while iconic and beloved, did not lend itself well to capturing the intricacies of Hugo Strange's character. They drew him too goofy with his exaggerated features, such as his misshapen oversized head, bulging eyes, and comically thin goatee as opposed to his usual Amish beard. The exaggerated and overly cartoonish design of Hugo Strange in the show made it harder to perceive him as a highly intelligent and formidable adversary, diminishing his credibility as a villain Ray Buktenica's voice I think lacked the distinct gravitas and sinister tone usually associated with the character. He was much better handled in The Batman 2004 series where he was voiced by Frank Gorshin.

[@samanthakelly718]

This is a damn solid ranking. I remember really not liking Poison Ivy after I first watched the show, I found the whole feminist schtict with her character disingenuous and even obnoxious at at times. Like shaping her plant monster like a vagina? I was like, "you're doing too much, Dini." The decision to make her reformed life her being a 1950's style housewife annoyed me even more since she's a straw feminist and environmental activist, in what universe would she crave that life? But in hindsight, what I think I missed was that the over-top-ness of her character was the point. She thoroughly thinks she needs to lean all the way into a certain lifestyle and never sits in grey categories. She can either have what she wants in life (environmentalism, feminism, control of her life, a homoerotic female relationship, sexual expression) or live peacefully. In her mind, she can't have both. This is why she sits in such a dull out-of-character lifestyle when she's "reformed." She thinks what the world wants from her is not who she really is. And while she'd like to live a life with a family, she doesn't think she can with what society will accept from her. What she wants isn't evil, obviously, as many have pointed out, but there is stigma around all of it, so she equates it with being destructive towards humanity since humanity would never accept it in her eyes. So she ends up radicalizing herself as a result. Looking at her from that angle has definitely taught me to respect the character a lot more. Plus, she's just scary as shit, like her actions in one episode scares me far more than all of BTAS Scarecrow's schemes combined. Speaking of Scarecrow, I know he's not the greatest villain, but I kinda like the way he's written as far as characterization goes. A lot of Scarecrows are tall, cold and menacing. They've suffered, typically were abused or bullied or traumatized in some way, so they conquer their demons by essentially becoming them. It makes them look soulless and impenetrable. BTAS Scarecrow? Not even close. There's no tragic backstory, no sympathetic qualities outside of saying hi to Harley one time, hell his "asshole victim" Dr. Long is honestly more of a hero than an asshole victim considering he stopped Scarecrow from hurting his students & tried his damnest to stand up to his terrorism. This guy was a bully from day one. He'd probably be on par with the very bullies who drove his Master of Fear counterpart to snapping. Scarecrow has always been the loudest, meanest scariest person in the room used to getting the reaction he wants. He's used to getting what he wants cuz he's intimidated people into giving it to him. So when Dr. Long doesn't give into that crap, his reaction is tantamount of "oh? You're not scared of me? Fine, I'll show you why everyone else is." This is honestly why I kinda don't mind the theatrical "lookit me! Lookit me!" Style voice or the more vulnerable moments in episodes like Lockup because it all just makes sense with the person he is. A shallow spoiled bully who's solved every problem he has with fear but is a sniveling coward the second he gets his crap thrown back at him cuz he isn't used to it. It really just works with the kinda behavior you can expect from people like this. Abusive jerks always crumble the second they see they've lost control of people around them. That's why I kinda like him as a character here. It just really makes sense with a character so obsessed with making people afraid of him, even if it doesn't make the best villain.

[@MrOrcshaman]

Disagree with your rating of the clock king. He's a surprisingly competent villain. He went through his own 'one bad day' moment, his neurotic obsession with time keeping allows him to outpace Batman's own moves, he's a pretty agile opponent, he's such a master strategist Amanda Waller hires him to lead task force X to invade the watchtower, and he mastered the time displacement device in time out of joint making him quite the threat. Don't undersell the man, his design in the show is way better then he was in the comics previously

[@batmantaspod]

After our rewatch of the clock king episode, we realised we would have rated him higher than we did 👍

[@FrozenJack2007]

Clock King was robbed!

[@vuseu]

Haha, Agreed! I love his episodes in the animated series

[@rashbandi9835]

Scarecrow is my favorite Batman villain and the BTAS design for him is my favorite, so it does sting that he’s in B, but I’d have to agree that he wasn’t done super well in BTAS and is much better in TNBA, and his design in that show is objectively better

[@Xehanort10]

17:16 With The Lizard it depends. Sometimes he's a mindless monster and sometimes he has Connors's intelligence.

[@Xehanort10]

6:51 To be fair she did use her smoke to seem like a ghost and take Bronski and Sol by surprise. She didn't have that element on Joker.

[@seansmith6255]

You forgot Daggett

[@loren6102]

You missed our favorite villain the drug lord from POV

[@dnkykng3369]

With Harvey Dent, how about his third personality, The Judge

[@batmantaspod]

We’ll get to that when we do The New Batman Adventures villains 😁

[@Themadhatter115]

15:15 I am plesed to be A

[@amusingmoose9924]

17:00 Holy crap, you’re a legit comic artist?

[@batmantaspod]

😂 yes indeed, writing and drawing for DC, Marvel, IDW, Image, and all the rest!

[@masonwelsh9718]

Where's Roland Dagget?!?

[@batmantaspod]

Yeah, forgot about Dagget when we made this. Whoopsie.

[@The_Phantasm]

I honestly don't think the BTAS Catwoman is an amazing depiction of the character and was one of the few character I thought the Animated Series never portrayed great. I never really cared for Catwoman in BTAS and I found her kind of bland. I think they leaned a bit too much on her being an animal activist and animal lover. My biggest issue was that I felt like she was missing the sass, sarcasm and overconfidence that Catwoman was known for. I always thought that Adrienne Barbeau's voice and performance sounded a bit too mature for the character and I felt like she was just missing the playful sass, sarcasm and overconfidence that Catwoman was known for. I think Adrienne Barbeau did a really good job but unfortunately I didn't think that her and Kevin Conroy had amazing chemistry, especially compared to his phenomenal chemistry with Dana Delany as Andrea Beaumont, Helen Slater and Olivia Hussey as Talia al Ghul (although of the two I liked Olivia Hussey more as Talia), Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman or Grey DeLisle who voiced Catwoman in the Arkham games. I think her characterization and Adrienne Barbeau's performance was more refined by the last season and also in The New Batman Adventures. Adrienne Barbeau was just never really the voice I imagined for Catwoman when I read comics. When I think of Catwoman voices I much prefer other versions of the character from other media, most notably the Arkham games version voiced by Grey DeLisle (who I think is the definitive voice for the character), Gina Gershon from The Batman 2004 series and Laura Bailey from the Batman Telltale games. In general, the BTAS Catwoman I never thought was anything special.

[@joecourchesne3141]

Putting this version of Bane, who was a character that the show runners didn’t care for and reluctantly put in the show AND had fairly forgettable episode, so high is a choice.

[@batmantaspod]

We all have our controversial opinions 🙃

[@PwnzerProductions]

Can’t stand Bane in this version, I don’t like his design with those goofy lips, I don’t like that he’s just another hired goon, I don’t like that he is beaten so easily, I don’t like him

[@batmantaspod]

I kinda get the feeling you didn’t like him 😂

[@Xehanort10]

There needs to be more Bane adaptations where he's not a henchman and he gives up Venom like in the comics instead of being addicted to it and easily beaten by cutting the tube.

[@francescomoscato2995]

I think he didn't have the right amount of screening time. That's the real problem.