To reverse an old cliché, good villains mean nothing without a strong hero to face them. “Batman: The Animated Series” also gave us the definitive and most endearing adaptation of the Caped Crusader himself. Batman’s characterization strikes the same just right balance of dark and light as the overall tone of the series.
The animated Batman’s soul rested within Kevin Conroy; he may no longer be with us, but he still is the voice for Batman without dispute. Conroy was a gay man and, when he got the part of Batman, was still in the closet for his career’s sake. In 2022, Conroy wrote a short comic titled “Finding Batman,” explaining how having to wear a mask in his own life prepared him to voice Batman:
“It seemed to roar from 30 years of frustration, confusion, denial, love, yearning… yearning for what? An anchor. A harbor. A sense of safety, a sense of identity. Yes, I can relate. Yes, this is terrain I know well. I felt Batman rising from deep within.”
Conroy’s Batman wasn’t one that only inspired fear, but also one that children (or adults who first watched him at a younger age) could look up to, and who was allowed to be vulnerable like in Conroy’s greatest Batman moment of all. Some particular highlights include “Nothing to Fear,” where Batman is haunted by the disapproving spirit of his father, only to vanquish it with a now immortal line: “I am vengeance! I am the night! I am Batman!”
In “Perchance To Dream,” Bruce Wayne awakens in a world where he was never Batman and his parents are still alive. The normally in-control Batman is bewildered, and ultimately can’t deny when something is too good to be true. In “I Am The Night,” we see a rare self-loathing side of Batman, for he feels that he still hasn’t done enough despite all his dedication and sacrifices.
The two-parter “Robin’s Reckoning” mostly stars Batman’s Boy Wonder sidekick as he comes face-to-face with his parents’ killer Tony Zucco, but Batman/Conroy has a strong supporting part. I’ve never forgotten his final line in the episode, when he admits he was scared that Robin might get himself killed running off after Zucco.
This Batman even sees the light in the bad guys (well, most of them). Just watch “Two-Face” or “Baby Doll” or “Harley’s Holiday,” where he comforts a semi-reformed Miss Quinn by reminding her we all have bad days. “Nice guys like you shouldn’t have bad days,” replies a touched Harley.
I see in Conroy’s Batman the same ethos that Peter Cullen draws on when voicing Optimus Prime in “Transformers” — “Be strong enough to be gentle” — and from that came the best Batman ever.
“Batman: The Animated Series” is streaming on Prime Video.
