The 15 Best Batman: The Animated Series Episodes

"Heart of Ice" and its reimagined Mr. Freeze set the tone for the series' approach to its villains. Victor Fries is downright terrifying here, with his dead eyes, fishbowl-like helmet, and Michael Ansara's menacing monotone voice. But he's also a tragic figure, fighting to avenge his lost soulmate, and a victim of forces more pernicious than any one supervillain.

Those forces are embodied by Ferris Boyle, an example of the corrupt corporate snake archetype that "Batman: The Animated Series" would return to again and again. Boyle and his craven financial interests are behind both the loss of Victor's wife and his present subzero state. The smiling CEO is magnanimous in public but cruel and uncaring behind closed doors. He's an ironic counterpoint to Mr. Freeze himself, who seems cold on the surface but is passionate, even lyrical, at heart.

One of the series' best features was the complexity and grace it granted to villains like Mr. Freeze. Victor's losses earns him Batman's sympathy as well as the audience's, even when his plans wreak havoc in a futile effort at revenge. And when Batman digs up the dirt on Boyle and hands it over to the media, his choice confirms that he doesn't merely fight to stop supervillains; he fights for justice.

Honorable Mention: "Two-Face" another early triumph for the series that delves deeply into the psychology and pathos of its title character.

Shoving a bumbling, third-rate goon into the spotlight for an episode is another inspired choice from "Batman: The Animated Series." Meet Sid the Squid, a low-level criminal who's half Rick Moranis and half Kermit the Frog. Sid dreams of being a bigtime underworld boss — only, when it seems he's (accidentally) taken out the Dark Knight himself, Sid gets a lot more than he bargained for.

With Paul Dini writing the script and Bruce Timm directing, "The Man Who Killed Batman" offers the best of both worlds. There's superb comedy here, from Joker's usual antics to Sid's nebbish ways. But there's also a wisp of pathos, as Joker laments that without his archenemy, "crime doesn't have a punchline," while Sid watches his aspirations run aground on reality.

The episode boasts clever turns and amusing scenes throughout. In the end, watching a minor schnook crumple under the infamy of appearing to have iced the Bat made for one of the show's most creative outings.

What superlative hasn't already been laid at the feet of Mark Hamill's Joker? And every bit of it is earned. Never before had the character found such a perfect balance between a downright hilarious shtick and an equally terrifying menace. With a performer like Hamill and a writer like Paul Dini, the Joker reached a true high water mark in "Batman: The Animated Series."

And "The Laughing Fish" may very well be his best outing in the show. In the episode, Joker tries to copyright any smiling fish exposed to his Joker toxin in order to collect royalties. It's the kind of loony scheme only he could pull off. But what makes this one special is not just Hamill's best performance as the Clown Prince of Crime, which is genuinely funny and frightening in turn, but also the way it drives home Joker's peculiar ethos: to cause mayhem purely for comedy, not for profits.

The episode explains why Joker is so slippery in the demented cat and mouse games he plays with Batman. Joker doesn't want anything in the way other villains do. He just wants to have a laugh, no matter how deadly the consequences. And it makes him unpredictable, dangerous, and thoroughly entertaining every time.

Honorable Mention: "Joker's Wild", another fun dose of the character's antics built around efforts to monetize his likeness.

What holds Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson together is more than their familial bond; it's their shared tragedy. "Robin's Reckoning" jumps back and forth between the past, where we witness the terrible loss of Robin's parents, and the present, where the Boy Wonder clashes with Batman over who gets to hunt down the man responsible years later.

Both of them know what it's like to lose your mother and father as a young boy at the hands of a two-bit thug. Both of them have a talent for resourceful street combat and a nose for scaring up information. And both want to take down Tony Zucco, the goon whose attempt to spook a circus owner into paying protection money led to the deaths of Dick's family.

The episode is candid, raw, and full of passion, both in Robin's fury at the man who killed his parents, but also in the love and bond he shares with the man who filled his father's role. In the end, Dick Grayson doesn't exact mortal vengeance, nor does he lose himself in the throes of anger over his fallen mother and father. Instead, he lives up to the ideals of the man who brought him up in their stead, and in their honor.

There's a continuous tug of war in Gotham. On one side are moneyed interests that want to suck the city dry and line their pockets. On the other are the people in and of that city, fighting to preserve it and keep it safe.

"Appointment in Crime Alley" makes that conflict a little more literal than usual. Corrupt industrialist Roland Daggett plots to destroy the old neighborhood in a craven land development scheme. He has no regard for the people who call it home or care about the community. Naturally, this includes Batman, but also Dr. Leslie Thompkins (Diana Muldaur), a longtime resident who runs a free clinic in the area. The two work together to save the day despite Daggett's scheme.

More than that, though, Batman makes his sacred appointment on time, leaving two roses for his parents in the spot where they died. Thompkins comforts him as he grieves for his mother and father, just as, it turns out, she comforted a young Bruce Wayne when the deaths originally happened. It's a rare moment of vulnerability from Batman, who fights so hard to preserve the site of his life's greatest tragedy in a beautiful story about not forgetting where you came from.

Honorable Mention: "I Am the Night," another episode set on the anniversary of the Waynes' deaths in which Batman realizes the good he does for the little guy.

The biggest legacy of "Batman: The Animated Series" may very well be the creation of Harley Quinn (Arleen Sorkin). Introduced as a mere sidekick for the Joker, Harley quickly came into her own, with a power, plight and personality that made the villainess both uproarious and endearing.

"Harley and Ivy" recognized Harley's independence early, giving her a friendship with Poison Ivy that became one of the character's defining relationships across multiple properties. The episode delivers on the wonderful conceit of "Thelma and Louise" by way of Gotham. In the process, it also explores Harley's abuse at the hands of the Joker with conviction and discretion.

Harley wouldn't fully break free of Joker's grasp, but the episode earns her sympathy and establishes her great dynamic with Ivy as a friend and voice of reason. Throw in the stunning use of light and color in the climax, and the fact that Renee Montoya (another superb "Batman: The Animated Series" creation) gets the collar, and you have an all-time great outing from an all-time great character.

Clayface is the signature villain of "Batman: The Animated Series." Like so many other antagonists on the show, he's simultaneously a tragic figure and a dangerous threat. Matt Hagen (Ron Perlman) is an actor trying to maintain his bankable looks who falls in with the wrong people. So, he makes a deal with the devil, in this case Roland Daggett (Ed Asner), and commits crimes to further his benefactor's interests — for example, impersonating and incriminating Bruce Wayne — in exchange for an experimental face rejuvenation treatment.

But things go wrong, and Daggett's men turn Hagen into a sluicing monster. What sets Clayface apart is his new terrifying-yet-captivating visage. The villain isn't just a triumph of the writing staff, but also represents the peak of the show's animation. He moves with impossible geometry, summoning weapons and other guises in grand fluid motions. The body horror of his transformations grabs the eye and turns the stomach.

Almost all of interpretations of the Dark Knight's enemies on "Batman: The Animated Series" are worthy of praise, but Clayface, and the episode that first molds him, is the series' best blend of form and substance, taking unique advantage of the medium to inspire both terror and pity as Hagen delivers the performance of a lifetime.

For once, Bruce Wayne gets everything he wants. His parents are alive. He's engaged to Selina Kyle. His life's free of the angst and tragedy that haunted him for so many years. There's just one problem — it's all a lie.

Irregularities at the margins eventually lead Batman to discover that the Mad Hatter is keeping him in a gilded cage, a machine designed to entrance him with his deepest desires. "Perchance to Dream" uses its reverie-fueled Elseworlds story to examine what life would be like for Bruce if he'd never become Batman: purposeless but comfortable.

And yet, Bruce turns away from those comforts when he discovers they're not real. The episode is outstanding in the way it takes its premise seriously, exploring what a Bruce Wayne without tragedy might really be like. But what makes it the series' best effort is how Batman arrives at his ultimate choice, not just risking his life to prove the truth, but continuing to fight despite knowing what he's leaving behind.

Presented with the life he thought he always wanted, Batman nevertheless turns away from it. He would rather live a real life of hardship and meaning than a pretend one of falsehoods and easy satisfactions. In the end, the Dark Knight is still haunted by what he's lost, but chooses the life he has, with all its rough edges, to ensure that no one else ever has to face the same choice.