[8.8/10] I don’t know what it is about battle-hardened heroes questioning whether it’s worth it to keep fighting that’s so powerful. Batman is the picture of resoluteness. It’s easy to imagine him waging his war on crime forever, if for no other reason than he’s been doing it for eighty years on the page and pixel and screen and shows no sign of slowing down. As long as there is a Gotham, as long as there is a gallery of rogues, there will be a Batman to hold the line.
But “I Am the Night” gives us a Batman who wonders whether he’s doing any good in that fight. The passage of time is deliberately somewhat fuzzy in Batman: The Animated Series, but we know it’s been a year since “Appointment in Crime Alley” given that Batman and Dr. Thompkins are reuniting for their annual rose memorial for Bruce’s parents. Regardless of the specifics, the episode gives the air of a Dark Knight who’s been in this fight for a long time and skeptical that he’s making a difference. The Penguin is back out on the streets, the police are in a tense stand-off with a gangster called “The Jazzman”, and worse yet, there’s still crime in Crime Alley.
What’s striking about that setup is the depths of Batman’s despondency. In truth, the episode overdoes that a little bit, with everyone from Alfred to Robin to the Caped Crusader himself making blunt statements to underscore Bruce’s emotional state. But “I Am the Night” also makes you believe it, creating understandable reasons that Batman would wonder if he’s making any sort of difference, and if it’s worth him to continue here.
Not the least of these is Jim Gordon getting shot. Again, the episode highlights this point too forcefully, but Batman sees Jim as a father figure. The thought that he was unable to act in time once again, that another person he looked to as a parent was brought down by another punk with a gun, has to be devastating. If there’s one thing that haunts Batman more than the idea that him suiting up and going into the night could hurt the people he cares about, it’s that even with all this, it’s not enough to stop the same sorts of tragedies that took his mom and dad away from him.
The episode is also a little heavy on literary references, but works in Batman’s acknowledgment that fighting this war has taken a toll on him, changed him. He’s willing to accept that, even knew it was inevitable, but he’s afraid of what it’s done to those close to him. And Harvey Bullock, Batman critic that he is, makes it worse by putting Gordon’s shooting on the Bat’s broad but faltering shoulders.
Thankfully, that same care for others is what spurs Batman to action again. When Robin’s ready to go after the Jazzman when Bruce is beside himself and depressed, Batman stops him and aims to go after the crook himself to spare his partner from harm’s way. What ensues is a hell of a hospital-side fight between the Bat and Gordon’s shooter, with dangling tension and a great last-second batarang save that prevents Jim from suffering another Jazzman bullet.
Jazzman himself is a pretty mild antagonist, but he works as a vehicle for Batman’s anxieties. The fact that when the villain is subdued, Jim wakes up making the same “could have done more” self-recriminations that Batman does helps reassure Batman he’s not alone. Their mutual admiration society, the way each believes the other is the real hero doing the real good, helps underline each’s essential nobility in a strong way that justifies Batman’s rehabilitation.
But it’s not the only thing that does. The kid that Batman helped out of trouble and put in Dr. Thompkins care at the beginning of the episode thanks him at the end of it. It’s a necessary grace note to all of this, one that confirms that for all the grand, supervillain-defeating good that The Bat does on a nightly basis, he’s also having positive effects on the little guy, effects that are hard to see in newspaper headlines, but which are no less important.
“I Am the Night” is an episode with the courage to show Batman at his lowest point, but also the wherewithal to show why he’s apt to get back up and fight, and affirms the difference he makes in places below the notice of even the Dark Knight himself.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2019-12-05T04:40:09Z
[8.8/10] I don’t know what it is about battle-hardened heroes questioning whether it’s worth it to keep fighting that’s so powerful. Batman is the picture of resoluteness. It’s easy to imagine him waging his war on crime forever, if for no other reason than he’s been doing it for eighty years on the page and pixel and screen and shows no sign of slowing down. As long as there is a Gotham, as long as there is a gallery of rogues, there will be a Batman to hold the line.
But “I Am the Night” gives us a Batman who wonders whether he’s doing any good in that fight. The passage of time is deliberately somewhat fuzzy in Batman: The Animated Series, but we know it’s been a year since “Appointment in Crime Alley” given that Batman and Dr. Thompkins are reuniting for their annual rose memorial for Bruce’s parents. Regardless of the specifics, the episode gives the air of a Dark Knight who’s been in this fight for a long time and skeptical that he’s making a difference. The Penguin is back out on the streets, the police are in a tense stand-off with a gangster called “The Jazzman”, and worse yet, there’s still crime in Crime Alley.
What’s striking about that setup is the depths of Batman’s despondency. In truth, the episode overdoes that a little bit, with everyone from Alfred to Robin to the Caped Crusader himself making blunt statements to underscore Bruce’s emotional state. But “I Am the Night” also makes you believe it, creating understandable reasons that Batman would wonder if he’s making any sort of difference, and if it’s worth him to continue here.
Not the least of these is Jim Gordon getting shot. Again, the episode highlights this point too forcefully, but Batman sees Jim as a father figure. The thought that he was unable to act in time once again, that another person he looked to as a parent was brought down by another punk with a gun, has to be devastating. If there’s one thing that haunts Batman more than the idea that him suiting up and going into the night could hurt the people he cares about, it’s that even with all this, it’s not enough to stop the same sorts of tragedies that took his mom and dad away from him.
The episode is also a little heavy on literary references, but works in Batman’s acknowledgment that fighting this war has taken a toll on him, changed him. He’s willing to accept that, even knew it was inevitable, but he’s afraid of what it’s done to those close to him. And Harvey Bullock, Batman critic that he is, makes it worse by putting Gordon’s shooting on the Bat’s broad but faltering shoulders.
Thankfully, that same care for others is what spurs Batman to action again. When Robin’s ready to go after the Jazzman when Bruce is beside himself and depressed, Batman stops him and aims to go after the crook himself to spare his partner from harm’s way. What ensues is a hell of a hospital-side fight between the Bat and Gordon’s shooter, with dangling tension and a great last-second batarang save that prevents Jim from suffering another Jazzman bullet.
Jazzman himself is a pretty mild antagonist, but he works as a vehicle for Batman’s anxieties. The fact that when the villain is subdued, Jim wakes up making the same “could have done more” self-recriminations that Batman does helps reassure Batman he’s not alone. Their mutual admiration society, the way each believes the other is the real hero doing the real good, helps underline each’s essential nobility in a strong way that justifies Batman’s rehabilitation.
But it’s not the only thing that does. The kid that Batman helped out of trouble and put in Dr. Thompkins care at the beginning of the episode thanks him at the end of it. It’s a necessary grace note to all of this, one that confirms that for all the grand, supervillain-defeating good that The Bat does on a nightly basis, he’s also having positive effects on the little guy, effects that are hard to see in newspaper headlines, but which are no less important.
“I Am the Night” is an episode with the courage to show Batman at his lowest point, but also the wherewithal to show why he’s apt to get back up and fight, and affirms the difference he makes in places below the notice of even the Dark Knight himself.