33 Years Ago Today, Batman: The Animated Series Delivered Its Best Episode By Bringing Its Villains Together in a Surprising Way

Since its premiere in 1992, Batman: The Animated Series has become one of the most influential pieces of Batman media, second only to the DC comics themselves. Not only did the series deliver brand new characters that have become totemic to Batman lore, like Harley Quinn and Renee Montoya, but it also reinvented major antagonists like Mr. Freeze, redefining them in such a way that the show’s take has become the standard version. Despite all these new materials, the series also made sure to pay tribute to the source material that it was based on.

Not only did Batman: The Animated Series know when to take liberties with the DC characters, but it knew when the comic books got it right. Several great episodes of the series were pulled directly from the pages of Batman comics, sometimes taking the best parts and springboarding into a new direction. This leads us to the episode being celebrated today, the one that premiered on this day, November 10, thirty-three years ago. “Almost Got ‘Im” marked the 46th episode of Batman: The Animated Series, one of the final episodes of the show’s extensive first season, but it’s one that left a major mark.

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Written by Paul Dini, “Almost Got ‘Im” begins in an unconventional way from other episodes of Batman: The Animated Series. Rather than a crime in progress that Batman will need to solve or Bruce himself in the throes of an investigation, some of his worst villains have assembled for a poker game. Among them are The Joker, Two-Face, Penguin, and Killer Croc, all of whom are joined by Poison Ivy soon after (who beats up Croc to secure her place at the table). As the group laments Batman being on a tear in Gotham that night, eventually the conversation turns to their more fruitful encounters, the times that they almost successfully killed him.

After beginning in a way that broke the formula of the show, “Almost Got ‘Im” continues to defy the expectations of the audience. Instead of one single story that carries the entire episode, it’s a series of vignettes that show off multiple scenarios with Batman and his villains. Even with the wraparound story tying it all together, this episode has a more expansive view of Batman’s world than any other single episode. It also marks a villain team-up that is grounded in unconventional terms from what the show has delivered previously; they’re not working together for a common cause, they’re blowing off steam as colleagues.

Poison Ivy begins the sharing of tales, revealing how she almost killed Batman with poisonous pumpkin bombs on Halloween. Following that, Two-Face nearly ended him by tying him to a big coin he intended to flip, Penguin had a host of dangerous birds at his disposal, and Killer Croc threw a big rock at him (a very BIG rock!). Joker’s tale is the most interesting as he claims it happened just the night before, as he and Harley kidnapped a late show audience with the intention of killing Batman via a laughter-powered electric chair.

Across all their stories, their plans are foiled, largely from Batman’s cleverness and heroism, but the Joker’s story ends differently. Instead, Catwoman comes to the rescue of Batman and allows him to escape captivity, only to become captured herself by the clown prince of crime. Croc then asks Joker where he has Catwoman held now, to then quickly reveal that he’s not Killer Croc at all, but Batman in disguise, and all the goons around them are the GCPD. The entire facade of villain poker night was a sting to save Catwoman and bust the villains.

One Episode of Batman: The Animated Series Proves They Understood the Characters

“Almost Got ‘Im” does have a basis in the pages of DC comics, taking its inspiration from the story arc “Where Were You on the Night Batman Was Killed?” from the 1970s. Across that four-issue story, a few different villains make the case for how they were the one that was able to finally kill the Batman (Catwoman, Riddler, and the Joker). This is where the genius of Batman: The Animated Series is on full display, as it used the storytelling of the source material as a springboard for its own medium. The narrative real estate of a comic book and a cartoon obviously differ in major ways, but Batman: The Animated Series obviously recognized countless times that the comics themselves were the right starting point.

Though the storyline may have been able to work in comics with one character getting their own full issue, the cartoon had to cut down how much time each story got in the overall episode. In doing so, Batman: The Animated Series proved how well it understood all of its characters, as multiple times in this one episode it was able to encapsulate not only a complete scheme by each of its villains but also how Batman managed to outsmart them. Each of these vignettes is only a minute or so in length, showing that Dini’s grasp of story structure and pacing is remarkable, but that he knows how to utilize the time with each character wisely.

One of the big things that fans forget about when discussing “Almost Got ‘Im” is the way the episode wraps up, as Batman and the GCPD apprehending the villains isn’t actually the end. Instead, Batman goes to the location where Harley is holding Catwoman and must choose between apprehending the villain or saving his paramour. As we know, Batman does the latter, which leads to yet another moment that lasts less than a minute, where Batman and Catwoman share a moment on a rooftop. Catwoman makes a pass at the Bat, but he departs unseen after hearing a police siren, prompting Catwoman to deliver the titular line one last time.

“Almost got ‘Im” remains the best episode of Batman: The Animated Series because it upended the formula of the show while maintaining the tone and characterizations of everyone involved. It’s an episode that manages to stand apart from everything else in an already great series by breaking the rules while also adhering to canon. On the surface, this could have easily not worked, but the fact that it does is a minor miracle, and why we’re still talking about it over thirty years later.