"I Am the Night" Re-watch: "The Ultimate Thrill" & "Over the Edge"

 The New Batman Adventures

We have reached the midway point of "The New Batman Adventures" and we are getting to the end of "Batman The Animated Series." It's crazy that this journey we started years ago is reaching an end. Let's get to it.

Roxy Rocket: "You missed your calling, Batman. You should have been in the movies."

Batman: "Give it up, Roxy."

Roxy Rocket: "I'm afraid that's not in my nature."

Batman: "Mine neither."

Roxy Rocket: "That's what makes us such a perfect couple."

Gotham has been besieged by burglar-ess, Roxy Rocket. A former stuntwoman, Roxy is always looking for the next thing that is going to give her the life or death thrill she loves. When she comes across Batman, she believes that he is the one that can give it to her. Her fence, Penguin, isn't loving it so Roxy's thrills may end at the point of one his trick umbrellas.

My rocket is like a dick. Get it?

"Batman: The Animated Series" has introduced one of the most popular characters in comics with Harley Quinn. They also introduced... Roxy Rocket. They can't all be winners. Roxy is a former popular stunt woman who started taking too many risks to be insurable by movie studios. So, now she robs blimps and jumps out of them. Cool.

The main issue with this episode is Roxy. She is pretty one dimensional. Her obsession with Batman is predictable and just really, really meh. Even the voice acting is grating. The thing that most people remember from this episode is the climax... no pun intended. Batman and Roxy are straddling this rocket (penis), facing each other and Roxy is basically having a full on orgasm while she thinks she is heading towards her death. I had never seen this episode before and it was a surprised. It is extremely heavy handed and I wonder if episode writer, Hilary J. Bader, was thinking. Did she really think she was getting away with it? I know Bader's work and this is a big letdown.

The rest of this episode is just kind of meh. The opening action scene is pretty cool. The rich people of Gotham love blimps. Maybe they shouldn't? It seems like rich people are always getting robbed in blimps. Blimps are better than Roxy Rocket.

Grade: D

Barbara Gordon: "This is important. It won't be easy for you to hear... but it's about a job I took one recently.

Commissioner James Gordon: "Barbara, please. Sweetheart, you're capable of making your own decisions. You don't need me to approve or even acknowledge them. And in this case, I can't. All you need to know is I love you. All of you. [kisses her]

Commissioner James Gordon: "And that is all I have to say on the subject." [Gives her a wink.]

Barbara Gordon: "Daddy..." [Hugs him]

The GCPD have figured out that Bruce Wayne is Batman after Batgirl dies in her father's arms. Gordon goes on a rampage. He will do anything to avenge his daughter and make the Bat family pay. Can Batman reason with his former friend turned grieving father before Gordon does something he may regret?

Falling for Scarecrow.

Now, this is more like it. This is not only the best episode of "The New Batman Adventures," but one of the best "Batman: The Animated Series." The episode throws you off kilter from the start. The police invading Wayne Manor and chasing Batman and Robin though it and into the Batcave. There are so many close class, especially involving Robin. You don't really think too much about Robin's age until the police are almost killing him. Then, there is Alfred throwing himself on Gordon and preventing him from shooting him in the back.

This whole episode is intense in ways that I don't think the show has been in the past. Take the inciting incident. It starts with a pretty general battle with Scarecrow. Batgirl goes after him and Scarecrow ends up knocking her off a building. The camera following her down, her body slamming into Gordon and Bullock's police car. It is very intense and jarring and when her body hits the hood of the car, I jumped. I felt kind of sick. It isn't usual for animated series to be hitting me with those kinds of emotions.

This whole episode goes that way. You see Gordon and Batman's relationship completely changed and Gordon unhinged. It's very believable when you think about holding your dying daughter in your arms in a vigilante costume. Gordon even goes so far as to enlist Bane in his crusade against Batman. The fight between Batman and Bane is bone crunching and shocking (again, pardon the pun) when it looks like Batman is going to cross his uncrossable line (unless you're in a Snyder movie) and kill Bane. 

The reveal that this is a reaction Barbara is having to Scarecrow's fear toxin is both obvious and kind of a surprise since this is not the usual reaction his victims have. After all this heavy stuff, writer Paul Dini ends the episode on a loving and hopeful note between Barbara and Jim, which contains the exchange that begins this recap. It is the perfect palate cleanser and helps to further solidify and deepen the strongest father/daughter relationship in comics.

Next up, we meet Calendar Girl and Gotham is besieged by giant bugs.

What did yo all think of these episodes? That Roxy Rocket stuff was a lot, right? Is "Over the Edge" in the pantheon of B: TAS for you? Let me know in the comments.