Galactic Guardians Presents: The Fear

I have been spending a lot of time lately watching various episodes of Batman: the Animated Series. The show is, of course, so good that it got me thinking about Batman's history in cartoons. Batman debuted in cartoons during the 1960's thanks to the now infamous company, Filmation, as part of the Batman/Superman Hour. The Batman bits of that show eventually got repackaged as The Adventures of Batman. This of course led to the better known ABC broadcast, Super Friends, in 1973 that lasted until 1985. Batman had a starring role in the Super Friends series, which was animated by Hanna-Barbera. A short-lived cartoon ran concurrently with that called The New Adventures of Batman. 

The final season of Super Friends got rebranded for ten episodes as The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians. Pre-BTAS, this is the most serious that superhero shows ever really got. Which brings us to The Fear!    

This screenshot from The Fear shows the first ever "dark" Batman in animation.

The Fear is the first time ever, outside of comics, that Batman ever got dark. Of course, it wasn't as dark or sophisticated as anything that Bruce Timm and Co. would give us in the 90's but, for 1985, this was well done. They couldn't really do anything beyond the level of  cartoons for 8-year-olds because Standards and Practices in children's animation back then was far more conservative. The Fear raised the bar for superhero cartoons and is probably the best DC superhero cartoon made before the 1990's.

Here, Batman is terrified of Crime Alley, the place where his parents were murdered. The Dynamic Duo chases Scarecrow and his Strawmen (because, what else would you call Scarecrow's henchmen, LOL) towards Crime Alley but once Batman realizes where he is, he freezes. Scarecrow gets away and Batman and Robin spend the rest of the episode dealing with his trauma and the Scarecrow tries to exploit his fear. At a party at Wayne Manor, Diana Prince (Wonder Woman) shows up and notices Bruce is not his usual self. At the end, the rest of the Super Friends show up and help Batman work out his trauma so that he and the Boy Wonder can stop Scarecrow's scheme. 

This is 21 minutes of superhero storytelling that rivals some of the darker toons that came later. Granted, this is still a kid's cartoon, and, when watched today might seem simplistic, but it's still important. It's the first time in animation where Batman is more than one dimensional and his humanity is explored. The episode is a gem in a series of otherwise saccharine and campy cartoons. Alan Burnett, producer of BTAS and other shows in the more modern DC Animated Universe also wrote this episode. He was one of the main writers on the Super Friends show. 

Because of the Super Friends legacy, the history of Batman in animation is really pretty weak until BTAS. That said, The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians is a fairly watchable, and sometimes entertaining show. The Fear remains its best episode and is a neat little artifact for fans, new and old, to discover. Anyway, I just discovered it and for those who have never heard of this episode, I highly recommend it for all Bat-fans!