Batman: The Animated Series 10 Best Characters

10. The Gray Ghost

There is no denying that the 1960s Batman TV show is a cultural touchstone. The show brought the world of Batman to mainstream TV audiences for the first time and made stars of its leads Adam West and Burt Ward (although both would subsequently complain the show typecast them for the rest of their careers.)

When it came time to update Batman on TV for a new generation of viewers, the creative team wisely reached back to the last big Batman TV moment and asked Adam West to play a washed-up actor who was a childhood hero of Bruce's.

Actor Simon Trent, much like Adam West in real life, is a past-his-glory-days actor who played The Gray Ghost, a character in a black-and-white TV show Bruce idolized as a kid. During a crime spree in Gotham, Batman begins to put together clues that lead to both his revered childhood show and its lead. Eventually, Trent puts his costume back on, and at the side of the hero he inspired, defeats The Mad Bomber, which revitalizes his career.

There is so much meta commentary around the Gray Ghost, long before it became cool to do so, that it is a bit tough to track. Adam West playing the inspiration for the animated version of a character he earlier portrayed, and finding redemption in doing so, makes for one of the best episodes of the series and one of the most memorable one-shot characters.