10 Best Batman: The Animated Series Episodes

A lovely episode, this, offering a deeper look into Bruce Wayne’s past.

A very young Master Wayne is watching television. It’s his favourite show, The Gray Ghost, and he is utterly captivated by what’s on the screen. In the real world, the same action appears to be panning out, exactly as in the show as a ‘mad bomber’ is destroying buildings. As with the fantastical Gray Ghost of the show, Batman is tasked with trying to solve the true case in Gotham.

During the course of the episode, Batman meets with the actor behind The Gray Ghost and the pair form an immediate bond, with Batman showing his softer, more human side.

Naturally, the pair solve the crime in Gotham but the real emotional hook of this episode is in watching how Batman delights in trying to live up to his own hero. At the end of the episode, Bruce Wayne openly tells The Gray Ghost how he inspired him as a child and this little touch tells you so much about Bruce Wayne as a person and how he undeniably sees himself as a good guy, someone who protects the world from injustice. Modelling himself, in part, on his small-screen hero, it also demonstrates how he has drawn on his childhood influences to create his own fantastical persona.

It’s a wonderful insight into the Bat and shows that underneath the hard exterior, he really is very human.