6. "Over The Edge" - The New Batman Adventures
Kids' WBEven when Bruce Timm completely changed the face of superhero animation with Batman: The Animated Series, it still remained a children's show at heart. Though it featured some adult themes, it was still a show that was sold to the younger audience, all the while remaining popular with all ages. But when the show was revamped in 1997 as The New Batman Adventures, it produced what is still perhaps the darkest story ever told in the DC Animated Universe; "Over The Edge", written by animation and comic book icon Paul Dini. Never before did an episode of Batman open with such a nightmarish scenario; Commissioner Gordon chases Batman into the Batcave, out for blood and revenge. Viewers eventually found out via an amazingly directed set of flashbacks that his daughter, Barbara Gordon, was killed whilst out as Batgirl by the Scarecrow. It's a dark, harrowing moment as she is flung off the roof and lands like a ton of bricks on Gordon's car. The emotion created is so very raw and completely out of left field for a kid's cartoon, but endlessly compelling and entertaining.