Batman: The Animated Series: 10 Most Disturbing Episodes

For a whole generation Batman: The Animated Series and its successor, The New Batman Adventures, set the standard for the Dark Knight. Utilising a dark tone and clever writing, BTAS and the other shows of the DCAU never spoke down to their audience and were never afraid to feature concepts and imagery that some would consider to be too mature for a Saturday morning superhero cartoon.

Whether delving into the psychology of its characters, exploring real world issues such as stalking or domestic abuse, or just going for a good ol' dose of body horror, these shows never shied away from shocking or downright disturbing ideas.

The creatives behind these shows, as well as the DC Animated Universe as a whole, were constantly pushing the boundaries of what they could get away with, but it wasn't done for pure shock value. Rather, these envelope-pushing moments served to enhance the story or provide important insight into a character.

But even in a show that built its reputation on delivering mature and oftentimes dark stories, there are some that stand out above the others as being truly unsettling. Let's take a look at the episodes that disturbed us above all else...

What better place to kick things off than with the episode that started it all? Since this was the first episode of BTAS, it's only natural that the creative team would want to set the tone for what was to come. And boy, did they succeed.

It was a bold, but ultimately genius move to start off with a lesser-known Batman villain like Man-Bat, especially since he leans hard into the darker horror aspects of the Batman mythos. Given that this marked the character's first appearance outside of the comics, the show's creators had a degree of freedom when deciding how the mutated bat monster should sound. What they came up with was a positively blood-curdling sound that is guaranteed to make your skin crawl.

But of course, the most disturbing part of this episode comes when we finally get to see Dr. Kirk Langstrom transform firsthand. Even before the transformation occurs, the scene is full of tension, with Langstrom appearing distorted as he passes by a series of glass flasks and beakers.

On top of that, it's clear from the way he talks that this isn't one of the sympathetic villains that BTAS would become known for. Rather, Langstrom has become addicted to the serum that triggers his transformation and he's completely fine with that. This all reaches fever pitch as we see the doctor morph in skin-stretching detail into a fanged, winged monster, his voice shifting into that nightmarish, inhuman screech.

It really is the stuff of nightmares!