Batman: The Animated Series: 10 Worst Episodes
9. The Underdwellers - 1992
Batman vs 'Leprechauns'.
Seriously, that's how this starts. There is a crime wave being perpetrated by 'leprechauns' across Gotham, purse snatchings and such. Batman becomes involved and finds a group of runaway and orphaned children being worked as slaves in an underground community, led by a new villain called the Sewer King. Why anyone would want to be king of the sewers under a horrible city like Gotham is up for debate.
Having a soft spot for orphaned kids (understandably), Bruce makes it his mission to liberate the kids and get them to safety.
Batman is uncharacteristically violent in this episode. While fighting the Sewer King's alligators (why not?) he apparently kills one of them by snapping its jaws. At the end of the episode, without directly saying it, he tells the Sewer King he was tempted to either let him get hit by a subway train or to simply kill him as opposed to handing him over to the authorities.
He's also uncharacteristically clumsy at one point, setting off an alarm made of a string full of tin cans. How could a man who has disabled some of the most sophisticated security systems on earth be taken down by a Home Alone trap?
The Sewer King is a less than worthy foe for the Dark Knight, and thankfully we never received a return visit to his kingdom.