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  • Writer's pictureJoseph Davis

CASE FILES - Batman: Caped Crusader's "The Stress of Her Regard"

Updated: 1 day ago

NOTE:  This article obviously contains SPOILERS.  Proceed at your own risk!



Official Summary

Someone is kidnapping and brainwashing rich, powerful men in Gotham, and Batman must find out who and why.  When Barbara Gordon begins to suspect that one of her friends may be involved in the abductions, her investigation puts her on a collision course with the Dark Knight.



My Summary

Following the colorful arrest of former real estate mogul Fletcher Demming, both Batman and Barbara Gordon independently investigate Dr. Harleen Quinzel, a local psychiatrist with a unique approach when it comes to treating Gotham City’s wealthy, yet morally bankrupt, elite.



Voice Cast

  • Hamish Linklater as Batman / Bruce Wayne

  • Jamie Chung as Dr. Harleen Quinzel / Harley Quinn

  • Michelle C. Bonilla as Detective Renee Montoya

  • Krystal Joy Brown as Barbara Gordon

  • John DiMaggio as Detective Harvey Bullock, Baby Patient / Mr. Belsky

  • Eric Morgan Stuart as Commissioner James Gordon

  • Jason Watkins as Alfred Pennyworth

  • Gary Anthony Williams as Detective Arnold Flass, Elf Patient / Mr. Smith, Arkham Orderly

  • David Kaye as William Hastings, Clown Patient, Arkham Orderly

  • David Krumholtz as Fletcher Demming

  • Jim Pirri as Emerson Collins, School Boy Patient / Mr. Moorehouse




Commentary

In previous essays, I have made plain my growing distaste for Harley Quinn, the former Joker henchperson turned four-color “it girl” that has taken the zeitgeist by storm, mostly in the past fifteen years.  My complaints are many—I’ll probably write a piece about it in the future—but one of my issues is that the character has stagnated in recent years, with comic books, film, television, and other media retelling the same story over and over again:  her “emancipation” from the Joker and transformation into a stronger, self-actualized protagonist.  And while the authenticity of her triumph is debatable (if she was truly her own character, why would she keep the clown motif, as it reinforces that she is an extension of her male counterpart?), this does limit her in terms of storytelling potential.  However, Bruce Timm—one of the original creators of the character—decided to accept the challenge of reinventing her for Caped Crusader.


In building a new Harley Quinn, the biggest change was the removal of the Joker from her origin and as a factor in her motivations, which solved the problem of her motif being derivative of another character.  With his absence, it allowed her to be unique.  Now, that could have been enough, but Timm and company weren’t finished, and they turned her into a stronger, more menacing figure by flipping her identities, as he explained in a May 2024 Entertainment Weekly interview:

The original Dr. Quinzel was a little bit more serious, and then when she became Harley she got really goofy and weird.  So, we thought, what if we reverse that?  When she’s Dr. Quinzel, she’s a little bit more whimsical and fun, and then when she’s Harley Quinn, she’s scary. (qtd. in Holub)

As a result, in the world of Caped Crusader, the doctor turned jester-themed supervillain is a serial killer who uses her position as a psychiatrist to target rich men who possess loathsome and abhorrent personalities, tortures them into giving away all of their wealth and possessions, and then coerces them into committing suicide.

 

In a nutshell, she’s Hannibal Lecter, minus the cannibalism.



In “The Stress of Her Regard” (and, to a lesser degree, “Kiss of the Catwoman”), we encounter Dr. Quinzel in her element, providing weekly psychiatry visits for what appears to be a who’s who of Gotham City’s wealthiest men (she may provide care for wealthy female clients, but we don’t see any evidence of that).  Obviously an expert in her field, she is also called upon to provide expert testimony for her friend (and public defender), Barbara Gordon, as well as to develop a psychological profile for a certain bat-themed vigilante (“The Night of the Hunters”).  However, at some point in the past, the stress of her job began to affect her usually bubbly, cheerful self, as Timm recounted in a June 2024 Vanity Fair interview:

We figured, as a psychiatrist, her clientele are some of the richest, most powerful men in Gotham City, and they dump all of their crap on her.  It’s driving her crazy.  She hears all this stuff, but because of psychiatrist-client privilege, she can’t do anything about it.  She can’t tell anybody.  We figured some of these guys have probably confessed some really horrible things to her, and she’s just like, “Well, I can’t just turn this guy loose out on the streets, but I can’t turn him into the cops either.” (qtd. in Breznican)

Think of all the worst reported incidents and activities that celebrities, politicians, and the wealthy have been accused of or participated in over the years, and then imagine being a counselor who gets to hear all of that stuff told to them by rich guys who are comfortable enough to be honest about their misdeeds because of doctor / patient confidentiality.  And while there are exceptions to that rule that could allow one to go to the authorities (child abuse or neglect, if the patient is a danger to themselves or others, etc.), keep in mind that these are the richest of the rich, and they could sue that psychiatrist into oblivion if they talk.  I can only imagine the volumes of negative energy that Dr. Harleen Quinzel has absorbed from her clients over the years until, one day, she had had enough.



As for her methods and choice of attire, it hard to say based on the handful of appearances she’s been granted.  Obviously, her name is “Harleen Quinzel,” but is that enough of an arrow to point her to build the Playpen and dictate her modus operandi?  Also, keep in mind that we benefit from watching her through a television or tablet—we know that she’s a variant of a thirty-two-year-old character, but she doesn’t have that luxury.  Devoid of the context we possess, she has to do this from scratch.

 

Still, there are some distinct possibilities.  For example, the essayists at the YouTube channel Serum Lake floated the idea that Harley Quinn (technically, she never calls herself that, but I’ll use it for convenience) bases her prisoners’ costumes and punishments on Jungian personality archetypes, with herself obviously based on the Jester.  You can watch the video below:



Not being an expert in Jungian psychology either, I cannot say for certain.  Another option lies in the historical concept of the Jester, who—via the right of Jester’s privilege—was afforded the ability to say what they wanted without fear of punishment.  Consider her chilling words to Emerson Collins, himself dressed in a king’s garments:  “The tables have turned, Mr. Collins.  The kings don’t run this court anymore.  The Jester does.” By donning in a Jester’s costume, she sees herself as taking on the ability to speak truth to the wealthy and powerful.


A potential third option can be found by tracing the concept of the Harlequin back to its original source:  the Italian theatrical form known as commedia dell’arte.  Here is Wikipedia’s description of the Harlequin’s role within that structure: 

The Harlequin is characterized by his checkered costume.  His role is that of a light-hearted, nimble, and astute servant, often acting to thwart the plans of his master […] He later develops into a prototype of the romantic hero.  Harlequin inherits his physical agility and his trickster qualities, as well as his name, from a mischievous “devil” character in medieval Passion Plays. (“Harlequin”)

Keeping in mind that commedia dell’arte could be both scripted and improvised, it is possible that Dr. Quinzel identifies herself as the trickster Harlequin who, as a “devious servant,” rises up to punish the “foolish old men” (her Vecchios) by dressing them up in costumes to accentuate their follies and forcing them to make restitution (“Commedia dell’arte”).  She uses her skills a psychiatrist—a servant by the hour, but a servant nonetheless—to direct the improv and, through it, the torture. Finally, consider that commedia dell’arte literally translates to “play of professional artists,” and there are many who consider psychiatry to be both a science and an art. Unfortunately, we won’t know if any of these scenarios are correct unless the character returns for Season Two.


Following their tenure in the Playpen, after they’ve been broken down using her considerable skill set, her victims all sign away their fortunes and, afterwards, meet their ends under mysterious circumstances.  Shipping tycoon Jorge Campos gave away his fortune to women’s shelters, and then died in a car crash after driving into a tree two weeks later.  Fletcher Demming, the real estate magnate, donated his fortune as well and, weeks later, walked into traffic dressed as an Egyptian pharaoh.  When that didn’t work, he attempted to jump off the roof of Arkham Asylum when his attorney mentioned his former doctor’s name.  Dr. Quinzel’s grasp of psychiatry must be considerable, as is her power of persuasion—it reminds me of the scene in Thomas Harris’ 1988 novel, The Silence of the Lambs, when Dr. Lecter convinces the prisoner in the cell next to him, “Multiple” Miggs, to kill himself by choking to death on his own tongue for the crime of his poor behavior towards Clarice Starling during her visit to the asylum.  Like Dr. Quinzel, Lecter is also offended by insolence, and he targets those he perceives as lacking in good manners.



When Batman and Alfred go through their news archives looking for cases similar to Demming, they appear to find a long list of wealthy Gotham citizens who also experienced similar fates.  For those of you questioning how a serial killer could work their way through so many rich citizens over the years, consider how—until recently—people were reluctant to admit that they’ve seen a psychiatrist or sought mental health services.  The perceived stigma was so great that it could ostracize you from certain social circles or prohibit you from certain lines of work.  Knowing this fact, Dr. Quinzel took advantage of her patients’ feelings of fear and personal shame to hide her activities for years.


Speaking of the Dark Knight, her insights into the mind gave her an advantage during their confrontation in the Playpen.  Having already sized him up in “The Night of the Hunters,” she claims to have known that he’d track her down, as she was “his type” (i.e. a costumed weirdo).  Claiming to not be interested in killing him—in her way, she probably sees their missions as similar even if their methods wildly differ—she even offered to help Batman “unpack some of that childhood trauma” during their next encounter, which could imply that she has determined that Bruce Wayne is under the mask.  However, while this is possible, it is more likely that she simply sees the Batman as a logical end result of some sort of childhood trauma.  Either way, we won’t know for certain unless she returns.


After years of the “same old, same old” from Harley Quinn, Batman:  Caped Crusader has succeeded in finding a new take on the old formula.  In my studies of posthuman (or superhero) media, I’ve come to believe that the characters approach their mythological and folkloric antecedents when they transcend the limitations of their initial stories.  After all, is Paul Bunyan only 7 feet tall, or is he closer to 100 feet?  Does Superman fly, or can he merely “leap tall buildings in a single bound?”  Is Batman a solo crimefighter, or is he a den parent to a whole crew of costumed protégés?  In the end, all interpretations are valid, and as a longtime fan of Ms. Quinn (despite my criticisms), I applaud her new incarnation, as well as her further steps on the path toward immortality.




Stray Observations

  • The title of the episode, “The Stress of Her Regard,” is shared with a 1989 historical fiction / fantasy / horror novel by Tim Powers, which features a man on the run from a vampire who has claimed him for her mate. Obviously, there is little connection between the two stories, save how the attentions of the female antagonist have caused excessive stress on behalf of her target.



  • Fletcher Demming’s costumed identity (above left) is reminiscent of King Tut (above center), the original villain created for the campy 1960s Batman series.  In an August 4th post on Anime Superhero, Bruce Timm explained that “[w]e always have legal hoops to jump through whenever we use characters that originated on the Adam West series, so changing his civilian name and never actually calling him ‘King Tut’ was a good way to bypass all that drama” (b.t.).  It’s also worth mentioning that “King Tut” has appeared before as a regular background villain on Batman:  The Brave and the Bold (above right).

  • As for his actual name, Bruce Timm revealed the following in the aforementioned post on Anime Superhero:

“Fletcher [Demming]” is one of my weird little in-jokes that no one else on the planet is likely to get.  Fletcher Flora and Richard Deming were both prolific mid-century crime fiction authors, each of whom also ghost-wrote Ellery Queen novels in the 1960s.  I thought the combined name sounded reasonably like a “rich dude” name. (b.t.)
  • When Batman discusses Demming’s case with Alfred, the butler responds that the real estate mogul “could afford better treatment” than Arkham Asylum, not realizing that he was now broke.  This would imply that Arkham Asylum is a state hospital, or a “public psychiatric hospital operated by a state government for persons committed to compulsory psychiatric care after being found not guilty of serious violent crimes on the basis of insanity” (“State”).

  • Renee Montoya admits to Harleen Quinzel that Commissioner Gordon is “more of a father to me than mine ever was.”  It’s worth mentioning here that, after being outed by Two-Face in the Gotham Central story arc Half a Life (2003), her religious parents disowned her in Gotham Central #10 (October 2003).

  • When Batman investigates Fletcher Demming’s office, it is revealed that he donated $1.5 million to an organization called West Side Charities. He signed his receipt “Tutankhamun,” which is the name of the Egyptian pharaoh who ruled “during the late Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt” (1332 - 1323 BCE; “Tutankhamun”). Of course, after the discovery of his tomb in 1922, he was better known by the colloquial nickname of “King Tut.”

  • According to Demming’s records, he was being charged $150.00 per one hour session for Harleen Quinzel’s services. According to multiple inflation adjustment websites (such as DollarTimes or Amortization.org), that's roughly the modern equivalent of $3,300.00. Either 1) Dr. Quinzel’s services are so exclusive that she only services very, very rich clients or 2) the cost was adjusted so it would appear appropriate for such a health care professional in the eyes of modern audiences.



  • Located in a basement room of William Hastings’ private residence, Dr. Harleen Quinzel’s “Playpen” is a five person cell block controlled by a 1940s-era computer console.  From left to right, her prisoners are as follows:

    • Known only as “Clown Patient,” this individual is dressed to resemble Canio, a character from the 1892 Italian opera Pagliacci, written by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It is worth mentioning that the characters in Pagliacci are members of a commedia dell’arte theatrical troupe.

    • Presumably taking Demming’s old cell, Emerson Collins is dressed like a king, with a crown and royal robes. This is most likely a mockery of Collins’ sense of entitlement and how he is unable to see the humanity in his unionizing workers or his family. He somewhat resembles actor David Tomlinson, best known for his role in Mary Poppins (1964).

    • The “Baby Patient” is named Belsky. Based on his costume and outbursts, I suspect that he has anger issues that Dr. Quinzel interprets as temper tantrums.

    • The “Elf Patient” is named Smith. He’s being forced to look through Christmas tree lights to find a “bad bulb,” which he’s starting to believe is himself.

    • Finally, the “School Boy Patient” is named Moorehouse. Apparently a man who has unfair expectations of achievement that he places on his son, he’s being forced to write “I’ve been a bad, bad man” tens of thousands of times on a series of chalkboards.

  • Most likely a former patient brainwashed by Dr. Quinzel, William Hastings operates as an assistant, sort of a dark reflection of Alfred Pennyworth.

  • It is worth noting that the “Clown Patient’s” Pagliacci costume also resembles one worn by the Joker in the Batman episode “The Joker is Wild” (January 26, 1966):



  • Dr. Quinzel’s sledgehammer is reminiscent of the oversized mallet that the original Harley Quinn often uses as a weapon. Also, Belsky’s “Mmm … puddin’” line is a callback to Harley’s pet name for the Joker.

  • Batman’s search through microfiche for old newspaper articles features a wealth of references to the original Batman: The Animated Series:

    • The newspaper headline “Toxic Garbage Barge in Gotham Harbor” is a reference to the BTAS episode “The Last Laugh,” where the Joker used a garbage barge soaked in Joker Venom to rob Gotham City’s waterfront and financial district while citizens and police were stricken with hysterical laughter.

    • The newspaper headline “Boyle Out at GothCorp” is a reference to the BTAS episode “Heart of Ice,” where GothCorp CEO Ferris Boyle was responsible for the incident that transformed scientist Victor Fries into the supervillain Mister Freeze.

    • The newspaper headline “March Gives Bizzare Lecture at Gotham Zoo” is a reference to the BTAS episode “On Leather Wings,” where bat expert and theorist Dr. March gave a “lecture on human extinction and bat evolution,” according to Dr. Kirk Langstrom. Also, I'm sure they meant to say the phrase “Bizarre Lecture” in the headline.

    • The newspaper headline “Rare Flower Found on Site of Proposed Prison” is a reference to the BTAS episode “Pretty Poison,” where Dr. Pamela Isley (also known as Poison Ivy) poisoned District Attorney Harvey Dent as punishment for causing the extinction of the Wild Thorny Rose (also known as Rosaceae Vularis), as the place it grew was bulldozed to make way for Stonegate Penitentiary, a project he championed.

    • The newspaper headline “Officer Wilkes Suspended” is a reference to the BTAS episode “P.O.V.,” where Officer Wilkes—along with Renee Montoya and Harvey Bullock—was suspended following a failed bust at a Gotham warehouse.

    • The newspaper headline “’Prophet’ Exposed as Fraud” is a reference to the BTAS episode “Prophecy of Doom,” where con man Nostromos duped a number of Gotham’s elite into donating large amounts of money into a trust fund in preparation for an apocalyptic scenario.

    • The newspaper advertisement for Sherman Exterminators is a reference to the BTAS episode “I’ve Got Batman in My Basement,” where twelve-year-old Sherman Grant and his friends protected an injured Batman from the Penguin’s gang.

    • The newspaper headline “State Tech Beats Gotham U 24 to [3]” is a reference to the BTAS episode “Fear of Victory,” where the Scarecrow dosed star athletes with an adrenaline-triggered fear toxin and then bet against the athlete’s team. The football game in question was one that Dick Grayson’s college roommate, Brian “The Rock” Rogers, participated in.

    • The newspaper headline “Valestra Associate Skips Town” is a reference to Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993), where businessman Carl Beaumont embezzled money from mobsters Sal Valestra, Chuckie Sol, and Buzz Bronski and fled to Europe with his daughter, Andrea Beaumont.

    • The newspaper headline “Labor Camp Shut Down” is a reference to the BTAS episode “The Forgotten,” where criminal Boss Biggis ran a gold mine outside of Gotham City using kidnapped homeless people as slaves.

    • The newspaper headline “Hill / Reeves Feud Escalates” is another reference to Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993), specifically referring to Mayor Hamilton Hill and City Councilman Arthur Reeves. While there was no direct conflict between the two characters in the film, it is worth mentioning that the feud in question may be more familial, as Hill was voiced by actor Lloyd Bochner and Reeves was voiced by his son, actor Hart Bochner. According to a 2018 interview with voice director Andrea Romano, the two actors were “estranged for quite some time”: “When I mentioned the shared connection to Batman [to Hart Bochner during production on Phantasm], I could tell that it wasn’t received well, but we quickly moved past it” (qtd. in Burton).

    • Ignoring the number of episodes featuring permanent Gotham amusement parks, the newspaper headline “Carnival Coming to Gotham” most likely refers to the two-part BTAS episode “Robin’s Reckoning,” featuring Hailey’s Circus and the events of Dick Grayson’s origin story.

    • The newspaper headline “Collins Fined for Reckless Driving” is a reference to the BTAS episode “Joker’s Favor,” where everyman Charlie Collins accidentally cursed out the Joker on a Gotham highway.

    • The newspaper headline “Stromwell Drug Charges Dropped” is a reference to the BTAS episode “It’s Never Too Late,” where aging Gotham crime boss Arnold Stromwell is convinced by Batman and his brother, a priest, to surrender to police and turn state’s evidence, thus ending his criminal empire.

    • The newspaper headline “Scientist’s Daughter Killed in Car Accident” is a reference to the two-part BTAS episode “Heart of Steel,” where the death of Karl Rossum’s daughter motivated him to build the artificial intelligence H.A.R.D.A.C. and to attempt to replace humanity with androids.

    • The newspaper headline “Lawford to Be Tried Seperately” is a reference to the BTAS episode “The Terrible Trio,” where overprivileged rich kid Warren Lawford formed the Terrible Trio with two fraternity brothers, with them becoming the masked villains known as the Fox, the Vulture, and the Shark. While his accomplices showed some remorse, Lawford was defiant until the end, confident that he could buy his way out of prison (he couldn’t). Also, I'm sure they meant to say the word “Separately” in the headline.

    • Finally, the newspaper advertisement for Dr. Jonathan Crane’s bestselling book How to Stop Working and Influence People is not a specific reference to a BTAS episode, but this is the second reference to the civilian identity of the Scarecrow, the first being in “The Night of the Hunters,” where Dr. Harleen Quinzel mentioned how he was one of her college professors. Also, according to an August 12th post on Anime Superhero, “working” was supposed to be “worrying,” but “it’s a typo that we didn’t catch” (b.t.). As you can see above, I count at least three.

  • In an August 6th post on Anime Superhero, Bruce Timm revealed the following regarding the microfiche scene:

The microfiche scene didn’t start out to be an orgy of BTAS references.  Knowing we would need a [shitload] of headlines and sub-heads, I initially tried to find “real world” newspaper headlines from the period that I could swipe or paraphrase, but when I googled “1940s newspaper headlines” pretty much all I got were images of front pages packed with war news. 
I don’t remember how I got onto the idea of basing all the newspaper stories on stuff from BTAS episodes but thank God I did—not having to make up headlines from scratch made the job so much easier.  I used the episode synopses from The World’s Finest to refresh my memory and avoided direct references to any of the main supervillains.  Basing the faux newspapers on BTAS episodes also meant we could pull art from stock and wouldn’t have to generate a ton of new art. (b.t.)
  • The aforementioned book by Dr. Jonathan Crane, How to Stop [Worrying] and Influence People, is obviously a reference to How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936) and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948), which are both self-help books written by Dale Carnegie.

  • During the microfiche scene, Batman peruses headlines from newspapers including the Gotham Gazette, the Gotham Tribune, and the Gotham Express.  While today viewers may consider it odd that a city would have multiple local newspapers, it is worth noting that many cities did before radio and television became the dominant forms of public news and information.  Afterwards, the number of papers fell as they either ceased production or merged with other newspapers to remain afloat (for more information about the history of American journalism and newspapers, click here).



  • Fortunately for patients, the exterior of Arkham Asylum in Caped Crusader more resembles a hospital than the menacing, gothic castle of BTAS and TNBA.  However…



  • …I find that the interiors—a combination of art deco, minimalism, and, I suspect, the film version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)—to be jarring in a totally new way. I mean, Jesus, how long is that corridor?  How many patients do they have? Also, I’d be careful, as they still did lobotomies back then.

  • Fletcher Demming’s mangled response to Barbara Gordon’s mention of her friend, “Har-ley … Quinn?,” is the closest use of the character’s traditional name in the episode.

  • “The Stress of Her Regard” finds Commissioner Gordon in a real pickle.  The mayor’s office is still obsessed with Batman and is forcing the police department to direct all its attention there rather than do anything else.  In addition, Detectives Flass and Bullock have commandeered all of Gordon’s resources for their task force, but they’re not getting any results, if their botched attempt to apprehend Batman at Demming’s office was any indication. No wonder he’s overworked and stressed out.

  • During her encounter with William Hastings at his address, Barbara Gordon mentions how “no one has seen [him] in months.”  Dr. Quinzel must have done a real number on him to have him serve her and allow her to commandeer his house.

  • According to an August 17th post on Anime Superhero, Bruce Timm revealed that Hastings’ cliffside mansion is “reminiscent of Boris Karloff’s Bauhaus-style ‘castle’” in The Black Cat (1934; b.t.)

  • Their date interrupted by “work,” Harleen promises to catch up with Renee later at Hopper’s Jazz Club on Wilson and Lowery, which are references to Lewis Wilson and Robert Lowery, the first actors to play a live-action Batman in the 1943 film serial Batman and the 1949 film serial Batman and Robin, respectively.  In reference to the historical name-drops, Bruce Timm made this statement in an August 4th post on the Anime Superhero message boards: 

It's a long-standing tradition in DC-ville to name streets and districts and such after famous creators and other important figures in DC history.  We’ve had so many variations of “Sprang This” and “Finger That” over the years that I’ve been determined to cast a much wider net in recent years. 
But getting the Legal Dept. to clear them can be tricky.  I wanted to name the location of the skating rink that Montoya wants to take Harleen to “Donnenfeld Center” [apparently referencing Harry Donenfeld, co-owner of National Periodical Publications, which would later become DC Comics] as if it were Gotham’s version of Rockefeller Center, but [we] couldn’t clear it.  Hence the deep dives into more obscure corner[s] of DC history. (b.t.)
  • When Dr. Quinzel sets the countdown for the house to explode, the other prisoners (who have been released from their cells to fight Batman) walk out with her, but we see her escaping by car later only William Hastings is with her.  What happened to the prisoners?  I suspect that she killed them rather than release them into the woods.  After all, when she let them out of their cells, she said that “whoever nabs Batman will make me very happy, and whoever doesn’t is dead.” They all failed to nab Batman.

  • Upon discovering Batman passed out in a Playpen cell, Barbara grabs a baseball bat to try and break the glass. “Bat girl” returns!



  • The scene with Barbara holding onto Harleen while they hang over the ocean is reminiscent of Batgirl holding onto Harley Quinn while they hang over the partially-demolished remains of Arkham Asylum in Batman Beyond:  Return of the Joker (2000) … even if that wasn’t Bruce Timm’s intent.  When confronted with the similarities between the two scenes, he issued this statement in an aforementioned August 6th post on Anime Superhero: 

I think the similarity between the two scenes of Barbara trying to save Harley from falling to her death may actually be a coincidence.  I certainly wasn’t thinking of ROTJ when we were breaking the story In the Writer’s Room, but I suppose it could have been an influence on director Matt Peters or his storyboard crew—who knows? (b.t.)
  • We forgive you, Bruce. After all, it was twenty-four years ago!




Works Cited


Breznican, Anthony.  “Meet the New Voices of Batman, Harley Quinn, and Catwoman:  Exclusive.”  Vanity Fair.  Condé Nast.  20 Jun. 2024.  Web.  20 Jun. 2024.  <https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/batman-caped-crusader-voices>.


b.t.  Comment on “’Batman:  Caped Crusader’ Season One Talkback (Spoilers).”  Anime Superhero.  XenForo Ltd.  4 Aug. 2024.  <https://animesuperhero.com/forums/threads/batman-caped-crusader-season-one-talkback-spoilers.5799833/post-87961399>.  Accessed 1 Sept. 2024.


---.  Comment on “’Batman:  Caped Crusader (Amazon Prime)’ Animated News & Discussion Part 3 (Spoilers).”  Anime Superhero.  XenForo Ltd.  4 Aug. 2024.  <https://animesuperhero.com/forums/threads/batman-caped-crusader-amazon-prime-animated-series-news-discussion-part-3-spoilers.5799781/post-87961442>.  Accessed 1 Sept. 2024.


---.  Comment on “’Batman:  Caped Crusader’ Season One Talkback (Spoilers).”  Anime Superhero.  XenForo Ltd.  6 Aug. 2024.  <https://animesuperhero.com/forums/threads/batman-caped-crusader-season-one-talkback-spoilers.5799833/post-87961625>.  Accessed 1 Sept. 2024.


---.  Comment on “’Batman:  Caped Crusader’ Season One Talkback (Spoilers).”  Anime Superhero.  XenForo Ltd.  12 Aug. 2024.  <https://animesuperhero.com/forums/threads/batman-caped-crusader-season-one-talkback-spoilers.5799833/page-9#post-87963239>.  Accessed 1 Sept. 2024.


---.  Comment on “’Batman:  Caped Crusader’ Season One Talkback (Spoilers).”  Anime Superhero.  XenForo Ltd.  17 Aug. 2024.  <https://animesuperhero.com/forums/threads/batman-caped-crusader-season-one-talkback-spoilers.5799833/post-87964494>.  Accessed 13 Sept. 2024.


Burton, Byron.  “The Triumph and Heartbreak Behind ‘Batman:  Mask of the Phantasm.’”  The Hollywood Reporter.  The Hollywood Reporter, LLC.  21 Dec. 2018.  <https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/batman-mask-phantasm-was-inspired-real-life-heartbreak-1171147/>. Accessed 23 Jun. 2024.


“Commedia dell’arte.”  Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.  Wikimedia Foundation.  16 Aug. 2024.  <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commedia_dell%27arte>.  Accessed 3 Sept. 2024.


“Harlequin.”  Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.  Wikimedia Foundation.  15 Aug. 2024.  <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlequin>.  Accessed 3 Sept. 2024.


Holub, Christian.  “Batman:  Caped Crusader First Look Reveals Asian American Harley Quinn and ‘Really Weird’ Dark Knight.”  Entertainment Weekly.  Dotdash Meredith.  9 May 2024.  Web.  21 Jun. 2024.  <https://ew.com/batman-caped-crusader-exclusive-first-look-asian-american-harley-quinn-8645683>.


“State Hospital.”  Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.  Wikimedia Foundation.  17 Jan. 2024.  <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_hospital>.  Accessed 1 Sept. 2024.


“Tutankhamun.”  Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.  Wikimedia Foundation.  26 Aug. 2024.  <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutankhamun>.  Accessed 1 Sept. 2024.



Images courtesy of Prime Video, Warner Bros. Discovery, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, DC Comics, 20th Television, and ABC Pictures Corp. YouTube video courtesy of the Serum Lake and bozoktube channels.

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About the Author...
Current lecturer at Towson University.  Former creator of Toon Zone's Justice League Watchtower website and comedy writer for The Final Edition Radio Hour.  Frequent fixture of the Baltimore karaoke scene.

Written content © 2024 by Joseph Davis.

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