Uh dude, all the retool episodes are on volume four. So like, you're missing a chunk of the series.
Anyway, my favorite episodes:
-Feat of Clay
-Two-Face
-City of Steel (can't remember if that's its name... the one where the robot is replacing people)
-the second Clock King episode, where he had the time-controlling Gravis Gamepads.
-and the very first time the Mad Hatter appeared.
I've always had a soft spot for "His Silicon Soul," robot Batman's angst over having "killed" the original was powerful. I also liked the idea that in an effort to create a duplicate of the hero they created, well, a duplicate of the hero. Fully resolving the "Heart of Steel" story only made it better.
Ah, well. The reason I didn't buy volumes 3 and 4 was because the shop only had volumes 1, 2, and 4 in stock.
Thanks for the info, though.
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So nobody here is a big fan of "Mad Love"? I remember that being one of the best episodes I saw.
I think if I ever get the series on DVD I'll just get it on Amazon so I can get it all (except volume four) in one go.
I don't remember "Mad Love."
But I think I will add "His Silicon Soul" to my favorites list. I honestly liked all the HARDC episodes. I'd like to try to tackle a plotline with him in my re-imagining.
Oh, sorry if I was being unclear. I count The New Adventures as being a part of Batman The Animated Series as a whole.
So you know, feel free to include your favourite episodes from the retool.
edited 23rd Jun '11 9:10:22 AM by Kerrah
A lot of the characters became much less nuanced and interesting, losing a good chunk of their depth and in some cases becoming downright flat, and the plots followed suit. Hatter, Freeze, Riddler, Bane, Batgirl (with one very notable exception), Catwoman, etc.
Batman himself was even an example - they did the bitterness angle a lot better in Beyond, for in TNBA his sudden change in character from hard but caring to almost compassionless just wasn't believable in most episodes. Some of the episodes didn't play him so poorly, but in general it seemed like Batsy had lost the more three-dimensional parts of his character in favor of giving him a purely cold and intimidating demeanor.
Justice League mixes that extreme in with his BTAS characterization to great effect though - they finally did there what they failed at doing before, infusing a bit more grimness but keeping him a well rounded character.
That said, TNBA wasn't bad, per se, it just wasn't great, and it kind of leaves a bad taste watching them side by side or, say, when you're a kid and they happen to be the newest episodes of your favorite show. Still, a few characters got out of it with some cool appearances. Clayface had one of his best episodes in TNBA, and Scarecrow, hell, "Never Fear" (as off as it seems once or twice) is his best episode ever.
edited 23rd Jun '11 5:15:51 PM by KnownUnknown
In addition to all that, back in the day I also had a bit of WTF at the new ones as well. I was like "why is Robin a kid now? Why does everyone look different? What's with this incredibly retarded episode about three kids telling Batman stories?"
When I learned more about the comics and found out that the answer was, essentially, that they suddenly decided that Animated Batman should only appeal to hardcore comics nuts, my WTF turned to disgust.
visit my blog!<shrug> Tim Drake was one of the better things about that show - it's one of the few things about TNBA I vaguely remember thinking "why the hell did they replace it," then moving from "well, I might as well get used to it" to "this isn't so bad." I think. It's been a while. I remember "Growing Pains" was a really good episode.
It took me a while to do that with the redesigns. Now I don't mind those so much either, but I'm still very glad they redesigned Joker again in JL. In World's Finest that look did not work well for him. It had it's moments, but most of the time it was just out-of-place.
edited 23rd Jun '11 11:15:37 PM by KnownUnknown
The Tim Drake Robin desperately needed more episodes to work. He never got enough development compared to Dick, and he was underused everywhere out of 'Sins of the Father', 'Growing Pains' and 'Never Fear'. That made even his Return of the Joker appearance to lack all the punch it could have packed.
And yeah, Joker was easily the worst of the TNBA redesigns. Mr. Freeze looked okay until you learned he was just a head now. (Ugh).
Killer Croc's new design, however, was a huge improvement over the dumb looking design from the original BTAS.
No, not the entire show... just the fourth box set ;).
In all honesty if I were to try to collect this show I would probably get all four volumes just for completism.
visit my blog!

I bought the first two volumes of Batman The Animated Series (containing all the episodes before the Retool) on my trip to Stockholm two days ago.
In my opinion, BTAS was a series where the average episode wasn't really better than the average episodes of other superhero series', but the best episodes really were magnificent. So, what do you guys think were the best episodes of the show?
I'll post my own opinions after rewatching it all.