The Emmy Award-winning animated Batman series is one of the few daytime TV cartoons with scripts even an adult could enjoy. In fact, an average episode of the Batman cartoon is wittier, better-written and more mature than the last two idiotic, childish and confused live-action Batman movies combined. (For instance, Julliard-trained Kevin Conroy, who provides the Dark Knight's raspy, Clint Eastwood-like voice, can convey more complexity and emotion with his voice than George Clooney could with his one-note smirk in Batman & Robin.)
The show's superiority over those movies — and other superhero cartoons — is particularly evident in a standout 90-minute episode of The New Batman/Superman Adventures, which rotates episodes of Batman with episodes of Superman, Batman's equally entertaining sister show. In "World's Finest" (Friday, 8 p.m., the WB TV network), the Dark Knight (Conroy) crosses paths with the Man of Steel (voiced by Tim Daly) in Metropolis while pursuing the Joker (Mark Hamill) and Lex Luthor (Clancy Brown). It has to be the most entertaining TV crossover since the stoic New York cops and D.A.'s from Law & Order teamed up with the prickly Baltimore detectives from Homicide in 1996.
These two DC Comics heroes used to team up regularly in the old World's Finest comic-book series and on the Superfriends cartoon, and they got along just fine. But for much of the "World's Finest" movie, Batman and Superman aren't so buddy-buddy. In fact, Supes looks like he's just about ready to bite off Batman's pointy ear.
Because this is Kids WB, "World's Finest" never gets as gory as the nasty climactic fight between Batman and Superman in the 1986 graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns. But Bruce Wayne/Batman, with his tougher, more brutal methods of dispensing justice, certainly angers the hell out of whitebread Clark Kent/Superman, one-upping him at every turn. When Superman first runs into Batsy at a Metropolis club populated by gangsters, he objects to Batman's "vigilantism" (wait a minute, aren't you a vigilante too, Clark?). Batman responds by judo-throwing him across the room and showing him a pebble of Kryptonite. And then there's the little matter of Bruce dating sexy Metropolis reporter Lois Lane (Dana Delany), Clark's potential love interest.
"World's Finest" addresses that age-old schoolyard question: Who would win in a fight? "Pointy Ears" Wayne or "Pomade" Kent? While rock fans are divided into Beatles people and Stones people, comics fans are either Batman people or Superman people. And I say Batman always has the advantage over Superman in fights. Because he has no superhuman powers, Batman relies more on his wits (he trained himself to become the best detective in the world). Also, Bruce spent years studying every single martial art in the world. Have we ever seen Clark do the same? The movie shows how Bruce tops Clark in fighting skills (the judo toss) and intelligence (taking out the Kryptonite pebble). There's no denying Superman kicks ass too, but compared to Batman, he's just a sanctimonious lunkhead. (I guess I'm always rooting for the underdog.)
But whether you're a Batman person or a Superman person, you'll enjoy "World's Finest" because of the amusing script provided by writer-producer Paul Dini, which features dialogue that's funny, not lame like in Joel Schumacher's Bat-turkeys. (There are lines in this episode that will go over younger viewers' heads: when the Joker sees Batman with a rocket pack, flying like Superman, he quips, "Suffering from propulsion envy?") It's a shame the clueless Schumacher and his hack screenwriter never understood these characters as well as producers Dini, Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett have in these cartoons.
The "World's Finest" episode of The New Batman/Superman Adventures airs Fri., Oct. 17 at 8 p.m. on KOFY Ch. 20 (Ch. 14 on TCI Cable). It will be released on video by Warner Bros. later this year.