The best superhero TV show of all time, according to IMDb

To paraphrase an old cliché, good villains mean nothing without a strong hero to oppose them. Batman: The Animated Series also gave us the ultimate and cutest adaptation of the Caped Crusader himself. Batman’s characterization is equally striking just in time the balance of dark and light as the overall tone of the series.

The soul of the animated Batman rested in Kevin Conroy; he may not be with us anymore, but he is still here in vote for batman without controversy. Conroy was gay and still in the closet for his career when he was cast as Batman. In 2022, Conroy wrote a short comic called Finding Batman. explains how having to wear a mask in his life prepared him for voicing Batman:

“It seemed to be the roar of 30 years of frustration, confusion, denial, love, longing… longing for what? Anchor. Harbors. A sense of security, a sense of identity. Yes, I can relate. Yes, this is an area I know well.

Conroy’s Batman was not only frightening, but one that children (or adults who first saw it at an early age) could look up to, and who was allowed to be vulnerable as in Conroy’s greatest Batman moment of all. Some particularly important moments include “Nothing to Fear,” where Batman is haunted by the disapproving spirit of his father, only to defeat him with the now-immortal line, “I am revenge! I am the night! I’m Batman!”

In Perchance To Dream, Bruce Wayne wakes up in a world where he was never Batman and his parents are still alive. The usually controlled Batman is confused and ultimately unable to deny when something is too good to be true. In “I Am The Night,” we see a rare self-hatred of Batman as he feels that yet didn’t do enough despite all his dedication and sacrifice.

The two-parter Robin’s Payback mainly features Batman’s sidekick, the boy wonder, coming face-to-face with his parents’ killer, Tony Zuko, but Batman/Conroy has a strong supporting role. I’ll never forget his last line in the episode when he admits he was afraid Robin might get killed running after Zuko.

This Batman even sees the light in bad guys (well, most of them). Just watch “Two-Face,” or “Baby Doll,” or “Harley’s Holiday,” where he comforts the half-reformed Miss Quinn by reminding her that we all have bad days. “Good guys like you shouldn’t have bad days,” replies a touched Harley.

I see that same spirit in Conroy’s Batman Peter Cullen uses when he voices Optimus Prime in Transformers – “Be strong enough to be fragile” – and this resulted in the best Batman of all time.

Batman: The Animated Series is streaming on Prime Video.