Everywhere I've looked, I can't find anywhere to watch it, nor buy it.

One thing that Batman: the Animated series excelled at was providing fresh and interesting takes on classic Batman villains.

Possibly the best example of this was the way the show reinvented Mr. Freeze. The show gave the character an original backstory about the love his life dying of a terminal illness and being frozen in suspended animation as Mr. Freeze struggled to find a cure. This origin story was so compelling that it's been incorporated into just about every version of the character since.

But there's another re-imagined villain from the show that I don't think gets as much credit as he deserves.

In Fire from Olympus, we're introduced to Maximilian "Maxie" Zeus, the CEO of Maximillian Shipping Lines, and a man with a passion for Greek mythology. In the episode, we're told that Maxie's shipping company fell on hard financial times, and in desperation to keep his business afloat (pun intended), he began performing shipments for the mob.

Over time, the stress of what Maxie was doing began to gnaw at him. He undoubtedly felt like the walls were closing in on him as the police became increasingly suspicious of his criminal activities. Having dangerous criminals in the mob as business partners probably only added to the strain.

Eventually, Maxie's mind snapped under the weight of it all, and he began to think that he was really Zeus — the actual god from Greek myth.

It's a delusion that was undoubtedly very appealing to Maxie because it gave him something he desperately needed: a sense of control.

Maximillian Zeus was just a man, and a man can be brought down. A man can be destroyed.

But Zeus? The mighty king of the gods? Zeus was all-powerful. Zeus feared no one.

It's often been said by fans that a lot of Batman's greatest villains are dark reflections of Batman's own character. Riddler represents Batman's intellect. Scarecrow represents his use of fear and intimidation tactics. Two-Face represents his dichotomy of good and darkness. Joker represents his madness, and so on.

But I think Maxie Zeus potentially represents another important aspect of Batman's character: the desire to retreat from the world by hiding behind a persona that makes you feel powerful.

A common interpretation of Batman's character is the idea that the "Batman" persona has become so strong that it's essentially become the true identity, while Bruce Wayne has become only a character that he plays. This is illustrated in instances like the Batman Beyond episode Shriek, where Bruce admits that he calls himself Batman even in his inner monologue.

Batman could be thought of as the story of a man struggling with feelings of helpless after his parents were murdered in front of him. Bruce Wayne is just a man, and there's only so much a man can do. But Batman isn't helpless. Batman can do anything.

We saw this in The Dark Knight (2008), when Alfred expresses concern about Bruce's well-being.

Alfred: Know your limits, Master Wayne.
Bruce Wayne: Batman has no limits.

Similarly, Maxie Zeus is another example of a villain that embodies an aspect of Batman's character, only amplified to a higher degree. The episode itself points this out when Clio, Maxie's assistant and girlfriend, recognizes this similarity between Batman and Zeus.

Clio: [Maxie's] not living in the real world anymore. [A beat] Maybe you can relate to that.

The mental instability of Maxie Zeus also gives him a real sympathetic quality. This is a man who has truly lost his grip on reality. He genuinely doesn't know who he is or where he is anymore.

At the end of the episode, Maxie's greatest fear finally comes true: he's been arrested and he's lost everything. Except he doesn't feel like he's lost.

As Maxie is taken through Arkham Asylum, he views his fellow inmates as other Olympian gods, and he decides that he must truly be on Mount Olympus, his home.

As the episode closes, we see that Maxie's delusion is still doing exactly what it's supposed to do: provide him an escape from the harshness of reality.

When Bruce trained with Zatara, he called himself John Smith. Why did he use his real name when training in marital arts in Japan?

I was rewatching the kyodai ken episode where ninja stealing from Wayne enterprises and this came to my mind. Any thoughts here?

Hi everyone. This may be a long shot, but can anyone tell me which episode this animation cel is from? (Note - the cel is an original, but the background is not, so it's possible that the background doesn't match what was shown on the show.)

https://preview.redd.it/y8fq29pnp90e1.jpg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0247005105db67f84fc64ebe09290c5116e4cb2a

Everyone seems to sympathize with the villain, believing Ferris Boyle did him wrong, but did he? Fries blames him for two things, which were both his own fault.

1. Stopping the experiment he was performing on his wife - it was absolutely his own fault to be using someone else's money for experiments without their permission. Before someone tells me it was to save his wife's life etc.., just imagine if someone stole millions of dollars of your money to do experiments to save their wife. Would you not report them to the police?
2. Not being able to see a summer day again - he was holding a GUN to Boyle's head; he merely pushed him out of self-preservation.

I would never understand why everyone seems to sympathize with Fries in this episode and claim it's a tragic masterpiece blah blah. Dude went on a murderous rampage and was ready to kill an entire building of people just to get one person, who didn't even do him wrong at the end of the day. He got exactly what he deserved. As an episode it's very good though obviously, like most BTAS episodes.

There's emotional arcs that get told within a breathtaking 20-23 minutes. I'm a writer who really struggles with brevity sometimes, and I just adore watching BTAS. Each episode is like its own movie. It has its own musical motifs and even a title card for the first show.

I just

UGH

I just love this show.

Does anyone remember a batman TAS webcomic which was continuing the series from where it finished? It was from the mid 2000s I think like 2004 or 2005. It was fan made with weekly installments. You had to clock on an arrow to turn to th next "page". Anyone remember this?