It is time to take a look at
Batman the Animated Series Episode 20 Feat of Clay Part I which had to do with
the debut of one of Batman’s premier villains, Clayface. This episode was the
20th episode produced, but it aired fourth, on FOX, on September 8th
1992. You can watch Batman the Animated Series Episode 20 Feat of Clay Part I
on Batman the Animated Series Volume 1 DVD or Batman the Animated Series the
Complete Collection.
Batman
the Animated Series Episode 20 Feat of Clay Part I
As a villain, Clayface is perhaps
a bottom of the top or top of the bottom style villain. He can be a threat, but
there isn’t too much that can be done with him. He’s a mass of clay that can
shift into other people. However at various times, he has problems with his
shape shifting, which has to deal with a lot of his stories in the comic books.
And in the comic books, there
were approximately eight different versions of Clayface. The first two were the
best known, being Basil Karlo and Matt Hagen. Basil Karlo actually was not a
super powered villain for a long time and didn’t have shape shifting powers,
until much later, when he injected himself with the powers of the third and
fourth versions of Clayface, Preston Payne and Sandra Fuller(also known as Lady
Clay). He was an embittered old actor, who felt spurned that he did not get to
play Clayface in the remake of the horror movie of the same name, so he went on
a killing spree to stop Batman and Robin. Matt Hagen on the other hand was an
adventurer, who fell into a pool of goo. As we know, pools of goo in comic
books automatically equal super powers, so he became Clayface II.
The Clayface in this episode is a
composite from the two well known Clayfaces, having the name of Matt Hagen and
the acting background of Basil Karlo, the original Clayface. He also has a deep
dark secret that is being exploited from the real main villain of the episode,
Ronald Daggett.
In some ways, this is much like
the Two Face episode, in the sense that someone else leads to the
transformation of the villain, with said tragic villain getting revenge on the
person who put him this way, with Batman playing peace keeper. I think that the
Two Face episode had more interpersonal drama between Bruce Wayne and Harvey
Dent which added more drama to the episode.
The main part of this episode was
with Matt Hagen, posing as Bruce Wayne, committing a break in to steal some
incriminating evidence that would get Roland Daggett in trouble for illegal
insider training, in his attempt to take country of Wayne Industries. Lucius
Fox is beaten up in Daggett’s attempt to discredit Bruce Wayne and take over
Wayne Industries.
Hagen is the pawn in a way but
he’s far from innocent. He was disfigured in an accident, but Daggett came to
him with a miracle cure, Renuyu, which could reshape his face, removing
imperfections. Unfortunately, it is only temporary and highly, highly,
addictive. So obviously he has to commit these jobs for Daggett to get his fix
and he is slowly losing his mind due to not finding Renuyu, thus needing more
but Daggett is not happy due to his partially botched job in discrediting
Wayne.
So like any drug addict would,
Hagen does something utterly stupid. He tries to steal him some. And he alters
his face into Bruce Wayne, a guy who Daggett’s thugs know he posed as in the
past. So they take Hagen for a little ride. Given Hagen all of the Renuyu he
wants, by dumping an entire beaker of it right down his throat.
Yikes, that’s pretty dark.
Speaking of dark, Batman’s
interrogation technique on one of Daggett’s henchmen, Bell, by hooking his hand
right in the Batwing and dragging him all over town, and then trying to dump
him into a pool, which could likely kill him. Given the fact that Batman’s one
rule that is that he can’t kill, I really wasn’t fond of that.
There were a few bits of
questionable animation during this episode. Which kind of knocks it down a
point or two.
The episode ends with Bruce Wayne
being arrested for the crime he was framed by. And Hagen is found by his
assistant, as a disgusting, twisted mass of muddled mud. Yeah, that won’t give
the little kids nightmares. And yes Clayface/Hagen is voiced by Ron Perlman who
also played Hellboy in well Hellboy and was the voice of Slade on Teen Titans.
That ends Part 1 and Part 2 will
be coming up all too soon, Batman The Animated Series Feat of Clay Part 2 where
I’ll give my score for this two part Batman adventure.
