With The Riddler soon to debt in Batman: Caped Crusader, I thought it would be fun to take a long back at his prior animated appearances. As always, the images in this post appear courtesy of The World's Finest and new instalments should be posted daily. If they prove popular enough, further Batman villain retrospectives may appear soon. Without further ado, The Riddler!
While this thread is meant to cover the various animated appearances of The Riddler from the DCAU and on, it would be remiss of me to forego his origins before his debut in Batman: The Animated Series so please allow a brief history before we get his animated appearances.
The Riddler would make his first appearance in 1940 in Detective Comics #140, created by Bill Finger and Dick Sprang. Batman was not the pulp crime fighter portrayed in his early days here and most of the stories revolves around props and ludicrous gimmicks for he and Robin to face, which made The Riddler a perfect fit for the era. Oddly, the character was all but abandoned until the 1960’s Batman television show, which is where the character truly became an icon of pop culture, one of the ‘Big Four’ Batman villains.
Portrayed by Frank Gorshin, who understood the assignment perfectly, The Riddler was actually the first villain to appear in the show, which comes across as somewhat baffling now, considering he had been dormant for over 20 years… it was a surprise that the creative team of the satire show even knew who he was. Dressed in an outlandish green suit and accompanying green spandex, Gorshin’s utterly energetic Riddler was a hit with audiences, a narcissist compelled to leave clues at his crimes, which was perfect for Adam West’s Bright Knight to then solve and capture. Batman was an unprecedented smash hit in the day… the fact it is still spoken about to this day says much about just how popular it was. Most people probably couldn’t tell you another show that was on the air in 1966 now, but Batman is still a staple of pop culture history.
This is not the place to review each of The Riddler’s many appearances in the show, nor am I the one to write about it. Despite owning the entire series on Blu Ray, I couldn’t tell you a single thing that happened in any Riddler episode (thank you, memory sapping Long Covid!)
The Riddler would indeed return in many of the further Batman shows which followed and including his place as a member of The Legion of Doom in the Superfriends show (I haven’t seen a single episode of the various incarnations of Superfriends, so clearly won’t be reviewing them here.) This does bring me to my own introduction to the character in the late 80s with a VHS tape of a Batman animated The Adventures of Batman show which served my gateway to many things Batman while Batmania was running wild about the eventual release of Tim Burton’s classic in 1989. I recently purchased this show entirely on Blu Ray and enjoyed a somewhat nostalgic look back at how cartoons were before Batman: The Animated Series came along. It’s tame of course, but there was some goofy fun to be found.
This sole episode creates a fondness for The Riddler for me, which hasn’t left me to this day. One of my favourite villains, I remember eagerly anticipating his debut in Batman: The Animated Series as a young boy. I still remember the day I got the Two-Face and Riddler action figures from the show, long before their episodes aired. Again, as a 6 year old who knew very little from comic books beyond previous shows and various action figures, it stands to the character’s pop culture esteem that I knew who he was before I watched the show. I could not say the same of Man Bat, The Mad Hatter or The Scarecrow.
With the new animated series commissioned by the success of the recent live action movies and a resurgence of Warner Bros. Animation, producers Bruce Timm and Eric Randomski were hoping to bring a new level of sophistication and mood to television animation. Indeed, Batman: The Animated Series was a game changer. Still the pinnacle of superhero cartoons, it featured beautifully designed characters with dark, rich background and villains that were written as characters, not gimmicks. With Batman still a hot ticket due to the success of the original Batman movie and its sequel Batman Returns, there was a lot of interest in Batman: The Animated Series from Batman fans, and the general audience. While most of the audience who was familiar with the character before watching the show were probably expecting something along the lines of a Frank Gorshin Riddler, this would not have remotely fit into the tone of the show. It also seemed to take a very long time for The Riddler to debut, as he was proving such a difficult but to crack. One imagines that going with the Gorshin version out of the pure simpleness of the idea occurred to the creative team, but it would they didn’t and struggled with what they did. In the DVD features for the show, series director Dan Riba, casting and voice director Andrea Romano and producer Timm all recall the difficult getting out of Gorshin’s shadow for their version of the character.
Timm states “He was brilliant, he was The Riddler. But, the thing is, his Riddler was very similar to The Joker’s personality and knowing we were going to do that really manic Joker, we knew we had to do something different with The Riddler, we didn’t just want to do a Joker clone”
Timm also recalls in the excellent Batman: Animated book;
"There is are at least half a dozen full or partially completed Riddler stories in our dead script file that proved ultimately too complex or too silly to produce."
The Batman: The Animated Series bible also refers to a Riddler episodes in which he takes hostages in a building in Gotham that was also never produced. While the creative team knew what they wanted to do with most of the villains in the show, it would appear with The Riddler they had more questions than answers. Riddler was also far too big a rogue to not be featured. Batman fans would’ve demanded his presence if he was absent all together.
The Riddler’s character model is well done, colourful but not too off kilter for the world the show was set in, without just looking like a boring villain in a suit. Some of the development sketches show that a spandex Riddler was at least considered, but the version used is clearly better than any of the development versions that are scattered around online. He looks like a smart villain, without looking dull and as a boy, I did indeed love my aforementioned Riddler action figure. This look for The Riddler has since gone on to become his standard look in the comic books, much as the Two-Face model has done.
Casting wise – bravo, Andrea Romano. Long time fans will know that Mrs Romano never once missed when casting this show and while only featuring in three of the original 85 episodes, John Glover as The Riddler is one of her finest castings ever. A veteran of stage, television and film, Glover had done no voicework prior to being cast in the show. Rumour has it he originally auditioned for The Joker, but Romano wanted something a bit scarier for her Riddler and Glover fit it better than anyone has since. For what is essentially three main appearances and a couple of cameos here and there, Glover demonstrated, rage, apprehension and a complete mental breakdown, with a tinge of suave and arrogance. Glover is utterly fantastic in the role and is undoubtedly the best part of every Riddler appearance. Mr Glover is still working these days and is active on Twitter and doing the convention route with the surviving Batman: The Animated Series cast members. He drops the odd nugget of joy about his experiences working on the show with his friend, the late great Kevin Conroy, including one of him turning up to record the first time and having no idea his friend was playing Batman. Between this and his stellar turn as the brilliant Lionel Luthor on Smallville, I will always have fondness in my heart for Glover. The man is an exceptionally talented actor and appears to be having the time of his life as The Riddler.
He would finally make his debut in If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich? The story sees Edward Nygma introduced as a work for hire computer game developer, who is fired after creating the hit Riddle of the Minotaur game for suing by the publisher for royalties. He was dismissed, noting that he has signed a work for hire contract (I imagine someone at the DC Comics office had a self assured smirk on their face when they saw this episode) and his employer Daniel Mockridge taunts Nygma by asking him “if you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?” Enraged that he has been outsmarted and robbed of millions of dollars by a slimy corporate executive, he creates his Riddler persona to exact revenge.
The plot is very simple, but the plot is very talky, as all Riddler episodes inevitably are. A riddle is presented, Batman solves it, and another riddle is presented until the episode ends. The strength of the episode comes from Glover rather than the script, whose smugness really extenuates the story. It doesn’t drag and is also helped by an exceptional score, indeed, The Riddler theme is a creepy banger. Batman deduces Nygma’s identity far too easily here but the episode is still worth a watch. While I doubt it will make it into anyone’s top 10, it does a great job of introducing The Riddler and as a Riddler fan, it was great to see him appear here. The detective aspects of the character are somewhat undermined by Batman’s fancy palmtop computer, which is essentially 1992’s version of a smart phone.
The show production fell behind schedule due to delays in getting the show started at the very beginning. This meant producers Bruce Timm and Eric Randomski eventually had to direct episodes themselves and this one fell to Randomski personally. Randomski offers this;
“'If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?' came off okay. I didn’t like the script [by David Wise] at all. I still don’t. I hated the title. I tried my hardest to get it changed, but Alan Burnett wouldn’t budge.
“We just couldn’t convince the writers that the Riddler might set something up as simple as a bomb in somebody’s office. It had to be complicated. So, that posed a real problem because you have 22 minutes to establish the character, and they suddenly put in these complex riddles that Batman must figure out. And of course, he immediately figures them out, and that destroys the whole mystery of Batman as a detective, because all he does is think for a minute and he has the answer. That didn’t really work for me, but I did the best I could with it.
“I had fun with it and unfortunately, we were trying out a studio in Spain--La Piz Azul--and that was their first [and last] episode. So, it comes off real cartoony compared to the other episodes. It was fun to do, but not one of my favorites.
“And I don’t care for the Riddler a whole lot. If there was an opportunity to work with him again, and I had complete say over that character, I would treat him as we do the Joker, where in reality he’s a mean bastard. He uses his wit, but it’s not the main thing he relies on, which is his ability to dominate.
As Randomski says, it cannot be denied that the first Riddler episode, If Your So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich? has awful animation, probably up there amongst the worst looking episodes. The movement is very slow, the majority of the characters look like they are made of rubber and are not fluid in their movements. La Piz Azul was not used again, for good reason. Batman himself looked off model for most of the episode. It’s not quite an AKOM butcher job, but to be truthful, it isn’t much better.
The ending is probably the creepiest the show ever did, with Mockridge now rich from the Minotaur game, but spending the rest of his days terrified The Riddler will return to kill him. (Also, sharp eyed fanboys should keep an eye out for Mockridge being attacked not by The Riddler, but Poison Ivy in House And Garden. Whether or not they intended it to be Mockridge or the character models are similar I do not know, but still, cool little nod if you like those kinds of things.
The Riddler would return in What Is Reality? As he attempts to completely delete Edward Nygma from existence by destroying all records of him. The plot is fairly similar to his original episode as the riddles eventually lead Batman and Robin to a trap in which they must enter to save a hostage. The first was Mockridge in the maze and this time we see Batman enter a virtual reality world to save Commissioner Gordon.
Virtual Reality in 1992 was a pipe dream, pure science fiction. Here we are 30+ years later and we have still yet to make the technological leap did in the noir fashioned world of Batman: The Animated Series. While giant bats, men made of mud and crocodile creatures all seem to fit into this version of Gotham, virtual reality was a stretch too far for many. Series producer Bruce Timm offers
“Virtual Reality is too science fictiony for our show. While it may be conceivable in four or five years, Batman transforming himself into a black knight and flying around on a chessboard is unfathomable to me.”
While it’s tone may differ from our customary Dark Knight caper, the episode is more than entertaining to watch and it is fun watching Batman solve the numerous riddles (the Police Headquarters from the coins being an especially memorable one.) It plays out like a traditional Batman episode until it’s third act in which Batman must enter Nygma’s virtual reality world to save Gordon. Surprisingly, the episode is animated very well for an AKOM production… they were famous for their lousy looking episodes, but there’s a lot visually going on here and it’s arguably the best looking stuff they ever produced for the show.
Batman frees Gordon by outsmarting Nygma and essentially causing him to lose concentration and the VR world to collapse, with Nygma not escaping in time. Another creepy Riddler ending see’s Batman, Robin and Gordon solve Nygma’s final clue and see him almost brain dead, trapped in the VR world. It’s the weakest of the three Riddler episodes and VR does seem a tad out of reality with the show’s tone, but, again, perfectly watchable and Glover is still on fine form. I especially like his smug exchange with his henchmen as he questions if they are certain all copies of his identify from the DMV were destroyed.
Riddler would also feature in a silent cameo as part of the group of Arkham criminals who place Batman on Trial in the supervillain team up episode of the same name. Seems an utter waste to have all that wealth of talent and not use Glover, but alas, there simply wasn’t enough time and budget to include all the villains (Scarecrow doesn’t speak either.)
Which brings us the final full Riddler episode of the DCAU, Riddler’s Reform. Undeniably his best appearance, I would actually say it’s probably my second favourite episode, slightly behind Second Chance (the episode after this in production order, as happenstance). By this time the show had become The Adventures of Batman and Robin and had an incredibly high batting average.
The episode sees Nygma released from Arkham following completion of his rehabilitation and sees him partner with a toy company to make toys and puzzles based on his Riddler persona. With the toys selling incredibly well, Riddler is living the high life, but his obsessive compulsive disorder can’t help but reveal itself, and he cannot stop committing robberies and leaving clues for Batman to find. The riddles are not obvious here and the episode initially straddles the line between has The Riddler gone legit, or is Batman simply looking for riddles which aren’t there and it’s Batman who is displaying signs of an obsessive personality?
Naturally, Nygma is still committing the crimes because his legitimate earnings don’t do enough to satisfy his ego to confirm he is indeed smarter than Batman. He even rants about it when his henchmen calls him crazy for his obsession with our caped crusader;
“Don’t you ever call me that! I fooled the Police, the Doctors the Parole Board, all of them! There’s only one person whose ever been able to challenge me, Batman! He’s the only one worthy of the game!”
The episode is a certified banger from beginning to end, and offers a brilliant look at the ego of The Riddler and his damaged psyche. Outstanding from beginning to end, it makes one sad that Riddler was not featured more frequently if this is the quality the character was able to produce.
When I interviewed one of the three writers of this episode, Alan Burnett had this to say.
“As for the Riddler, he might be the worst Batman villain for TV, because you always have to go through three steps with him. He presents a riddle, the heroes have to solve it, and then have to stop the crime, at which point usually another riddle pops up. And another solution is discussed. And another crime is resolved. And it just goes on and on until you catch him in the end. It’s redundant. And the riddles are usually a play on words, so it gets talky, too.
“Riddler’s Reform” worked the best of all the Riddler stories because it broke that chain. Riddler was giving riddles without even realizing it, so the first step - presenting a riddle - was hidden. And most of the riddles turned out to be visual. He wasn’t yapping his head off, like he usually does.”
The ending of the episode is terrific as Riddler taunts Batman with a riddle (“go back to where it all started, with toys”) and then has a simple plan to lock Batman inside the convention centre and blow it up with Batman inside it. The staging is incredibly well done here, as Riddler counts down to the explosion and escape looks impossible with the doors locking and Batman having nowhere to flee to… Nygma is seen burning his Riddler suit in the next scene, as he’s won and finally beaten Batman. He is bamboozled when Batman not only returns, but uses his own toy against him to allow Gordon to arrest him and return him to Arkham. He is utterly incensed by not only that Batman escaped, but he is completely clueless as to how he escaped.
It must be said that the casting is once again entirely sensational, with John Glover really selling his rant about his plan was perfect and his inability to explain how Batman escaped his perfect plan.
He screams like a lunatic in the closing seconds of the episode, ranting about how impossible it was to escape and how he HAS to know how he did it. He seems more enraged that Batman wouldn’t tell him how he escaped than he is to be locked back in Arkham. “Aren’t you gonna tell me how you did it?! That’s not fair!”
The episode is just about perfect, one of the shows very best.
I felt it was a shame that we didn’t see more of The Riddler in the show as I did very much enjoy his appearances and once again, Glover is utterly perfect as The Riddler, it would’ve been great to simple hear from of this performance. Glover hasn’t done much voiceover work beyond Riddler, which seems unfathomable considering just how talented he was at it. He has since expressed his regret for not appreciating his appearances on the show when making them.
Topping this one may well have been a fool’s errand, as it took three incredibly talented screen writers to get this episode out. Unfortunately, it seems effort to create a stellar Riddler episode was so strenuous that he did not become a priority for the creative team. This is a case of enjoy what we got, rather than lament about what we didn’t.
And while Riddler on the small screen was fun but fleeting, we wouldn’t have to wait long to see him on the big screen.
Next: Courage now, truth always, Batman Forever
While this thread is meant to cover the various animated appearances of The Riddler from the DCAU and on, it would be remiss of me to forego his origins before his debut in Batman: The Animated Series so please allow a brief history before we get his animated appearances.
The Riddler would make his first appearance in 1940 in Detective Comics #140, created by Bill Finger and Dick Sprang. Batman was not the pulp crime fighter portrayed in his early days here and most of the stories revolves around props and ludicrous gimmicks for he and Robin to face, which made The Riddler a perfect fit for the era. Oddly, the character was all but abandoned until the 1960’s Batman television show, which is where the character truly became an icon of pop culture, one of the ‘Big Four’ Batman villains.
Portrayed by Frank Gorshin, who understood the assignment perfectly, The Riddler was actually the first villain to appear in the show, which comes across as somewhat baffling now, considering he had been dormant for over 20 years… it was a surprise that the creative team of the satire show even knew who he was. Dressed in an outlandish green suit and accompanying green spandex, Gorshin’s utterly energetic Riddler was a hit with audiences, a narcissist compelled to leave clues at his crimes, which was perfect for Adam West’s Bright Knight to then solve and capture. Batman was an unprecedented smash hit in the day… the fact it is still spoken about to this day says much about just how popular it was. Most people probably couldn’t tell you another show that was on the air in 1966 now, but Batman is still a staple of pop culture history.
This is not the place to review each of The Riddler’s many appearances in the show, nor am I the one to write about it. Despite owning the entire series on Blu Ray, I couldn’t tell you a single thing that happened in any Riddler episode (thank you, memory sapping Long Covid!)
The Riddler would indeed return in many of the further Batman shows which followed and including his place as a member of The Legion of Doom in the Superfriends show (I haven’t seen a single episode of the various incarnations of Superfriends, so clearly won’t be reviewing them here.) This does bring me to my own introduction to the character in the late 80s with a VHS tape of a Batman animated The Adventures of Batman show which served my gateway to many things Batman while Batmania was running wild about the eventual release of Tim Burton’s classic in 1989. I recently purchased this show entirely on Blu Ray and enjoyed a somewhat nostalgic look back at how cartoons were before Batman: The Animated Series came along. It’s tame of course, but there was some goofy fun to be found.
This sole episode creates a fondness for The Riddler for me, which hasn’t left me to this day. One of my favourite villains, I remember eagerly anticipating his debut in Batman: The Animated Series as a young boy. I still remember the day I got the Two-Face and Riddler action figures from the show, long before their episodes aired. Again, as a 6 year old who knew very little from comic books beyond previous shows and various action figures, it stands to the character’s pop culture esteem that I knew who he was before I watched the show. I could not say the same of Man Bat, The Mad Hatter or The Scarecrow.
With the new animated series commissioned by the success of the recent live action movies and a resurgence of Warner Bros. Animation, producers Bruce Timm and Eric Randomski were hoping to bring a new level of sophistication and mood to television animation. Indeed, Batman: The Animated Series was a game changer. Still the pinnacle of superhero cartoons, it featured beautifully designed characters with dark, rich background and villains that were written as characters, not gimmicks. With Batman still a hot ticket due to the success of the original Batman movie and its sequel Batman Returns, there was a lot of interest in Batman: The Animated Series from Batman fans, and the general audience. While most of the audience who was familiar with the character before watching the show were probably expecting something along the lines of a Frank Gorshin Riddler, this would not have remotely fit into the tone of the show. It also seemed to take a very long time for The Riddler to debut, as he was proving such a difficult but to crack. One imagines that going with the Gorshin version out of the pure simpleness of the idea occurred to the creative team, but it would they didn’t and struggled with what they did. In the DVD features for the show, series director Dan Riba, casting and voice director Andrea Romano and producer Timm all recall the difficult getting out of Gorshin’s shadow for their version of the character.
Timm states “He was brilliant, he was The Riddler. But, the thing is, his Riddler was very similar to The Joker’s personality and knowing we were going to do that really manic Joker, we knew we had to do something different with The Riddler, we didn’t just want to do a Joker clone”
Timm also recalls in the excellent Batman: Animated book;
"There is are at least half a dozen full or partially completed Riddler stories in our dead script file that proved ultimately too complex or too silly to produce."
The Batman: The Animated Series bible also refers to a Riddler episodes in which he takes hostages in a building in Gotham that was also never produced. While the creative team knew what they wanted to do with most of the villains in the show, it would appear with The Riddler they had more questions than answers. Riddler was also far too big a rogue to not be featured. Batman fans would’ve demanded his presence if he was absent all together.
The Riddler’s character model is well done, colourful but not too off kilter for the world the show was set in, without just looking like a boring villain in a suit. Some of the development sketches show that a spandex Riddler was at least considered, but the version used is clearly better than any of the development versions that are scattered around online. He looks like a smart villain, without looking dull and as a boy, I did indeed love my aforementioned Riddler action figure. This look for The Riddler has since gone on to become his standard look in the comic books, much as the Two-Face model has done.
Casting wise – bravo, Andrea Romano. Long time fans will know that Mrs Romano never once missed when casting this show and while only featuring in three of the original 85 episodes, John Glover as The Riddler is one of her finest castings ever. A veteran of stage, television and film, Glover had done no voicework prior to being cast in the show. Rumour has it he originally auditioned for The Joker, but Romano wanted something a bit scarier for her Riddler and Glover fit it better than anyone has since. For what is essentially three main appearances and a couple of cameos here and there, Glover demonstrated, rage, apprehension and a complete mental breakdown, with a tinge of suave and arrogance. Glover is utterly fantastic in the role and is undoubtedly the best part of every Riddler appearance. Mr Glover is still working these days and is active on Twitter and doing the convention route with the surviving Batman: The Animated Series cast members. He drops the odd nugget of joy about his experiences working on the show with his friend, the late great Kevin Conroy, including one of him turning up to record the first time and having no idea his friend was playing Batman. Between this and his stellar turn as the brilliant Lionel Luthor on Smallville, I will always have fondness in my heart for Glover. The man is an exceptionally talented actor and appears to be having the time of his life as The Riddler.
He would finally make his debut in If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich? The story sees Edward Nygma introduced as a work for hire computer game developer, who is fired after creating the hit Riddle of the Minotaur game for suing by the publisher for royalties. He was dismissed, noting that he has signed a work for hire contract (I imagine someone at the DC Comics office had a self assured smirk on their face when they saw this episode) and his employer Daniel Mockridge taunts Nygma by asking him “if you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?” Enraged that he has been outsmarted and robbed of millions of dollars by a slimy corporate executive, he creates his Riddler persona to exact revenge.
The plot is very simple, but the plot is very talky, as all Riddler episodes inevitably are. A riddle is presented, Batman solves it, and another riddle is presented until the episode ends. The strength of the episode comes from Glover rather than the script, whose smugness really extenuates the story. It doesn’t drag and is also helped by an exceptional score, indeed, The Riddler theme is a creepy banger. Batman deduces Nygma’s identity far too easily here but the episode is still worth a watch. While I doubt it will make it into anyone’s top 10, it does a great job of introducing The Riddler and as a Riddler fan, it was great to see him appear here. The detective aspects of the character are somewhat undermined by Batman’s fancy palmtop computer, which is essentially 1992’s version of a smart phone.
The show production fell behind schedule due to delays in getting the show started at the very beginning. This meant producers Bruce Timm and Eric Randomski eventually had to direct episodes themselves and this one fell to Randomski personally. Randomski offers this;
“'If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?' came off okay. I didn’t like the script [by David Wise] at all. I still don’t. I hated the title. I tried my hardest to get it changed, but Alan Burnett wouldn’t budge.
“We just couldn’t convince the writers that the Riddler might set something up as simple as a bomb in somebody’s office. It had to be complicated. So, that posed a real problem because you have 22 minutes to establish the character, and they suddenly put in these complex riddles that Batman must figure out. And of course, he immediately figures them out, and that destroys the whole mystery of Batman as a detective, because all he does is think for a minute and he has the answer. That didn’t really work for me, but I did the best I could with it.
“I had fun with it and unfortunately, we were trying out a studio in Spain--La Piz Azul--and that was their first [and last] episode. So, it comes off real cartoony compared to the other episodes. It was fun to do, but not one of my favorites.
“And I don’t care for the Riddler a whole lot. If there was an opportunity to work with him again, and I had complete say over that character, I would treat him as we do the Joker, where in reality he’s a mean bastard. He uses his wit, but it’s not the main thing he relies on, which is his ability to dominate.
As Randomski says, it cannot be denied that the first Riddler episode, If Your So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich? has awful animation, probably up there amongst the worst looking episodes. The movement is very slow, the majority of the characters look like they are made of rubber and are not fluid in their movements. La Piz Azul was not used again, for good reason. Batman himself looked off model for most of the episode. It’s not quite an AKOM butcher job, but to be truthful, it isn’t much better.
The ending is probably the creepiest the show ever did, with Mockridge now rich from the Minotaur game, but spending the rest of his days terrified The Riddler will return to kill him. (Also, sharp eyed fanboys should keep an eye out for Mockridge being attacked not by The Riddler, but Poison Ivy in House And Garden. Whether or not they intended it to be Mockridge or the character models are similar I do not know, but still, cool little nod if you like those kinds of things.
The Riddler would return in What Is Reality? As he attempts to completely delete Edward Nygma from existence by destroying all records of him. The plot is fairly similar to his original episode as the riddles eventually lead Batman and Robin to a trap in which they must enter to save a hostage. The first was Mockridge in the maze and this time we see Batman enter a virtual reality world to save Commissioner Gordon.
Virtual Reality in 1992 was a pipe dream, pure science fiction. Here we are 30+ years later and we have still yet to make the technological leap did in the noir fashioned world of Batman: The Animated Series. While giant bats, men made of mud and crocodile creatures all seem to fit into this version of Gotham, virtual reality was a stretch too far for many. Series producer Bruce Timm offers
“Virtual Reality is too science fictiony for our show. While it may be conceivable in four or five years, Batman transforming himself into a black knight and flying around on a chessboard is unfathomable to me.”
While it’s tone may differ from our customary Dark Knight caper, the episode is more than entertaining to watch and it is fun watching Batman solve the numerous riddles (the Police Headquarters from the coins being an especially memorable one.) It plays out like a traditional Batman episode until it’s third act in which Batman must enter Nygma’s virtual reality world to save Gordon. Surprisingly, the episode is animated very well for an AKOM production… they were famous for their lousy looking episodes, but there’s a lot visually going on here and it’s arguably the best looking stuff they ever produced for the show.
Batman frees Gordon by outsmarting Nygma and essentially causing him to lose concentration and the VR world to collapse, with Nygma not escaping in time. Another creepy Riddler ending see’s Batman, Robin and Gordon solve Nygma’s final clue and see him almost brain dead, trapped in the VR world. It’s the weakest of the three Riddler episodes and VR does seem a tad out of reality with the show’s tone, but, again, perfectly watchable and Glover is still on fine form. I especially like his smug exchange with his henchmen as he questions if they are certain all copies of his identify from the DMV were destroyed.
Riddler would also feature in a silent cameo as part of the group of Arkham criminals who place Batman on Trial in the supervillain team up episode of the same name. Seems an utter waste to have all that wealth of talent and not use Glover, but alas, there simply wasn’t enough time and budget to include all the villains (Scarecrow doesn’t speak either.)
Which brings us the final full Riddler episode of the DCAU, Riddler’s Reform. Undeniably his best appearance, I would actually say it’s probably my second favourite episode, slightly behind Second Chance (the episode after this in production order, as happenstance). By this time the show had become The Adventures of Batman and Robin and had an incredibly high batting average.
The episode sees Nygma released from Arkham following completion of his rehabilitation and sees him partner with a toy company to make toys and puzzles based on his Riddler persona. With the toys selling incredibly well, Riddler is living the high life, but his obsessive compulsive disorder can’t help but reveal itself, and he cannot stop committing robberies and leaving clues for Batman to find. The riddles are not obvious here and the episode initially straddles the line between has The Riddler gone legit, or is Batman simply looking for riddles which aren’t there and it’s Batman who is displaying signs of an obsessive personality?
Naturally, Nygma is still committing the crimes because his legitimate earnings don’t do enough to satisfy his ego to confirm he is indeed smarter than Batman. He even rants about it when his henchmen calls him crazy for his obsession with our caped crusader;
“Don’t you ever call me that! I fooled the Police, the Doctors the Parole Board, all of them! There’s only one person whose ever been able to challenge me, Batman! He’s the only one worthy of the game!”
The episode is a certified banger from beginning to end, and offers a brilliant look at the ego of The Riddler and his damaged psyche. Outstanding from beginning to end, it makes one sad that Riddler was not featured more frequently if this is the quality the character was able to produce.
When I interviewed one of the three writers of this episode, Alan Burnett had this to say.
“As for the Riddler, he might be the worst Batman villain for TV, because you always have to go through three steps with him. He presents a riddle, the heroes have to solve it, and then have to stop the crime, at which point usually another riddle pops up. And another solution is discussed. And another crime is resolved. And it just goes on and on until you catch him in the end. It’s redundant. And the riddles are usually a play on words, so it gets talky, too.
“Riddler’s Reform” worked the best of all the Riddler stories because it broke that chain. Riddler was giving riddles without even realizing it, so the first step - presenting a riddle - was hidden. And most of the riddles turned out to be visual. He wasn’t yapping his head off, like he usually does.”
The ending of the episode is terrific as Riddler taunts Batman with a riddle (“go back to where it all started, with toys”) and then has a simple plan to lock Batman inside the convention centre and blow it up with Batman inside it. The staging is incredibly well done here, as Riddler counts down to the explosion and escape looks impossible with the doors locking and Batman having nowhere to flee to… Nygma is seen burning his Riddler suit in the next scene, as he’s won and finally beaten Batman. He is bamboozled when Batman not only returns, but uses his own toy against him to allow Gordon to arrest him and return him to Arkham. He is utterly incensed by not only that Batman escaped, but he is completely clueless as to how he escaped.
It must be said that the casting is once again entirely sensational, with John Glover really selling his rant about his plan was perfect and his inability to explain how Batman escaped his perfect plan.
He screams like a lunatic in the closing seconds of the episode, ranting about how impossible it was to escape and how he HAS to know how he did it. He seems more enraged that Batman wouldn’t tell him how he escaped than he is to be locked back in Arkham. “Aren’t you gonna tell me how you did it?! That’s not fair!”
The episode is just about perfect, one of the shows very best.
I felt it was a shame that we didn’t see more of The Riddler in the show as I did very much enjoy his appearances and once again, Glover is utterly perfect as The Riddler, it would’ve been great to simple hear from of this performance. Glover hasn’t done much voiceover work beyond Riddler, which seems unfathomable considering just how talented he was at it. He has since expressed his regret for not appreciating his appearances on the show when making them.
Topping this one may well have been a fool’s errand, as it took three incredibly talented screen writers to get this episode out. Unfortunately, it seems effort to create a stellar Riddler episode was so strenuous that he did not become a priority for the creative team. This is a case of enjoy what we got, rather than lament about what we didn’t.
And while Riddler on the small screen was fun but fleeting, we wouldn’t have to wait long to see him on the big screen.
Next: Courage now, truth always, Batman Forever
