Batman: Chill of The Night

Batman, The Brave and The Bold, was a TV series where Batman usually teamed up with another superhero for an adventure. Each episode actually included two different adventures. The art, quite cartoonish,  marked the tone of the show which seemed to aim at an audience younger than the previous series. Batman was still dark but not much and was also gritty abut only a little bit.The emphasis was more on his crime fighting skills than his detective skills or on his penchant to work in the shadows of the very shadowy Gotham. Most of the time it was lighthearted and entertaining. 

Most of the time. There is one episode that stands for being different from the rest and that is Chill of The Night. Batman is on his way to confront the man who shot his parents and also to discover something that is a new element in the Batman mythos: that his parents´deaths were not a random event. Unaware of what is happening in a realm beyond ours, Batman's actions are observed with interest by two entities, two DC characters that have sometimes been considered superheroes and in others, agents of superior forces. One is The Phantom Stranger, a mysterious man who wears a dark suit, a cape and a hat that never allows to see his face completely. The other is The Spectre, who does not wear dark clothes to inspire fear, his suit is mostly pale gray and glowing green cowl. The Phantom Stranger believes that Batman is ultimately looking for justice but the Spectre wants Batman to exact revenge for that is what he believes in.

Batman has discovered that the man who murdered his parents was some Joe Chill. n his way to find chill The Phantom Stranger appears before him and takes him to the past. He is transported to a charity reception offered by the Waynes when they still were alive, because it is a disguise party Batman has no problem to fit in with his suit on. Still he draws his parents´attention. They approach him and Bruce is taken aback by this unexpected turn of events. He introduces himself and when he meets his mother again, he jusr hugs her. Priceless. Batman is a human being after all, deep inside the obssessed being he is there is still someone who would have chosen a less adventurous life jsut to have his parents and grow old beside them.

The scene is interrupted by the arrival of a band of criminals who want to steal the charity money. It turns out that that night Thomas resisted and could capture the leader of the criminals who was sent to jail. After this experience The Spectre takes over and shows Batman how this same criminal lord is visited by joe chill and tells him "to do something, whatever" to The Waynes. When Batman learns this he is enraged. Released by The Spectre he goes to where Chill operates in the present. He sells weapons to criminals. Batman appears suddenly causing panic among his enemies and then he corners Chill and reveals to him he is the child of the people he killed so many years ago. Terrified Chill tries to get help from the villains, only they turn on him when they know Chill unwillingly created Batman. They cannot kill him because Batman interferes saving him. In the conmotion, part of the building is being destroyed by the weapons Chill was trying to sell. Some of the roof incidentally falls on Chill killing him instantly.

As you can see this not a story for kids. The case itself is supposed to be about the triumph of our desire for justice over that of revenge, but in the end is all about Batman revisiting his origin, in itself a story that is sad and reveals a sad truth that our lives can become meaningless if others hate us enough to get us killed. Also that emotions (represented by the Stranger and the Spectre) can drive us as though we were pawns. The Spectre in particular behaves creepily as though he were a demon and not a seeker of justice as he claimmIn the end Batman rises above all with a stronger determintation and a resolve tempered by his experience.

Don´t judge the series for this chapter. It is more the exception than the rule. That and a mini chapter where Batman is assisted by the Spectre. The criminal is about to be eliminated by The Spectre when Batman interferes. They both leave with the criminal tied up after capturing but the Spectre returns and converts the criminal in animal food. Soon big fat rats are summoned by The Spectre and they look hungry, very much.