Posted By Dan Greenfield on Dec 22, 2020 | 7 comments

VOTE in BATMADNESS: The Animated Tournament…

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Welcome to BATMADNESS: The Animated Tournament — your chance to VOTE for the greatest Batman: The Animated Series episode of all time.

Writer Fred Van Lente, a 13th Dimension regular, and his artistic collaborator Ryan Dunlavey have produced The Comic Book History of Animation — a five-part series whose Issue #2 is out Dec. 23 from IDW. To celebrate, we’re holding a tourney to pick the best episode from the greatest comic-book animated series of them all — and YOU get to decide.

Issue #2 is due Dec. 23

Fred and Ryan seeded eight episodes each for a Sweet 16 and we’ll be pairing them off until we have a champion in January. (Click here to follow the whole tournament.)

We’ve now reached the ELITE EIGHT — and we haven’t had an upset yet, so things are really gonna get interesting.

— HOW TO VOTE: You can pick your choice two ways: 1) Note it in the comments below; or 2) Take part in our Twitter poll, also below. Votes will be tabulated and the winner will be announced in the following round.

We’re up to ELITE EIGHT MATCH-UP #2: HEART OF ICE (Fred’s No. 2) vs. ROBIN’S RECKONING (Ryan’s No. 3)

Written by Paul Dini. Directed by Bruce Timm.

“Another great tragic, villain-based episode and debut script from BTAS co-MVP Paul Dini. It’s a particularly brilliant little detail that Batman catches a cold from Mr. Freeze, so Alfred gives him a Thermos of hot chicken soup that later becomes an important plot device. Listen for Mark Hamill in a pre-Joker performance as a scumbag executive.” — FVL

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Written by Randy Rogel. Directed by Dick Sebast.

“Batman’s back story has been told countless times but here Robin finally gets the on-screen origin he deserves and it’s even more harrowing than Batman’s — giving us some of the richest character moments (in ANY medium) between the two heroes. The high-stakes drama of this two-parter where Batman finally tracks down the man who killed Robin’s parents never lets up for an instant, and the animation (especially the sequence of the Graysons’ murder) is a master class in ‘less is more’ storytelling.” — RD

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Now, which do YOU prefer? VOTE!

BATMADNESS ELITE EIGHT MATCH #2: Which of these is the better BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES episode?

— 13th Dimension (@13th_Dimension) December 22, 2020

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For the complete BATMADNESS: The Animated Tournament: Click here.

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NEXT: Two-Face (Fred’s No. 3) vs. Harley and Ivy (Ryan’s No. 2). Click here.