Posted By Dan Greenfield on Dec 24, 2020 | 3 comments

Welcome to 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 now 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.

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 #4: THE LAUGHING FISH (Ryan’s No. 1) vs. ON LEATHER WINGS (Fred’s No. 4)

Written by Paul Dini. Directed by Bruce Timm.

“With a plot adapted from classic comics by Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams, Steve Engelhart and Marshall Rogers, it’s easily the Joker’s best episode, showcasing the Clown Prince of Crime’s signature intelligence, menace and lowbrow ‘humor’ in every scene.” — RD

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Written by Mitch Brian. Directed by Kevin Altieri.

“It took balls to have Man-Bat, no one’s favorite Batman villain, be the antagonist of the series pilot. Though it definitely establishes the police as antagonistic to Bats right from the jump, when they pursue him for Manny’s attacks. There’s nary a hotline phone or Batsignal to be found (though on the insistence of Timm’s team, that would be added later).” — FVL

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Now, which do YOU prefer? VOTE!

BATMADNESS ELITE EIGHT MATCH #4: Which of these is the better BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES episode?

— 13th Dimension (@13th_Dimension) December 24, 2020

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

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NEXT: BATMADNESS Returns Dec. 28 With the FINAL FOUR.