10/21/09
Has there been an episode so visually black as The Worry Men? In the opening scenes at the Veronica’s little high society get-together, the foliage intended to embellish the room is obscured by shadow. Nighttime Gotham seems darker than usual, and even the daytime scenes are unusually foggy. Usually I applaud heavy shadows in an episode, but there is nothing expressive about its use here. If it doesn’t externally manifest anything about the nature of the plot or the nature of the characters, then it seems almost tawdry. I became distracted, and environments that should have made separate impressions visually overlapped.
And no, there is nothing thematically dark about The Worry Men. The Mad Hatter is enacting a plan that is easily traced to him due to his obvious mastery of brain manipulation technology. This time he feels inclined to stick with a Mayan theme. When once I mourned that villains like him and Two-Face, after stellar debuts, were relegated to the realm of common thievery (as Batman astutely points out), I now see it as part of their essential tragedies. Initial complexity must deteriorate into gimmickry. Oh, but what a bland affair it is! It leaps from plot point to plot point with no grace. Batman delves into forced exposition at the slightest nudge from Alfred. The Mad Hatter even sparks a flashback of an event that has already been explained in a less than smooth fashion.
So what does this have going for it? The only scene I can say I enjoy is the third act set piece that even in its extravagance raises questions on the Mad Hatter’s motive in constructing such a bizarre assortment of puppets resembling Batman’s rogues gallery. Who is even controlling the puppets anyway? His four henchmen clearly aren’t, as they stand motionless on a platform for the entirety of the fight. While I enjoy a jack-in-the-box Joker with a giant mallet, I also recognize that this extraneous bit of action not only makes little sense, but is also the only thing that stimulates any enjoyment.
The third act action sequence also speaks to a great ambition regarding the fight scenes. This can also be seen in Batman’s skirmish with one of the Hatter’s Mayan henchmen in the beginning of the episode. Though I disapprove of the excessive shadows, Dong Yang proves it is adept at animating them as they move across characters drifting in and out of varying degrees of light. I also think that Dong Yang’s color choices surpass that of previous episodes. Again note that when they contribute to the muddled atmosphere I cringe, but there are some saturated hues I don’t believe I have seen the artists use before. There is a disparity between tone of story and tone of visual design that constitutes a definite flaw, but the skill involved in achieving the episode's unsuitable atmosphere is still to be commended.
But ultimately Dini proves that he does not work well with formula. His episodes tend to veer from the usual in their stylistic ambition, be it screwball comedy romps or psychoanalyses framed by grim, contemplative structures. The Worry Men does not utilize any of Dini’s trademark skills. It is unmemorable for good reason.
The plot is very straightforward. The Mad Hatter is using Mayan dolls called ‘worry men’ to mind control Gotham’s elite, in order to steal from them. Batman picks up on it and defeats the Mad Hatter. Now, I think that this is actually a very clever scheme even if it loses points for slight instances of boredom. Mad Hatter makes all of the transactions quiet in a sense. In controlling the social elite of Gotham, he makes them leave their money lying around of their own free will, so his men can drop by and pick it up. In fact, his thieveries would probably go unnoticed if Batman himself weren’t part of that elite. However, that being said, there is no reason that the Mad Hatter should call attention to himself by using ridiculous looking Mayan warriors that exist for no reason other than to provide obligatory fight sequences. And while fight scenes are essential for this show, we already get an awesome showdown between Batman and the Hatter’s puppets at the end of the episode, so it’s absolutely pointless to watch him combat Mayan warriors in the process of reaching the climax.
The episode really is forgettable for the most part until the final confrontation between Batman and the Hatter, so I’ll just focus on that. Now there are some stylish action bits that I just adore involving Batman facing off against wooden puppets of his rogues gallery. Now, it obviously makes no sense that they could control themselves the way they do, that they would be ready for Batman at the right moment, or that they would even exist, but nonetheless, I find the third act action climax to be really very fun. The second point about the climax is that the Mad Hatter explains his motive in stealing money from wealthy socialites. He plans on using the money to buy himself an island to retire to. I really love this, because it fits Mad Hatter’s character. Always wanting to fashion a Wonderland of his own, wanting to buy an island is the perfect goal for him. It’s such a relief knowing that he doesn’t just have a generic criminal intent behind his thefts. The end reminds me of ‘The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy’, in that it ends with a worry man that looks like Batman under the pillow of the Mad Hatter’s prison bunk.
Animation-wise, this episode is another reminder of how much better Dong Yang is getting. Here, it’s easy to tell that the studio is doing a lot better with the complex shadows that dominate the series, and the color palette is absolutely beautiful, especially on the Mad Hatter, who’s given a more purple look given the darkness that surrounds him in his hideout. While I find the fight scenes between Batman and Hatter’s minions utterly boring, I have to admit that they are better staged than the majority of fight scenes in the series, and as for the puppet finale I’ve brought up several times, its direction is fantastic. It’s great that the series finally reached a point of artistic consistency, because it’s certainly a primary reason that there hasn’t been a truly terrible episode since ‘The Mechanic’.
‘The Worry Men’ is very slow and especially toward the beginning, pretty boring, but it’s still fairly solid. The climax is probably the only highlight, but what a highlight it is. It’s a good episode, just far from great.
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