Ben Wan
- Jan 31, 2022
- 3 min read

The UNMADE Batman Origin for Batman: The Animated Series

After Mask of the Phantasm, Michael Reaves wrote a treatment for an unmade Batman: The Animated Series episode called "Vigil" that expanded on Batman's origin and his relationship with Alfred. We dive into the treatment and how it connects to the rest of the DCAU Batman's timeline.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Introduction

The previous coverage of TV episodes were the unmade Batman 66 episodes featuring Two-Face:

As well as the coverage of the unmade Bruce Wayne pilot by Tim McCanlies:

2:53 Who is Michael Reaves?

We covered Mask of the Phantasm here where we went into scenes that didn't make it into the film as well as the lesser known sequels:

The quotes about Robert Pattinson liking Batman: Mask of the Phantasm come from an interview with Premiere France. You can read more here:

I sincerely believe that the tone of The Batman has nothing to do (with the previous movies), it feels new. In the comics, Batman is someone more… unstable. If you read between the lines, it’s actually very sad. Whereas in the cinema, it is always his heroic side that is put forward. The Batman does the opposite, we capture the inner bubbling of the character. In my opinion, the only other (film) to achieve this is the animated film Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm. When I saw it, it clicked: being Batman is a kind of curse, it’s a burden. But hey man, you decided that, right? “No no no, I HAVE to be Batman. I was chosen, not the other way around.” I don’t think we’ve ever really seen that in a live film.

7:33 Vigil- Act One

You can check out the treatment for "Vigil" here: https://web.archive.org/web/20050213175416/http://www.mindspring.com/~michaelreaves/vigil.htm

We did a deeper dive into Alfred's history and evolution as a character in this Patreon episode "The History of 'Badass' Alfred" which you can watch here.

18:56 The Training of the DCAU Batman

The referenced episodes for Batman's training include "Zatanna," "Night of the Ninja," and the Justice League Unlimited episode "Dead Reckoning" (which only references Batman's training but doesn't show any flashbacks).

We did a full timeline of Batman's training across all media (up until January 2020) in this episode:

It will be updated with Bruce's training from Batman: Soul of the Dragon, the comic arc Batman: The Detective, and the current storyline Batman The Knight that covers more of the training.

25:50 Vigil- Act Two

33:44 Break

Check out our link for Barkbox here.

41:42 Vigil- Act Three

47:45 Final Thoughts

56:27 The Joker's Fireside Chat

1:05:29 Closing: Fan Shoutout and Social Media Promotion

Big thanks as usual to our research assistant Dan Yamat for providing the visuals for this episode, as well as doing the usual QC and providing time codes. Please record us a “bumper” saying “You’re listening to Superhero Stuff You Should Know” and send it over to superhousepodcast@gmail.comAlso to any animators- we’d love to see our sketches animated. Please include #SuperheroStuffYouShould Know IN the video

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