The Mechanic

[Bobthegoon89]

By far my favourite episode of the entire animated series. Anyone seen this origin of the Batmobile story? Such a simple idea but so great.

I must say I've always prefered this story of the Batmobile's beginings to anything in the comics and especially Batman Begins. I've always had trouble with the Batmobile coming from Wayne Enterprises. Surely some scientist or whatever who worked on the thing would recognise it? They answered it (kinda) in The Dark Knight with the Coleman Reese subplot. To me though that showed the weakness of the idea being simply a Wayne Tech invention that can always be traced.

This animated counterpart is so much better to me. You even get a few Batman Returns connections: The Penguin remote controlling the Batmobile (again!) and even a sequence with the Duck Boat which has a design straight outta the film.

[Silver Nemesis]

You even get a few Batman Returns connections: The Penguin remote controlling the Batmobile (again!) and even a sequence with the Duck Boat which has a design straight outta the film.

Also the Penguin's hideout in the sewers is visually similar to his zoo hideout in the movie.

I seem to remember the original script for Batman Returns describing Robin as an African American mechanic in grey overalls. In the original draft, Batman crashes the Penguin-controlled Batmobile through the wall of Robin's workshop, and Robin then has to locate and remove the control device. The character of Earl Cooper in 'The Mechanic' seems to be a mixture of Burton's unused concept for Robin and the comic character Jack Edison (the stuntman who built the Pre-Crisis Batmobiles).

[thecolorsblend]

This is one reason why I liked Harold so much. A genius inventor who worked for Batman and made all his toys was a pretty clean and easy explanation for where all this untraceable stuff comes from.