Batman - Feat Of Clay • An Part 001

"Feat of Clay" is the two-part fourth and fifth episodes of Batman: The Animated Series. It originally aired on September 8 & 9, 1992. It marks the transformation of a disfigured actor into the villain known as Clayface.
==Plot==
A strange meeting takes place in an abandoned tramway station in Gotham at three o' clock in the morning, between Lucius Fox and Bruce Wayne. Fox gives a suitcase full of evidence to Bruce, which incriminates Roland Daggett in an illegal scheme to take over Wayne Enterprises through insider trading. Bruce, with a surprisngly rather sinister smile, says he plans to destroy them... and a group of armed henchmen appear from the upper levels of the tramway and try to kill Fox. Batman springs from the ceiling and stops one of the three thugs, but is stopped short of detaining the remaining two. Wayne, obviously an impostor, escapes, leaving behind a near-fatally wounded Fox, who identifies Bruce as his attacker when he is found by the police, before passing out. It is revealed that Bruce's impostor is actually Matt Hagen, a former famous movie actor. Hagen has developed a serious addiction to "Renuyu", a dangerous experimental chemical developed by Daggett's laboratories, which allows him to reform his facial features into any appearance he wants. The chemical is necessary to cover the disfigurement he suffered in a car accident years before, and which he has kept secret from the public. After learning of the failed attempt on Fox's life due to Batman's interference, Daggett orders his henchmen Raymond Bell and "Germs" (a severe mysophobe) to dispose of Hagen, whom Daggett decides is no longer of any need for them (and who will likely testify against Daggett if his Renuyu supply is cut off and his disfigurement revealed). When asked how they will find Hagen, who was apparently a master of disguise even before his addiction to Renuyu, Daggett says that Hagen can be expected to come to them as soon as his supply of Renuyu runs out. True enough, Hagen breaks into Daggett Laboratories and immediately slathers the chemical on his face. When Bell and Germs catch him, Hagen fails to pass himself off as Bruce Wayne. A fight ensues until Bell and Germs subdue Hagen and pour an entire vat of Renuyu down his throat before placing him inside his car and leaving him for dead. Once they leave, however, Hagen lets out a dull groan as his body begins to mutate. Turning up Bell's name as one of Daggett's henchman and a likely lead, Batman pursues him in the Batwing and lures him away from the city by hacking into Bell's stolen police radio and fooling him into thinking the police are searching for him. Outside the motorway, Batman forces him off the road, dumping his car to the river and dangling him high up in the sky by a mechanical arm from the Batwing. Batman demands to know who Fox was meeting. Though Bell acknowledges that it wasn't Bruce Wayne, he faints before he can reveal who it was. Police helicopters arrive and demand that Batman hand Bell over. Batman drops Bell into a swimming pool, which awakens him, and the police arrest him. Meanwhile, Bruce sneaks into Fox's room in the hospital through the window to clear his name, but Fox, visibly frightened, summons the police guarding his door and Bruce is arrested. Teddy Lupus, Hagen's stunt double and best friend (also the only other man who knows about his condition), finds Hagen's car in an alley. Approaching, he puts his hand on Hagen's shoulder, only to realize it has a consistency like that of clay. Hagen rises and looks into the rear-view mirror. Seeing that he has become a living golem of clay, he screams in horror.
==Continuity==
*Clayface does not appear again until "Mudslide", when his body's cellular integrity is found to be decaying.
==Background information==
===Home video releases===
*Batman: The Animated Series, Volume One (DVD)
*Batman: The Complete Animated Series (DVD)
*Batman: The Complete Animated Series (Blu-ray)
*Batman: Kids TV Favourites (DVD)
===Production notes===
*Many fans and critics have praised the episode for its dark tone. Bruce Timm and Paul Dini were reportedly so pleased with the episode that they preferred to have it stand alone, and so did not bring Clayface back as a character for a very long time. Similarly, "Heart of Ice" stood alone as the only episode featuring Mr. Freeze for a full season, until "Deep Freeze".
===Production inconsistencies===
*When Bell is first shown at the "meeting" of Fox and "Wayne", he isn't wearing his headphones, but in the first close-up of him right after Fox is pinned down and knocked unconscious, he suddenly has them on.
*When Bell pours the vat of Renuyu down Hagen's throat, Hagen is still able to yell, "No! Don't!" clearly, even though he should be gagging. Also, when Bell makes it clear that he intends to force-feed him the canister, Hagen does not close his mouth, and instead appears to swallow it willingly.
*It is stated that Hagen's disfigurement from the car accident was a secret from the public thanks to the Renuyu formula, yet in his trailer, newspaper cuttings mentioning Hagen's disfigurement are seen hanging from his mirror. If this news made it to the papers, it seems unlikely Hagen would have been able to explain how his face was repaired so quickly, as he later claims that plastic surgery would have taken a good few years to cure him.
*Upon Germs and Bell's discovery of Hagen in the laboratory, they are both armed with pistols, but afterwards, Bell's gun vanishes, and Germs' weapon changes from a pistol to a rifle.
*After using up the Renuyu cream, Hagen declares the jar is empty and flings it at the window. However, after he leaves, Teddy looks at the floor, and it is clearly seen that there is still some cream left in it, although it is possible that it is too little and could be considered as good as none left.
*Daggett orders Bell and Germs to kill Hagen, yet they do this by force-feeding an entire canister of the Renuyu formula down Hagen's throat and leaving Hagen's dying body in full open view. This would very likely lead to Daggett's arrest and conviction if the police found Hagen's body and performed an autopsy, leaving it unclear why Germs and Bell did this rather than kill Hagen outright or take his body to a safer place.
*When Daggett asks Bell about the man he hired, Germs takes off his headphones when he doesn't respond. Daggett says, "Now then...", and Bell answers him, even though he obviously didn't hear the question (although it is possible that Bell was deliberately ignoring him).
===Trivia===
*First Appearances: Clayface, Lucius Fox, and Roland Daggett.
*According to Batman's all points bulletin while on the lookout for him, Raymond Bell is 5'10, 170 lbs, and about 35 years old.
*This episode has some similarities to the two-parter episode "Two-Face":
**An origin story centered around a public figure with a troubling secret (Matt Hagen with his facial condition and Harvey Dent with his "Big Bad Harv" persona).
**Before his transformation, the main villain's secret is kept by a powerful criminal who could easily destroy him (Roland Daggett supplies Hagen with Renuyu to restore his face, while Rupert Thorne keeps the file with the incriminating information against Dent).
**Part I ends with the main villain looking into a mirror and screaming in horror upon seeing what he has become.
**In Part II, the main villain seeks revenge against the one who turned him into a monstrous being.
**The main villain adopts a new name with the word "Face" at the end of it.
**Out of compassion, Batman offers to help the main villain find a cure for his condition.
**Batman is able to defeat the main villain in a psychological manner (overwhelming Clayface by showing him his past roles, and agitating Two-Face by mixing up his coin with others).
*The title is a pun on the biblical phrase feet of clay from The Book of Daniel, 2:33-45, used to indicate a weakness or a hidden flaw in the character of a respected person: “Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image ... his feet part of iron and part of clay. ... And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.”
*The episode shares its title with an episode of the short-lived Birds of Prey TV series, which also featured Clayface.
*The Imperial Pictures lot bears a striking resemblance to the Warner Bros. Studio lot in Burbank, California.
*Over the years, there was a rumor that Max Shreck, the tertiary (later secondary) antagonist of Tim Burton's 1992 movie Batman Returns was originally meant to be featured in the episode along his company Shreck's, but he was ultimately replaced by Roland Daggett and Daggett Industries in the series. However, Bruce Timm has debunked the rumor.
*This episode has a similar subplot to the feature film Catwoman, as both stories feature a rejuvenating cream with harmful side effects, addictive properties, and some superhuman enhancement.
*This episode also has a similar subplot to Christopher Nolan's 2012 movie The Dark Knight Rises, as both stories feature Daggett, in the latter renamed John Daggett, joining forces with supervillains to take over Wayne Enterprises by unethical and illegal means, though the supervillains are Bane and Catwoman instead of Clayface. Daggett betrays Catwoman early on in the film, making him her target for revenge like in "Batgirl Returns", but he is later betrayed and killed by Bane.
*Part II was nominated for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction and Composition; it lost to Tiny Toon Adventures. "Cat Scratch Fever" was also nominated the same year for the same award.
==Voice-Cast==
Actor Role
*Kevin Conroy - Bruce Thomas Wayne/Batman
*Efrem Zimbalist Junior - Servant Alfred Pennyworth
*Ed Asner - Roland Daggett
*Ed Begley Junior - Germs and Stagehand (uncredited)
*Mari Devon - Summer Gleeson and Dispatcher (uncredited) and Fat Woman (uncredited) and Young Woman (uncredited)
*Ron Perlman - The Matthew Hagen/Clayface
*Brock Peters - Lucius Fox Senior
*Scott Valentine - Raymond Bell
*Dick Gautier - Teddy Lupus and Cop (uncredited) and Wayne's Lawyer (uncredited)
==Quotes==
Teddy: That stuff makes your face like putty. It can't be good for ya.
Hagen: It probably ain't good for me, but unless I only want to do horror pictures, it ain't bad for me either.
---------Germs: Mr. Daggett, the man's a master of disguise. He was even before he had his accident and you gave him that stuff.
---------Batman: (trying to identify Bell) I know my fist has landed on that jaw once before.
==Review==
Matt Hagen, a popular actor is addicted to a strange chemical formula developed by Roland Daggett's labs. This chemical gives him the ability to alter his facial features without makeup, keeping his looks so that his public doesn't know he was horribly disfigured in an accident years ago. But in return for the stuff, Daggett has him play 'roles' that aren't entirely legal. After a disagreement, Hagen is doused in the formula, becoming the deadly shape-shifter, Clayface. Voices
*Kevin Conroy as Batman / Bruce Wayne
*Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Alfred Pennyworth
*Ed Asner as Roland Daggett
*Ed Begley Jr. as Germs
*Mari Devon as Summer Gleeson
*Dick Gautier as Teddy
*Ron Perlman as Matt Hagen / Clayface
*Brock Peters as Lucius Fox
*Scott Valentine as Bell
An poorer first part of Clayface's origin is made up for in the second episode. The main highlight of this episode is Batman's interrogation of Raymond Bell in the Batwing. Although the animation is not extremely well done, it is the best Batman interrogation scene ever.
This episode also brings Clayface's origin to new levels, with Hagen being a disfigured movie actor who is the victim of thugs rather than a pretty boy jumping into a mystical pool in the comics. This Clayface is worthy of the Batman rogues gallery.
Category:A To Z
Category:Batman - The Animated Series episodes