- Title: Batman: The Animated Series – If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?
- wiki: link
For Throwback Thursday we look back at one of my favorite episodes of Batman: The Animated Series. While the Joker was appeared in more than two-dozen episodes (and a couple of movies), another of Batman’s most notable adversaries was give far-less screentime. “If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?” offers us the origins of the Riddler (John Glover). After software designer Edward Nygma is screwed out of his proceeds from the best-selling video game he created, the man disappears only to pop-up later as a super-villain taking advantage of the game’s popularity to attack Daniel Mockridge (Gary Frank) using both riddles and the theme park created from the game as a weapon against his former boss.
Although its video game set-up is a bit odd, “If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?” provides all the trappings of a classic Riddler episode complete with riddles and puzzles left for Batman (Kevin Conroy) and Robin (Loren Lester) to solve. Glover is well-cast in the roll, and the look and feel of the villain puts an unique spin on the character while still staying true to the printed page. The episode is also memorable because the villain actually out-thinks the Dark Knight Detective more than once, even escaping justice in the end. I’m not sure why we got so few Riddler episodes, especially since the ones created for the series are so damn good.
