Batman is hunted by Stalker, who breaks into a museum in order to lure Terry into a trap. Batman's first encounter with Stalker ends when Stalker throws a smoke bomb at him. Stalker later catches up to Terry while he is with Matt, his little brother, at Cheezy Dan's. Terry leaves his brother with Max and takes off running. He makes his way on to the subway but Stalker finds him there.
Terry evades Stalker and makes his way back to Cheezy Dan's. He finds Max but his brother is missing. It isn't until after he talks to Bruce that Terry discovers that his clothes were covered with a substance (from the smoke bomb that Stalker threw at him earlier in the episode) that is hard to detect but that helped him to track Terry.
Batman tracks down Stalker who has just finished telling Matt his origin story. Batman and Stalker fight. Stalker starts to hallucinate and imagines that Batman is the great cat who almost killed him earlier in his life. Stalker runs in fear and is hit by a train.
Carl Lumbly voiced the part of Stalker. This was not the first character he voiced for a DCAU show, nor was it the last. He is best known within the DCAU for being the voice of Martian Manhunter in Justice League and JLU.
The last time I watched this episode was a little over 10 years ago. I didn't have any strong recollections of how it ended. I wasn't terribly impressed by the ending this time around but there were other things that I really liked about it. The animation was very crisp. The choice of colors made it incredibly visceral.
I especially liked the part where Stalker told Matt his origin story. I was surprised by how violent it was. The scene where Stalker has surgery looked like the sort of thing that could frighten a young child. Much of the operation was shown in silhouette but it was pretty clear that Stalker was in pain and fully conscious for the surgery.
Stalker's sudden fright and his demise seemed to come out of nowhere. I also wasn't terribly impressed with his reason for hunting Batman. It didn't give him enough to make him seem real to me. I get the impression that on one level he is supposed to be seen as noble but I didn't feel it.
I watched this episode just after watching Dial M for Monkey: Huntor. In both episodes the hero is being hunted by someone who they do not know but who seems to have the upper hand, at least in the beginning.
The plot of this episode also reminds me of an episode of Samurai Jack (2.09 - Jack and the Hunters) although it precedes Samurai Jack by a few years. I've seen the Samurai Jack episode multiple times and view it as better than this one.
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