Gotham Zoo guard John Hamner is walking his dog, when suddenly a wolf-like creature attacks him. Batman arrives and saves Hamner, but the wolf-man gets away.
At the police department, Batman reports to Commissioner Gordon about a "mugger in a werewolf mask." All Gordon can find in the files is that two Alaskan timber wolves were stolen from the Gotham zoo. Remembering that Hamner works for the zoo and noticing actual fur on his gloves, Batman wonders if the attacker was really wearing a mask.
At the Gotham Colosseum, currently under construction, the wolf-man breaks into a contractors' shack where Dr. Milo is waiting, but Milo is completely unfazed. The wolf-man reverts to human form, and Milo assures him that things will be over soon now that Hamner is dealt with, but the man says that Batman interfered. Furious, Milo declares Batman the new target.
The next day, a radio announcement states that former "Autumn Games" (read: Olympic) champion Anthony Romulus will double his charity donation if Batman comes to his home to receive the check. While Tony, the wolf-man from the previous night, exercises with Bruce, Tony's friend Andrea asks him about his interest in Batman. Tony replies he wants to meet "Gotham's second-best athlete." That night, Batman arrives at Romulus's house, only to be gassed unconscious as Dr. Milo makes his entrance.
While Milo and Tony wait for Batman to awaken, Tony does not look forward to killing Batman, but Milo reminds him that he is the only one who can cure Tony's condition. Tony remembers how when he was an Olympic champion, he wanted to guarantee winning a gold medal and approached Dr. Milo. Milo offered a serum containing undetectable steroids and timber wolf estrogen, which Tony gulped down. The enhancements allowed him to gain fame and success. Tony refused to share the profits with Milo, but this backfired, as the serum infected him with lycanthropy. When Tony begged Milo for a cure, Milo tricked him into drinking a formula that would turn him into a full werewolf. Milo forced Tony to follow his orders if he ever wanted the cure.
At the Gotham Zoo, Harvey Bullock interrogates Hamner and finds out Hamner was paid to leave the timber wolf cage unlocked, but does not know who hired him. Bullock arrests Hamner.
Tony transforms into the werewolf and attacks Milo, causing him to drop the antidote in fear. The werewolf knocks Milo unconscious and fights Batman, proving to be a strong opponent for the Dark Knight. However, Batman defeats the werewolf at higher ground and the werewolf falls into the river. The police take Dr. Milo into custody, but there is no trace of the werewolf.
Anthony Romulus has disappeared and his house is sold to pay off his creditors. A buyer wonders why Tony would give up all he had. At night, a wolf howls at the moon.
Tropes in this episode include:
- The Ace: Anthony Romulus started out as a successful pentathlete and philanthropist.
- Adaptation Name Change: In the comics, Tony's surname is Lupus.
- Ambiguous Ending: It's implied that Anthony Romulus went to live in the wilderness, but it's very unclear, as he's only a werewolf once a month.
- The episode is based on a comic by Neil Adams which didn't have any ambiguity, it outright revealed what happened to Romulus - he moves to Alaska and makes a living hunting and trapping, and spends his werewolf nights among the wolfpacks.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Batman seems reluctant to believe the perp is an actual werewolf at first, despite seeing weirder things in Gotham.
- Artistic License – Medicine: Believe it or not, but there are, not one, but two real medical conditions nicknamed werewolfism or werewolves diseases. But none of them turn the patient into an actual werewolf. The first of them, the Werewolf Syndrome, or Hypertrichosis, is a rare genetic disorder which cause the patient to grow abnormally long hairs in their body, including parts with normally few or no hair, such as the upper half of the face; it is sometimes theorized that Hypertrichosis may have at least partially inspired the werewolf mythos. And the other one, Clinical Lycanthropy, is an even rarer psychiatric syndrome, which is characterized by the delusion of the patient believing they can turn into an animal, sometimes (but not always) into a wolf or a dog, hence the name. However, considering that a drug who could turn a human into an actual werewolf is a major artistic licence in medicine and biology to begin with, the incorrect use of the name "Werewolfism" isn't really a problem.
- Asshole Victim: Anthony Romulus may have been turned into a werewolf against his will, but the reason he is in the mess in the first place was because he was willing to take an experimental serum to give him the edge against the other athletes rather than win the games fairly. Anthony even tries to go back on the deal with Milo, telling him it was his own efforts that won him the games. It's hard to feel too sorry for him when everything he goes through is the result of his own greed and ego.
- Big Ol' Unibrow: Anthony Romulus sports a thick, black unibrow. In real mythology, it's a telltale sign of a werewolf.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Milo is stupider than most. Not only does he keep Batman alive so Tony can kill him as the werewolf, he sorely overestimates his ability to control Tony and how resentful his pawn would be once transformed.
- Broken Ace: The fame and money made Tony intolerant of any losses at all. His desperation led to him hiring Dr. Milo to make the drug that turned him into a werewolf. And that was before he started becoming a werewolf. Afterwards, his self-confident and reputable self is but a persona to hide how Dr. Milo has reduced him to a desperate soul.
- Downer Ending: Not often discussed, but this episode may well have the grimmest ending in all of BTAS: Romulus never returns to normal (and either apparently dies or abandons his old life to live in the wilderness), while Milo gets off scot-free. Batman himself doesn't do much more than survive a fight against the Werewolf. To add insult to injury, it's implied nobody (aside from Milo) ever learns the truth about Anthony's connection to the werewolf.
- Dramatic Irony: The episode ends with the realtor selling Anthony Romulus's mansion to some buyers how Anthony just upped and left town. One of the buyers wonders why anyone would give it all up, his fame, his money, and his home. The audience knows better: he lost it all due to circumstances. In fact, if he had his way, he would've gladly kept his ill-begotten riches.
- Generally, it's strongly implied that nobody ever knows the truth that the strong, confident Anthony Romulus and the ruthless, vicious werewolf were connected.
- The End... Or Is It?: At the end, after Batman has defeated the werewolf, we see a wolf howling at the moon. Whether it's Romulus in his werewolf form or just a normal wolf is never answered, though Bullock acknowledges the possibility that the werewolf could still be out there.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Romulus isn't a saint, his arrogance and willingness to cheat at sports will say as much. But after drugging Batman and setting him up to be killed by the werewolf, he soberly commentates to Milo about how the whole ordeal has left him feeling unclean.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: The dog being walked by the guard at the beginning perks its ears up and starts growling at something that the guard can't see.
- Evil Is Not a Toy:
- The only call which could have been less smart than hiring a shady scientist who'd previously created an extremely infectious toxin in Gotham's animal population in order to make his boss rich by distributing the cure to make you stronger would have been to throw him out once he wasn't needed anymore. Surprisingly, said scientist isn't exactly in a forgiving mood when he actually turns out to be needed once more.
- Said scientist gets in on the act as well, given that he decides that he needs to see the werewolf in action against Batman, and stays in the same tiny building as the man who's busy transforming into said uncontrollable monster.Tony: You fool, there's no telling what the werewolf might do!
Dr. Milo: Ask me if I care.
- Heroic Build: Anthony Romulus, who is an Olympic athlete, and one who juices at that.
- Heroic Bystander: A guy on a walk with his wife sees Batman fighting the werewolf and immediately goes to call 911.
- Karma Houdini: Milo is one, for now, boasting that the police don't have anything as they take him away. Seeing as he would later reappear in Justice League Unlimited as a member of Project Cadmus, it seems they really weren't able to pin anything on him.
- It becomes a Karma Houdini Warranty in the Justice League Unlimited episode in which he frees Doomsday... who kills Milo offscreen right after being freed.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Harvey Bullock interrogates Hamner by cornering him against a wolf cage.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Anthony Romulus is clearly an Olympic track-and-field star, though Dr. Milo refers to him wanting steroids to win at the "Autumn Games."
- Meaningful Name: "Romulus" was the mythic founder of Rome, who along with his brother, was supposedly raised by a she-wolf.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Apparently steroids made from wolf estrogen can turn you into one. Oh, and Milo seems to refer to "werewolfism" as though it's a widely-known condition in the DCAU, though everyone else (most notably Batman) is pretty skeptical of the fact that they’re dealing with a werewolf. For example:Dr. Milo: What you're suffering from is an early stage of lycanthropy, more commonly known as werewolfism; for that I have no treatment. However, advanced werewolfism can be cured.
- Phlegmings: The werewolf is almost constantly drooling and snarling.
- The Snark Knight: Batman seems snarkier than usual in this episode, referring to the werewolf as "Hairy" and "Shaggy."
- Super Serum: Dr. Milo creates a steroid derivative based on wolf estrogen that's untraceable in drug tests, but has the unfortunate (and intentional) side effect of eventually turning its user into a werewolf.
- Tragic Monster: Tony has no control over his animal form and clearly resents it.
- Trapped in Villainy: It's clear that Tony wants nothing to do with being Milo's attack dog nor is he very keen on murdering people on his orders, but Milo's the only one who has the cure for his condition so there's really no choice if he wants his life back.
- The Unfettered: Tony did whatever it took to win and it cost him everything.
- Too Dumb to Live: Dr. Milo refuses to just cure Romulus near the end, wanting to use the werewolf to kill Batman, even after being warned that the werewolf is unpredictable. Sure enough, the werewolf immediately tries to kill Milo once the transformation finishes.
- Work Out Fanservice:
- Romulus is a pumped man who sometimes lifts weights while shirtless.
- Several women in tights or tank tops are shown stretching, lifting weights, or riding exercise bikes in a gym where Romulus is working out.
