I was lucky enough to watch all 10 episodes of Batman: Caped Crusader sent to me by Amazon, so I’m here to talk about it! If you don’t know what this is, it’s a new animated series developed by Bruce Timm, and it’s very much a throwback to a show like Batman: The Animated Series. It has a similar art style, has lots of gothic and pulpy elements with an art deco aesthetic that sticks the show in this vaguely 30s-40s look, reflecting on the period in which Batman first came to be as a character back in issue 27 of Detective Comics, even the Batsuit feels closer to that original look than anything else.
However, it must be known that this isn’t any kind of continuation of the classic animated series or any of the other DC animated shows that followed. It is very much doing it own thing, not only taking us back to the very early days of Batman’s crime-fighting career, but also in that brings in some different takes on classic characters. One revealed a couple days ago was the Penguin being gender-swapped, voiced by Minnie Driver. Although, there honestly isn’t much else to talk about because she only appears for a single episode, and doesn’t really do a whole lot.
The formatting of this series is very much a villain of the week style, with elements playing out in the background that build up over the course of the 10 episodes. This story involves Harvey Dent, who is running for mayor, and the various deals, corruption, and backdoor politics that he finds himself involved with. And I can imagine anyone who knows anything about Batman lore would be able to guess exactly where this is heading, and I will say without hesitation that your guess is only partially correct.
My two favorite episodes were both written by Ed Brubaker, and curiously enough, both centered on the Gotham City Police Department, with Batman taking a more supporting role in the process. One of those episodes involve the police trying to catch Batman by setting up fake crimes to trap him, and the other involves Gordon trying to protect Dent. There’s more to these episodes, but I’d rather not spoil it for y’all. The episodes ranged from decent to great, with only a few standouts to me. It does feel like that some of these new takes don’t get the necessary room to breathe, so their impact is hampered as a result.
If there is a season two, I hope they use that as an opportunity to flesh out some of these supporting players a bit more, particularly for the villains. I also hope the show is able to do more to really push a vision that is unique to itself. I feel like this is being advertised, or at least perceived as, a much darker, gritty version of Batman: The Animated Series, when it’s about as equally mature. I don’t recall much strong language or any excessive blood or hints of sexuality. If it is meant to be like an adult version of that old show, I’m not sure if it fits that bill, but I also don’t mind that it isn’t.
The voice work is solid. The cast is made up of people that aren’t super A-list or immediately recognizable, everyone fits their role well, and they do a good job in giving each character a strong personality. But I do have to go into the voice behind Batman, which is Hamish Linklater, and I think he is legitimately perfect here, especially following the footsteps of the late, great Kevin Conroy. In fact, when Batman first started speaking, I was confused because it sounded so much like Conroy, but as I listened more closely – and in doing some research – I did see that it was Linklater. And it’s not like he’s doing an impression, but his cadence and rhythm is eerily close to what Conroy did, and I was blown away by it. I would be more than happy to have him voice the character as regularly as Conroy did moving forward.
Overall, I think Batman: Caped Crusader is a pretty good show, and I think it has the potential to be a great show if it follows through on some of the stuff they setup with season one with some of Batman’s rogues gallery, and doing a better job at balancing the serialized and episodic storytelling elements. The designs are great, the animation is mostly very good, though occasionally stiff, but it is nice to see that there is still a strong commitment to 2D animation with a lot of these superhero properties. The only real complaint I have with the show is that the music is very bland, and the opening is generic as hell. It’s nowhere near as cool as the Batman: The Animated Series opening, and I know Shirley Walker is a hard act to follow, but I know it could have been much better. But this is me being nitpick-y. For the most part, the show takes a lot of the best elements from the works of Bruce Timm, and executive producers, Matt Reeves and J.J. Abrams. I think Batman fans will enjoy this, especially for ones who grew up with the old animated series, and I would be more than happy to see a second season get announced.
Batman: Caped Crusader will stream exclusively on Amazon Prime Video on August 1st.
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