It’s hard to review Batman: Caped Crusader for me because, honestly, a new Batman animated series by Bruce Timm, James Tucker, Matt Reeves, Ed Brubaker, and J.J. Abrams is a no-brainer. Just from Bruce Timm, I was excited to hear him going back to Batman and working on something similar but different. Batman: The Animated Series 30 years ago always had a retro feel that was sophisticated for an animated superhero cartoon for general audiences at the time. Since it’s probably the most iconic distillation of the concept of Batman in the modern era through all forms, now with this, while the show feels similar, it’s different. This show isn’t doing just a “year one” version of Batman, something that is honestly getting a bit overdone. This series is doing a take on the actual first year of Batman, which was first published in 1939. Here we have a series set in a late 30s/early 40s world. Batman has a look based on his original appearance with the wide, long Batman ears and gloves on his hands. The show takes the story, visual aesthetic, and music cues from Noir and Crime films of that era.
Here we have Hamish Linklater voicing Bruce Wayne/Batman. He had the challenging task of voicing a character after the late Kevin Conroy, who has voiced the character in B:TAS, the Arkham Games, and other animated films over the years. His voice work with the character inspired Christian Bale’s take and is a high bar to cross. Linklater does very well with doing a voice, especially Batman, which reminds you of Conroy but is his own. Its familiarity in tone eases you into this world with a familiar look but a different feel in tone and story. His Batman is more silent and curt in how he talks to people, even Alfred (Jason Watkins). He’s always focused on the mission, and his Bruce Wayne is more of a façade than the one we’re used to in this format. This Batman doesn’t need or want to be liked but is feared by those committing terrible crimes in his city. They can craft a solid arc for his character through the ten episodes of the season. The season’s story follows the meta look at that golden age version of the character that was very harsh in the early issues but found more of a footing and well-roundedness later on, leading up to the introduction of Robin and Joker in 1940. I don’t believe this show will jump directly into that, but there is a start, as he has others who believe in similar ethics in the corrupt Gotham City.
Besides Batman, the characters that really stole the show for me are Renee Montoya (Michelle C. Bonilla), Barbara Gordon (Krystal Joy Brown), and Harleen Quinzel (Jamie Chung). These three women characters have very clear ethical views on the city and how to serve Gotham to improve it. They end up in each other’s lives, with Barbara being friends with both, bringing Renee and Harleen together. Keeping Montoya as the one clean cop in the city working for Gordon is a nice callback, but it’s nice here how she’s one of the leads of the series versus being a recurring one in the earlier series. Barbara, not being a student or librarian but a public defender, puts her character into something completely different, for she cares that much about the system and actually rehabilitating people and getting people off who dirty police have wronged. Barbara is an excellent counterbalance to Harvey Dent (Diedrich Bader), who is portrayed here as an ambitious Prosecutor running for mayor. His ambitions, of course, get the better of him. As you know, every Harvey story leads to his tragic change. Dent’s story arc is the other main character arc besides Batman’s in terms of a change that drives the season.
The villains of the week go from creepy murder mystery with Clayface (Dan Donohue) to dealing with more mystical parts of the DC universe that Gotham or Batman has a history of dealing with. They make some exciting changes to some classic villains like Penguin to take others back to their very initial version, like Catwoman (Christina Ricci) with the green dress, finally doing Catwoman’s original look in animation. The show has some very nice little cameos and easter eggs that you have to really know some characters’ secret identities and other looks to catch. You won’t even learn them from the credits at the end. The animation is fantastic, with intelligent pacing and framing for their shots. The show’s storyboarders and directors really put a lot of thought into how each episode looks and works to slightly shift what you might expect from a Batman story that you think you know will end. The show touches nicely with lighting and other things from old Black and White films, like that strip of light going across the eyes of a character in a scene. There are some I won’t catch until a couple of re-watches later.
Batman is a pretty easy sell for many people, but even so, all the people who work on this show wanted to push the bar even higher than before. It’s a Batman show that takes what happened before, but now they don’t have to worry about children’s television censors to hamper their vision. It’s not a show that has cursing for any reason or an overuse of blood and gore. There are no unnecessary sexual elements. This show is just a great drama, a crime series about Batman set in the time of his real-life publishing origins. In a year of reinvigorated superhero animated series, Batman: Caped Crusader might be the brightest spot in all of them in a very competitive scene from sister series like My Adventures with Superman to even the competition across the street with X-Men ’97. Much like Batman himself, it worries about none of that, continues tunnel vision on its own mission, and succeeds stellarly.
Score: A+
