The WB has been airing a brand new Batman animated series, aptly titled The Batman, done by an all-new creative team with new designs, voice actors, and a brand new continuity. I was excited to see a fresh take on the property, and so far I haven’t been disappointed.
Setup: The series takes place during year three of Batman’s career, with Bruce in his mid-twenties and not quite the stick-in-the-mud he’ll be later on in his life (in other words, he occasionally cracks a joke or smiles.) The public and the police are just becoming aware that The Batman really exists. The psychos are all starting to come out of the woodwork as well.
Art: The art style works well for the show. There are similarities to the Bruce Timm style, but it is closer in look to The Jackie Chan Adventures, as it is done by the same people. The movement is very fast and fluid and the character styles fairly angular. I’m still adjusting to seeing Bats with a pointed chin. Otherwise, Batman looks similar to the old animated series, though he’s really the only one that does. He does have what look like clawed gloves, as well as a longer cape, which they are doing some wonderful things with.
Voice: For having heard Batman voiced by the same actor (the wonderful Kevin Conroy) for over 10 years, I took to Rino Romano pretty fast. His Bruce Wayne voice is stronger and used more often than his gravely Batman voice, but he does have a good distinction between the two. The show hasn’t dealt with the Bruce/Bats dominant identity issue yet, but so far, it doesn’t seem that he necessarily considers Bruce to be just a persona.
There have been four episodes aired so far, each introducing a different villain:
The Bat In The Belfry: I thought it was interesting that they started with the heaviest hitter in the Rogues Gallery, the Joker. The character design is radically different from anything done before; Joker has spiky dreads, wears a straight jacket with the sleeves torn off, and no shoes. Kevin Michael Richardson does a great job with the voice, from very deep and creepy to Mark Hamill-style screeching. And it was good to see the Joker be a flat out raving lunatic. It seems sometimes the old animated series softened up that side of him. Interestingly, the Joker here is proficient at fighting, albeit he resembles a giant monkey when he does.
Also of note, it was revealed that one of the cops investigating Batman is an old (basketball?) friend of Bruce’s, and his female partner looks like a potential love interest for Bruce.
The Call Of The Cobblepot: I’ve never really liked the Penguin as a character, but at least they gave him something of a background: he’s from a wealthy family that Alfred’s uncle previously worked for that fell into poverty. Oswald also had an interesting pair of female ninjas in Kabuki masks he picked up in Asia and a rather dangerous beach ball-style of fighting. Alfred manages to almost get himself killed in the second episode.
Traction: I was disappointed when I heard that Bane was going to be in this series. He’s perhaps the most boring villain ever, character-wise. Luckily, other than a cool new character design, they pretty much left him alone to smash things and instead focused on the relationship between Alfred and Bruce, and the support the butler provides.
There was also a stunning visual sequence of young Bruce sitting in a police station, a too-big police cap covering his eyes, tears streaming down his face, sliding the remaining pearls on his mothers’ necklace along the string on by one, while faceless cops passed by. The brilliance of that moment made up for the blatant insertion of Bruce in a mecha batsuit clearly designed to be a part of the toy line.
The Cat And The Bat: I was waiting for the appearance of Catwoman before I formed a set opinion of the show, and I both really liked and disliked this episode. Catwoman had an interesting makeover with goggles pulled from the current comic book style, a cowlneck catsuit, and red accents on her gloves and boots. Her chemistry with Batman was fabulous, probably the best I’ve seen on the small screen. The best defining moment was when she had the chance to escape with the loot, and instead smashed it over the head of the thug attacking Batman. That always seems to be the decision that classifies where she stands, and I was surprised to see her pick Batman so early on.
On the other hand, Selina Kyle was a bit annoying. She used far too many cat puns, and Gina Gershon vamped it up too much. She spent what seemed like half the show trying to figure out how the remote on Batman’s utility belt worked (hee hee, she stole his belt) And they gave her blue eyes for some unknown reason. She pretty much looks like Aeon Flux with her hair down. She seems to be well off but has no background so far. Hopefully in a future episode, her and Bruce will meet without the masks.
Verdict: Overall, I’m really enjoying the show. There is some obvious toy marketing worked in, and the world is still being established, but it is a nice blend of old and new, and the people working on it seem to have an interest in making something more than just another thrown-together dumbed down kids show. I definitely recommend checking it out, and I can’t wait to see where it goes. The official website has screencaps from the first three episodes and a poor-quality version of the opening, for those interested.