Season One Review
Batman: Caped Crusader premiered on August 1, 2024 on Amazon Prime Video. All 10 episodes of season one were made available on that day. For some it was a four and a half year journey ever since scant rumors from insiders about a Batman: The Animated Series sequel in the works, but for one of the central creatives of the series, Bruce Timm, it was perhaps closer to a 30 year odyssey of what could have been: an even more retro late 1930s/early 1940s Gotham City, leaning more into the noir genre and German expressionism, an aloof Batman narrowly focused on his war on crime, no sidekicks, a corrupt police force that is leery of him. Timm realized this in what is now a pilot in many ways, the 2014 DC Nation short, Batman: Strange Days which aired on Cartoon Network as part of Batman's 75th anniversary. But then Timm got his shot. Assembling a team of familiar faces in animation and comics like James Tucker and Ed Brubaker and those unfamiliar to long-time Bruce Timm fans, Caped Crusader was greenlit then a pandemic happened. Then it wasn't even going to be on Warner's very own streaming service. The dark clouds parted and the show was picked up by Amazon.
A Batman series with a loose season-long arc amid a threat of the week format is no stranger to long time DC animation fans. Past titles like Beware The Batman, Batman: The Brave and The Bold, The Batman, and Batman Beyond utilized this concept. Caped Crusader uses this format masterfully. Some characters have their own arcs, at the least through lines, as the season goes on. Our fledgling Batman goes from a grim emotionless avenger to a...slightly less grim emotionless avenger saying and doing heartless and thoughtless things like telling Barbara "I told you so" in her moment of grief to a surprising "I'm sorry." Alfred Pennyworth is less a tool in his arsenal to a needed angel on his shoulder. In particular, how it all culminates from a young traumatized Bruce appearing at his bedroom door coldly stating he will help him to Alfred broaching the error in pushing Dent after his assault and in the end, Batman thanking him. Commissioner Jim Gordon leads a police department entrenched in corruption with few honest cops while he has a less than dubious Mayor Jessop breathing down his neck for good publicity and for the capture of Batman who may or may not be an ally. Renee Montoya is one of the few detectives trusted by Gordon but faces opposition from the less than savory co-workers like Detectives Flass and Bullock who are on the take from the various mobs. Barbara Gordon is a public defender whose faith in the system and trust in others is put through the wringer. She's forced to question who she can depend on – which friends, which cops. It is a real bright spot of the series that Jim and Barbara Gordon and Renee Montoya choose to forge on against the odds and remain resolute despite some setbacks and shockers along the way. Much like the early Batman comics, the threat of organized crime casts a shadow on Gotham all-season long through the machinations of crime lord Rupert Thorne as his reach grows across the city and leaves ruin in his wake, namely in the District Attorney Harvey Dent who is the running for the next mayor who himself goes a journey of his own bending the law while claiming he stands for justice and the people without having any real empathy of his own until it's too late.
The villains of the series are a great mix of classic, tweaked, and contemporary names put into the blender and shot into 1940s Gotham. The Penguin is reimagined as Oswalda Cobblepot, the owner of the Iceberg Lounge - a riverside nightclub which she uses as a front for muscling in on Thorne's mob operations literally and figuratively. She packs heat in the form of a giant military-grade cannon evocative of classic Batman comic book giant set pieces. And she's got two idiot sons not unlike – a Ma Barker, Ma Fratelli or even Batman 1966's Ma Parker and Batman Beyond's Ma Mayhem. Other villains in Batman's rogue's gallery that get tweaked for this show include Nocturna, now a young girl in a traveling carnival who feeds on the energy of children, and Harley Quinn. Harley Quinn is arguably one of the bigger changes. This version has zero connection to the Joker and operated in Gotham as a psychiatrist to the rich elite by day and villainous vigilante by night. To complicate matters, she is friends with Barbara Gordon and has a budding romance with Renee Montoya. If that wasn't enough, the seriousness of Harleen Quinzel is more apparent in this Harley Quinn, while her more mercurial nature is with this show's Harleen. Similarly, Two-Face's scarred side is the good persona while the other is the bad one. She's also now Asian American. A more classic adaptation comes in the form of the murderous shapeshifting actor Basil Karlo/Clayface, paranormal highway robber Gentleman Ghost, and assassin Onomatopoeia. Selina Kyle / Catwoman is more of a privileged society white girl who turns to crime to survive after taking the wrong kind of inspiration from Batman. Kyle represents another side of wrong permeating through Gotham but what's an unwanted and rather benign distraction for Batman snowballs into so much of his major problems as the season progresses. Detective Flass and Bullock represent the corrupt element of the police and are essentially the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of the season; sometimes making a significant appearance, sometimes there in the background doing bad.
We've had 30 plus years with the original Harley Quinn in Batman: The Animated Series. In recent time, it feels like there's an invisible corporate push to give Harley a "legacy" separate from the eternal Batman-Joker conflict. Or more to do with some mandate to tweak Harley's origins to make her her own character not necessarily tied to Joker anymore. The waters get murky if it is animation influencing the comics or the idea coming up independently but we have seen Harley join the Bat-Family during James Tynion IV's run on the Batman comic. In animation, we've seen a more good Harley in the first iteration of DC Super Hero Girls. A villain who chooses friendship in the second DC Super Hero Girls. Harley forges her own name in her animation series. While in other cases Harley and Joker are still an item like in Suicide Squad Isekai, there seems to be a mandate to try to slightly reform Harley and make her less and less of a straight up villain. Just like Batman being reinterpreted to explore new avenues of storytelling, the same seems to apply to Harley. While not as extreme of a new avenue as a psychopathic serial killer like the Harley in Justice League: God and Monsters, Caped Crusader's Harley shares a similar detail. Neither met or were manipulated into villainy by Joker. Every choice they made in their lives were their own. They both had their own agency and still ended up as Harley Quinn. My own issue with this take on Harley is her M.O. in Caped Crusader seems more akin to the trappings of Hugo Strange and Mad Hatter – using a brilliant but crooked mind to psychoanalyze victims and truss them up in garish costumes after some form of brainwashing – rather than a core element of Harley. Then again, brainwashing and dressing victims up in garish outfits was stuff Batman: The Animated Series Joker did. We don't see this Harley personally fight Batman which is always a highlight, her unique style of fighting and agility crossed with mallets and baseball bats. On flip side, time and quantity may change my critique. Though she had three appearances this season, we only saw the villain side in action for one episode. Perhaps a rematch with Harley Quinn might quash any hesitance I have towards this latest reinterpretation.
The weak point of the series for me anyway was Onomatopoeia. He was fine as bad guy of the week, but I don't need to see him again. Despite rejiggering him into the leader of mob hitmen, he still felt too anachronistic in Caped Crusader's 1940s setting. The novelty of Onomatopoeia is relegated to him just saying the words. Granted it wouldn't have worked in a 40s setting if the SFX showed up like it did in an episode of Batman 1966, Onomatopoeia was still one note and boring without a visual effect. It felt like they were trying to convey that his way of talking was initially throwing Batman off in their fight. It's not exactly banter but he kind of got into Batman's head compared to his other fights this season but due to how brief the fight was, Batman almost instantly adapts and takes out his windpipe, and after that he's a standard baddie Batman has no problem with knocking out. In the retrospect, this episode could have better been utilized introducing Tony Zito and make him the lead of several of Thorne's hitmen and then when he pops up in "Nocturne" – there's more weight to Thorne suddenly having a hench with him.
Natalia Knight was an interesting exercise in what Batman would do with a villain that was a child. In the end, he shows her compassion instead of leaving her to die in the sunlight as part of his arc to becoming a slightly more empathetic Batman. An element I thought would have be addressed was if the rest of the carnies knew about or at least suspected Anton and Natalia were up to something since presumably in every city they visit, children go missing (but are found and don't rat out Natalia for some reason) and it stopped being a coincidence to them. Then again, the implications from Anton seem to be that they covered it up pretty well and things came to a head here in Gotham. But nah, just ends with Batman choking Waylon for info and nothing more from the point of view of the carnies.
Clayface and "...And Be A Villain" was an instant favorite and one of the best episodes and villains of the show. The episode was also a great way to honor golden age Hollywood. Roger Corman's The Pit and the Pendulum with Vincent Price and Barbara Steele. The Batman vs. Clayface sword fight straight of the comics also evoked the famous Flynn and Rathbone duel in Robin Hood. The mystery killer angle. The noir detective story angle. The Universal horror angle. Everything came together perfectly. All the while, a focus on Detective Montoya and Batman assessing each other as a potential ally. Dan Donohue gave a fantastic performance for Clayface and reflected the time period beautifully.
Gentleman Ghost and "Night Ride" was another favorite of mine. Namely because the threat is a real supernatural element challenging Batman. It wasn't always gangsters, evil scientists and supervillains in the classic comics. Loved the use of Gentleman Ghost as a contrast to everything Batman knew and also a mirror to Dent. I will always praise a Batman title that actually shows the detective work. To show this Batman refuse to entertain a supernatural origin until all other reason was exhausted was also a highlight. More so with Alfred quoting Shakespeare and Sherlock. You could even see some elements from the 70s Batman comics like Alfred getting possessed by Gentleman Ghost. It was also a welcome sight to see Papa Midnite as the guest star. Jason Blood is usually the stock occult person living in Gotham. But here it makes a lot of sense given the M.O. and backstory of Gentleman Ghost. Plus, if you know Midnite from the comics, you'll get some of the context clues in this episode. In the comics, Midnite was cursed with immortality in the 1800s. Given, Craddock's role in the American Revolution in this episode, that part of Midnite's origin holds. The fact that Craddock and Midnite knew each other was riveting. One could guess it's an ugly history between the two. It was a nice use of Lucius Fox in this episode. Coming off his first appearance blocking Montoya from talking to Bruce, we have better development of him to show his more altruistic side wanting to make a place for the not-rich to live and having a better report with Alfred. Harvey Dent's arc in this episode also makes big strides. After Craddock causes a PR snafu for Dent, we see the tell tale chinks in his psyche: the anger, the visuals of the cracked frame after he hurled the mini globe at it, and the placement of the blinds on one side of his face. I suppose the other point of Dent's presence in the episode was a parallel with Craddock. Crooked white man at the top, a scion of Gotham falling from grace, thinking only about himself, and throwing in with the enemy - Thorne being the contemporary 'King of England' I suppose.
While the tone of the show is "dark" and adult elements like death and drugs come to play in this series, it's nothing in the realm of graphic and explicit as R series like "Harley Quinn" or "Kite Man: Hell Yeah!" have come to be synonymous with. The dark is well-balanced with verbose and mature writing and storytelling. The score also accents the noir 1940s setting of the show. One of the highlights was the score that accompanies Firebug in "Night of the Hunters." The majestic cue when he sees the beautiful fire in all also conveys haunting insanity and detachment he suffers from almost suggesting we feel some sense of sympathy for this tragic flawed character used as fodder. The show was animated by two South Korean animation studios, Studio Grida and Studio IAM. As far as the final product goes, most of the time it was good. But one question that bothered me about the show was, couldn't it have looked better? With just a 10 episode season, were these two the only choice? Did they get enough time? Were these A teams, B teams, C teams, contracted to other studios? Why no Japanese animation studios like Answer Studio or TMS? While it wasn't every case, the use of 3D vehicles were still fairly evident and stuck out like a sore thumb. Another nitpick was the binge release choice. In retrospect, it felt like this show would have benefited from a weekly release. But in retrospect, it didn't matter. I took 17 days to watch the whole season and I'm sure others chose to watch it at their own pace whether be in one night or somewhere between the half a month I took rather than letting the streamer or fear of missing out dictate the pace.
With season two currently in production, we may not see it until around 2026 but did they leave us with a great tease in "Savage Night"! The Joker is coming. It was the right move to build up some anticipation for him rather than using him right off the bat. You think you've seen the rictus smiles on his victims over and over and you get so indifferent, then they bust out a new even creepier take on them. Season two definitely got a lot more interesting. Could it be a season arc of the costumed fringe supplanting organized crime. A take on Dark Knight, when in desperation, Thorne turns to someone to take out Batman like... Joker? Or with the return of Harley Quinn looming, will we see more about her backstory and connection to one Professor Jonathan Crane better known as the Scarecrow in the comics? Or will the "bad odds" remain or will Batman, the Gordons, and Montoya seek out more allies? Not necessarily sidekicks or other heroes, but will there more good people in GCPD, the government or other sectors like news media start showing up?
Aside from some personal nitpicks about villain reinterpretations, animation quality, and how the show was released, Batman: Caped Crusader is all in all another solid DC series. On the streaming side of television series, DC fans ate very well this past summer: a retro Batman show, a contemporary Superman show, a Suicide Squad anime, and a Kite Man spin off. All equally great and entertaining in different ways and variety is a good thing! Looking past all the easter eggs, the references, callbacks, some unused ideas, the staff, it's undeniable the DNA of Batman: The Animated Series curses through the veins of Batman: Caped Crusader but that's where it ends. Don't compare both series. It shouldn't be judged on if it can top Batman: The Animated Series or not. Don't go in thinking this is a sequel or a remix or whatever kind of re- you want to think of. Batman: Caped Crusader is best enjoyed as its own thing – not judged by how well it is as a successor or even a companion to that legendary 90s series. Simply put, it's a celebration of a classic take on Batman rarely explored in animation that has just begun.
Rating: 4 out of 5