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The blog post of the review of The Batman.

Although I was initially quite scared by the prospect of a new Batman series, seeing a quick teaser for The Batman at this year's San Diego Comic Con convinced me that it might not be all together awful, and in fact might be pretty good. I've now seen two episodes, and I'm starting to think it's the latter, although there are still quite a few characters to be revealed. Yep, it's a twofer review Sunday...read on for my full review of the show so far.

The general idea behind The Batman is that it's a younger version of the character we all know and love. Much younger, in fact. While the show doesn't bother with a straight-up origin story, the show picks up only a little while after Bruce has donned the cape and cowl for the first time. We see the police department struggling to deal with the rumors of this thing known as "the batman", and it's clear that Batman hasn't quite adjusted to his new life just yet. Actually, one of the better parts of this series is that because Bruce is comparatively so young (I'd put him in his early thirties), Alfred plays a pretty big part in his life. At this point there's nothing suggesting the show's going to use Alfred's background in her majesty's service (which was established in both the comics and previous series), but then, there's a lot of Batman lore this series has done away with altogether, and that's hardly the biggest part of it.

No, what's really the biggest surprise is that this is a 100% original series, with very few ties to the existing continuity. While there are two cops who are recurring characters, their names aren't Bullock and Montoya, but rather Bennett and Yin. There's no Commissioner Gordon, the mayor's known as Mayor Grange (and voiced by Adam West...what's up with him playing mayors lately?), and don't bother looking for Harvey Dent, he's nowhere to be found.

Along with this break from continuity, is the complete break in all ways from the legacy of the previous Batman animated series. That's actually quite a large legacy, as former B:TAS staffers have gone on to work on (or even create in many cases), Superman: TAS, Batman Beyond, Justice League, Static Shock, The Zeta Project, X-Men: Evolution, Teen Titans and even such oddities as the Clerks and Ozzy & Drix series. But none of these alumni have anything to do with this series, and that includes the extremely talented cast of voiceover actors (with one minor exception -- but he's playing an entirely different character...see below for details). Seeing an animated Batman without Kevin Conroy's voice behind it feels just plain weird, no matter how young he's supposed to be. The same goes for Alfred (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) and the Joker (Mark Hamill).

Instead of the prolific Bruce Timm (who worked on almost every one of the shows I mentioned above), the character design is primarily by Jeff Matsuda, an artist that's dabbled in both animation and comics, and is perhaps best known as the creator of Jackie Chan Adventures (although I was familiar with his work from the Buffy comics). Matsuda's a good choice for character design for a new, younger Batman, because he brings the kind of bold look a series like this desperately needs, while at the same time retaining that anime look that all the kids go crazy for these days. The result is certainly unique. While the show isn't as anime-crazed as the Teen Titans series, it is heavily influenced by that style. Fortunately the animation is of a higher grade than most anime, and while there are action lines a' plenty, you won't find people standing perfectly still for extended periods of time with only their mouths moving.

Matsuda's take on the Joker and Penguin from the first two episodes (see images on this page) are both pretty extreme. The Joker is some kind of rastafarian freakshow nutjob in a straight jacket (actually, he looks more like the Creeper than the Joker), while the Penguin is...well I'm not quite sure what exactly he's supposed to be. But I like the look nonetheless. Both are somewhat ludicrously skilled in martial arts, and it's especially weird to see the portly Oswald Cobblepot doing kung fu-style flips, but I was willing to take it all in stride as part of the series' style.

Only two episodes have aired so far, and according to the IMDB there are still quite a few members of Batman's rogues gallery to be unveiled, including Scarface (voiced by Dan Castellaneta), The Riddler (Robert Englund), Catwoman (Gina Gershon) and even Mr. Freeze (who may turn out to be the best cast character on the show, as none other than Clancy Brown is portraying him).

I'm not sure how long this series is going to hold my attention, because while it is good, it has yet to establish itself as the sort of high-grade entertainment shown by its predecessors (or for that matter, Justice League Unlimited, which is my favorite of the current crop by far). But we'll see. The good news is that it's an original take on the character, with a unique look. The better news is that the creators have wisely avoided making Batman more Spider-Man like by putting Bruce in college and giving him some wacky sidekicks. The bad news, is simply that the writing has yet to really establish itself. But it's been good enough to keep me so far, and we'll see how it turns out at the end of the season.

Posted by jason at September 19, 2004 04:41 PM | TrackBack | Read more: Comics , Reviews , T.V.