Season Review: Batman: Caped Crusader Season One

Overview:

75 years of Batman stories have helped even the most casual of comic book fans become well-acquainted with Gotham City and the Dark Knight. Batman: Caped Crusader offers a creative take on Gotham and its residents that’s both familiar and ambitiously different. This new series is set in the 1940s during the infancy of Batman’s tenure when he’s only two weeks into his crime-fighting career. Meanwhile, Gotham City enters into a newfound renaissance of costumed crime, chaos, and courage.

Our Take:

Batman is one of the most popular superheroes and his countless interpretations have covered tremendous ground, especially when it comes to his animated adaptations. Batman has come in many diverse shapes and sizes, the likes of which all use this caped cipher to demonstrate different ideas and themes, whether it’s Batman: The Animated Series, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, The Batman, Beware the Batman, or even Batman Ninja. Bruce Timm’s Batman: The Animated Series is often regarded as the crown jewel of animated Batman storytelling that helped set the dark superhero up for mainstream success. Accordingly, there were extremely high expectations when it was announced that Bruce Timm would be developing and executive producing a new animated Batman series, this time alongside Matt Reeves, J.J. Abrams, and Ed Brubaker. 

Batman: Caped Crusader, in many ways, feels like the long-awaited spiritual successor to Batman: The Animated Series. It immerses the audience in a nihilistic world of crime that threatens to swallow society whole. However, it’s also so much more than this and it zigs in many places where Batman: The Animated Series zags. Batman: Caped Crusader feels indebted to what Timm helped establish in Batman: The Animated Series, but it’s also a bold evolution of that iconic series that properly reimagines this archetypal superhero by taking him back to the past so that he can feel fresh for the future. It’s not just more gristle for the superhero mill. Batman: Caped Crusader is really quite special and it should be mandatory viewing for anyone who’s a fan of not just Batman and superheroes, but smart, layered detective noir storytelling.

One of Batman: Caped Crusader’s greatest assets is that it’s less interested in jumping through the rote hoops that often concern other modern superhero projects – animated or otherwise. It’s a series that’s extremely comfortable in its own skin and to do its own thing, even if this inevitably alienates many DC fans that are used to flashier displays of caped heroics. The decision to set the series in the ‘40s is equally bold, albeit a choice that beautifully reflects the series’ pulpy themes and helps them blossom. It almost feels like Batman as done by EC Comics, rather than DC Comics. To this point, Ed Brubaker’s influence as Batman: Caped Crusader’s head writer is abundantly clear. The gritty, hard-boiled art deco noir sensibilities are painfully palpable from the show’s first frame. He’s the perfect partner for Timm and Reeves when it comes to this type of universe. More than anything else, Batman: Caped Crusader conveys that Gotham is a melting pot of crime that’s on the verge of boiling over.

Furthermore, Batman: Caped Crusader boasts an immaculate art design that celebrates the series’ noir roots. Scenes are bathed in harsh shadows and cryptic lighting that perfectly sell the idea that everyone has secrets that they want to hide and that there’s a powerful duality to heroes, villains, and everyone in between. Frederik Wiedmann’s grandiose and articulate musical score is also pitch perfect. It beautifully amplifies the series’ hardened, methodical storytelling. This music really ties everything together and helps Batman: Caped Crusader stick the landing, just like the music did in Batman: The Animated Series.

Batman: Caped Crusader displays a lot of enthusiasm for how it reinvents many classic Batman rogues. There are exciting, new interpretations of popular villains, including Catwoman, Two-Face, Harley Quinn, a gender-swapped Penguin, and Clayface (as well as deeper cuts like Nocturna, Firebug, and Gentleman Ghost). All these characters uniquely shine, but Clayface in particular is excellent and a stark contrast to his more recent portrayals in Harley Quinn and Suicide Squad Isekai. If Clayface is destined to be in Reeves’ The Batman Part II, then his disturbing portrayal in Batman: Caped Crusader may function as a proper tease to what’s in store for him in the cinematic sequel. His episode is easily one of the season’s strongest entries. Harley Quinn’s reinterpretation is also extremely effective and one of the more unsettling takes on the character. Her methods are reminiscent of Jigsaw’s twisted psychological torture from Saw. Harvey Dent is frequently a popular presence in Batman media, yet his tragic fate and corruption really serves as the season’s backbone. Dent’s plight becomes the central serialized story that helps connect the season’s dots. The decision to cast Diedrich Bader as the conflicted district attorney is also a meta masterstroke that’s particularly inspired casting.

Batman: Caped Crusader’s unique take on this corner of the DC Universe is effectively complemented by the top tier voice cast. Caped Crusader assembles some excellent talent here between Christina Ricci, Jamie Chung, Haley Joel Osment, Mckenna Grace, and Minnie Driver, but they all give captivating and creative character-driven performances. On top of everything else, Hamish Linklater makes for an excellent Batman who confidently holds his own among the accomplished annals of past Batman voice actors like Diedrich Bader, Will Arnett, and Troy Baker. Linklater is typically an excellent performer, so his satisfying take on the Dark Knight should come as no surprise, but it’s comforting to see that he’s doing more here than just a gruff, disaffected voice. Linklater doesn’t necessarily reach the heights of Kevin Conroy’s best Batman moments, but he still makes sure that the character is layered and weighed in heavy emotion. He’s a scary, mean motherfucked. Linklater really gets lost in the role and his performance is another one of Batman: Caped Crusader’s highlights. He understands the assignment and what’s required of not just Batman, but this version of Batman.

Batman: Caped Crusader is fresh and reinvigorating. However, one way in which it feels slightly regressive is that many of its episodes are steeped in villainous origin stories, rather than being set in a world that’s already fleshed out and has a more established rogues’ gallery. That being said, this is a minor quibble when the origin stories in question are largely original takes that haven’t been seen before, as opposed to a version of Batman that just plays the hits. Batman: Caped Crusader accomplishes quite a bit in these ten episodes and it’s exciting to consider what’s possible in its second season (an iconic Batman villain is perfectly teased during the season’s final moments). Each episode has a distinct energy and it’s truly unfortunate that the television landscape has changed so much in the past three decades that this show’s first season can’t be twice or three times as long. It’s easy to forget that Batman: The Animated Series’ first season was a staggering 65 episodes. Batman: Caped Crusader would truly benefit from a runway of this length and the biggest misgiving of a ten-episode season is that it’s ultimately forced to restrict itself to only ten stories. Batman: Caped Crusader is a fresh, fun addition to the Dark Knight’s dense animated universe that has all the right ingredients and enthusiasm to become an evergreen hit. 

All episodes of ‘Batman: Caped Crusader’ premiere on August 1st on Amazon Prime Video