Batman Caped Crusader Review

 Like many fans, I was excited for the Batman Caped Crusader show as it was the first animated Batman show in several years and from the mind of Bruce Timm, who was one of the geniuses behind Batman: The Animated Series. Reviews have been mixed, with some people loving it while others hated it. I see valid points in both perspectives and have generally mixed feelings about the show as a whole. 


I really enjoyed that they were paying homage to Batman's early crimefighting days in the golden age comics, even referring to him as "the Bat-Man" at first, in reference to his early appearances in the comics. There were many fun references to Batman the Animated series, as well as Batman '66 and even the 1940's film serials. We saw new iterations of Clayface, Harley Quinn, Catwoman, Penguin, Gentleman Ghost, and Two-Face with some keeping the character relatively the same while others made drastic changes. One of those drastic changes was to turn the Penguin into a female character, which in my opinion, is stupid. It's unnecessary, as Batman already has countless female enemies. There is no reason for Penguin to be a woman. The other thing is, outside making the character a woman and giving her a dress at one point, there really is no distinctive change made to the character besides that. It's like they said "We know you're expecting a male character, and we're going to make the character pretty similar to the male version except make him a woman for literally no reason other than identity politics. A much better choice would've been to introduce Fish Mooney from the Gotham TV show to this universe and even bring back Jada Pinkett Smith to voice her. Another possibility would be to introduce Lola Lasagna, originally played by Ethel Merman on the 60's Batman show, and reimagine her as a mafia boss owner of an Italian restaurant or something. 

Clayface, however, was interesting. I like how they made this version similar to Boris Karloff, whom the original Clayface, Basil Karlo, was partially based on. They made him spooky, giving callbacks to classic horror films in the process, while also paying tribute to his first appearance in the comics. Harley was interesting as she was reimagined how she might've appeared in the golden age. While it was intriguing how she was portrayed in her criminal persona, her being an Asian lesbian had absolutely nothing to do with her being a criminal, so what was the point of making her an Asian lesbian? 

I did like the King Tut cameo in her episode though, as well as the many BTAS references. Catwoman was done really well, harkening back to her early golden and silver age stories. Gentleman Ghost and Two-Face were changed significantly, but still kept elements of their original versions. Two-Face got scarred on the right side of his face instead of the left and he wasn't that likeable as Harvey Dent. 

This show also introduced Nocturna and Onomatopoeia to Batman animation, with Nocturna taking on more of a Wednesday Addams vibe, but was still interesting. The thing that didn't really make sense was making this a period piece set in the 1940's but also having "diversity for diversity's sake". Commissioner Gordon had to be black, along with Barbara Gordon, black female leading actresses, other black cops and people of influence, Asian doctors. No people of ethnic minority status would have had such high-profile jobs back in the 1940's. And Harley kissing another woman in public (disregarding the morality debate about it)  would have raised eyebrows in the 1940's to say the least. Fictional shows should still be grounded in historical reality and acting as though no prejudice exists is ridiculous. Barbara Gordon shouldn't be an adult yet either, since Batman is just starting out and all the Robins are still kids. I didn't understand why Bruce refers to Alfred as "Pennyworth" until the final episode. I did like the nods to other DC characters though, foreshadowing the possible origins of both Plastic Man and the Spectre. The Joker tease was interesting to and it makes me wonder if he'll get connected with Harley. To me, it seems like if they're gonna stick with golden age Batman, they should stick with it all the way. Don't change characters unnecessarily or do things that are inaccurate for the time period. I have mixed feelings about season 2. It could be good, but it likely could be worse. 

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