Returning to Batman’s golden age brings the character new life.
We might be in a new renaissance of superhero animated series, even with all the live-action films that have seemed to reinvigorate people making new series with all these great superhero comic universes. Along with overall nostalgia for those who grew up during the last peak, it seemed to have set the stage for Bruce Timm along with Matt Reeves, the director of The Batman, and J.J. Abrams, to go back and make a new Batman animated series. This show feels like Timm, along with others who worked on the earlier show like James Tucker, able to go back and look at doing what they did before with fresher eyes and the ability to make a Batman show where you don’t have to worry about Children’s Television censors. Now, they get free reign in this new streaming age, but is it okay to go home again?
Batman: Caped Crusader is a series about a younger Batman early in his crime-fighting career in Gotham City. The series focuses on the more detective aspects of Batman’s battle on crime. The series takes its influences from 1940s crime noir films along with the early issues of Batman comics during the Golden Age. Caped Crusader is focused on building its narratives through the characters of Gotham City and their plight against criminals, mobsters, and rampant corruption. Hamish Linklater takes on the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman. He does well with splitting Batman’s more cold and driven persona as the Batman from the aloof and shallow wealthy playboy to the unknowing citizens of the Gotham. There are some excellent episodes where we get to see Bruce as Bruce starts to show more of his true self when things get too close to his personal trauma of his parent’s murder. Diedrich Bader, who has voiced Batman in the great Batman: The Brave and the Bold, is voicing Harvey Dent in this show. Here, Dent isn’t the perfect DA we’ve seen in previous examples of his before Two-Face life. Here, he’s an ambitious, kind of smarmy, and all-around F-Boy of Prosecutor. While he’s not corrupt and still wants to get criminals off the street, his ambitions of running for Mayor of Gotham lead him to do some things that end up coming back on him. Bader does great to sound different than he has in other Batman media, and while recognizable as him, Dent is very charismatic when he’s on the screen.
Since this show will be compared to Timm’s earlier Batman: The Animated Series, it’ll be easy for the show to feel familiar visually, but the show is doing its own thing. This series is less focused on the Art Deco aesthetics of the 90s series to something more fitting the look of the Black and White films that inspire the show. The directors, character designers, and more are showing the influences of films The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, and Double Indemnity on its sleeve. Frederik Wiedmann, who handles the music, creates a moody soundscape that plays off the story being told well. The songs never overpower and might not be filled with memorable melodies, but they never distract from what’s being watched. Acclaimed comic writer Ed Brubaker is the showrunner for this series and, along with other writers Greg Rucka, Marc Bernardin, Halley Gross, Jase Ricci, Adamma Ebo, Adanne Ebo, and writer’s assistant Sean Lee, makes a compelling serialized show with a very good season arc taking Batman and the other leads and antagonists to a very fulfilling conclusion. There are times that the writing in the show is in response to the social media criticism that “Batman is the Police,” or why doesn’t he just fix Gotham with money? With the show going back to the beginnings of the institutions of Gotham being just as bad as the criminals, Batman has an entirely antagonistic relationship with the entire law system in the city. I enjoyed seeing that dynamic back in play in a new broad-media Batman project.
While a lot of marketing and talk has been about the different take on Harley Quinn in this series being not connected to the Joker – it’s the reinvention here with her being more closely aligned with her profession and more of an antihero that’s darker and less brash than the one still connected to the initial version created for B: TAS. Jamie Chung is great with her bubbly and cheerful performance when she’s Harleen Quinzel and is able to switch it like Linklater when the character puts on her costume to continue her mission. She is very much the other side of Batman in this series, and I look forward to more episodes with her. Other characters only have very few differences from their more known versions, with many of the rogues returning to their initial golden age looks and more modern, complex writing. However, Barbara Gordon (Krystal Joy Brown) is a different story. Not a teenage girl or a college student here; she’s a passionate public defender constantly in court battles with Dent, trying her best to right the wrongs of the harsh justice system on all the people it fails and trying actually to have those who’ve done wrong rehabilitated. Another focal character is Renee Montoya (Michelle C. Bonilla), who is pretty consistent with how she was in B: TAS. However, here, she is a lead character more than an occasional recurring character. Here, she’s very much the hope for what Gotham PD could be. She also works as Gordon’s protégé and has a very sister-like relationship with Barbara. These two, along with Commissioner Gordon (Eric Morgan Stuart), give us the underdog side of people trying to reform Gotham versus more than just the Rogue of the week; they have to deal with people like Detective Flass and Harvey Bullock (John DiMaggio) and Rupert Thorne along with the just unfeeling rich people of Gotham.
Batman: Caped Crusader is an amazingly produced show, and everyone who has worked on it should be very proud. With such a fertile time of superhero animated series on all these platforms, this one on Prime Video stands out very quickly from the rest of the pack. Much like B: TAS thirty years ago, this feels like a landmark shift in what can be done and will hopefully inspire all to reach higher heights as the bar has been raised. Batman: Caped Crusader is the real deal; take some time to enjoy it.
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