My Favorite Intros: The New Batman/Superman Adventures

Image via Wikipedia

It should be obvious that the intros for Batman and Superman’s separate shows are great. However, their combined show seldom gets a lot of love. When WB, Warner Brother’s TV network at the time, brought Batman over from Fox it allowed the two DC heroes (DC being owned by Warner Bros.) to team up. Rather than keeping the shows separate they were combined into one hour-long block entitled The New Batman/Superman Adventures. Of course, this meant a new intro, and I think they did a good job with it.

I think what it does the best is how well it fits in not only elements of the two heroes but their backstory. The silhouette of young Bruce besides his parents bodies forming into the Bat logo, the way they fit Krypton’s destruction, all with scenes from the show in the background giving supporting characters and recurring villains a place. It just really works, and the theme has elements of both characters. While Batman‘s art style was altered to match the Superman style (it just wouldn’t have worked the other way around, but Batman is a bit more flexible as a character than Superman) it didn’t take away from the writing, with only real gunfire being the big loss. It would also be the only time that someone other than Dick Grayson would be Robin on TV. (I think one of the Direct To Video movies uses a different Robin and I’m not counting that one episode that used The Dark Knight Returns as one kid’s idea of Batman, or that episode of Batman: The Brave & The Bold that had Alfred using Damian, because it’s one episode a piece and both were made up in universe.)

Now if you see Batman shows from this period they just recycle the original series open rather than making one in keeping with the new art style. Superman episodes from this time of course uses the original opening. If you get the “World’s Finest” episode, it’s in the form of The Batman/Superman Movie, which is just a typical movie open with the credits in story. This means that this theme, and the animation, may never be seen again outside of online clips by fans. That’s too bad, because this is a good intro.