Batman: Caped Crusader Trailer Drops

Bruce Timm returns to the Dark Knight with an all new Batman series. Rejected by Warner Brothers Discovery, the series was picked up by Amazon Prime, and appears to be a more adult Batman series. Because that worked so well for the Killing Joke adaptation, right? You know, the one where they added a Batman/Batgirl sex scene because Timm is obsessed with making those two a couple because they share a costume or something. There’s a Batwoman joke in there I won’t attempt to find.

Batman: Caped Crusader is a 10 episode series not tied to any of Timm’s prior projects with the masked manhunter. He’s also updated it for “modern audiences”, which given what that term usually ends up meaning versus what it pretends to mean could be a problem. We already know they race-swapped Harley Quinn and disconnected her from the Joker, and Commissioner Gordon is also using the wrong coloring pencil. That doesn’t speak to the quality of the show. We haven’t seen it yet. We can look at what they think will get us to watch, and that gives us hints about the adaptation. I have some notes.

Timm still seems stuck in the 1940s. Not using the Fleischer Superman shorts as a guide anymore, but the 1940s gothic noir is there. Probably my biggest complaint is how stiff the animation is. Just look at that opening shot of Batman walking. There’s no life to it, like a robot. It appears to be hand-drawn so maybe they’re using a CG assist in the early stages or something. I don’t know. What I do know is there has been livelier animation in both 2D and 3D Batman shows since the Fox Kids show. Even the humans in Batwheels and Beware The Batman had more life to them, more activity in the action. It’s kind of disappointing.

Is that supposed to be Two-Face? The damage is on the wrong side if it is. I’m also assuming that’s supposed to be Firefly as the arsonist, but we don’t get a good enough look at his full outfit. In close-up it isn’t bad though he clearly isn’t working out much. Catwoman is using a really old costume instead of her better catburglar outfit. Harley Quinn does not look like Harley Quinn at all. Who designed that outfit? Have they seen Harley? Oh right, can’t let her look sexy…even though Selena does? Also, it looks like we’re back to pre-commissioner Gordon and his boss is a woman because of course she is and probably badass as well. You can’t trust Hollywood to give us anything else anymore. Perhaps she’ll be like Detective Yin in The Batman (the cartoon, not the Matt Reeves movie–with him as one of the producers along with J.J. Abrams I should be clear on that) and warm up to the idea of Batman, since I’m sure they’ll touch on the corrupt cops of the Gotham PD a bit more than most of the animated works.

So what does work? I do like the art style, even if the animation needs work. The voice acting is okay and I may get used to Hamish Linkater’s version of Batman, since he’s not trying to replicate the late Kevin Conroy’s take like most of the voice actors who came after him. It’s a bit light for me at the moment.

Overall, this COULD be a good Batman series. However, given what’s coming out of lately, you still have to convince me you’ll be a better adaptation than Batwheels. I’m rather skeptical. I don’t need “adult Batman” because that’s all there is outside of The Batmobile And Friends Show. Again, I’m judging the trailer to see how revved up it makes me for a new Batman, and I’m kind of stuck in neutral at the moment.