Batsignal beckons viewers for vigilante noir as Caped Crusader returns
Holy cape and cowl, Batman! From the corrupted shadows of Gotham emerges a new dark knight in the long-awaited Batman: Caped Crusader. Released on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service, the series follows Bruce Wayne (Hamish Linklater, Legion) during the early part of his career as a crime-fighting vigilante. As he navigates a 1940’s Gotham City, facing villains new and old, the series pulls back the veil on the seedy underbelly of trying to live up to the legacy of what came before.
When watching Caped Crusader, it is impossible to not acknowledge the obvious Easter eggs and similarities to its famed predecessor, the Emmy award-winning Batman: The Animated Series. Helmed by the creative team of Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and Alan Burnett, the original B:TAS ran for a total of 85 episodes, had two continuations in the form of The New Batman Adventures and Batman Beyond, and birthed the much-beloved DC Animated Universe that included shows such as Justice League Unlimited, Static Shock, and Superman: The Animated Series.
Behind the shadowy mask that conceals the vigilante stands a creative team well-versed in all forms of Batman media, with DCAU veteran Timm, director of the critically-acclaimed The Batman (2022), and J.J. Abrams of Star Wars fame, contributing to the creation of this iteration of the “World’s Greatest Detective.” Originally pitched as a revival of B:TAS to Timm, the idea of exploring a pseudo 1940’s noir Batman would later come after Timm received a call from his bosses that Reeves and Abrams expressed interest in executive-producing the series with him. The show would later first be announced to be in development for HBO Max all the way back in May of 2021 alongside its sister show, My Adventures with Superman.
However, as time went on, and as My Adventures with Superman season one premiered in July of 2023, there was still very little word on the development of Caped Crusader. Around the same time of the announcement of the new animated adaptations, HBO Max was beginning to restructure after WarnerMedia’s acquisition of Discovery Inc. As movies such as Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt were scrapped to be used as tax write-offs, Caped Crusader would later be canceled in August of 2022. But like the Dark Knight himself, the darkness nurtured the lost show, and it would emerge from the shadows when Max sold the previously scrapped series to Amazon Prime for another giant penny in their Batcave.
For the voice of the Bat, any appearance of Batman demands the gravitas to bring the character to life. For over thirty years, Kevin Conroy gave Batman his iconic voice from the original Batman: The Animated Series to Rocksteady’s well-beloved Batman: Arkham games. Becoming what would be the definitive voice for many, Conroy would eventually pass in November of 2022 after a battle with intestinal cancer; his last voice roles in the cape and cowl occurred in the lukewarm-received Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, and Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Three as the final send off to both Conroy’s Batman as well as his costar, Mark Hamill’s take on the Clown Prince of Crime, the Joker. Conroy delivered much more to the role of Bruce Wayne and his alter ego than any of his mainstream counterparts on the big screen, bringing to life the character’s true compassion for mankind and his never ending fight for justice.
In comparison to what has been regarded by many fans as one of the best Batman adaptations ever, Caped Crusader by no means reinvents the “bat”wheel, nor does it need to. The last animated Batman series was released over a decade ago in the form of Beware the Batman, Batman’s first CGI animated series that brought obscure villains such as Professor Pyg and Anarky into the limelight. However, although it was the first CGI adventure for the stalker of the night, the show was overall dull and overshadowed by what came before and felt different just for the sake of being different, not adding any substance to its deviation.
Meanwhile, Caped Crusader’s back to basics approach is where the series shines most as this Batman is only two weeks into his career as a vigilante, so any of the compassion brought to the character is absent, yet to be learned through experience. As the season progresses, Bruce begins to build bridges with the non-corrupt members of the GCPD, and attorney Barbara Gordon (Krystal Joy Brown, Final Space) to help in his ever-lasting fight for justice. As in most Bat-media, by his side is his loyal butler Alfred Pennyworth (Jason Watkins, The Crown); however, the father-son dynamic between the two has not manifested, with Batman merely calling Alfred by his last name until the season finale.
Light the Bat-Signal, Spoilers Ahead!
In the episode “Nocturne,” the circus comes to town, featuring a plot that involves kid versions of most of the Batfamily including: Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Stephanie Brown, as well as the noncanonical Robin Carrie Kelley from Frank Miller’s famed The Dark Knight Returns storyline. However, these orphans are not fated to become Batman’s canon fodder as his sidekicks, but rather the vampiric Nocturna’s (Mckenna Grace, Gifted) meal. As the episode progresses, Batman is faced with the choice of either leaving the girl to burn in the daylight or to save her from her fate, and ultimately, he realizes there is more than one way to deal with a monster, and he saves her.
On the other side of the coin, the rise of the Bat is juxtaposed with the fall of district attorney Harvey Dent, voiced by none other than Diedrich Bader, the voice of the caped crusader in the campy Batman: The Brave and the Bold. As determined by fate-and a quote by a previous Harvey Dent portrayed in The Dark Knight- “you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” As the Bat starts to cement himself as a symbol of hope and justice, Dent begins his fall from grace, caving in to his dark desires as he strives to be elected mayor of Gotham. In the season finale, Dent is killed by the same corrupt forces he had succumbed to, after a brief moment of redemption.
Ultimately, Dent’s death marks the beginning of Batman’s war on crime, with him tracking down Rupert Thorne (Cedric Yarbrough, The Boondocks), the man responsible for the creation of Two Face. As the city of Gotham is now down one D.A., Batman and his newly made alliances must now take up the challenge of cleansing Gotham from the corruption that led to the late D.A.’s fall and the other events of the series. As Batman stands on a rooftop overlooking Rupert Thorne’s apartment, he recreates the iconic opening shot from the original B:TAS intro, standing as a testament to both the new mission of the Dark Knight as well as the long-awaited return to genuinely creative storytelling for DC animation.
Grade: A+
Blurb: As a back to basics Batman series, Batman: Caped Crusader serves as a welcome revival to the animated Batman mythos, taking on the mantle left behind by the original Batman: The Animated Series.
by “DC Boy” Parfitt
Published on October 7 2024
Oshkosh West Index Volume 121 Issue I