It’s impossible to watch the new Amazon Prime Video show Batman: Caped Crusader, and not immediately think of the iconic Batman: The Animated Series. The two shows share the same creator, Bruce Timm. But even beyond that, particularly in the early going, Caped Crusader plays essentially like more of Batman: TAS, written by fans of the original who just happen to be some of the top comic book writers in the game. There’s nothing bad about that, necessarily. But because this plays as a loving tribute, when it veers from the original, the changes are jarring. This lives in the shadows of what’s come before, and though it’s thrilling to get more Batman: TAS, it only half makes a case for its existence by the season’s end.
The setup for the show is that we’re focusing on what is essentially “Batman Week Two.” Bruce Wayne (Hamish Linklater) has just started his life as a vigilante, and while he’s as expert at taking down crooks as he is in any other iteration, it does mean we can meet this 1940s-style Gotham’s riffs on the classic characters for the first time.
Some are the same: Bruce is still pretending to be a millionaire playboy; Harvey Dent (Diedrich Bader) is still an ambitious DA with a bit of a mean streak; and Commissioner Gordon (Eric Morgan Stuart) is still the one good cop in a corrupt police department.
And some are different: Barbara Gordon (Krystal Joy Brown) is a woman of color and a defense lawyer; Penguin (Minnie Driver) has swapped genders, but none of the fits of rage; and Harley Quinn (Jamie Chung) is essentially unrecognizable as a light-hearted therapist who transforms into a dark clown with a penchant for torture.
The changes to Batman lore only increase as the first season continues, leading to a few shockers in the two-part finale that tee up a potentially vastly different series for Season 2. And frankly, I wish they had taken those chances earlier on. It’s a similar path reboot series X-Men ’97 took, to ease people in with what’s familiar, before delivering a shock to the system halfway through. Here, Caped Crusader goes the comforting route, with noir-infused mysteries that could have been long-forgotten scripts from Batman: TAS, before pulling the rug out in the last episode.
As I noted earlier, though, it helps that you have a seasoned comic book veteran and Batman expert like Ed Brubaker at the helm for this first season. Add in his Gotham Central co-writer Greg Rucka, Marc Bernardin, and others, and you have folks who know a good Batman mystery inside and out. Even with an infusion of the supernatural in this season, one thing that really separates this version from Batman: TAS, it’s all something that feels consistent with Batman lore. These are well-crafted stories that challenge Batman, as the overarching plot slowly weaves in the background.
It’s also a happy side effect that having both Brubaker and Rucka on the staff leads to a not-so-stealthy version of Gotham Central woven through the season. Two episodes in particular either barely feature Batman, or paint him as the antagonist to the police department — two modes the pair of writers played with deftly in the classic DC Comics series.
Unfortunately, where the show is really not helped with comparisons to Batman: TAS is the animation style. That 1992 series was inspired in part by Tim Burton’s Batman films and embraced the neo-gothic architecture and style while expanding on it. The Gotham City here is generic at best: it could be any city and feels like a deliberate move to distance itself from the original. Gone too are the clean lines of TAS, in favor of blockier, rougher characters. Caped Crusader lacks the thrill and the charm of TAS, perhaps part of an effort to age this later show up.
(On that note, despite being sold as an adult animated series, other than a few “damn”s and “crap”s this isn’t much more adult than what was on Fox Kids several decades ago. If your kids are Batman fans, they’ll be just fine.)
And then beyond that, some ideas are way overthought, like Harley Quinn. The reinvention of the character essentially makes her into an entirely new character… One that makes sense as a Batman villain, but is not in any capacity the Harley Quinn fans have grown to love since her introduction on Batman: TAS. Could this work for new viewers who don’t know anything about Batman? Sure, maybe. But it’s also hard to picture anyone saying “Who is this Batman fellow?” and starting with an animated series dropping ten episodes, all at once, on Prime Video.
Is this show an essential watch? Probably not, unless you are a fan of Batman: TAS, and want to see some new writers essentially riffing on what came before. But if you are looking for some good Batman mysteries, and don’t mind a show that is more Batman comfort food than bold reinvention, then Caped Crusader might fly for you. Just perhaps check out Batman: The Animated Series next.
Batman: Caped Crusader premieres all 10 episodes on Thursday, August 1 on Prime Video.
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