Batman: Caped Crusader

It’s early in Batman’s crimefighting career, and Gotham is at its peak corruption. The Caped Crusader will have to fight his way through a rogue’s gallery of familiar and new faces if he hopes to quiet the demons that drive him.

Batman: Caped Crusader Review

With Caped Crusader, Bruce Timm, the producer who brought us the incredible Batman: The Animated Series in the 90s, tries to recapture lighting in a bottle, and just like the saying implies, it proves impossible. With an aesthetic that only deviates slightly from that seminal work and some real directorial brilliance, this iteration of Batman is sorely missing a key ingredient: Batman.

                   

Comprised of just 10 episodes, Batman often feels like an afterthought. The first half of the season focuses almost entirely on its cadre of diverse, strong, independent women, and Batman is little more than a background curiosity or a plot catalyst. In later episodes, The World’s Greatest Detective shines a little more brightly, but these instances are the exception. This is a shame because much of what the series offers is quite good.

Batman: Caped Crusader boasts the same excellent animation as the 90’s series, only with today’s high fidelity. The direction and storytelling are crisp and engaging; for a cartoon, its characters are multi-dimensional and nuanced, and most of the voice acting is excellent. Unfortunately, the latter takes a major dive with the program’s lead. Hamish Linklater, who voices the titular Dark Knight, delivers an almost flawless Kevin Conroy impersonation… if Conroy had spoken in an emotionless and robotic monotone. It’s a flaw that ruins what precious little screen time Batman gets.

Ultimately, Batman: Caped Crusader is a forgettable and derivative entry into Batlore, lacking the dynamism and focus of its 90s predecessor or the distinctiveness and fun of series like the divisive The Brave and The Bold.

PARENTAL NOTES – BATMAN CAPED CRUSADER

We Are The Letter People

• See Love is Love in the WOKE REPORT.

#$%!^&*@

• There are multiple damns and hells, and variations thereof
• The Lord’s name is taken in vain several times with “Oh my God,” “Jesus,” and the like.

M is for Murder

• The Penguin brutally murders her own sons.
• A dirty cop shoots and murders someone.

L is for The Way You Looked At Me

• At one point, Dr. Quinzell, who is providing court-mandated anger management therapy for Bruce, asks him if he’s ever been in love or “in lust” with someone.

WOKE REPORT

I Ain’t Need No BatMAN

• For the first half of the 10 episode season, Batman gets far less screentime than the strong independent diverse ladies of Gotham. With the exception of one or two of the later episodes in which he and his adventures are the focus, even the later episodes in which he is featured more don’t have him driving the plot.
• Batman teams up with Barbara Gordon instead of the Commissioner.
• When she’s not running her own mob, Penguin is a tall, mannish woman named Oswalda who sings at a nightclub and wears men’s clothing as men swoon.
• Harvey calls Barbara “sweetie,” and she makes a big thing out of it.

Love is Love

• DC Comics has been shoving gay pegs into our round holes for decades now, and making Harley Quinn a lesbian has become one of their favorite tropes. However, all other animated iterations have been relegated to shows rated for mature audiences, not so with Batman: Caped Crusader. In this show, rated safe for children aged 14, Harley and Detective Renee Montoya spend several episodes looking at one another with googly eyes before finally going on a date and sharing a romantic kiss.
• There’s a brief scene with an ambiguously gay actor character.

The Great White Nope

• Not every villain or jerk is a white guy, but, except for Batman and Alfred, every adult white male is a dirty cop, corrupt politician, vain opportunist, man-baby, or a heartless rich scumbag.
  • In one scene, the police station has to quickly evacuate, and a white police officer abandons a woman handcuffed to his desk to save his own life. Barbara ends up saving her.
  • Harvey Dent lets wealthy white girls off while throwing the book at minority defendants.
  • Catwoman is a spoiled rich brat who steals to supplement her dwindling inheritance.

Super-Babes

• Barbara is naturally great at everything and always right.
• Harley Quinn bests Bruce in a battle of wits.

I Said Celluloid, Not Cellulite

• The animators must have needed extra ink because now Montoya, Harley Quinn, and Alfred need Ozempic. Gotta have those body positive comicbook characters.

DEI, It’s What’s For Dinner. So, Get Ready To Swallow

• Harley Quinn isn’t just dumpy; she’s also inexplicably asian.
• Barbara Gordon is black.
• James Gordon isn’t just black; he’s an actual DEI hire. The corrupt white mayor reminds him that the only reason he got the job was to generate “good headlines” for him.
• Much like the infinitely better Animated Series Batman: Caped Crusader is set in an alternate 1930s and 40s, but white people aren’t even close to being a majority.
  • I actually didn’t take many marks off for this since it is an alternate reality.

No More Joking Around

• Harley Quinn’s origin used to be that of a psychiatrist who was tortured, broken, and turned by the Joker. In Batman: Caped Crusader, she is still a psychiatrist, but now she is broken by the inhumanity of wealthy white men. That’s not hyperbole. After spending years listening to her rich white patients divulge their dark secrets to her, she snaps and turns to villainy.