Bat-Fam (season 1)

Bat-Fam follows Bruce Wayne as Batman, his young son Damian Wayne as Little Batman, and butler Alfred Pennyworth after the events of the film Merry Little Batman. The series centers on their adjustment to life at Wayne Manor with three new housemates who join the household unexpectedly. As they navigate family dynamics, the group bands together to safeguard Gotham City from threats, including the Joker, Riddler, Killer Croc, and other villains.

Bat-Fam Mini-Review

In 2008, ‘Batman: The Brave and the Bold’ took a chance, mashing the “BOOM,” “ZAP,” “POW” camp of the ’60s TV series with the modern iterations of Batman and DC comics. It turned them on their heads, reimagining them as big, brash parodies of themselves. Purists hated it, while some, including myself, thought that it was a silly love letter meant to poke a little good-natured fun at how objectively ridiculous the very idea truly is while still revering it.

                   

-Do not blast me about this. I am a massive nerd with one son named after Superman and the other who would have been named after Batman had he not been due to receive his grandfather’s middle name, Lee. Even then, it was close. The idea of a grown man who dresses like a bat, jumping from rooftop to rooftop to beat up people dressed like clowns and question marks shouldn’t work as anything other than comedy, but it does.-

Bat-Fam, on the other hand, has made a silly cartoon that adopts characters from the mythos and turns them into every other modern cartoon out there. Nearly every episode features Batman as an insecure dad who needs and receives a lesson in parenting.

Objectively, were Bat-Fam not a Batman series, it would still only be mundane and unimaginative. As it is, it completely fails to capture the characters’ spirit and delivers the simplest laughs, just north of fart jokes (I think it even has some of those).

PARENTAL NOTES

(Rated safe for ages 7 and up)

A Little Too Far

• There are a number of occasions in which the envelope of what’s considered good taste is pushed a little too far.
  • A character with fire powers threatens to burn a child.
  • Alfred has the back of his pants ripped off, revealing his underwear, out of which his butt crack is peaking.
  • Batman says, “We need information, not merciless bloodshed.”
  • One of the villains says, in reference to Batman’s parenting, “Even I did better with my daughters, and they tried murdering me.”
  • King Tut is stripped naked, and his genitalia are pixelated out.

Demons, Now For Children

• • One of the characters says he doesn’t want to be “unleashing an evil demon’s wrath.”
  • A demon appears to bring a small child to hell with him. He calls it “The Abyss.”

WOKE REPORT

What They Get Right

• Batman is a loving and involved father whose son adores him and wants to be just like him when he grows up.
  • Bruce might be a bit of a weenie, but Batman is still considered to be an unrivaled hero.

Batmeh

• Batman is a tertiary character. The diverse women get a lot more screentime and a lot more of value to do.
• Bruce is largely a weak, insecure father who constantly second-guesses himself.
  • The regular parenting advice he receives leans heavily on telling him to loosen up and parent less.
  • Alfred’s niece is regularly the one teaching Bruce his parenting lessons (she’s not a parent), and she almost always does it by undermining him with Damian. However, the show’s perspective is that she’s right to do so.
  • He’s afraid to tell Damian “hard truths.”

He’s Not The Only Bad Dad

• The Mad Hatter and his daughter go to counseling to discuss his toxic parenting.

Diversity

• Vicki Vale is now black.
• Copperhead is female (yes, they’ve been trying to make that a thing since 2013 in Arkham Origins).
• Alfred’s grandniece, Alicia (get it?), is black even though Alfred is not. Yes, I understand how that would be possible in the real world, but that doesn’t make it any less forced in this.
  • She almost never shows him the respect due him by calling him “uncle,” instead, she uses the much more familiar “Alfred.”
    • I can remember only one instance in which she called him “unck.”