I think it’s kinda hard for the new series NOT to be compared to Batman: The Animated Series. I didn’t get to see this until Sunday morning because of scheduling where I live (Chicago area). (Damn you local WGN/WB programming bastards.)
Everyone’s entitled to their opinions, here’s what I thought.
PROS:
I did get a sense this is a Bruce that isn’t grim all of the time (when alone with Alfred).
The voices (actors) certainly weren’t as bad I thought they would be.
I did like the “look” of Batman.
CONS:
I didn’t care for the “ghost” images in the right corners of the screen throughout the entire show; “NEW” in the upper right and the WB logo in the lower right.
This seems to be a more gadget-oriented Batman, especially if the images in the opening credits seem to be an indication. I noticed an announcer saying something like “Hey kids, get your batarangs ready, Batman’s coming back.” (I guess they may market a toy batarang soon.)
The little WB snippets right before when the show returned from commercial seemed too “busy” with things spinning around and no point to them; tawdry.
I didn’t get a feel for this Joker’s motives. Yeah, he’s insane, but in the previous show, you got a sense of who he was gunning for and why (the mayor, a casino owner stealing his thunder, etc.)
Being nitpicky, I didn’t care to see a bare-footed Joker. (The only comics character in my book that’s bare-footed is the Hulk. Again, that’s just me.)
This isn’t the first time Bat-fans have complained about a tv version of the character. The '60s show was far from the comic and had its share of merchandising. But for me, it was my first exposure to the character, and this new show will be someone’s first exposure to Batman too. I wonder how strong of an influence this show will be?
Okay, that tears it. Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot is definitely not a good name for a martial arts master. And his weaponry is so lame. What is going on?
Batman’s or the Penguin’s? In either case, it seems pretty much the same as usual to me.
I will note, however, that in the recent episode with Catwoman, we find out that this Batman is a Grade-A moron, or possibly slightly retarded. Not only does he only have one utility belt and one utility belt only, said belt is the only method of controlling everything in the entire Batcave and the only way to shut off the whole Batwave thing that allows everything to receive signals from the belt is to physically remove the receivers.
I liked the dark look of Batman TAS. It had a certain 1930’s style to it. The Batman should operate at night. As far as the Joker, simple is best. I like the Joker vicious, vengeful, lethal, and intelligent. A measure of insanity is OK - but never to the point where it interferes with his ability to do bad things. In short, I want Joker to be totally evil and hateful. I don’t want Joker to be a martial arts master or acrobat, that’s what he hires henchmen for. He should only be the evil boss. That is his “job”.
Other than that, my continued private gripe is, the Batman almost never is as vengeful or ruthless as he should be. This is a guy who saw his parents murdered, and swore vengeance. So why is he such a goody two shoes? Where’s the anger? Where’s the pent up hatred? Where is the all consuming thirst for revenge that made him what he is? In too many tellings he is just a do-gooder in a funny suit. Make him meaner.
Well, I’ve finally caught The Batman. The Penguin episode.
And all I can say is…eh. Not up there with any of the other DCU animated series, but not awful.
I like this version of Bruce - it’s very different from any of the earlier ones, but it’s consistant with itself, that I’ve seen (which is an improvement on the comic book version under some writers and the movie version), not as silly as the Adam West version, nor as…grim-to-the-point-of-stupidity as some of the comic versions. Even the ultility-belt cock up isn’t really so bad - assuming he learned from it.
I don’t mind the Penguin himself. The martial arts were a bit much, but the rest of his portrayal was actually pretty cool. Didn’t much like the off-gimmick hench-geishas, though. When you have a gimmick, like Penguin does, stick with it. Although, I suppose, it does keep people from tracing the bird-crimes to him as easy. But this is comics. Realism is out of place!
One thing I didn’t like was Alfred. I can’t put my finger on just why I don’t like him - obviously I don’t have a problem with big changes in the character, but I can’t come up with anything specifically off about Alfred that don’t amount to ‘but…that’s not Alfred’. So, either I’m harbouring a bit of hypocracy, or else there’s something subtly unappealing about him. I’ll wait a couple more episodes before trying to figure out which - if he grows on me, it’s just my inability to disconnect from the other versions, if he doesn’t, hopefully I’ll figure out why I don’t like him.
Like every incarnation, there’s some stuff to like and some stuff not to like. I personally like the actual rendering of Batman and his Batgear – pretty nice really (but, as noted, not as nice the TAS). I’ve pretty much disliked the bulk of the villains, with Joker leading the charge – the design and development of that particular character is pretty terrible all the way around. Liked Catwoman (even though my fave is the purple and green outfit–I seem to like odd color combos, Alan Scott’s costume is still one of my favorites–better than the leather clad dominatrix thing. Ivy wasn’t awful either. Storyline – not bad overall, I do like the new Clayface as well–I liked the way they developed the female police officer’s (who’s name I forget because I’ve not liked it enough to make of point of seeing it) relationship with Bats and I LOVE the portrayal of Alfred – very in-line with the Michael Caine portrayal, which I love.
I like it. It’s nearly as good as B:TAS, but that’s a hard act to follow.
The villain design is, uh, interesting, to say the least. I was a bit surprised they introduced Batgirl before Robin, but I’m sure he’ll (or she’ll) come along. I do like the new Batmobile.
Not likely - WB seems to have a policy of not having multiple animated versions of the same character, so no Robin on The Batman as long as Teen Titans is around - just like he won’t be on JLU, nor will most of Batman’s supporting cast because of The Batman.
OTOH, Nightwing is one of the Batman characters specifically noted as off-limits for JLU because of The Batman.
Her name is Yin.
Well, Alfred’s grown on me. I like all of the villains I’ve seen - except Bane’s design sucks serious ass. I DO like Joker. I really like the Riddler - except the writers never put any effort into his riddles. Beyond that, I like him, though. Catwoman…is Catwoman. It’s hard not to like her. I do like their interplay. Haven’t caught any of the Batgirl episodes, so I can’t comment on her.
Ah, good. Tengu, you mentioned Digital Justice upthread. It turns out that I have that book. Is it worth reading? The animation hasn’t aged well, but how’s the writing?
Nightwing on The Batman. He’s a very underused character in the DCAU. That could be cool.
As I said a year ago, this is no Batman: The Animated Series, but its still watchable. I like their versions of Babs and Comissioner Gordon. The fight scenes on this show are consistently awesome which is always a good thing.
I enjoyed it, but it’s been a long while since I’ve read it, so I can’t really say how it holds up. Especially in light of more recent takes on a similar concept. Tell you what, I’ll see if I can find my copy and give it a reread, and get back to you.
It sucks. I watched the first few episodes to be sure of giving it a fair chance. I later watched a Manbat episode because I like Manbat. The show is soulless crap produced only to make money.
Wow, cool…I was afraid that someone was going to complain at me for resurrecting a thread from a year ago.
I like the Riddler, too. He’s very creepy in this show, which is an improvement from B:TAS, where he was fairly normal.
Penguin kind of bugs me. Who with that physique is that nimble in real life? If anyone needed henchmen to do their fighting for them, it’s Mr. Cobblepot. The laugh bugs me, too. Hah-hah-hah-wack-wack-wack. :rolleyes:
Catwoman’s goggles don’t work for me.
Batgirl’s pretty foxy, but lose the skirt-thing. She’s a gymnast, fercryinoutloud! She’s used to prancing around in leotards (Raven from Teen Titans, anyone?).
I’ve watched a couple of episodes. I didn’t like it. It’s like they took the kitch aspect from the old Batman tv show and and made it more X-TREME!!! This is what you would get if you let the people who do the commercials for mountain dew write Batman.
For me, it’s not about canon. It’s not about continuity. It’s about quality. This show is low grade. Fair or not, Batman: The animated series and Batman Beyond were huge leaps above The Batman in writing and animation quality. This is a 30 minute toy commercial
The fact that there is already a new Batmobile tends to support this assertion, unfortunately (although I like the new one better than the old one).
I like the new Clayface better than the B:TAS one (who looked like a pile of doggie-doo), but other than Clayface, Riddler, and Batgirl, I’m not finding myself a fan.
I agree about Batman: Beyond, too. That was slick looking, and Kevin Conroy will forever rock my socks off. This show is nowhere near that quality.
So who has B:TAS on dvd (since we can agree that the new one mostly sucks)? Hokey-smokes, that’s cool. Multiple episodes with commentary by writers/directors/artists, the original promo short that sold the series to the network execs…I just got done watching “Harley and Ivy,” which is one of my favorite episodes. The commentary was right: Joker did look weird in this one. But Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy in “manshirts” and no pants…