When Batman Caped Crusader was originally announced, I was instantly hyped because it was being produced by Matt Reeves (The Batman, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) and it promised to take the Batman mythos into an interesting new direction by setting it in the 1940s.
As the years went by and this show became more and more mythical, like the Dark Knight himself, the excitement largely died down for many fans, especially after finding out that Warner Bros decided to outsource the show to Amazon as another desperate attempt to mitigate the damage to their failing business practices.
I went into this show feeling fairly indifferent. The trailers didn’t really do all that much for me, and the animation and art style looked painfully cheap and basic. I went in with an open mind, however, because earlier this year, I was flabbergasted and blown away by X-Men ‘97, so this show could also prove me wrong.
Unfortunately, my gut feelings proved to be correct. While this show is competent in many areas, has an enjoyable and mature overarching narrative, and a whole new take on the Caped Crusader’s mythos, I can’t help but feel like Batman Caped Crusader left me wanting. I left this show feeling just as indifferent as I did going into it.
The thing that pops out to me the most is the art style, not because it’s visually engaging but rather because it’s painfully dull and bland. This show very much lives as a successor to Batman The Animated Series from the 90s since both shows were partially created by Bruce Timm but I can’t help but feel something has been lost in the 25 years since the original show ended.
Both shows are dark and have a color palette to reflect it, but the original animated series had a much more striking art style with exaggerated gothic buildings and red skies with police blimps percolated throughout. There’s a more vibrant contrast to the colors and characters on screen in that show whereas in Caped Crusader, everything kind of just feels dull and washed out. There’s very little visual flair or experimentation with the animation, which is a shame considering the original series is known for its at times jaw-droppingly gorgeous style and animation.
The visuals aren’t bad per se but when it’s stacked up against decades-old counterparts, this show not only feels like it’s behind the times but looks it as well.
Caped Crusader really tries to set itself apart from other Batman adaptations by making major changes to existing stories and characters to attempt to freshen it up while also fitting with the noir vibe the show is going for. In some cases, these changes work or are at least passable but in others, I find these diversions from the source materials to be distracting at best.
My problem is not inherently that stuff is changed but moreso that the changes often don’t feel well-justified and make the journeys of some characters less interesting. For example, Catwoman is changed to reflect her original appearances. Instead of being a traumatized orphan who grew up having to survive on her own in the streets of Gotham, she’s a bratty socialite who is bad with money and takes to crime to uphold her bad spending habits.
This show had a really good opportunity to tell an interesting story about the inequality that existed between the rich and poor in this period and could have been a compelling challenge to the idea of Batman’s crusade since it was one born of privilege. Instead, Catwoman is made into a relatively one-note character that doesn’t have much to offer in terms of any thematic relevance.
My issue with most of the changes is that they rarely exist to offer anything genuinely new or interesting to this show’s depiction of Batman’s mythos. They kind of just feel like they are there for the sake of it rather than having a thematic purpose to make the changes actually interesting or relevant.
A large reason these changes often feel superfluous is that most of this show’s overarching narrative feels painfully rehashed and predictable. The entire show, yet again, builds to a certain someone getting horribly disfigured but almost nothing new is done to make that story interesting, and the changes that were made only make that character’s story LESS impactful and resonant.
Worst of all, though, is Caped Crusader has the same tired (and frankly boring) character arc of Batman learning to trust and value Alfred as a sign of his willingness to let others into his life. On paper, it’s a fine character ark but in the lord’s year of 2024, this is like the basic passing standard for any Batman story. There are more comics and adaptations that follow this exact ark than there are 90-Day Fiance spinoff shows. For a show that is seemingly prided on its being a new adaptation, the two most important characters get the laziest character arks in the show.
This show doesn’t offer anything new to say about the character which often just left me wondering “Why am I watching this?” While competent in most regards, Batman Caped Crusader feels like it can never escape the shadow of a show that has influenced Batman media for 30 years. It’s not bad by any means but when stacked against the competition, this show falls short in many regards.
Score: 6/10
