Byron Lafayette
A goon tired up and begging for his life, as a shadowed blade-wielding individual moves in on him, we fade out as his screams echo….
So begins Batman: Caped Crusader, the latest from creator Bruce Timm, best known for his work on Batman The Animated Series, Justice League Unlimited, and Batman Beyond. Produced by J.J Abrams and Matt Reeves, Batman: Caped Crusader is both a return to the well, but also a journey into the unknown.
S1E1, “In Treacherous Waters,” has a lot of work cut out for it in its 25-minute run time, establishing a new Bruce Wayne and Batman, a cadre of villains, and the tone and feel of the show and its world. So let’s break it down a bit!
Tone
Batman: Caped Crusader is set in a noir 1940s-style world; it’s dark and grimy, and overall very hopeless. Bruce tells Alfred the whole city is corrupt, and a criminal tells Barbara Gordon that her father is the only cop in the city who is not bent. While the show is very different from Batman: The Animated Series, it is clearly trying to invoke a nostalgic feel with its retro credits and animated style that harkens back to a better time.
I really enjoyed the heightened noir feel to this series. Batman feels like more of a threat as we see him for what he is—a living shadow haunting the darkness.
Villains
Batman: Caped Crusader sets itself apart from other Batman animated properties by fully diving into the evilness of its villains. In what will likely be a controversial change, The Penguin is now a woman, seemingly channeling Marlene Dietrich with a good bit of the brutality of Mags Bennet (from Justified). This new Penguin is a sociopathic criminal, who murders at the drop of a hat. Going so far as to have her own son thrown into a suitcase and dropped into the ocean, we later see, when Batman is coming to her ship, that the ocean floor under the ship is littered with dozens of suitcases with bones sticking out. I very much enjoyed this much more brutal version of Penguin that shows she will give Bats a run for his money over the course of the series.
Batman
Batman’s cowl and suit is also very retro, looking similar to one of the first Batman suits from the old 1943 black-and-white serial Batman. His suit is very functional and in this first episode at least, without all the gadgets and armor we have seen in other interpretations. This Batman is fluid and fast-moving, less a brawler and more a skillful rogue. After his fight with Penguin and her men, he leaves rather than risk defeat.
We see a little hint of the detective in him, as he investigates who is responsible for a series of bombings across the city targeting a rival gang. We don’t get to see him investigate too much, but it’s a tease of what is sure to be more to come.
Summary
Batman: Caped Crusader is a love letter to fans of the old animated series. Its look, vibe, and characters are all very familiar, yet under the nostalgia is a grit that allows us to see the true horror of what lies under the pretty exterior of Gotham. The floating club of Penguin is the perfect metaphor for Gotham: it’s beautiful on the surface, but peer below and you will see it littered with death. Batman: Caped Crusader feels, in many ways, like the true vision of Bruce Timm, perhaps what he always envisioned the animated series as being without the limits of network TV. Now without that, he is free to tell a grim and gorgeous tale of the Caped Crusader of Gotham City.
Batman: Caped Crusader is streaming on Amazon Prime Video
