In an era that was flush with cartoons fighting for children’s attention, Batman: The Animated Series stood out by using its timeless take on Gotham City to tell stories that were as stylish and zany as they were serious. The show gave birth to some of DC’s most iconic characters and set a high bar for animated comic book adaptations that many of Warner Bros.’ newer series have struggled to reach.
Amazon’s Batman: Caped Crusader from cocreators J.J. Abrams, Matt Reeves, and Bruce Timm feels like a project created with a deep love for The Animated Series and an understanding of what made it fascinating to watch back in the ’90s. And as often as playing to fans’ nostalgia tends to derail modern superhero stories, Caped Crusader’s approach to paying homage to The Animated Series is a big part of what makes it work so well.
Set in a vision of the 1940s where everyone still speaks like Golden Age comics characters, Batman: Caped Crusader tells a familiar tale of how Bruce Wayne (Hamish Linklater) secretly leads the charge to deal with Gotham’s ever-growing population of costumed supercriminals. Whereas The Animated Series — which Timm cocreated with Paul Dini — introduced Batman as a well-seasoned vigilante with some experience under his high-tech utility belt, Caped Crusader’s Bruce is new to the hero game and is still learning how to wield his status as a shadowy urban legend.
Rather than fancy gadgets and a gaggle of wards, Bruce’s old-fashioned sleuthing skills and ability to take punches as well as he throws them are what make him so effective at keeping Gotham’s ne’er-do-wells scared. But with most of the city’s cops being as crooked as the criminals they’re supposed to book, there’s seldom a night when Batman isn’t busy dealing with the problems that police commissioner Jim Gordon (Eric Morgan Stuart) and his prosecutor daughter Barbara (Krystal Joy Brown) simply can’t keep up with.
Aesthetically and sonically, Caped Crusader feels almost like it could be The Animated Series’ prequel as it opens on Gotham in the midst of a simmering gang war that has the city’s residents on edge. But as hard as the new show works to establish itself as a story unfolding in the distant past, there’s a pronounced streak of modernity running through it that’s reflected in the way it reworks a number of its supporting characters.
Here, the Gordons are Black, and psychiatrist Harleen Quinzel (Jamie Chung) is an Asian woman who has far more interesting secrets to keep than the fact that she’s queer. Batman: Caped Crusader presents these facets of its reality with a matter of factness that helps illustrate the beauty of DC’s Elseworlds — comic stories set in alternate universes that play with the established canon. The show’s changes to classic characters work to highlight aspects of their identities that Caped Crusader leaves untouched, like the way detective Renee Montoya’s (Michelle C. Bonilla) commitment to justice makes her simultaneously untrusting of and grateful for Batman’s presence.
Rather than aiming for the accuracy of previous comics or series, Caped Crusader feels like it’s trying to tap into the essence of its heroes and villains as they become entangled in one another’s lives. This, coupled with the show’s art direction and its score from composer Frederik Wiedmann, helps make Caped Crusader’s first season feel like classic animated Batman storytelling that emphasizes how well the Dark Knight works as a simple detective chasing down other costumed weirdos.
Though Caped Crusader’s being yet another Batman vehicle might exhaust some viewers, the show’s simplicity and more measured plays to nostalgia immediately set it apart from Warner Bros.’ other recent iterations on the character. And while its pacing might leave some viewers wishing things moved more briskly, Amazon seems to know it’s got a good thing with Batman: Caped Crusader that’s primed to get better with time. (A second season is already on the way.)
Batman: Caped Crusader also stars Christina Ricci, Diedrich Bader, Bumper Robinson, Jason Watkins, John DiMaggio, Mckenna Grace, Tom Kenny, Haley Joel Osment, Paul Scheer, Reid Scott, and Toby Stephens. The show’s first season hits Amazon Prime on August 1st.