They Don’t Make ‘Em Like The Batman Anymore

Much of the fun of the villains can be owed to their designs. Jeff Matsuda of Jackie Chan Adventures fame served as the show’s art director, and there’s a distinct style to everyone that still has some charm today. Making Bane into basically Red Hulk when he uses his Venom or portraying Riddler as a goth twink on his way to the club are the kind of looks that DC stories just aren’t able to do anymore unless they’re explicitly AUs, like a mobile game. Regardless of how they look and fight, their voice actors mostly do a great job in making each villain feel like they belong in this specific version of Batman’s world.

But Penguin and Joker are the highlight of the bunch, and both are some of the more recurring villains of the series. Mainly known at the time for voicing nice or dopey guys, Tom Kenny’s having a lot of fun with Penguin as an absolute sleazebag who repulses everyone he meets. Meanwhile, Kevin Michael Richardson’s deep voice and booming laugh give the show’s Clown Prince a more playful but still deadly edge that stands proudly alongside the raspy wit of Mark Hamill. Since this was before the villain transitioned into being basically a serial killer, his crimes are sinister while still being incredibly goofy, and the show knows how to make him menacing in some pretty inventive ways.

Just from the show’s intro for its first two seasons, you’d think this was a darker take on the Dark Knight for kids, as bat screeches and guitar strums from The Edge give the show moody, noir-ish vibe where Danny Elfman’s theme for Batman: The Animated Series felt grand and adventurous. Often during those first two seasons, that original intro is a misdirect, and an episode can be goofier than you’d believe. While the first two seasons are quite strong, introducing Danielle Judovitz as Batgirl in season three (and later the aforementioned Robin in season four) helps the show find a better idea of its tone. Both young heroes are fun additions to the cast, and the new energetic opening feels like it better fits the episodes for the show’s following three seasons.

For as often as people complain about Batman being “too dark,” The Batman manages to find a strong balance between playful and gritty most of the time. When it hits its balance, you get fun episodes such one early into season two where Joker’s dressed as Batman, attacking civilians for minor crimes while Batman’s in danger of laughing himself to death after being hit with a new dose of Joker Venom. (Romano’s recreation of the Joker laugh is its own kind of unsettling.) Another high point is the finale to season one; after the clown kidnaps Batman’s childhood friend turned cop Ethan Bennett (Steven Harris), part one abruptly ends on the still pretty horrifying visual of Bennett’s face sliding off his skin. Part two, fittingly titled “The Clayface of Tragedy,” opens like a mini-monster movie as Bennett tries to ask for help, only to be attacked and avoided by anyone who catches sight of him. But Bennett disappears for decent stretches of time throughout the show’s run, somewhat neutering the impact of his and Bruce’s relationship. But at least he gets something of a conclusion to his arc, unlike his fellow cop Ellen Yin. Voiced by Ming-Na Wen long before she became the de facto Competent Woman, she’s set up to be a long term ally (and maybe a love interest?) for Batman before she’s just straight up gone after season two.

With how popular Batman is and always has been, it’s genuinely surprising how The Batman just barely avoided the modern day superhero boom. A few episodes into its second season, Batman Begins debuted in theaters, and the series would end in March 2008, a couple months before The Dark Knight would become a box office juggernaut. From there, Christopher Nolan’s more grounded take on the superhero would help chart the character’s path going forward. Rocksteady’s beloved Arkham games drew upon the Nolan for much of its tone and style, and so does Titans, ridiculous of a show that it is. 2013’s Beware the Batman animated series, the immediate successor to the more lighthearted Brave & the Bold, was marketed as being more serious, no doubt because of The Dark Knight Rises. 

Meanwhile, both Brave and Lego Batman served as counterarguments to Nolan’s trilogy, showing the Caped Crusader as a light-hearted adventurer or goofy father and deliberately poking fun at the more “adult” take on the character. Even Batman’s handful of appearances over in Teen Titans Go poke plenty of fun at the perception of the hero that Nolan helped popularize. Whether you like Nolan’s trilogy or not, the Batman work that’s followed it since 2005 hovers over Batman and anyone in his orbit like a long shadow, for better and worse.

But The Batman isn’t really in conversation with how the world has seen its Caped Crusader, and in a lot of ways is all the better for it. While it can’t help but feel like a relic of a bygone age, it was a pretty good age where superhero shows just ran off of vibes and experimentation. Similar to Kids’ WB’s other beloved cape series Spectacular Spider-Man and X-Men: Evolution (or arguably Young Justice today), it was free to do its own thing without being caught up in corporate nonsense, nostalgia of dubious merit, or cultural pissing contests. At the end of the day, it’s just a show whose pitch began and ended with: “Batman’s pretty cool. You wanna see him be pretty cool?” And to The Batman’s credit, it was right. He is pretty cool.

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