Batman: Caped Crusader

There's another thread about 2 weeks old on this show. Look it up OP.

I watched the first few episodes over the weekend. Overall it was pretty good. But it sometimes felt like a cheaper version of the animated series. The race and gender swapping of characters often felt unnecessary.

The show is terrible.

They are pretty upfront about Harley Quin and Renee Montoya being gay, but so far Barbara Gordon is just crypto-gay. I wish there were gay male characters.

I thought this was the most interesting thing anyone's done with Batman since at least the Nolan trilogy, if not the original DCAU. No one is ever going to top Kevin Conroy, but Hamish Linklater did an admirable job, and I think is probably the best of the ones who aren't Conroy. The gender and race swaps didn't bother me, and if anyone is ranting about it being that the show wants to be woke...you didn't watch it.

I actually love that they found humanity and ambiguity in Harley and Two-Face. Truly, the Robin Hood aspect of Harley and her clear genuine affection for both Renee and Barbara made her very sympathetic to me.

I also thought having Nocturna attack four different Robins was cute.

Stylish as all hell.

Thanks OP, I will check it out. I adore Batman, he's the only superhero I ever liked. The rest is all too goody-two-shoes for me.

the rest ARE all....

I think you'd like it. It's a VERY mature take on the character, and it's probably the closest anyone has ever come to invoking the vibe of the original Kane/Finger stories from the late 30s and early 40s. There are a lot of noir and pulp elements. Very the Shadow and Doc Savage.

Zaslav was an idiot for letting this go. This would have been a crown jewel for Max.

[quote] I thought this was the most interesting thing anyone's done with Batman since at least the Nolan trilogy

Yuck!

[quote] Zaslav was an idiot for letting this go.

The show has already bombed.

R4 I think the Clayface episode mentioned that an actor in that story wasn't interested in the opposite sex.

I think he might've been a suspect on a female character's attack.

The '92 show would never have gone there.

I don't know why they don't use minority characters from the comics.

Firebug was created in 1979 as a black male foe. He even appeared in Who's Who for his 1 appearance to fill up the Firefly page (an early Batman foe who used light weapons).

Black Spider (another black foe) predated him by appearing in '76.

Dr. Tzin -Tzin (an Asian foe) appeared in the 1960s & they have Dr. Moon (another Asian foe who also battled Wonder Woman) & Sensei (Asian leader of the League of Assassins) from 1972).

They don't need to flip race or gender but just use the characters they have & in so many characters have never been seen out of the comic book medium.

The racism & sexism is in the power brokers who dismiss the existing female & racial minority characters from the 86-year Bat-family history.

Instead of a female Penguin (which I enjoyed), they could've brought on the female Clayface, Lady Spellbinder, Mime, Elemental Woman, Syonide 2, Magpie, Joker's Daughter, Red Witch, Honeysuckle, Queen Bee 2 (from a 60s Brave & Bold "team-up issue with Eclipso), Tiger Moth & her two female allies from Poison Ivy's first appearance back in the 60s.

Bruce Wayne also had plenty of girlfriends including Silver St. Cloud who I always thought was related to foe Sterling Silversmith in some way. Lots of missed opportunities with them too.

^ If they bring Maxie Zeus on board like they did in the 90s, they could add Diana & Nox from the early 1980s comics, but it seems like such a longshot dream for comic book fans.

R12 Well what’s interesting is Catwoman is one of the only major fictional characters who can either be white or biracial / black.

Eartha Kitt, Halle Berry, and Zoe Kravitz have played Catwoman and she was definitely black or biracial in Frank Miller’s Year One comic (she looks like Grace Jones).

She was actually supposed to be black in the second Batman movie before it was “Batman Returns”. Darren Aronofsky was also going to have a black Catwoman for his cancelled film in the 2000s before Nolan.

With all that said and what you said, it’s funny that she’s white in this TV series.

[quote] Bruce Wayne also had plenty of girlfriends including Silver St. Cloud who I always thought was related to foe Sterling Silversmith in some way. Lots of missed opportunities with them too.

They seem to be at a place where Bruce is figuring out the balance between being Bruce Wayne and being Batman. It’s really up until the episode with all the orphaned Robins that he’s just kind of cold. We don’t really start seeing the humanity until then. So it doesn’t surprise me that they didn’t give him a love interest, whether Silver, Talia, or Selena.

And not for nothing, Julie Madison, who was in at least the orphan episode actually was his first girlfriend, all the way back in the 40s.

Batman has a great track record with animation. Mask of the Phantasm and Batman Beyond are awesome, and I hate superhero stories.

I loved the 1990s' Batman animated series. Will check this out. Thank you to all the posters here.