There is so much that doesn’t make sense about Batman: Caped Crusader. Modelled after the seminal Batman: The Animated Series with returning showrunner and producer Bruce Timm as well as J.J. Abrams as the producer, there are times when Caped Crusader feels so much a spiritual successor and there are other times when it honestly feels like they were told by the big wigs at Amazon that there wouldn’t be a third season and to just go bananas…and so they did.
The most baffling decision is why anyone would introduce key Batman characters only to summarily kill them off with no real way of bringing them back later. It is not like they fell overboard after a climactic fight with the Dark Knight and disappeared, their bodies never recovered. We have all seen how that formula plays out in so many superhero shows, movies and comics. After investing so much time in one of these characters in particular their death comes off as just killing off characters for the shock and awe, as the showrunners did with The Walking Dead to the point that fans didn’t see the point in sticking with the characters and their stories.
This is an Elseworlds take on Batman, like the Noir treatment that Spider-Man, Iron Man and other heroes received, so our minds should be more accepting and open to change based on that but like the first season there is far too much “change for the sake of change” going on and even more female vengeance arcs which when it comes to Batman they have worn out their welcome a long time ago. It is lazy, antiquated storytelling.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t some good stories here. There are some that would have fit very well in the Batman: The Animated Series mix. Zero Hour – No, not that DC Zero Hour – has a clever tween crime fighter inspired by The Grey Ghost giving Batman a helping hand whether he likes it or not. There is another episode about a vindictive rocketeer and one about a cult inspired by the Batman himself which has the Caped Crusader pondering the influence of his bat motif, symbolism on others.
The very worst though is the over-arching storyline which culminates in the introduction of The Joker, which is so awful it is embarrassingly bad. Like the different sides of Two-Face’s coin, The Caped Crusader’s Joker is the absolute opposite of the laughing lunatic we have all come to loathe and love. Dressed in a long trench coat, wide-brimmed fedora as he did sometimes in Batman: The Animated Series, this Joker may have a white face and green hair but he has no sense of humour at all. He doesn’t make grisly jokes. He doesn’t smile or snicker. He is stone cold serious all the freakin’ time.
During their first encounter Batman leaps in front of him so he cannot get away.
“You are in my way,” says The Joker in a deadpan voice before firing a shotgun and then continuing on, not rushing or hurrying.
What we were expecting him to say was: “I hate awkward interruptions” or “I would tell you to move but you are committed to the whole brooding statue thing.” That’s The Joker not whatever this is.
I don’t know who this is but isn’t Jack Napier. They have replaced Mark Hamill or Kevin Michael Richardson with Rutger Hauer or Michael Madsen.
This Joker also likes to quote famous literature and for some reason has a pronounced European accent. He looks like a silent film villain and he sounds ridiculous. What his gas or venom does turning the finale into a Night of the Living Dead rip-off is over-the-top silly even for an animated series.
Echoing the first season, this series has its moments but the creators keep getting in their own way with needless tinkering and their unwillingness to decide whether their show is for kids, teens or mature audiences. Its tone is all over the place. Like Marvel’s Spider-Man Unlimited, The Cape Crusader will be remembered as a failed experiment, a take on classic characters that nobody wanted or needed.
Binge News 