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The latest Batman animated series, Batman: Caped Crusader, is on Amazon Prime. Is it a spiritual successor to the legendary Batman TAS?
This review is a little different from others because we will look at the entire series rather than a single episode. 10 episodes were released all at once.
Batman: Caped Crusader was announced a few years ago, long before the WBD merger and the hiring of James Gunn as DC’s Kevin Feige. You may remember that DC projects were scrapped during that merger, including the Batgirl movie.
You can check out individual episode reviews here.
The Good
- The Cast – Hamish Linklater nails it as Batman without sounding like he’s doing a Kevin Conroy impression
- The setting – The classic noir environment feels fresh, yet still nostalgic
- Batman himself – Batman has long been referred to as The World’s Greatest Detective, which is a vibe rarely depicted outside of comics
- Several episodes were written by actual comic writers
The Bad
- Gender-swapping Penguin is stupid
- Harley Quinn is nothing like her comic book or animated counterparts and seems out of place with no Joker around
Overall, this is a very solid Batman adaption. Sure, there are other liberties with characters, such as a black Commissioner Gordon, but those don’t stick out nearly as much as the changes to Penguin and Harley Quinn