The Batman Strikes Back!

I'm right in the middle of watching the last three episodes of Warner Bros. new animated Batman series, The Batman. I had some trouble getting into the earlier episodes - the first 10 episodes, to be perfectly honest - mostly because of some of the revisions they made to Batman's rogues gallery. Characetrs like Scarface, Mr. Freeze, The Penguin and even The Joker are pretty strong departures from what we've come to expect from, not only their comic book incarnations, but their animated ones as well.

There's something about these last three eps, though, that just has me, officially, hooked on the show. It's like the storytelling that made the previous animated Batman so strong and amazing has finally seeped into this series and taken off like a bullet train. The final scene in the season finale "Clayface of Tragedy" just had me excited to be watching again. It was all character bits and nuanced and well done. I don't know if the writer, Greg Weisman, or the episode's director is to credit with that, but it works. Bats is now my fave animated DC show next to the Teen Titans, so I say bring on season 2 anytime, WB. Bring on The Batman!

The comic version of the show is also showing some promise as of issue #4. Up until now, every Batman comic series based in/on the animated universe has been a must buy/must read sort of thing but that changed with the launch of The Batman Strikes! The artwork is great, and really captures the look of the show, but the stories have tended to be dull and formulaic (not unlike the television series, I guess), and have featured many of the characters from the first episodes of the show. Now that I think about it, that could have been at the root of my problem with The Batman Strikes!

Another plus of the comics are the covers by Jeff Matsuda which are to die for! I'm including a pic of the 6th issue's cover down below as an example. Looking forward to this ish...



mike