The Batman Season 3 Succeeds

While I enjoyed the first 2 seasons of the new Batman show, I never quite latched onto it the way I did with the Bruce Timm/Eric Radomski incarnation from a decade back. There was something about that version that just struck a chord with me, I guess. Maybe it was all the noir elements, or the 30s Gothic design, but the new show never managed to capture that elegance or timelessness.

With the 3rd season of The Batman now, officially, halfway through it's run on Kids WB, I have to say that it's finally settling into it's own style of writing and design, choosing to skip the gimmicky 'look who we've redesigned now' motif in favour of attempting to add depth to the characeters and world of Gotham City. Heck, I've even gotten used to The Penguin (who happens to be in every second show and issue of the comic book series) and almost look forward to seeing he and The Joker vying for the Dark Knight's attention.

This season also saw the introduction of Batgirl to the cast of characters which is both a blessing and a curse. I'm not thrilled that they resorted to introducing a new Bat-themed characetr so early in Bruce's career, especially when it is in lieu of featuring older characetrs like Detective Yin, but they are handling Barbara/Batgirl with a great deal of class and are using the character as a foil for Bruce instead of just a 'let's breathe new life into this show' cast member. They also managed to tie her origin in with the creation of Poison Ivy which was well-handled and made for a nice two-part episode.

While I missed having the ol' Bats around, even if he was an occasional guest-star over on Justice League Unlimited, I'm happy to say that The Batman - after a couple of inconsistent years - has finally earned its place on the regular viewing rotation of animated shows. It'll never replace the Timm/Radomski Batman (or Batman Beyond, for that matter) but I'm happy to have it around.

mike