'Batman: Caped Crusader' Reanimates Batman-imation

In September 1992, Batman: The Animated Series premiered on the Fox Kids network. The TV show built off of the success of Tim Burton’s Batman, which ushered in a new wave of Batmania across the country when it was released in 1989. Created by Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski, Batman: The Animated Series ran for 85 episodes and was a groundbreaking success in superhero TV, forging a path for more DC Comics animated shows to follow: Superman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, Static Shock, Justice League, and (Batman) beyond.

Timm worked on almost all of these other terrific shows, but Batman: The Animated Series was the big bang that gave birth to the DC Animated Universe. Thanks to the show’s sharp writing, inventive art style (which combined film noir aesthetics with art deco imagery), and outstanding voice work from the likes of Kevin Conroy (as Batman), Mark Hamill (as Joker), and Arleen Sorkin (as Harley Quinn), it remains one of the most celebrated and beloved animated TV series ever made.

Almost 32 years after the first episode of Batman: The Animated Series aired, Timm is returning with yet another invitation into the animated world of Gotham’s Dark Knight: Batman: Caped Crusader.

The new Prime Video series, all 10 Season 1 episodes of which premiered on Thursday, was developed by Timm, along with executive producers J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves. That’s a pretty star-studded trio for one animated series; Timm and Reeves alone represent decades of Batman stories, with the latter filmmaker responsible for shepherding the current live-action saga that began with 2022’s The Batman. Not only that, but the show’s writing staff also features acclaimed comic-book veterans such as Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka, both of whom have had stints writing Detective Comics and other Batman-related titles.

Caped Crusader is far from the first—and nowhere near the last—portrayal of the prolific DC Comics character that was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger in 1939. Batman is so popular that, just later this year, two of his biggest villains are getting stand-alone stories: The Penguin premieres on Max in September, and Joker: Folie à Deux arrives in theaters in October. But Caped Crusader manages to provide a fresh spin on a ubiquitous hero by reimagining the characters around him and taking a modern approach to its storytelling.

Caped Crusader seeks to establish itself as a self-contained series, but it still leans on the legacy of its most iconic predecessor, drawing inspiration from the style and sensibilities of BTAS and exploring them further. The new show takes place in the 1940s, as a young Batman (voiced by Hamish Linklater) begins his crusade against crime in Gotham City. Caped Crusader borrows the same film noir inspirations as BTAS but roots its story in a time period that hews closer to the one the comic-book character was originally born into, long before computers or cellphones. The Dark Knight has fewer gadgets and allies than what we’ve grown accustomed to seeing, but the vigilante detective is still making mistakes as he attempts to root out the corruption that has spread from the city’s mob bosses to the cops in the Gotham City Police Department.

There’s a certain unavoidable familiarity with Caped Crusader that can be limiting in some ways, as many viewers will inevitably look to draw comparisons between it and BTAS. (Linklater, for one, does an admirable job voicing Batman and Bruce Wayne, but even he felt the tremendous pressure of honoring the legacy of the late Conroy.) However, that familiarity can be liberating in other respects, as the series uses well-established characters and story beats to subvert expectations.

Harley Quinn (voiced by Jamie Chung), who was cocreated by Timm in BTAS, is one of many characters whose origin, appearance, or demeanor has been altered in some way. Harley has branched out on her own in recent years, particularly in her popular animated series (which is about to enter its fifth season), and she’s no longer tethered to the Joker in Caped Crusader, either. Dr. Harleen Quinzel is still a psychiatrist, but not one who suddenly turns to villainy after falling for one of her Arkham Asylum patients. Instead, she slowly descends into a life of crime after becoming disillusioned by working with Gotham’s morally bankrupt elite. While Harleen Quinzel still displays some of the quirky characteristics that have often defined her, Harley Quinn is someone much scarier.

Courtesy of Prime Video

Quinzel’s villainous turn is indicative of the more grounded approach that Caped Crusader takes compared to previous animated Batman iterations. There are, of course, some supernatural or sci-fi elements now and then—this is still Batman, after all. But the series makes a point of showing how each villain has transformed into who they are, often in very human ways. Caped Crusader follows a fairly traditional episodic format, with each installment centering a new case, while threading together a larger narrative that builds to a satisfying conclusion by the end of the season. In some episodes, Batman’s screen time is reduced dramatically, making the surprise of his eventual emergence from the shadows more effective.

Even as each chapter focuses on the next villain or set of characters, such as the Penguin (voiced by Minnie Driver) or Clayface (voiced by Dan Donohue), the show also layers in a compelling examination of its title character. Not unlike how The Batman used Robert Pattinson’s Emo Batman as a perhaps more realistic rendering of how trauma would take root in a child who saw his parents murdered in front of him, Caped Crusader portrays Wayne’s childhood tragedy less as something he heroically overcomes than as a terrible event that fuels a terrifying obsession. Although it might not be the first Batman story to do so, the series does an especially good job of illustrating how the character’s real face isn’t Bruce Wayne’s, but the one that the criminals now fear.

Courtesy of Prime Video

Caped Crusader is much darker than BTAS, which is partially because the series was released in 2024 as opposed to 1992. As Timm discussed at the DC FanDome virtual event in 2021, Caped Crusader returns to the original principles of BTAS but also includes elements that he wasn’t allowed to incorporate the first time around. “There were certain limitations on what we could do [in BTAS] in terms of adult content, in terms of violence and adult themes,” Timm said. “My idea is basically to say, ‘OK, it’s 1990 again. I get to do what I want to do this time, and I got J.J. and Matt backing me up.’”

All that extra creative freedom shines through, especially in the show’s character explorations, such as how it conveys the duality that exists within Bruce Wayne and the more sinister one that grows within Harvey Dent (voiced by Diedrich Bader). Maybe more boldly than any original animated iteration before it, Caped Crusader presents the similarities between the two characters and illuminates how thin the line really is between Batman and the costumed criminals he fights.

In 2024, nostalgia plays are the lifeblood of Hollywood, and the idea of another Batman series may understandably sound exhausting to some. Caped Crusader isn’t even the first revival of a 1992 animated superhero series to come out this year. And yet, much like X-Men ’97 before it, Caped Crusader is a worthy successor to an exalted TV show that uses its predecessor as a blueprint while also tweaking and adding to its design to better fit the modern era.