Batman: Caped Crusader Review

August 06, 2024

Batman: Caped Crusader Review

Batman is easily one of the most recognizable superheroes of all time. He is in over 8,000 comics and starred in various TV shows. So many of the biggest actors in Hollywood have dawned the cowl. This past Thursday, August 1st, Batman added to his long list of TV shows with Batman: Caped Crusader.

Batman: Caped Crusader is not like most other DC character centered shows in the fact that this was not released on a Warner Brothers streaming service like Max. Instead, it was released on Amazon’s streaming service, Prime. There’s a whole lot of things that went into this,the main thing being Warner Brothers outright failure to be able to make quality DC content, but that’s for another time. Amazon having the show isn’t a bad thing either. They’ve done great with superhero centered shows; take Invincible and The Boys for example. They also have experience with other famous intellectual properties like The Wheel of Time and Lord of the Rings.

Billionaire and playboy Bruce Wayne dawns the mask of Batman as he begins his crusade with the goal to bring justice to the city of Gotham. He’ll form unexpected alliances and make enemies as he sees where his actions lead him.

Because this is a superhero show and all ten episodes did release at once, there will be a spoiler free section starting now. Starting off right away, this show is animated which can be a huge plus. The main reason for that is that animation allows the creators to do things in the show that simply would not be possible in live action. There can be crazier stunts, more unrealistic action, and characters can take a beating that a normal person would not be able to come close to taking. Animation also makes the audience have more of a sense of disbelief. In a live action show, there will always be more realism because people are able to see themselves in that.

Those are all great reasons for animation, but something about this show's animation was off. I was not the biggest fan of Batman’s suit, mainly his cowl and bat symbol, and I was never able to get truly used to it. I also just may be used to seeing Batman being armored up in The Dark Knight trilogy and The Batman. On top of the suit, the faces on all of the characters looked off. The eyes looked weird and honestly unsettling at times, especially on characters with blue eyes.

Now on to who is in charge of making this show, other than Amazon. Two executive producers on the show are the director of Mission: Impossible 3, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, JJ Abrams, and the director of The Batman, Matt Reeves. Abrams has had his hand in making some of the biggest movies in the last couple of years with also being a producer on every Mission: Impossible movie since he directed one. All of these movies are rated fairly well and I’d love to know what his insight was like on this show.

But with Matt Reeves it’s a little bit of a different story. As I noted before, Reeves directed 2022’s hit The Batman. Ever since the movie was released, Reeves has been a stand out in the DC world. It seems that he’s continuously trying to be involved in making Batman-related content, most notably with the now canceled show Arkham Asylum and a show that comes out in September, The Penguin. The interesting thing is that Reeves’ Batman universe doesn’t even take place in the main DC movie universe, but again, that’s something for another day.

There will be spoilers from here on out, so you have been warned. Batman: Caped Crusader takes place over ten 25 minute episodes and it’ll have you hooked right away. It’s a crime show and the best thing that it does is it is not a ten episode movie. That means that there is no overarching story, for the most part, and it has that feel of a TV show that you’d wake up and watch on a Saturday morning.

During the show it has Batman defeat nine different villains with heavy hitters like The Penguin, Catwoman, and most notably, Two-Face in a two episode finale. However, my favorite thing is that while it had those villains, it highlighted some more unlikely villains that haven’t had as much fame.

Three key villains that haven’t been showcased much were Natalia Knight, Firebug, and Gentleman Ghost. Natalia Knight gains her powers by taking what seems to be the life force of other children, Firebug burns a whole lot of things down and is often confused with Firefly, and Gentleman Ghost is a ghost from the Revolutionary War.

Of these three, Gentleman Ghost was my personal favorite. Something that I have always loved about Batman villains is they can’t always just be punched into oblivion. Batman has to try to find new ways to defeat them, whether it’s having someone help him or going to a vampire for advice. Gentleman Ghost provided that challenge to Batman. Since he’s a ghost, Batman is unable to touch him, so Batman finds another way. That came in the way of burning the original deed of the land that Gentleman Ghost lived on, while also taking the blood of, but not killing, an English nobleman, that being Alfred.

One villain that did not make a true appearance in the show was the Crown Prince of Crime, the Joker himself. While he was teased for season two at the end of the season, I liked his omission. It never felt like the show was avoiding using him. I believe that goes to show how well it did with the other villains. It uses them in such a way that you don't miss arguably one of the greatest villains of all time. With the tease of Joker at the end of the season, I find it funny how often this happens to Joker. He never made an appearance in Batman Begins but was teased with his calling card at the end of the movie. He also only made a brief appearance at the end of The Batman seemingly setting up him for the sequel. I don’t really mind the teases; I think it lets the audience speculate on how great this next Joker will be, and it definitely builds anticipation for the next season.

So much talk about villains so far, let’s get into the heroes of the story. Clearly there’s Batman, but alongside him are Police Commissioner Jim Gordon, Detective Renee Montoya, and Public Defender Barbra Gordon. Like any year one Batman story, these three heroes are constantly chasing after Batman, or even proving he exists, with everything they have. Jobs depend on whether Batman is caught or not. However, once Batman makes himself available to them, they turn a corner and see he is not that problem.

While yes it follows a stereotypical story of Batman, the allies he gains are crucial to his story. They’re often the ones who keep Batman in check, making sure he stands for justice. I’m excited to see where his allies take him in season two. I’d love to see more detective work with Jim Gordon or even Detective Montoya, even though there was a good amount of that in this season.

Overall, Batman: Caped Crusader was a very good show. It showed us heavy hitters in Gotham, but it also highlighted villains that the general public may not have heard of before. It also gave us a Batman who is a detective, something that has been missing for so long in mainstream Batman projects. Even though there was good, there was bad. The suit itself could’ve been done a little better, specifically the cowl and logo, and the animation style was a little odd at some points, but not awful by any means. With all of that said, Batman: Caped Crusader gets an 89/100.