BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER: SEASON ONE
Starring: Hamish Linklater, Diedrich Bader, Jason Watkins, Krystal Joy Brown, Eric Morgan Stuart, Gary Anthony Williams, John DiMaggio, Michelle C. Bonilla, and Cedric Yarbrough
Creators: Bob Kane and Bruce Timm
AMARÚ
Batman: Caped Crusader runs the risk of being nothing more than another rehash of Bruce Wayne’s vigilante origins, but the deference appointed to his rogues gallery and associates makes this a fresh approach to familiar material. Plus, leaning hard on Gotham’s darker side of criminality, corruption, and crazy helps to make the more campy aspects of its script feel right at home within the show’s noir setting. Crusader is a true showcase of DC’s number one detective, excellently balancing the dangerous stakes, existential dialogue, hard-nosed characters, and deep roster that makes Batman so compelling.
QUENTIN
For my money, Batman: The Animated Series is the best on-screen representation of The Dark Knight, and although Caped Crusader doesn’t carry the torch quite as well as X-Men ’97 did for X-Men: The Animated Series, it gets more than enough right by successfully blending nostalgia with fresh ideas. The hard-boiled, dark-noir approach to rich storytelling and the 1940s art deco design work perfectly to capture the old-school Detective Comics vibe, and there are several interesting twists on Batman’s mythos to prevent it from feeling like yet another rehash. Overall, a worthy and atmospheric successor to Bruce Timm’s 90s classic. Now, give us Joker, please.
