Batman S2: Comp

The second season of KidsWB's new The Batman series is much improved over the first season. The show seems more confident of its identity now, and knows how to deliver exciting, fun, stories with less emphasis on outright pandering to the kiddie demographic. Notable episodes include the introduction of the Riddler, Hugo Strange, and a new take on the Solomon Grundy legend. Patrick Warburton makes a fun guest appearance as Yin's new partner, and Joker even dons the cape and cowl to fight crime for an episode. Ragdoll and Spellbinder's appearances make best use of the show's visual energy, and the season finale marks the introduction of a classic Batman supporting character and the setup for season 3. Best of all, there is a dramatic Clayface story that really makes viewers feel for this tragic villain in the vein of the old B:TAS series.

Among other fixes: The new Joker finally comes into his own, and Alfred ditches his nagging, season 1 attitude. Yin has more to do as Batman's partner, and the overall acting is much better from everyone. Penguin and Freeze still do nothing for me, but even they seem slightly improved from their season 1 offerings.

Season 2 of The Batman works for me. It's still not a deep show, but there's finally enough right here that I can enjoy the episodes without constantly making the B:TAS comparisons. Try this set, and you might find yourself having fun too. Recommended.

The first season of The Batman is a very good example of what happens when a new team arrives, finally taking over from the twelve to fifteen year era of Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Ted Blackman, and Eric Randoski, and find themselves struggling with the dubious task of living up to the legacy of Batman: The Animated Series.

Their early efforts were met with more than a large dose of criticism, the first season led to The Batman being considered one of the most blatantly childish toy commercials ever produced, a Joker that seemed to resemble Goku addicted to Brand X and with a lousy Mark Hamil impersonator, a bland Year One attempt at The Batman's early life, complete with his being pursued by the GPD and the relentless Ellen Yin and her partner Bennet (an ally of The Batman) which seemingly never came close to living up to the standards of GPD/Batman battles seen in Year One or The Dark Knight Returns, and lousy throwbacks to the classic Tim Burton movie designs of Catwoman and Penguin just when the New Batman Adventures had finally liberated those characters from those constraints.

Fortunatly, salvation came in the first season finale, which shook up the series' status quoe in a major way, paving the way clear for what would become The Batman's finest season so far. A little more experianced, and with a few great writers such as Greg Wiesman (creator of Gargoyles) helping out, the second season goes forward with a darker edge, and even improved vastly on some of Batman's rouges gallery.

The epsiodes included on this DVD include "Meltdown", an emotional and action ridden epilouge to the season one finale that sees Batman's close freind Bennet finally decide on where his career as Clayface will take him as his thirst for vengeance against The Joker drives him to near murder.

The dark tone of the show continues with "Riddled", which reinterprets and redefines the character of The Riddler, transforming him from a small, bowler hatted puzzle meister into a Marilon Manson-inspired gothic master of mysterious metaphores, whose ambitious attempts to unmask Batman threaten Gotham City with destruction whenever Batman and Yin are forced to solve his riddles and get closer to him. The Riddler is immediatly elevated here from B-level villain to a nemesis worthy of The Batman's attention, and he plays a large role in the second season finale.

The Joker's deranged personality is given a look at in the brooding "Strange Minds", featuring the late Frank Goz as Professor Hugo Strange, another old school Batman enemy who will become more important in the third season. The episode is as close as the show's ever gotten to emulating the tone of the Bruce Timm series and is highly recommended. The season ends with "Night and the City", which again shakes up the staus quoe and introduces Commisioner Gordon to the series. Given I'm not the biggest fan of season three, I can only caution you folks to relish as much screen time as Gordon gets here...its' the only time he's done justice so far in this series.

As an action peice, the episode paces itself tremendously, and there's a few twists and turns that unfold as Batman battles The Joker, The Penguin, and The Riddler as they seek to unmask him and take Gotham City itself prisoner. It's a finale worthy of a Bruce Timm product

The flaws regarding the second season are as obvious as the first...Yin practically goes from being a potentially interesting nemesis for Bruce with utterly squandered potential to an ally for The Batman with utterly squandered potential, she takes more of a back seat and becomes a "damsel in distress" in several episodes, sometimes in a fitting way, sometimes in ways that insult her previous track record.

Another flaw is the tremendous amount of Joker based episodes, the character was overused in the first season and he suffers here also, fortunatly this time he has two classic episodes ("Strange Minds" and "The Laughing Bat") that truley captures the roots of the character for the first time since the series began.

That aside, The Penguin and Catwoman have not improved, in fact their characters suffer from being general wallpaper with nothing of note to bounce off on, "Ragdolls to Riches" is a poor example of this, as Selina plays second fiddle to Ragdoll and nothing is made of Selina's visit to Wayne Manor, neither is an attempt to follow up on some of the subtle moments between Selina and Bruce, once more The Batman's self-contained nature betrays it's potential.

The Batman is one of the most debated Batman animated series yet, it has it's fans, and it has it's haters, I count myself as not much of a fan of this series, but I am objective enough to know when a show is trying to improve, and this is one example of this. Just avoid the first and third seasons

O.K., I get that some people don't like this version of Batman. I also grew up watching Batman the Animated Series and I was elated when they became available on DVD.

So when I learned that the WB was going to start up a new Batman series, I was excited. I watched the series premiere with great anticipation and was, for the most part, ambivalent about it. I caught most of the episodes of the first season, and while I was glad that Batman was back on T.V., it didn't really evoke the same kind of feeling that BTAS had.

Then I saw the two part series finale of season 1, which focuses on the origin of the new Clayface. Here we finally got a glimpse of what this new creative team is capable of when they put some real effort into their storytelling. And this trend continued into season 2.

People will make their comparisons to the original series. Hey, that's only natrual. I've been interested in anything Batman since I was a kid. I'm old enough to have seen the campy T.V. series. I've read the comics throughout the years and even watched the some of the horrible movies they've put out there. But I think that some people fall into the trap of nostalgia when they compare this series to BTAS. People tend to gloss over the not so pretty parts and claim that everything was so much better way back when. Batman the animated series was great, no argument there.

But I also think that this new series really has it's place in the annuals of Batman. It offers a new take on old villans. One reviewer called it Ultimate Batman (for those of you who are familiar with Marvel comics' Ultimate line), and I think that's a pretty good way of looking at it. And, I'm sorry, but Strange Minds, and a few other episodes from season 2 stand up very nicely when compared to stuff from BTAS. Season 4 premiered with an episode about the origin of the new Robin which was excellent. While Batman is hunting down the criminals responsible for the death of Richard Grayson's parents he wipes out an entire bar full of baddies and tells the last one still conscious, "Tell him I'm coming for him, tell them all I coming for them." We see the guy hanging from the ceiling by his feet, as he is trembling at the sight of Batman's eyes through the dark, smoke-filled room. To my recollection, this might be the best moment in Batman's animated history.

Some people are going to disagree with me, but before you dismiss this series, I suggust that you give it a look and decide for yourself.

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