It has become fashionable to diagnose modern audiences as chronically afflicted with “superhero fatigue”. There’s even a backlash against comic book parody, The Boys: superhero satire fatigue. Far from speaking to a wider malaise in the genre, however, much of this is attributable to the plunging quality of recent superhero movies – in particular, those belonging to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which hit the buffers following the departure of Robert Downey Jr (hence his imminent return as Doctor Doom).
Batman has had his issues too – and the character reached his nadir in the dire Justice League film from 2017, where he was played by a stonkingly morose Ben Affleck. Mercifully, the ghost of “Batfleck” is banished by the noirish cartoon Batman: Caped Crusader (Prime Video, from Thursday), a spiritual follow-up to the iconic 1990s Batman: The Animated Series, which has become integral to Bruce Wayne lore (giving the world the character of Harley Quinn, for instance). Holy reboot, Batman!
This is old-school Batman, and it is fantastic – despite the involvement, as co-producer, of serial franchise-ruiner JJ Abrams, still wearing figurative sackcloth and ashes following the dire Star Wars sequel Rise of Skywalker. It is set in the 1940s and has a wonderful diesel-punk sheen, with our caped hero brooding atop art-deco skyscrapers and zooming around in a Batmobile that looks like it was swiped from a Fritz Lang movie.
It’s great fun to boot. One episode, set on a murderous movie set, turns into a tribute to the Vincent Price adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum. Elsewhere, Batman tangles with a gender-flipped Penguin (a cackling Minnie Driver) while his millionaire alter-ego Bruce Wayne goes full trust-fund idiot. Oh and there’s no Robin – always a good sign in a Batman adaptation.
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Batman is voiced by Hamish Linklater, who portrays the character early in his career while he is still learning the crime-fighting ropes (in contrast to The Animated Series, which tracked his adventures as a veteran). The show also features Christina Ricci as Catwoman, while police Commissioner Gordon is played by Eric Morgan Stuart and his prosecutor daughter Barbara by Krystal Joy Brown. We also get a comparatively understated Harley Quinn from Jamie Chung.
Batman was a product of the noir era, having debuted in the March 1939 edition of Detective Comics. This moody, brooding take on the character is true to those roots and makes sure to give us that essential Batman scene where he and butler Alfred (Jason Watkins) put together the pieces of a puzzle back at the Batcave. Talk about playing all the hits.
It zips by, too. Each of the 10 episodes is less than 30 minutes but packs in twice as many thrills as the dire Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania or The Marvels. Batman famously cannot fly, but in this fun revival he takes to the air with aplomb. The best news? Amazon has already commissioned a second season – a delivery that can’t arrive soon enough.
