"Beware the Batman" in 2013! New Animated Series

This. Cartoon Network obviously has no interest in the kinds of DC shows people like us would be most interested in. The CW does (or at least did, I haven't checked lately) have a Sunday morning cartoon block where they showed old episodes of Justice League Unlimited, Spectacular Spider-Man, and some other stuff. If they decided to do original stuff as part of the block, a new DC series would fit in perfectly. They could just pair it up with JLU or even just replace it.

 

The first new episode aired last night, though it looks like my DVR missed the first 2-3 minutes for some reason (even though I had it set to start 2 minutes early) -- hopefully it'll show up via On Demand, but they're currently 2 weeks behind on that.

Anyway, "Attraction" (written by Len Wein) was pretty disappointing. It's the first return of Magpie, who was an engagingly written character the first time out, but here she was reduced to a stereotypical homicidally-jealous-lover female villain type, delusionally in love with Batman and determined to kill Katana, whom she sees as a rival. It's a real step down for her, and for the show's treatment of gender in general. Plus, maybe this was explained in the parts I missed, but why the hell did the prison let her wear her full supervillain costume? It's a trope I've seen in other comics and cartoons, but it never makes sense, and it was doubly nonsensical here since you'd think they'd want to take away all hints of Margaret Sorrow's homicidal alter ego. Oh, and also, what's with the coed prison accommodations? That didn't make sense either.

I'm also seeing more of the limitations of doing this show as 3D animation instead of 2D. The third act reused the abandoned hospital set from the first Magpie episode, which was justified as Magpie "returning to her nest," but just screamed "we can't afford to build too many locations so we have to reuse them." And the cemetery "set" was rather lacking in detail and didn't look good at all. In revisiting this show, I'm coming to recognize it's not one of the better-animated 3D cartoons on TV. The character designs are mostly pretty good (except Katana's legs are too absurdly skinny -- she looks like Jack Skellington sometimes), but the execution leaves something to be desired.

 

Fuck! I didn't record it because I thought it was still reruns!

 

My DVR missed the series recording for some reason. Checked next week and it says episode 13 airs next week and I see Adult Swim On Demand has 8-12 available for viewing. Crazy.

EDIT: Whoops, never mind, think I'm getting my wires crossed with Korra or something. I was thinking Batman had 13 eps total but that's not the case.

EDIT2: Good news is that the episode is On Demand.

 

Enjoy CW while it lasts. They are ending the Saturday morning toon block on September 27; it's going to be replaced by edmucational programs.

 

Damn. I didn't realize this was actually coming back. I'll have to see if I can find the episode online.

 

CW has a cartoon block?

 

When were you intending CW to air those DC cartoons?

 

These unaired episodes have obviously been streaming somewhere, since the whole series of 26 episodes has been available nefariously for quite a while now.

ETA: It's Amazon Prime UK, you can watch the whole 26 episodes there.

 

"Fall" was a vastly better episode than "Attraction." A strong character-driven story with some interesting insights into Bruce and Alfred, some good flashbacks into the characters' pasts, and effectively choreographed (if still somewhat weakly animated) action in the present. Plus we get the introduction of Ra's al Ghul, effectively played by Lance Reddick. And a cliffhanger ending too!

A note: Young Bruce Wayne was played by Jason Marsden, the same actor who played young Clark Kent in Superman: The Animated Series. I believe that makes him the only actor to have played both Superman and Batman (technically) in professional productions. (Not counting various episodes where, say, Kevin Conroy or Diedrich Bader has played Superman impersonating Batman's voice.) He's certainly the only actor to have played Superman, Batman, and Robin, since in Back to the Batcave he played Burt Ward playing Robin, and he played the Hanna-Barbera Robin on The Brave and the Bold. (He's also played Snapper Carr, Firefly, Thomas Wayne, Speedy, the Atom, Impulse, and original DC-animation heroes and villains including Gear on Static Shock.)

 

Got my DVR co-operating this time, I guess this episode was supposed to be the first season finale. Nice cliffhanger. I liked the fact that Alfred didn't even try to save Bats since he knew he was completely outclassed.

 

If you stretch it in that way, you also have Ben Affleck.

 

Well, it's the midseason cliffhanger, episode 13 out of the 26-episode season. I'm not sure whether the plan was to spread out the season across two broadcast years, though that seems like something Cartoon Network would've done. In any case, it is the concluding episode on the first DVD volume.

Okay, he's played George Reeves playing Superman as well as playing Batman. But has he ever played Robin, or anyone playing Robin?

 

Though it wouldn't be the first one they did they felt like a season ender.

Green Lantern the Animated series did the same thing when they had the whole epic conclusion the the Red Lanters plot being the mid season ender, and the other half of the season feeling like it was a second season.

 

I checked the other day to see if the new episodes were online, and they don't even have the show on the Cartoon Network website anymore. I guess I'll have to wait to either stream or rent the DVDs/Blu-Rays from Netflix.

 

Anyone still following the new episodes? This week's episode, by Greg Weisman, touched on Batman's origin, showing a flashback to Crime Alley, and they made the mistake that (as an article I recently read pointed out) a lot of adaptations make, including the upcoming Gotham: namely, depicting Crime Alley as a literal alley with dumpsters and everything, raising puzzling questions about why a super-rich couple would need to take their kid through a dark alley instead of just having a limo waiting for them right outside the movie theater. "Crime Alley" is actually supposed to be a nickname for Park Row, which was an upscale street at the time of the Wayne murders but has gone severely downhill since then.

Anyway, it wasn't one of the better depictions of the event I've seen, since it kind of highlighted the limited expressiveness of the 3D characters. The slow motion only made it worse, the figures more static and robotic. I hadn't realized how much the show was depending on the voice work to convey emotion.

 

Frankly I don't understand why Bruce wouldn't want all that bulldozed with something more friendly in its place. The murder of his parents weren't the only crimes carried out there.

Then too--this give credence to the idea that the Bat sometimes needs to be in Arkham more than anyone else.

 

Presumably it's more about preserving the community, the people who live there and consider it their home. The gentrification issues would've come off better, though, if the endangered citizens had been portrayed as ethnic minorities. (The sign outside the shop said "Bodega," but that was the only hint of anything Latin American that I noted.)

Anyway, Batman did say that he/Bruce hasn't done enough to prevent the deterioration/victimization of Old Gotham. So maybe he'd like to redevelop it (hopefully in a way that would benefit the existing populace rather than just shoving them aside) but has been too distracted by being Batman to do enough good as Bruce Wayne.