"Batman: Caped Crusader (Amazon Prime)" Animated Series News & Discussion Part 2 (Spoilers)

[Otaku-sempai]

I wonder if BT would want to do that, or if he feels he already scratched that itch with the 80th anniversary short he did featuring Hugo Strange and his Monster Men.

Thanks for reminding me about that short! I'm going to want to look at some of the other early Hugo Strange stories, though maybe Strange could be combined with the character of Dr. Death.

 

[Frontier]

It would be interesting if the show used Hugo Strange in a stranger, more fantastical way than Batman TAS. As in, creating Monster Men instead of a machine that reads people's minds.

I could also see this show playing into Hugo Strange figuring out Bruce is Batman and all the psychological drama that would be born from that more than B:TAS did.

 

[M.O.D.O.K.]

I could also see this show playing into Hugo Strange figuring out Bruce is Batman and all the psychological drama that would be born from that more than B:TAS did.

Yeah, I feel that's something that's been missing from all of Strange's adaptations in other media. It's only implied in Arkham City and he becomes catatonic before finding out his identity in The Batman. It'd be cool to finally see him as the dangerous creep he's been in the comics.

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

Empire Magazine interview with Bruce Timm... the full story/interview will be available on July 4th.

''Batman: Caped Crusader is like "Batman: Week Two".

 

[Frontier]

Empire Magazine interview with Bruce Timm... the full story/interview will be available on July 4th.

''Batman: Caped Crusader is like "Batman: Week Two".

It's always Batman Year Two, now it's Batman Week Two .

"That even extends to one of the Bat’s closest allies – faithful butler, Alfred. “He weaponises Alfred,” Timm says of this Bruce Wayne. “He’s not Batman’s surrogate father anymore. He’s a guy that’s going to enable him to fight crime. That’s how focused [Bruce] is.' - And here I thought Alfred would be the one thing that humanizes him...

 

[RoyalRubble]

IGN revealed a few more voice roles and character descriptions.

Joining the cast as Batman’s closest allies are Jason Watkins as Alfred Pennyworth, Eric Morgan Stuart as Commissioner Jim Gordon, Krystal Joy Brown as Barbara Gordon, Michelle C. Bonilla as Renee Montoya, and Bumper Robinson as Lucius Fox.

ALFRED PENNYWORTH
Bruce Wayne’s loyal and invaluable aide. The one person who has a window into the man behind the mask.

BARBARA GORDON
Raised with a strong sense of justice and right and wrong by her police commissioner father, Barbara grew disillusioned with the corruption in the police force and went into Law instead. She’s currently an over-worked, under-paid Public Defender.

COMMISSIONER JIM GORDON
Former beat cop close to retirement, Gordon was hired to play along with the corrupt system and run out the clock till he can draw a pension. But they’ve sorely underestimated Jim Gordon. His unassailable character brings him into conflict with dirty cops and crooked politicians, alike. Not to mention he has to reckon with a deranged vigilante beating up Gotham’s criminals.

DETECTIVE RENEE MONTOYA
Detective Renee Montoya grew up in Gotham City and believes it’s her obligation to change her city for the better. She looks up to Commissioner Gordon as a mentor and he views her as a rare and trustworthy ally in the corrupt department. Though at first, she doesn’t trust the masked vigilante, Montoya gradually becomes a member of Batman’s inner-circle of semi-reluctant allies.

 

[Frontier]

IGN revealed a few more voice roles and character descriptions.

Joining the cast as Batman’s closest allies are Jason Watkins as Alfred Pennyworth, Eric Morgan Stuart as Commissioner Jim Gordon, Krystal Joy Brown as Barbara Gordon, Michelle C. Bonilla as Renee Montoya, and Bumper Robinson as Lucius Fox.

ALFRED PENNYWORTH
Bruce Wayne’s loyal and invaluable aide. The one person who has a window into the man behind the mask.

BARBARA GORDON
Raised with a strong sense of justice and right and wrong by her police commissioner father, Barbara grew disillusioned with the corruption in the police force and went into Law instead. She’s currently an over-worked, under-paid Public Defender.

COMMISSIONER JIM GORDON
Former beat cop close to retirement, Gordon was hired to play along with the corrupt system and run out the clock till he can draw a pension. But they’ve sorely underestimated Jim Gordon. His unassailable character brings him into conflict with dirty cops and crooked politicians, alike. Not to mention he has to reckon with a deranged vigilante beating up Gotham’s criminals.

DETECTIVE RENEE MONTOYA
Detective Renee Montoya grew up in Gotham City and believes it’s her obligation to change her city for the better. She looks up to Commissioner Gordon as a mentor and he views her as a rare and trustworthy ally in the corrupt department. Though at first, she doesn’t trust the masked vigilante, Montoya gradually becomes a member of Batman’s inner-circle of semi-reluctant allies.

Lawyer Babs is a new one. I wonder if she'll have any scenes with Harvey .

 

[Revelator]

It's always Batman Year Two, now it's Batman Week Two .

To be fair, Year Two was a story Mike W. Barr had devised years before DC decided to run it and slap on the Year Two label to cash in on Year One. It wasn't a proper Year Two story, whereas Caped Crusader seems to be.

 

[Otaku-sempai]

I do wonder whether Bruce might encounter a young aerialist in Season 2?

 

[Frontier]

To be fair, Year Two was a story Mike W. Barr had devised years before DC decided to run it and slap on the Year Two label to cash in on Year One. It wasn't a proper Year Two story, whereas Caped Crusader seems to be.

I know, I was just talking in the sense that a lot of Batman media start from him being more or less Year Two where he's more established and experienced but not to the point where most of his Rogues have shown up. I feel like this was true for The Batman (cartoon and movie), Beware, Telltale, etc.

I do wonder whether Bruce might encounter a young aerialist in Season 2?

I was wondering who Haley Joel Osment might be playing but honestly I have a hard time seeing Dick/Robin working with this interpretation of Batman.

They've set him up as someone who is so focused on the mission, to an inhuman degree, and doesn't really emotionally connect with people or act, well, like a normal human person when he's not faking it in public so I have a hard time seeing them have him adopt someone who just lost his parents because that would humanize him too much (and adopting Dick to turn him into a child soldier from the get go would probably be too much for even this show).

I feel like what is more likely is a kid or young adult donning their own costume in inspiration of Batman and forcing themselves into his crime-fighting crusade. That might end up being what they do with Babs like per usual with her.

 

[M.O.D.O.K.]

IGN revealed a few more voice roles and character descriptions.

Joining the cast as Batman’s closest allies are Jason Watkins as Alfred Pennyworth, Eric Morgan Stuart as Commissioner Jim Gordon, Krystal Joy Brown as Barbara Gordon, Michelle C. Bonilla as Renee Montoya, and Bumper Robinson as Lucius Fox.

ALFRED PENNYWORTH
Bruce Wayne’s loyal and invaluable aide. The one person who has a window into the man behind the mask.

BARBARA GORDON
Raised with a strong sense of justice and right and wrong by her police commissioner father, Barbara grew disillusioned with the corruption in the police force and went into Law instead. She’s currently an over-worked, under-paid Public Defender.

COMMISSIONER JIM GORDON
Former beat cop close to retirement, Gordon was hired to play along with the corrupt system and run out the clock till he can draw a pension. But they’ve sorely underestimated Jim Gordon. His unassailable character brings him into conflict with dirty cops and crooked politicians, alike. Not to mention he has to reckon with a deranged vigilante beating up Gotham’s criminals.

DETECTIVE RENEE MONTOYA
Detective Renee Montoya grew up in Gotham City and believes it’s her obligation to change her city for the better. She looks up to Commissioner Gordon as a mentor and he views her as a rare and trustworthy ally in the corrupt department. Though at first, she doesn’t trust the masked vigilante, Montoya gradually becomes a member of Batman’s inner-circle of semi-reluctant allies.

It's always nice to see a show acknowledge Lucius Fox.

I always prefer Barbara being a librarian, but a public defender fits her character just fine.

 

[Otaku-sempai]

I was wondering who Haley Joel Osment might be playing but honestly I have a hard time seeing Dick/Robin working with this interpretation of Batman.

They've set him up as someone who is so focused on the mission, to an inhuman degree, and doesn't really emotionally connect with people or act, well, like a normal human person when he's not faking it in public so I have a hard time seeing them have him adopt someone who just lost his parents because that would humanize him too much (and adopting Dick to turn him into a child soldier from the get go would probably be too much for even this show).

I feel like what is more likely is a kid or young adult donning their own costume in inspiration of Batman and forcing themselves into his crime-fighting crusade. That might end up being what they do with Babs like per usual with her.

I'll note that Robin was originally introduced before Alfred, who was more of a comedy-relief character at first. whereas this Alfred seems much less so. Still, I could see Dick being brought in eventually to humanize Batman a bit.

 

[Revelator]

Bill Finger once noted that Robin was created because Batman "needed someone to talk to." Alfred afterward came along as part of a 40s trend for humorous sidekicks, but decades later, when Robin went off to college, the now serious-Alfred stepped into the role of the person Batman could talk to. That's why so many 70s and 80s stories could do without Robin, and it's partly why BTAS got away with not using him in a majority of the first season episodes.

So I don't think the new show will feel the need to introduce Robin anytime soon. He would inevitably disrupt the 1939-era atmosphere, which is based on the pre-Robin Batman comics. Or as Finger remarked, "You can't have a kid named Robin, with a colorful Robin Hood costume, running around in the night shadows; somehow it doesn't jibe." And he definitely wouldn't jibe with the '39 version of Batman in Caped Crusader.

 

[Yojimbo]

I do wonder whether Bruce might encounter a young aerialist in Season 2?

I'd rather see the show's take on a 1940s film noir Vic Sage but I'm fine with them sticking to Batman being the only costume on the planet.

 

[Frontier]

It's always nice to see a show acknowledge Lucius Fox.

It also means we'll check in on Wayne Enterprises, I would assume, though I doubt Bruce is running the company at all beyond using the tech as Batman.

Bumper Robinson voicing him also makes me wonder how much older than Bruce he is here.

I always prefer Barbara being a librarian, but a public defender fits her character just fine.

It's going to be funny if she becomes a vigilante because then she's just Laurel Lance from Arrow .

Bill Finger once noted that Robin was created because Batman "needed someone to talk to." Alfred afterward came along as part of a 40s trend for humorous sidekicks, but decades later, when Robin went off to college, the now serious-Alfred stepped into the role of the person Batman could talk to. That's why so many 70s and 80s stories could do without Robin, and it's partly why BTAS got away with not using him in a majority of the first season episodes.

So I don't think the new show will feel the need to introduce Robin anytime soon. He would inevitably disrupt the 1939-era atmosphere, which is based on the pre-Robin Batman comics. Or as Finger remarked, "You can't have a kid named Robin, with a colorful Robin Hood costume, running around in the night shadows; somehow it doesn't jibe." And he definitely wouldn't jibe with the '39 version of Batman in Caped Crusader.

With Robin you get Batman the mentor, Batman the partner, Batman the inspiration, and Batman the father which is not something you can really get with Alfred. He's also, like it or not, a foundational element to Golden Age Batman and his development as a character.

But, again, he probably would not fit with the more dysfunctional and cold nature of this Batman. Though I feel like Robin has more versatility than people often give him credit for.

 

[Rick Jones]

I was wondering who Haley Joel Osment might be playing but honestly I have a hard time seeing Dick/Robin working with this interpretation of Batman.

They've set him up as someone who is so focused on the mission, to an inhuman degree, and doesn't really emotionally connect with people or act, well, like a normal human person when he's not faking it in public so I have a hard time seeing them have him adopt someone who just lost his parents because that would humanize him too much (and adopting Dick to turn him into a child soldier from the get go would probably be too much for even this show).

I feel like what is more likely is a kid or young adult donning their own costume in inspiration of Batman and forcing themselves into his crime-fighting crusade. That might end up being what they do with Babs like per usual with her.

You have me imagining an All-Star Batman type of scenario now, which would be very wild.

I'd rather see the show's take on a 1940s film noir Vic Sage but I'm fine with them sticking to Batman being the only costume on the planet.

I had the original Sandman on my mind because of the Vertigo thread, and I can totally picture a hero like that as a contemporary.

If they brought in a real Cape type, I think Alan Scott could be cool. I think back to the Hush comics, when Jim Lee did this watercolor sequence of young Bruce seeing Alan Scott in action as Green Lantern. I wasn't much of a fan before that but just that scene with the right colors and everything, had me seeing him as a much cooler and more majestic hero of that era.

 

[Karkull]

According to IGN, Bruce Timm has no interest in an expanding Caped Crusader-verse. "I'll just say that the current plans are for there to not be any other costume superheroes in this world. At all." That said, James Tucker was a little more open to the concept: "[T]his is 10 episodes so far. If we get to 100 or however many BTAS got to, then maybe yeah, who knows?"

If -- IF -- they were to eventually add guest stars, I'd keep it sparse, like on BTAS. Maybe the Question or the Golden Age Sandman (Wesley Dodds). Perhaps they could finally do that Catwoman / Black Canary team-up that was talked about decades ago. And I'd dig seeing a team-up with Superman ... but it has to be the Fleischer Superman, using those vintage designs from the days of STAS pre-production.

Again, not getting my hopes up. Just think it would be cool.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

"That even extends to one of the Bat’s closest allies – faithful butler, Alfred. “He weaponises Alfred,” Timm says of this Bruce Wayne. “He’s not Batman’s surrogate father anymore. He’s a guy that’s going to enable him to fight crime. That’s how focused [Bruce] is.' - And here I thought Alfred would be the one thing that humanizes him...

So I'm guessing they're once again going with the Golden/Silver/Bronze Age status quo, where Alfred didn't start working for Bruce Wayne until Bruce was an adult who'd already started his career as Batman. (Still confirmed as in continuity as late as 1981's The Untold Legend of the Batman miniseries by Len Wein and Jim Aparo.)

The whole "Alfred was the family butler who raised Bruce after his parents were murdered" concept wasn't introduced until Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli did Batman: Year One in 1987. (Although I think Miller might've hinted at it in The Dark Knight Returns first, as he conceived a lot of B:YO as backstory for TDKR.)

Lawyer Babs is a new one. I wonder if she'll have any scenes with Harvey .

Barbara being a lawyer actually has precedent in the comics. When Bruce Wayne was falsely imprisoned in the 2002 Bruce Wayne: Murderer? / Bruce Wayne: Fugitive storyline, Barbara revealed to Bruce that she'd actually gotten her law degree online during some of her downtime. She said something along the lines of "It turns out it was mostly stuff I already knew." This was when they started playing Barbara as a genius in multiple disciplines, and not just an ex-Batgirl who was good at computers.

To be fair, Year Two was a story Mike W. Barr had devised years before DC decided to run it and slap on the Year Two label to cash in on Year One. It wasn't a proper Year Two story, whereas Caped Crusader seems to be.

Yeah, Barr originally conceived Batman: Year Two as a prequel story called Batman: 1980, which he reconfigured into B:YT around the time Miller & Mazzucchelli were doing Batman: Year One. Barr and Miller exchanged a lot of Batman ideas with each other in the early 80s. (Originally, the plan was that Year One and Year Two were going to be released at the same time, before someone at DC sensibly suggested that it's make more sense to release B:YT after B:YO finished up.)

I asked Mike W. Barr how his original Batman: 1980 pitch was different from how Batman: Year Two turned out back when I interviewed him and Alan Davis about their 1980s Detective Comics run for 2014's BACK ISSUE #73, but he said he no longer remembered.

I don't really know what you mean when you say it "wasn't a proper Year Two story," though. Like I said, it was always meant as a prequel story. Yeah, it doesn't jibe with the ending of Year One in a big way, but it was always meant as a "Batman in the early period of his career" story. That's why a lot of the story concerns Batman using a gun. (And in fact, DC trying to make the gun in B:YT match the one shown in one panel of B:YO was what ultimately led artist Alan Davis quitting Detective Comics. Davis tells the full story in his Modern Masters volume and in BI #73.)

According to IGN, Bruce Timm has no interest in an expanding Caped Crusader-verse. "I'll just say that the current plans are for there to not be any other costume superheroes in this world. At all." That said, James Tucker was a little more open to the concept: "[T]his is 10 episodes so far. If we get to 100 or however many BTAS got to, then maybe yeah, who knows?"

If -- IF -- they were to eventually add guest stars, I'd keep it sparse, like on BTAS. Maybe the Question or the Golden Age Sandman (Wesley Dodds). Perhaps they could finally do that Catwoman / Black Canary team-up that was talked about decades ago. And I'd dig seeing a team-up with Superman ... but it has to be the Fleischer Superman, using those vintage designs from the days of STAS pre-production.

View attachment 309027

Again, not getting my hopes up. Just think it would be cool.

People honestly forget just how slow of a ramp-up BTAS had into a full blown DC Animated Universe. Outside of in-joke cameos, the initial 65 episodes of BTAS had a grand total of ONE guest star from the greater DC Universe: Zatanna. That number went up to TWO when they used Jonah Hex in one of the next batch of 20 episodes. Zatanna didn't show any evidence of magical superpowers, and Hex only appeared in a flashback.

It wasn't until Superman: The Animated Series premiered in 1996 that guest stars became the norm, and even there it was slightly over half a dozen episodes out of 54. (Off the top of my head: Batman, Lobo, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Supergirl, three members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, and Dr. Fate. I think that's everybody.) And then the ante was upped again with the premiere of Justice League in 2001, NINE YEARS after BTAS debuted.

So lets cool our jets on wishing for all these guest stars right now. It's Batman's show, and they're only doing 10 episodes a season. I'm totally fine with them not having ANY other costumed characters for a good long while. After all, the show is called Batman: Caped Crusader, not The Entire DC Universe. And if Batman isn't enough to hold our interest, why does he even have his own show?

I was wondering who Haley Joel Osment might be playing but honestly I have a hard time seeing Dick/Robin working with this interpretation of Batman.

Haley Joel Osment is 36 years old now. Yes, people still think of him as a child actor, but The Sixth Sense was 25 years ago. I guarantee you that whomever he's playing on the show, it's not going to be Robin.

Mod Note: Double post merged.

 

[RoyalRubble]

It could be fun to try and fit in the Fleischer Superman cartoons into the same continuity as Caped Crusader. There probably won't be many contradictions since neither show will address the other.

I'm fine with a solo Batman show. It seems every Batman cartoon since the 90s has brought in at least a couple of guest-stars. I love either approach so it's not that much of an issue for me, and it's kind of fun speculating who might show up eventually.

Would Slam Bradley count as a guest-star, or only a supporting cast member.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Would Slam Bradley count as a guest-star, or only a supporting cast member.

Have they confirmed that Slam Bradley is going to appear on the show? I figure there's a chance, since Ed Brubaker is writing for the show, but if they've announced that, I've forgotten about it.