Batman in the 21st century – more action, more gadgets, more villain, more racial diversity

I must say, when I watched the first episode of The Batman, I did not have much hope for the series. What made Batman great, in my opinion, was the integration between the idealism of a superhero and the grittiness of a vigilante. He has no problem operating outside of the law because being a law abiding citizen (pun intended) would only hinder him from his work. He’s not superman, who flies faster than a speeding bullet at the first sign of trouble, and waves the camera after he saves the day. No, sir! Batman is the kind of superhero who makes his appearance in the middle of night, beats the bodyguards unconscious with his bare hands, and then throws you from a 20-story building just to get some information he needs.

If Superman is the good cop, then Batman is definitely the bad cop.

But you can’t deny that there is an idealist behind the caped crusader. For one, he never kills anyone, even if it means sacrificing his own life. That is not to say that if you jump into a pit of chemicals, he’ll be there to save you. In addition, Batman has been offered many chances to assimilate into an organization that will destroy civilization in the names rebuilding society from scratch. Yes, I’m talking about Ra’s Al Goul (actually pronounced "Reish Al Goul", not "Raz Al Goul"). But he refused each time, because he believed that there is hope for Gotham City. He will dedicate his life to fighting bad guys, but he will not kill them. That’s Batman’s one and only rule, and he has followed it very well.

Now onto The Batman. The bad news is, I just didn’t feel the depth to the series. Instead, it chose to focus on the action, at least the first 2 seasons. But here’s the good news: with the exception of a few episodes, I honestly enjoyed watching The Batman.

Part of the reason that The Batman could not stand up to the depth in The Animated Series was that the producers had something different in mind when creating this series. In the first 2 seasons, Bruce Wayne was only 26 years old, and it was only his 3rd year in cleaning up the city as the Dark Knight. Therefore, as one of the producers said during a commentary, “he [Batman] still relies more on his action than his detective work.” Okay, I can respect that.

And this series certainly knows its place; it know knows that it doesn’t stand up to the greatness of the original animated series, so to make up for that, the series pays a lot of homage to the classic Animated Series. The first episode drew its climatic scene from the first Batman movie directed by Tim Burton in 1989. In another episode, a taxi driver, when seeing how dangerous Gotham City has become due to the super villains, murmurs “I’m moving to Metropolis.” Clearly an homage not only to Superman, but also to the various movies in which Batman and Superman fought bad guys together, such as The Batman/Super movie -- World’s Finest.

The series also changes a lot of the story. For example, they introduce a Chinese cop, Yin¹, who is Batman’s friend in the Law Enforcement (Gordon doesn’t show up until the last episode of season 2). And Clayface is no longer Matt Hagen, the actor-turned-evil, but Ethan Benentt, an old friend of Batman who used to be Yin’s partner before he turned into Clayface (gee, a friend of Bruce Wayne’s who turns in a bad guy… Two-Face, anyone?). The best part is, they show you how this happens too. Yin doesn’t start working with Batman until the 2nd season, and Ethan doesn’t turn into Clayface until near the end of season 1.

The change that really adds something new to Batman is, in my opinion, the series’ attempt to give Oswald Cobblepot (a.k.a. Penguin) a past. The story is simple: before going destitute, the Cobblepots used to be a noble family in Europe. They used to be rich, and they had a butler who turned out to be Grandfather Pennyworth (Alfred’s grandfather), much like the Waynes. But unlike the latter, the Cobblepots were extremely arrogant and believed themselves to be higher on the societal hierarchy than anyone else. If Joker is the evil counterpart of Batman, Oswald Cobblepot is the counterpart of Bruce Wayne, because Bruce Wayne has everything that Oswald wants: money, popularity, the good looks, etc. And hey, this can even explain why Penguin is a mutant -- the result of too much inbreeding!

Okay, now post is dragging on forever, and I don’t want to say everything (then what will I say next week? :P), so I’m going to end by saying this: for Batman fans, this series is highly RECOMMENDED. For non-Batman fans, this can still go somewhere between a low RECOMMENDED to a high MEHHH, depending on how it good/bad it gets in the next 3 seasons.

1. Here I want to add that Yin is an extremely smart cop. GO CHINESE PEOPLE!!!