Nostalgia isn’t all it’s cracked as much as be. This month’s Batman: The Caped Crusader was billed because the grownup model of beloved and groundbreaking ’90s present Batman: The Animated Collection, made by B:TAS co-creator Bruce Timm, producers Matt Reeves and J.J. Abrams, liberated from Saturday morning cartoon censors, and backed by the expertise of some all-time Batman comics writers.
And whereas the present actually had the Animated Collection look, it was neither a direct continuation nor a powerful relaunch. Timm’s crew have been free to say no matter they needed, however didn’t have a lot to say ultimately. Typically you simply can’t go house once more.
However what if I advised you there’s already a extra mature model of Batman: The Animated Collection, with hour-long episodes like a live-action drama, multi-season plotting, and more energizing animation than Caped Crusader. It’s episodic, however its characters preserve a stable emotional continuity, and whereas its acceptable for youths, it’s bought a number of layers and references for grownup audiences to chew on.
If you happen to’re searching for a greater Batman: The Caped Crusader, it is best to watch Justice League and Justice League Limitless, which can be found proper now on Netflix on your marathon pleasure.
Premiering in 2001, Justice League was a direct continuation of the DC Animated Universe setting, which started with 1992’s Batman: The Animated Collection and continued in Superman: The Animated Collection, The New Batman Adventures, and Batman Past — and largely, it had all the identical expertise working behind the scenes. Artist Bruce Timm, author Paul Dini, producers Wealthy Fogel and Glen Murakami, voice actors Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Clancy Brown, Ron Perlman, Arleen Sorkin, Michael Ironside, and Michael Dorn, all returned to reprise their varied roles and duties.
However Justice League wasn’t a half hour, one-and-done episodic collection hitting the waves at 9am on Saturday mornings. Airing in prime-time slots on Cartoon Community, each episode of the collection was a part of a two-part story — hacking the half-hour animated customary into an hour-long journey collection. The core forged started with Batman, Superman, Marvel Lady, Hawkgirl, the Martian Manhunter, Wally West’s Flash, and John Stewart’s Inexperienced Lantern, however two seasons into the present, Cartoon Community requested for a rebrand and expanded the mandate.
In Justice League Limitless, the total breadth of DC Comics’ superhero roster was welcome on the Justice League, not simply the founding seven. Episodes have been knocked right down to half hour slots once more, however the present’s crew discovered a brand new solution to assume huge. For the primary and solely time within the setting’s historical past, a DC Animated Universe present began delivering season-long story arcs; putting dominoes, foreshadowing reveals, and paying off setups from weeks earlier than.
And whereas every episode was nonetheless acceptable for youths, the present writers weren’t resistant to the fun of together with references that solely adults would actually decide up on — like Nineteen Fifties gender and racial prejudice, a time-lost Martian Manhunter being introduced earlier than Nazi doctor Josef Mengele for experimentation, or canonically establishing that the Flash is a extra attentive lover than Lex Luthor.
So if you’d like a Batman repair this weekend, queue up Justice League (2001) on Netflix. Now, you might need to provide it a couple of episodes to get going, however when you can stick round by way of the early middle-weight stuff, the present can pay out dividends. Aquaman reducing his personal hand off to avoid wasting his toddler son, an alt-timeline Superman who lobotomizes his opponents with laser imaginative and prescient, a set of killer romantic subplots, the Batman of Justice League: Limitless touring by way of time and assembly the aged Bruce Wayne and the long run Batman of Batman Past, Lex Luthor’s season-long presidential marketing campaign, and a direct adaptation of one of many best Superman tales ever advised, “For the Man Who Has All the things.”
So perhaps it’s not the spooky procedural that makes you are feeling identical to you probably did if you watched Batman: The Animated Collection for the primary time. However, then once more, neither is Batman: The Caped Crusader!