"The Batman" and why does no one talk about it?

pyromonki

If you remember, before the Brave and the Bold, there was this really weird take on the Batman universe literally called… well, "The Batman".

It was no BTAS, and the first few episodes were corny, but dear god did it have it's moments.

Also.. let's not forget the villains... I personally didn't like this universe's penguin (though he was very comedic), but I loved the Riddler, the Joker, Clayface, Ivy, and Killer Moth.

It's a shame "The Batman" had this whole, "DC can't share characters" crap going on, because I would've enjoyed Slade and other JLU characters redone this way.

There are too many good things about this show that, I felt, outwayed the bad. What did you think of it AP?

joekido the Second

I never saw it, so I don't care. Does that answer the question?

No Maam

I remember people praising it at the time.

But I guess this obscurity proves that I was right about hating it. Their destruction of Clayface was unforgivable.

Bill

This is why this series fails for me.

-It got the Joker wrong, they made him some weird hybrid between monkey and man in movements and nearly a match for Batman physically .

-Jeff Matsuada designs just doesn't do it for me

-They gave Penquin's bizzare out of place minions.
-They didn't really reinvent themeselves all that much and to add to that, the series was suceeding Dini/Timm's cartoon(which is pretty big shoes to fill)
-Hated,hated what they did to Mr. Freeze(though this version was based on the original comic counterpart before the comics adopted the Dini-version)
-I didn't like Bane's design( looks horrilbe IMO)
-No Two Face that gave this series a tragic resonace(though I suppose Bennet filled that void rather nicely)
.

What I liked.
-The Riddler' was well done, I like that how they gave him a goth-like interpertation.
-Some Killing Joke homages with Bennet were rather nice.
I did like like the dynamic between Bats and detective Ellen Yin
Inclusion of Black Mask.

MasterKingJC

I've seen it before, but I didn't really care for it.
It had some okay episodes, like the Batgirl episode and the one with Catwoman that I vaguely remember.

Wasn't there some TV special that had Batman vs Dracula?

No Maam

@Bill:

This is why this series fails for me.

-It got the Joker wrong, they made him some weird hybrid between monkey and man in movements and nearly a match for Batman physically .

Then they made him sing a love song to Harley, even if it was country.

It felt just so wrong.

Md-Martin

It was alright. I liked their take on Clayface especially. Didn't like this Joker, but one of my favorite episodes was the one when the Joker decided to be Batman.

Thing that nailed it as never being amazing was "Batwave" being mentioned every. single. episode.

Bill

Oh! I forgot I hated this series design of Hugo Strange(voiced by the late and great Frank Gorshin who did Riddler in the 60's show. Both TAS and Arhham city got the visual appearance of Strange correctly.
They turn the mad bald scientist, into fat guy who looks like he had a bad hairday.

No Maam

@Md-Martin:

It was alright. I liked their take on Clayface especially.

In the begining it was okay.

Then the next time he shows up he masquarades as a ghost to rob rich people.

Just like that, outta nowhere.

Robby

It gets no respect because it was the series trying to follow up BTAS/Superman/Batman Beyond/Justice League. Not only was it competing with a 15 year legacy, it basically gets blamed for being the series that ended it… and prevented Justice League from having batman villains in its last seasons.

Pus, the first season wasn't very good and people stopped giving it a chance pretty quickly.

Teen Titans and Brave and the Bold had the right idea in going a completely different direction to help avoid comparisons.

Similarly, Ultimate Spiderman is going to have trouble coming after the perfect Spectacular Spiderman, which in a just world, would have run 6 or 12 seasons.

captain usopp

i thought it was dumb and whiped it from my memory. thanks for bringing it back up. :P

actually, i thought we had a thread when the show was on?

No Maam

Also, I want to take record that I realy don't like Jeff Matsuda's drawing style. He makes everyone look like a big gorilla made out of vector graphics.

Retro

I liked it. The thing people have against it is that it no BTAS and they can't let that show go and just take this as its own thing. It wasn't perfect but it was a good interpretation on Batman. I loved their take on Poison Ivy, Hugo Strange and of the Riddler. Joker could've been better but I did like that he was more of a combatant here. It think the show was best around the 2nd and 3rd season. They got a little guest star happy in the last few seasons though.

Wasn't there some TV special that had Batman vs Dracula?

A direct to video actully. And it was awesome ^_^.

Rogues' Gallery

Hate is such a strong word, so I'll say that I disliked the series EXCEPT for this one really cool guy called Ragdoll I saw in one episode. Didn't know who the hell he was, never saw him before in any other batman shows, but his design was neat and he could bend his limbs/walk like that creepy old guy in Unborn.

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They even made a custom-action figure (DO WANT RIGHT NOW SO BAD)

(SERIOSLY GODDAMN WHERE CAN I GET THIS?)

Kaiolino

@RobbyBevard:

Similarly, Ultimate Spiderman is going to have trouble coming after the perfect Spectacular Spiderman, which in a just world, would have run 6 or 12 seasons.

I don't think it will have nearly as much trouble finding fans because for various stupid reasons Spectacular already had a lot of detractors (people who hated the art and were partial to the '90s series due to nostalgia), not to mention that it was shitcanned after 26 fucking episodes and couldn't have grabbed a huge fanbase like BTAS in its multiple year run.

Conekiller

Don't knock Jeff Matsuda till you've seen Hulk vs Wolverine. Best character designs he's done!

pyromonki

@Bill:

This is why this series fails for me.

-It got the Joker wrong, they made him some weird hybrid between monkey and man in movements and nearly a match for Batman physically .

-Jeff Matsuada designs just doesn't do it for me

-They gave Penquin's bizzare out of place minions.
-They didn't really reinvent themeselves all that much and to add to that, the series was suceeding Dini/Timm's cartoon(which is pretty big shoes to fill)
-Hated,hated what they did to Mr. Freeze(though this version was based on the original comic counterpart before the comics adopted the Dini-version)
-I didn't like Bane's design( looks horrilbe IMO)
-No Two Face that gave this series a tragic resonace(though I suppose Bennet filled that void rather nicely)

The design thing is definitely a hit and miss, hate it or love it thing. The Joker's design was awful, but I loved his personality. I also felt that the fact that he could fight Batman made him feel even more threatening, I didn't mind that change at all.

Plus the fighting style fit him so perfectly.

Mr. Freeze was easily one of the biggest bad calls, although his outfit was pretty dope.
Not sure why they omitted two face though, Bennett WOULD have been a nice replacement if they didn't stop developing his character for some unknown reason.

@RobbyBevard:

It gets no respect because it was the series trying to follow up BTAS/Superman/Batman Beyond/Justice League. Not only was it competing with a 15 year legacy, it basically gets blamed for being the series that ended it… and prevented Justice League from having batman villains in its last seasons.

Pus, the first season wasn't very good and people stopped giving it a chance pretty quickly.

I will NEVER understand this complaint, the batman villains really don't belong in JLU when they would just end up being common fodder. Not only that, but with their exclusion we got episodes focused on other heroes, so I felt it was a better trade than seeing Batman villains getting a one hitter quitter by…. just about everyone.

The first season of The Batman though is easily the worst aside from the bennett based episodes.

Robby

@pyromonki:

I will NEVER understand this complaint, the batman villains really don't belong in JLU when they would just end up being common fodder. Not only that, but with their exclusion we got episodes focused on other heroes, so I felt it was a better trade than seeing Batman villains getting a one hitter quitter by…. just about everyone.

Joker took on the league just fine in the season he was allowed, (and has history with Lex) and Ras Al Ghul has always been a bigger, more global threat than Batman. Hey, he was supposed to cause the near apocalypse of 2009…

Beyond those two, JLU was using a ton of "one hit" C-listers anyway. It wouldn't have hurt things any to have a random Batman villain among the muscle or in a group scene instead of dozens of shmucks we don't know anything about.

Insider2000

It wasn't a bad show at all, in my opinion. If I had any issues, I didn't really like the design of some of the character. Especially Bruce Wayne and Joker.

Bruce's head makes him look like he's Sam Eagle. Meanwhile, Joker looks like a cross between the Predator and an ape.

However, I can't hate on the writing. The show isn't bad, it just doesn't LOOK all that great.

Harley: "He said I was a joke!"
Joker: "I happen to like jokes…"

^
These two are still awesome.

EDIT: Also, while I do agree that it would be nice to have had more Batman villains in the JLU universe, JLU did a bad ass job taking any villain and making them awesome, regardless of who they are. I find that more impressive.
EDIT2: Also, sorry for the music that the uploader put toward the end of the video. I didn't realize I posted a video that was uploaded by a jackass.

Darkstorm

Yeah, I'll be honest - I saw the joker's design and pretty much switched off, wasn't really interested.

BATB's joker on the other hand I love almost as much as Hamill's. Brilliant silver-age take, his design, writing and VA are all great.

wolfwood

I didn't think i would like it. But once i got into it i….actually enjoyed it more in it's entirety than the original batman tas, There i said it.

Sure the old one had the joker's favor and other gems, but overall i thought the batman was if not better atleast as good.