The Batman is just beginning his crime fighting career in this reboot of the popular animated series. Both the Batman and his villains have been retooled in this series, some not for the better in my opinion.
The young Bruce Wayne (Rino Romano) is just beginning his after hours search for justice as the Batman. He’s joined by his loyal family retainer Alfred Pennyworth (Alastair Duncan) in both his daytime and nighttime activities.
The Batman also has a insider at the Gotham police force in the form of Detective Yin (Ming-Na). The Batman is still an outsider and seen as just as much of a threat to Gotham by the police as the numerous super villains that threaten the city.
Disc 1 episode 1: “The Cat, the Bat and the Ugly” - Catwoman (Gina Gershon) and the Penguin (Tom Kenny) team up during a museum robbery. However, each is trying to double cross the other but they can both agree that the Batman is on their trail. Episode 2: “Riddled” - Detective Yin is challenged by the Riddler (Robert Englund) and is secretly helped by the Batman, but what are the Riddler’s true motives. Episode 3: “JTV” - The Joker (Kevin Michael Richardson) is broadcasting his crimes over his pirated TV station, JTV. The Joker’s first costar is the Mayor of Gotham (Adam West) and he soon has his sights set on Detective Yin’s partner. Episode 4: “Swamped” - The Killer Croc (Ron Perlman) is half man, half croc but his whole plan is to submerge Gotham so that he can carry out a crime wave in his aquatic element.
The Batman
Episode 5: “Pets” - The Penguin comes into procession of a sonic device that can control bats and the Man-Bat (Peter MacNicol) soon becomes his slave. Alfred is having problems of his own when a raccoon infiltrates the bat cave. Episode 6: “Meltdown” - Ethan Bennett (Steve Harris) is captured and put on trail for his crimes as Clayface. However, he’s given a second chance thanks to the testimony of Bruce Wayne and others, but can he resist the temptation of crime? Episode 7: “The Butler Did It” - Spellbinder (Michael Massee) is a mystic with his three eyes set on stealing the Eye of Sarkana. However, he’s not going to do it – Alfred and two other hypnotized butlers are going to do it for him. Episode 8: “Fire and Ice” - Firefly (Jason Marsden) and Mr. Freeze (Clancy Brown) team up to put Gotham in the deep freeze.
Disc 2:
Episode 11: “Solomon Grundy” - A Gotham Halloween legend comes to life in the shambling form of the zombie Solomon Grundy. Grundy is avenging himself upon the founding families of Gotham. Episode 12: “The Laughing Bat” - The Joker decides to take on the cowl of the Batman and start fighting crime (in his own fashion, jaywalkers and parking violators beware). However, he needs a arch-villain of his own and injects the Batman with Joker venom to transform him into his nemesis. Episode 13: “Night and the City” - The Penguin, Riddler and the Joker are battling to take over Gotham. They decide to declare “winner take all” of Gotham, but to win the contest the victor has to capture and reveal the identity of the Batman.
Alfred and Bruce Wayne in the Batcave
Since this was the adventures of the much younger Batman, Kevin Conroy (who had voiced the Bat in the majority of the series) was out. I know that he’s supposed to be young but I found myself not being used to the younger voice of the Batman and Bruce Wayne. Wayne especially, Romano does drop his voice to a suitable level when he’s playing the Batman.
However, what I really didn’t like was what they did to the Joker. Kevin Michael Richardson provides adequate vocal work (channeling a bit of Mark Hamill), but they’ve made him almost like a gorilla. The Riddler is a cross between Jim Carrey’s Riddler and Alice Cooper - which isn’t too much of a bad thing. The Catwoman had a retro look that I liked and the Penguin seemed to be closer to the one that we saw in Batman Returns. I just can’t say that I like the new Joker as much as I did the old.
If you can forgive some of these changes then you might not have too much of a problem with the show. The show does have a new theme song by the Edge of U2. My kids did not seem to mind these changes. I did enjoy the show, just had some nitpicks with what they had done to the characters.
The Batman is presented in fullscreen as it was originally show on television. Special features are rather anemic, only consisting of one featurette. “Catching up with…The Batman: Inside Season 2” runs 3 minutes and is basically a collection of clips from Season 1. There are also trailers for other Warner animation DVDs.
The Joker hops around like an ape and doesnt wear shoes
The Batman – The Complete Second Season is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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