New Animated show coming to HBO Max

[thecolorsblend]

In terms of publication history, Batman didn't exist an entire year without Robin, and only had ten appearances under his belt. Why so many writers are fixated on this period is beyond me.

I've wondered the same thing.

And what I've come to realize is that early Golden Age era is amazingly vivid among hardcore Batman fans. Bill Finger and Gardner Fox were cranking out (or in some cases plagiarizing) some pretty good stories. Kane was... well, I can say that is attributed to him was improving from one issue to the next. Plus, The Case Of The Chemical Syndicate, those two Doctor Death stories and Batman Vs. The Vampire are all pretty solid stories which are riffed upon (or outright retold) to this very day.

As you say, it was a brief era. But it punches above its weight in terms of memorability.

Aside from that, writers (and fans) have had a fascination with first year Batman for quite a few decades now. It's good counterprogramming to the Always Prepared/Grant Morrison Batman. First year Batman can fail, make mistakes, not necessarily always pull out a 100% win, etc.

Plus, I think a lot fans and even a lot of writers can't shake the suspicion that the introduction of Robin was meant to give Batman another character to exposit plot info as well as provide an entry point or maybe a surrogate for the kids who were reading those stories. I think Robin's existence has been justified in other ways a million times over. But the possibility remains that the character was only ever created for writing convenience and marketing.

That's not a problem in those early stories.

Now was the cancellation related to the content of the show, or just an arbitrary cost-cutting measure?

I think sooner or later, someone will get Bruce Timm drunk enough to tell us the true BTS stuff that went on. He's not getting any younger, he's shown a proclivity toward saying the quiet part out loud and the right amount of alcohol might loosen his lips.

[The Dark Knight]

The comics may have had moments of extreme violence, but they were still fun wish fulfillment of the early superhero era. It's easy to get lost in the grittiness and turn Batman into an insane caricature of himself that isn't even capable of normal human interactions.

This is true. Pattinson is the extreme version of the socially isolated loner, and I really like that for what it is. But it isn't the final form of Bruce or even Batman. I think that's why the early years are so great to explore. They allow that type of gradual character growth. To build a world from the ground up and take your sweet time in doing so. It's my opinion that Adam West's Batman/Bruce is the ultimate end point in that journey of evolution. Someone who experienced trauma to suit up in the first place, but is generally at peace with his past. Which is also very much the case with Kilmer.

[Travesty]

Apparently, this has now been picked up by Amazon.

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/batman-caped-crusader-tv-series-amazon-1235548504/#article-comments

[Travesty]

I don't know if these are real or not, but they're floating around twitter right now. If real, I'm a bit mixed, but I don't flat out hate it either. What do you guys think?

[BatmanFurst]

An obese Alfred isn't unheard of. I am surprised that it has more of a 30's aesthetic to it than the animated series did.

[Slash Man]

Batman looks good. Same with Catwoman and Clayface. But what's going on with Two-Face? It's like their prompt was "what would Two-Face look like in the 40s", but they forgot Two-Face was really from the early 40s.

[Kamdan]

From what I saw, they seemed to have taken a lot of cues from the coffee table book called Gotham 1919-1939.

[The Dark Knight]

After giving these designs another look I like the retro approach they are taking. Going for something near identical to BTAS would've been a mistake. From what I saw Clayface and Harley were my favorites. A show that digs deep into the original comics would be very interesting to see now I give this more thought, and could actually help make the case for Burton given the references his two Batman films have.