Batman: Caped Crusader Review: The Legacy of Batman: The Animated Series Looms Large in This Retro Gotham Drama

With so many concurrent Batman adaptations competing for our attention, each new spin-off must find its own niche. Batman: Caped Crusader aims squarely at the nostalgia market, taking cues from the beloved 1990s show Batman: The Animated Series.

Executive producer Bruce Timm returns, sharing credit with J.J. Abrams and The Batman director Matt Reeves. More visibly, Caped Crusader also revives BTAS's 1940s noir aesthetic. With its family-friendly tone and clever reimagining of villains like Harley Quinn and the Penguin, it's a respite from the high-tech grit of recent Batman movies. Still, it's hard to avoid drawing comparisons to BTAS, a series with a unique legacy in American animation.

Starring Hamish Linklater in the title role, Caped Crusader takes place early in Batman's career, just as he's forging his first alliances with characters like Commissioner Gordon (Eric Morgan Stuart) and his daughter, Barbara (Krystal Joy Brown), an idealistic defense attorney.

Balancing zany villain-of-the-week adventures with a longer arc about local politics and police corruption, Caped Crusader charts the mayoral campaign of smarmy DA Harvey Dent (Diedrich Bader). Aside from Commissioner Gordon and Detective Renee Montoya (Michelle C. Bonilla), virtually every cop in Gotham is crooked. Meanwhile, Batman is very much in his self-involved "I work alone" era, even keeping his loyal butler, Alfred (Jason Watkins), at arm's length.

6.5

Batman: Caped Crusader

at Prime Video

Like

• The Batman mythos works well as a 1940s period piece
• Offers a fresh take on popular characters like Harley Quinn and the Penguin
• Combines the charm of 1990s animated Batman with modern serialized storytelling

Dislike

• Sometimes feels like a less innovative retread of Batman: The Animated Series
• Its depiction of Batman and Bruce Wayne is pretty generic

In a welcome update from its 1990s precursor, Caped Crusader features a diverse cast with plenty of female characters — and one pleasingly unexpected gender-bent villain. Harley Quinn (Jamie Chung) is a highlight, foregrounding her civilian identity as the canny psychotherapist Harleen Quinzel. Her abusive backstory with the Joker is nowhere to be seen.

Oddly enough, Caped Crusader puts less thought into its conception of Batman and Bruce Wayne. Linklater switches easily between the hero's two identities, but his characterization on the page can best be described as "standard Batman." He punches goons. He lurks in the shadows. Occasionally, he employs his himbo socialite persona to get in and out of scrapes. But otherwise, we don't see much in the way of psychological insight or distinctive personality.

To be honest, I'm inclined to blame this on the show's limited format. Ten 24-minute episodes isn't much to work with, and Caped Crusader is more of an ensemble drama than a solo series. For better or worse, its structure is firmly rooted in streaming-era trends.

Back in the '90s, BTAS aired 85 episodes in three years, specializing in high-concept standalone stories exploring obscure characters and unusual points of view. Caped Crusader swaps this for a miniseries format, drawing more inspiration from BTAS's mood and aesthetic. Its world of Art Deco architecture, tommy guns, and rotary phones is an ideal fit for the mid-century vibes of the classic Batman mythos, a fantasy that pits a swashbuckling business tycoon against mobsters and jewel thieves.

For some fans of BTAS, this will be a pleasing tribute to a much-loved show. For others, it may feel like a watered-down retread — particularly if you have strong feelings about digital versus hand-drawn animation, because Caped Crusader's Gotham doesn't quite measure up to BTAS's vintage flair. Then again, maybe we should think more of the 10-year-olds in the audience, who probably couldn't care less about franchise legacy.

One of the key appeals of Batman is his role as a conduit for dark and mature themes in a PG-rated context. Caped Crusader is a kid-friendly show whose main cast are all adult characters with adult problems, and for some younger viewers, that's more appealing than something like Steven Universe.

Building on its hardboiled view of urban crime, there's also a noticeable undercurrent of anticapitalist critique. Caped Crusader is full of distasteful businessmen and snide digs at ill-used wealth, suggesting that Bruce is the only decent rich guy in town. "Reform doesn't come cheap," remarks one of the crime boss characters, haggling over election bribes: a crucial lesson for the middle-schoolers in the audience. They can learn about the power of friendship elsewhere. 

As someone with an affection for Batman and an appreciation for retro flourishes like a murder mystery inspired by 1940s horror movies, Caped Crusader was an enjoyable way to spend three or so hours. Most of its episodic villains are satisfyingly sharp, and it succeeds in balancing Batman's goofier lore with more grounded storylines. However, I won't pretend it's doing anything notably new. This show is well executed but conventional, remixing a winning formula in a way that should please a wide swath of fans — but can't possibly have the same impact as its iconic predecessor. 

Premieres: Thursday, Aug. 1 on Prime Video
Who's in it: Hamish Linklater, Jason Watkins, Eric Morgan Stewart, Michelle C. Bonilla, Krystal Joy Brown, Jamie Chung
Who's behind it: Bruce Timm, J.J. Abrams, Matt Reeves (executive producers)
For fans of: Batman: The Animated Series, Avatar: The Legend of Korra
How many episodes we watched: 10 of 10