CABLE | 'Batman: Caped Crusader' Gets Animated on Prime Video

"He's an itch that needs to get scratched."

Warner Bros. Animation / DC Studios

From legendary Batman: The Animated Series writer/producer Bruce Timm comes the Dark Knight's next reimagined television incarnation. Even more of a detective superhero noir, Batman: Caped Crusader embraces the original Detective Comics as inspiration in a refreshing throwback to its hardboiled crime mythos.

Co-produced by J.J. Abrams and current live-action The Batman director Matt Reeves, the new animated series leans heavily into various 1940-60s genre elements as we find a younger novice Batman (think Batman: Year One) somewhat already established in a foreboding Gotham City ripe with corruptive influences. It feels both familiar yet entirely its own thing at the same time as a fresh take on said Caped Crusader.

Freshly voiced by Hamish Linklater, his Batman evokes a grim, moodier tone of struggle in the hero's earlier years with new interpretations of his classic rogues' gallery told through serialized storytelling methods. Often the title character only plays a background supporting role in episodes foregrounded by his supporting cast of cops, detectives, and sidekicks as they uncover different bad guy origins in the process of solving mysterious crimes of all sorts.

Much of the Bat-themed crime fighter's grounded stories told here evoke all-new ideas to the well-worn DC Comics mythology behind the dark superhero. Caped Crusader does a fine job of reintroducing audiences to Batman's classic lore as a worthy successor to the original '90s B:TAS.

Batman: Caped Crusader's ten-episode first season is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.


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