The Dark Knight Departs, Part Three

The Fox series Batman:The Animated Series was immediately followed by Batman and Robin Adventures. The differences between the two series was minimal, aside from the more frequent inclusion of Robin in the storylines.Batman and Robin Adventures, in turn, was followed by New Batman/Superman Adventures. A somewhat misleading title for a series comprised mainly of reruns from earlier series, these cartoons also featured radically new character designs that owed less to the Fleischer meets Frank Miller and Dick Sprang on the set of Akira look of the Fox series and more to a flattened, stylized, angular 60s look. The new look came with a noticably erratic set of stories. Some were as good as anything ever done in the series, and some were dreadful. Not that it mattered; comparatively few episodes were animated in this style.

Batman Beyond was the next logical step forward. In some ways, it is the most original and exciting work yet produced by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini. In other ways, it is profoundly disappointing and is controversial among Batfans in a way that the Fox series never was. This is a shame. At a time when virtually all animated cartoons are either blatant ripoffs of earlier (and better) series or poorly dubbed sub-Pokemon monstrosities, Batman Beyond stuns us with original character designs and fantastic visuals.

And yet . . .

I've tried to be fair to the series, but it always seemed "wrong" to me, even though I couldn't figure out why. Ironically, the series fails precisely because it is so original. Let's unwind the paradox together.

Back in 1989, Tim Burton directed Batman, a live-action film starring Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne and Jack Nicholson as the Joker. According to media coverage, the movie was heavily indebted to Frank Miller's ultraviolent The Dark Knight Returns graphic novel. In actuality, aside from Danny Elfman's appropriately Wagnerian soundtrack and a few in-jokes tossed in by Burton, the film had almost nothing to do with Frank Miller - or Bob Kane or Jim Aparo or Bill Finger or Dick Sprang, for that matter. The vision of Gotham City in the movie owed a lot to Terry Gilliam's under-rated Brazil and Batman's ethics seemed to owe an awful lot to various real-live vigillantes. I remembered seeing the film and being disappointed that Batman's muscles weren't real - Burton's conception of the Bat costume seemed influenced by Robocop. I was further disappointed to see Burton's Dark Knight had a rather offhand attitude about killing. The Batman that exists in comics would never intentionally kill anyone, and would never be as remorseless as Keaton was in the role. And yet, amazingly, Burton's film achieves an artistic vision despite some extremely poor scripting and a nonchalant attitude towards the integrity of the comic book characters. Indeed, Burton's film was arguably the most visually stunning since Star Wars, and presented an enveloping world which audiences have enjoyed again and again. The strongest elements in the film - the visuals, Keaton's psychotic performance, the violence - are also the elements that have the least in common with the comic book.

Batman Beyond follows a similar trend. The soundtrack for the TV show is an impressive techno mix, quite unlike anything else on television, and is perfectly suited to an animated cartoon for the 21st Century. The visuals of the show are far superior to those of Batman/Superman Adventures, and the animation is fluid and amazingly modern. Indeed, these are some of Timm's most original character designs to date. The new villains are frequently frightening, and many episodes are well-written. If Batman Beyond were a brand-new series, I have no doubt that it would rank as an unqualified artistic and commercial success. Unfortunately, Timm and Dini set the series within the same continuity of the earlier series . . . and that's where the trouble starts. Bruce Wayne is no longer the Batman, and the fates of many of his old allies and enemies remains enigmatic. The new Batman is Terry McGinnis, a teenager in the Peter Parker vein; he possesses great power and must juggle his incredible responsibilities with a variety of typical Marvel Comics soap opera angst which include his younger brother and understandably bewildered girlfriend. This is really a totally new series, and unlike Batman:The Animated Series, is aimed squarely at the pre-teen/teen market that scarfs up anime by the boxload. And yet, it still has the old Batman title. Batman Beyond, like the Tim Burton film, is at its strongest when it stands as a self-contained artistic vision and at its weakest when it reminds us that we are watching "Batman."

I don't blame Timm and Dini for wanted to put their own unique stamp on the series. Prior to the animated Batman cartoons, both men worked on Tiny Toons, which was (to be brutally honest) little more than a Muppet Babies-style interpretation of old Warners characters best left in retirement with almost no opportunity for anything remotely creative. Given a freer reign on the Batman series must have been a godsend, and Timm and Dini responded with some bold innovations within the parameters of the classic characters. However, their incredible and praiseworthy contributions to the earlier Batman series were largely unappreciated by their TV audience. Few viewers who weren't immersed in the history of Batman comics could appreciate the wonderful job Timm and Dini did with, for example, the Catwoman. In the comics, Catwoman ranged from comic relief, to a romantic interest, to a formidable villainess,to the often cheesecake portrayal in the Jim Balent comic title. The animated Catwoman is amazingly consisent, given the erratic nature of her portrayals in the comic books. Similar praise can be offered for their work with Poison Ivy, one of the sillier villainesses of the late 1960s, the Mad Hatter, and the Riddler. The blending and simplification of the Frank Miller and Dick Sprang-drawn versions of Batman was a stroke of genius, and the Timm-Dini melange of all these disparate elements was so well done that many people are probably unaware that Timm and Dini deserve credit for the synthesis - despite Dini's rather vocal reminders in several printed interviews.

It's precisely for that reason that Batman Beyond's continuity is so troubling. It forces us to rethink the events of the earlier Timm-Dini series as somehow leading up to Batman Beyond and tries - unsuccessfully - to position itself as the inevitable conclusion of the earlier series. In doing so, Timm and Dini have violated one the nicest things about their adaptations of DC Comics; they have chosen to impose an implied backstory of No Man's Land or Knightfall proportions onto Batman Beyond.  This isn't an Elseworlds; we are asked to treat Batman Beyond as the conclusion of the Bat-series. The upcoming OAV Return of the Joker will probably make matters worse, as it allegedly contains a lengthy flashback sequence explaining why the Bat-team broke up. George Lucas turned his Star Wars franchise into an idiot's delight when he imposed continuity upon a lightweight Flash Gordon knockoff, and I am afraid that Dini's after-the-fact continuity may similarly ruin the Batman franchise.

It's odd enough to have a Batman who isn't Bruce Wayne. Had Timm and Dini simply let the Batman Beyond telemovie provide sufficient background for the new series - and in all honesty, all we need to know is that Bruce Wayne is too old for the Batman gig - then  I'd probably have accepted the series more completely. After all, American TV animation is currently backsliding towards a horrible Hanna-Barbera style; what few engaging cartoons exist come largely from Japan; any attempts to forestall this trend should be outright rewarded and cherished, not harped upon. But the increasingly frequent hints of a rather sinister backstory is a little too much information. These references force comparisons to the original Batman:The Animated Series. If  Terry McGinnis is ever going to become his own Batman, these comparisons will have to stop. I wish that Timm and Dini would give the character that chance to stand on his own, and move beyond Bruce Wayne's long shadow.

Try as I might, my objection to the series remains. The series seems "wrong" on conceptual grounds, just as Burton's films did. I've tried, Messers Timm and Dini. Believe me, I've tried. But, as Austin Powers once said, "That sort of thing ain't my bag, baby." While many of my readers may dismiss my criticism as being merely the ravings of a lifelong Batfan, I hope that enough of you will indulge me enough to consider what I've written.