Spider-Man enters; Batman leaves
The series premiere of “Spectacular Spider-Man” and the series finale of “The Batman” both take place this Saturday on Kids’ WB on the CW network.
“Spider-Man” debuts with back-to-back episodes at 10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. “The Batman” has its hourlong series finale at 11 a.m.
“Spectacular Spider-Man” looks to skew younger than the MTV series in 2003; a larger influx of younger fans could help the series last longer than the 13 episodes of that series. Despite scripts from comic scribe Brian Michael Bendis and guest voices from stars including Gina Gershon and Jeremy Piven, the CG series was not renewed. (Neil Patrick Harris voiced Spider-Man in the series; he returned to superhero voice work as The Flash in the recent “Justice League: The New Frontier” movie.)
“The Batman” suffered from comparison to its predecessor, the several series of “Batman” cartoons overseen by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini. But taken on its own terms, “The Batman” was a fun modernization of the franchise with some excellent episodes.
Here’s what I said about the first season of “The Batman” when it came to DVD:
“The Batman” takes place early in the career of Bruce Wayne, in about his third year of fighting crime. The 13-episode season of this animated show chronicles his early meetings with the Joker and other supervillains.
Following the successful “Batman: The Animated Series,” many Bat-fans have found fault with the more anime-influenced “The Batman.” “The Animated Series” had a noir sensibility that took the best aspects of the comics interpretation.
Following such a long-running, on-model interpretation of the character, “The Batman” creators went in a different direction. Former comic-book artist Jeff Matsuda, producer and art director of the series, says in a special feature that he designed this Batman to have more of a “boxer” look, as it’s early in his career, and he was more likely to use his fists. They also returned the yellow circle around the bat symbol and shortened the ears on Batman’s cowl. The Joker has the look of an escaped mental patient, with crazy hair, overlong sleeves and no shoes.
Some adjustment will be needed for those used to Kevin Conroy’s Batman interpretation, but Rino Romano ably fills the cowl with a younger voice.
I still think the five seasons of “The Batman” are worth checking out for Batfans. Nothing was going to live up to the Bruce Timm versions, but “The Batman” is kinetic and fun.
– Matt Price
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