A Retrospective on Season 1 and a Look Toward the Future

[Mister J]

With the show's hiatus upon us (until April/May), I thought it might be a good idea to toss around things that we liked or didn't like from the first season (and the first two episodes of Season 2). Taking off from that point, feel free to kick around some ideas that you'd like to see/should be incorporated as the series resumes. Guest hero/villain spots, vehicles, ties to the mythos. storylines, whatever. We've got 11 eps from the initial slate and 26 more in the pipeline. What does it foretell? Inquiring fanboys want to know.

Overall, I like that the show was able to be entertaining and fun, while retaining enough recognizability as a Batman vehicle. The use of guest spots to move the story along, allowing Batman to serve as a mentor, rival or observer, worked for me too. The settings are expanisive enough to capture a full-blown DCU feel, while not obscuring the title character. I could go for a more episodic approach to the offerings though. Not every episode needs to tie together like Deep Cover for Batman/Game Over for Owlman, but including continutity that goes beyond a repeat character appearance would be good.

Also, I'd like that rumored Robin appearance to come about. In keeping with the show's preference for lesser-publicized characters, the Ratcatcher comes to mind. A Whirly-Bat or Batgyro spot wouldn't hurt my feelings either.

 

[DJ Kornphlake]

An interview with Diedrich Bader about the upcoming season and the show in general:

http://www.newsarama.com/tv/090326-animated-shorts.html

 

[tekken]

i think i've enjoyed every episode so far.

all the characters are so well written.

the humor works too. the funniest one for me was the christmas one. something about red tornado is just so funny. he kind of reminds me of robocop.

 

[GamerSlyRatchet]

Like I mentioned before, I really like this show. It is really fun and well-written, the humor is good, the animation smooth, and the characters likeable and distinctive. Not just a good Batman show, but also a great DC universe show.

For the next three seasons, I hope we see more wacky heroes and villains. However, as much as I enjoy seeing so many new characters introduced in so little time, I do hope we see them fleshed out. Not just teases like Jonah Hex, Kamandi, Question, and B'wana Beast, but even "cameo" villains like Cavalier, Top, and Crazy Quilt.

As for people I want to see, I want to see heroes like Ambush Bug, Zatanna, Captain Atom, Waverider, Tasmanian Tiger, the Creeper, the Metal Men, and the Doom Patrol (already confirmed, but still). For the villains, I would like to see Doctor Phosphorus, The General, Ratcatcher, Starro, Film Freak, Penny Plunderer, and Killer Moth.

 

[Drz]

I think whats weak for this show is the sci-fi episodes, anyone agree? The 1st episode with "Rise of the Blue Beetle" really got people worried about this show since it was about Batman _helping_ little helpess aliens and whatnot. >_> The 2nd sci-fi episode with Aquaman was abit meh for me, but Aquaman's outrageous speech made it awesome.

I really like how Batman is written here, and how they actuallly showed his origin from an christmas episode and abit on the "Terrible Trio" episode. I also liked that Terrible Trio were the bored millionaires in this show and not some angts teens who use chemical drugs. >_>

Overall the last episodes were just _the bomb_ for me, seeing Bader say "I'm Batman!" in an handsomely awesome way that beats the crap out of Val Kilmer and Clooney, showing Owlman and Joker, not to mention Red Hood who was far more interesting character than Joker. =O And haha @ earth-161 being called zombie planet while in Marvel universe thats the "canon" place.

 

[Cain]

Well I will have to say this show has been quite the pleasant surprise and I'm grateful for it's existence. Initially while I was always open to it I will have to say considering the consistency or inconsistency of The Batman well I didn't expect Tucker and company to hit it out of the park. I was expecting a fair share of filler episodes but even the episodes I enjoyed the least from season 1 like Return of the Fearsome Fangs and Invasion of the Secret Santas still managed to have great memorable moments like when they both touched on Batman's origins.

Looking back through the board I've realized out of the 13 episodes in season 1 I rated 2 a 6, 3 a 7 and the remaining 8 a well...8 lol. Now that may not seem like a big deal but trust me when I say I am not an easily impressed person and to even manage to get a 7 out of 10 from me takes a lot especially when a 6 is what I consider to be above average.

I think what I have enjoyed the most is the creative liberties like actually using The Red Hood as a good guy which made the typical Joker origin even more sympathetic and gave me another great character to admire because of that or connecting Plastic Man's origin to Batman in a seamless way. Oh and of course giving Aquaman the awesome demeanor that he has instead of making him a brooding land hater to me was the ultimate.

I've also really enjoyed the music on the program and how it switches up to really define the theme of each episode I've also found the animation pretty seamless and because of that it has the most solid action of any Batman animated show to date. The variety of DC heroes outside of the norm that are being used like B'wanna Beast & Kamandi. The extensive use of bat gadgets and vehicles which depending on how used could've come across as corny is actually fairly charming and makes you wonder what other wonderful toys you'd see next.

The way the villains have been handled is also fantastic. Black Manta, Owlman and the Gentleman Ghost to me in particular have come across as really threatening and interesting which is no small feat for villains in a cartoon series. Now that doesn't mean there aren't things that I don't want to see but to me the structure is a fairly successful one that doesn't need many tweaks.

The only things I'd like to see is a more linear connectivity between episoeds like MisterJ suggested to give the show an even more epic feel as you could see events from say the first episode of season 2 reflected in the 8th episode of season 2 without having to blatantly be anchored down by some serious continuity. I'd also like to see characters like Animal Man, Solomon Grundy, Captain Marvel, Firestorm and yes Wonder Woman. also make appearances in the future. Overall though I'd consider season 1 massive success not just because of it's great ratings but it's undeniable quality.

Thank you to James Tucker and company as they have created an animated series that I can't go a week without following and wanting more of. It takes a lot to get me hooked on a tv show hell the only other show I watch on the regular is 24 and the Brave and the Bold has managed to sustain that type of hook with me. Here's to more great seasons ahead for years to come.

 

[D-Man22]

I would like to see some of the more popular DC heroes come in like WW, Flash (Wally), MM and of course Superman.

 

[Drz]

I actually checked out The #3 comic of this series, it was so ridicilous (Batman becomes the president to stop Ultra-man or whats his name, the doctor who takes a albino gorilla as his host) The preview of the show actually showed Two-Face and Killer croc and guess what, the designs were awesome!

Two-Face's suit was 2 different colors, a lighter blue and more purple blue. His other-half was purple and the evil-side had black hair while good had brown.

Also i don't know which one was the coloring mistake but you see Killer Croc in 4 panels. 2 panels show him fully green while the 2 first show him pale white, kinda like he first did in b:tas. :P

 

[Two-Face=Badass]

Loved everything really. I don't have Cartoon Network so I watch it all on Youtube, so I'll definitely be buying the sets when they come out (the proper ones). I started watching Rise of the Blue Beetle while I was bored at a time when Invasion of the Secret Santas has come out. And, although I find it to be one of the weaker (in comparison) episodes, I loved it as soon as the intro was done. That's all I needed, that and the jab at Batman fanboys against Superman using kryptonite. I'm certain it was Clock King which did it for me.

Either way, I watched the Plastic Man episode a couple of weeks later since the first ep was crappy quality and now someone was uploading good ones. And that was a brilliant ep! It had Kiteman dammnit! It also had Gorillas riding Pterodactyls with harpoon guns stealing a boat!

I slowly began to love the show more and more with each ep, especially because of all the juicy references they put in, even one to Santa clause Conquers the Martians!

So yeah, massive fan here, this show may even overtake BTAS for me if it continues to be this good. Heck, they make us get flipping excited over seeing the Batcave and Joker when we took those for granted usually. Even Mystery Space, the weakest episode yet, is still highly enjoyable and trunces Batman in my Basement by a country mile any day.

So here are just some of the things I love about the show:
*Its showing us a full DC universe through the eyes of a popular hero so people can realise there is more than simply Batman.
*The score. Man I love the music in this show, especailly when it's timed to the punches and everything.
*Aquaman, he's become awesome without the JL need for uber-badassness, simply OUTRAGEOUS!
*The teasers, a brilliant idea, they certainly fill you in on some of your favourites superheroes/villains.
*Joker/Red Hood, played to perfection by Jeff Bennet. Red Hood was brilliantly tragic and inspiring, while the Joker was terrifically hilarious and evil.
*Owlman and the Injustice Syndicate. Not only was Owlman cool, but Silver Cyclone was a brilliant twist and Scarlet Scarab was hilarious.
*Made-cool characters: The Terrible Trio, Aquaman (again) and Bwana Beast were made awesome in this show.

Negatives:
* A little too much praise for Batman. Luckily, except for Mystery in Space, they seem to be giving Batman only as much credit as he deserves in recent eps.
* Paco (Bettle's friend) only being shown as a jerk. He's awesome in the comic, and I hope they show in the show that Blue Beetle tells him his secret like the comic too.
* Question, he was awesome but wasted. Bring him back!

Err, that's about it. I couldn't tihnk of much negatives past that point. So I definitely look forward to the remaining 11 episodes as well as the further 26 episodes that air later this year. The show has been a real blast and with the exception of a few people who can't get their heads around the idea of a fun Batman, I've enjoyed seeing people come around to this series.

 

[Alastor]

When I first saw some images for the series I wasnt too impressed, but from the first episode I have been a huge fan. I love that its so different than any Batman cartoon in the last 20 years, with Batman taking on aliens, monsters and obscure villains, and its fun! The best part of the show is the fact they use obscure heroes, and this is probably my favorite animated version of Aquaman. Next season I hope to see:

Robin and the Teen Titans
More Blue Beetle and Joker
Another Aquaman/Atom team-up (more episodes like this, with two seperate but connected adventures)
Expanded Question, Kamandi
Superman
More multiverse
Alfred

 

[rogue trooper]

Have there been any news on when season 1 will be available on dvd?

 

[Changeling]

I want to watch this. Are there a lot of links on youtube?

 

[SuperFerret]

Last I checked you can find most of them on Youtube, Changeling.

 

[Mister J]

Have there been any news on when season 1 will be available on dvd?

Not that I've seen. I just hope they do a full-blown Season 1 set, as opposed to releasing volume sets of 3-4 eps each. Somehow, I believe the latter is going to happen.

I want to watch this. Are there a lot of links on youtube?

A general search turned up a few. I'm not sure how much of the season is there though. Cartoon Network has the last ep (Trials of the Demon) available to view at their website until the 6th and the first ep (Rise of the Blue Beetle) until the 13th.

 

[tomstoyz2]

LOL, I have to agree. Seeing either the Whirly-Bat or Batgyro would be super-awesome!

 

[Doctor Jones]

I would like to see an episode dedicated to Crazy Quilt.

I hope Robin doesn't come in any time soon though. But it will probably happen.

Hell, wouldn't it be sweet if Adam West guest voiced?

 

[BlackLantern]

Id be fine with rare Robin appearances....Id like to see some more JSA characters...Dr. Midnight, Atom Smasher, Alan Scott..

 

[Doctor Jones]

I'd love to see Alan Scott.