Once again, the cartoon world takes a stab at reinventing Batman. "The Batman" gives us Batman (voice of Rino Romano) in the third year of his crimefighting career. As usual, the origin stays the same: Thomas, Martha and young Bruce Wayne are walking home from a movie when a hold-up man kills Bruce's parents. He swears to wage a war on crime, goes into training in various fields of martial arts, science, athletics in order to become a creature of the night and strike fear in the hearts of the criminal element. The first episode of the new cartoon has Batman still being thought of as an "urban legend" when Gotham detectives Ethan Bennett (Steve Harris, formerly of "The Practice") and Ellen Yin (Ming Na from "ER") being assigned to investigate his comings and goings. He also has his first run in with the Joker (Kevin Michael Richardson), who looks totally different than his usual appearance. However, he IS just as insane as ever.
Since this is early in Batman's career, there is no Commissioner Gordon or Robin in the picture. From the opening credits, all of the well-known villains such as Penguin, Catwoman, Croc and Mr. Freeze will be making appearances in the future. The artwork and the animation are well done. However, the main weakness I find with "The Batman" is the voice of Batman. Romano sounds like a good fit for Bruce Wayne, but he doesn't have that mysterious, tough-guy edge to Batman that Kevin Conroy portrayed so well. But, this is, after all, Batman, so I really have no choice but to at least stick around to see which way things will go: "Batman: The Animated Series" or "Batman and the Super Seven". Time will tell.
Since this is early in Batman's career, there is no Commissioner Gordon or Robin in the picture. From the opening credits, all of the well-known villains such as Penguin, Catwoman, Croc and Mr. Freeze will be making appearances in the future. The artwork and the animation are well done. However, the main weakness I find with "The Batman" is the voice of Batman. Romano sounds like a good fit for Bruce Wayne, but he doesn't have that mysterious, tough-guy edge to Batman that Kevin Conroy portrayed so well. But, this is, after all, Batman, so I really have no choice but to at least stick around to see which way things will go: "Batman: The Animated Series" or "Batman and the Super Seven". Time will tell.