Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Batman: Caped Crusader’ on Prime Video, Where The Stalwart Masked Hero Returns, Again, In His Animated Crime Fighting Form

Batman: Caped Crusader premieres its first ten-episode season all at once on Prime Video , bringing a moody, noir-depicted Gotham City to life with plenty of stylistic references to classic gangster films, and connecting the new series aesthetically to creator and showrunner Bruce Timm’s previous animated DC Universe highlight, 1992’s Batman: The Animated Series . Timm is also an executive producer of Caped Crusader , along with heavy hitters JJ Abrams and Matt Reeves, and its impressive voice cast includes Hamish Linklater, Jamie Chung, Diedrich Bader, Christina Ricci, Krystal Joy Brown, Minnie Driver, and Tom Kenny.

‘The Mask’ at 30: How Jim Carrey Took Advantage Of A Rare Superhero-Less Summer

Opening Shot: A lackey is tied to a chair. “I don’t know who told you I wasn’t on the level, but you gotta believe me!” From the sinister glint that appears in shadow, it’s pretty clear this guy’s underworld boss does not.

DC’s ‘Arkham Asylum’ TV Series Not Moving Forward At Max

The Gist: In this version of the Batman story, the Linklater-voiced crimefighter is still a relative unknown on the streets of Gotham. He sports the classic combo of a gray jumpsuit against black crest, cape, cowl, and boots, and when he takes on a group of Tommy gun-wielding thugs, out come the usual utility belt accouterments: smoke grenades, grappling hook, throwing bolas. Along with Alfred Pennyworth (Jason Watkins), Batman’s concerned about a new criminal element in town, one that’s taking it hard to Rupert Thorne (Cedric Yarbrough) with artillery blasts targeting the more established mob boss’s turf. Who is it horning in on territory and paying off half the Gotham City PD? It’s none other than Oswalda Cobblepot (Minnie Driver), aka The Penguin, whose lair this time around is a luxury casino yacht called The Iceberg Lounge.

CLICK HERE TO GET EMAILS FROM DECIDER

With a gender-flipped Penguin making all kinds of trouble – she’s camouflaging cannons with giant umbrellas and top hats – Batman will also have to contend with flashy DA Harvey Dent (Bader) running for mayor (and becoming Two-Face), the emergence of intriguing femme fatale Selina “Catwoman” Kyle (Ricci), and Chung as Harley Quinn, the always memorable chaos-mode villain who Bruce Timm first co-created for Batman: The Animated Series . Caped Crusader will also delve into DC Comics lore to populate its crime-ridden take on Gotham, with appearances by Onomatopoeia (Reid Scott), Nocturna (McKenna Grace), Gentleman Ghost (Toby Stephens), Firebug (Kenny), and Clayface (Dan Donohue). This Batman’s gonna have a lotta work to do! But he’ll also have allies, like defense attorney Barbara Gordon (Brown) and her father, Commissioner Gordon (Eric Morgan Stuart), who a sniveling Penguin henchman calls “the only cop in Gotham I know isn’t bent!”

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? X-Men ‘97 made a splash when it premiered on Disney+ last March. Prime Video also features Batman: The Animated Series , with Kevin Conroy voicing the Dark Knight, and that iconic animated series is also streamable on Max, which additionally includes three seasons of the animated Batman Beyond , plus The Batman , the rain-soaked 2022 film with Robert Pattinson that began Matt Reeves’ tenure as helmer of the cape crusader’s story. And hey, what about another different version of The Penguin? This September, Colin Farrell will reprise his role from Reeves’ film in the limited series The Penguin .

Our Take: When the Batmobile first appears in Batman: Caped Crusader , it’s with the lonnnnnnng silhouette and prominent front grill of a Oldsmobile or Cadillac from the early 1940s. (“Oh, that Batman guy is real, by the way,” Barbara Gordon says. “I met him tonight, sort of. He has a really nice car.”) And while we also get a look at the cowled crimefighter’s personal miniature submarine, and throwing stars in the shape of his crest, we’re enjoying how Caped Crusader is lending a throwback style to its visual sense while retaining the components we’ve come to know and even expect wherever the Batman character appears.

And not just with the fighting. When Bruce Wayne attends a charity event on the Penguin’s lux floating headquarters, the crisply-rendered animation and Hamish Linklater’s steady voice acting really capture how uncomfortable he is, putting on the perma-smile of a wealthy dandy and pretending to spill a martini on his tuxedo. Bruce wants to get back to Batman’s base of operations, which is smaller in scale and more analog than the Bat Caves we’ve seen recently. He wants to get back into the gray suit, where the ear points of his cowl stand out against explosions. He wants to crush the criminal underworld of Gotham City. We’re big fans of how little chatter this version of Batman emits. He’d rather just speak with his fists before swinging off to survey the city from the top of a terracotta gargoyle.

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode. While Batman: Caped Crusader doesn’t shy away from violence, it’s also got henchmen uttering lots of “Friggin’”’s, meaning it’s not likely to cross the threshold of a PG-level rating.

Parting Shot: “I failed tonight,” Batman tells Alfred. “That can’t happen again.” Even when our conflicted hero logs a win against Gotham’s evolving criminal scene, he can’t help but think of it like a game of Whac-A-Mole.

Sleeper Star: Krystal Joy Brown, who also voiced Netossa in the rebooted She-Ra and the Princesses of Power , is an early standout in Caped Crusader as Barbara Gordon. Brown cuts Barbara’s idealism with a pragmatic streak, and she’s no sufferer of fools. When machine gun-toting bad guys try to run her off the road, she just reaches for her revolver.

Most Pilot-y Line: “You know Mama doesn’t hold a grudge. For long…” Minnie Driver’s Oswalda Cobblepot is The Penguin through and through, complete with a monocle and an unpredictable streak that’s as menacing as it is entertaining.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Incarnations of the Batman story will seemingly never stop coming. But Batman: Caped Crusader has a great pedigree with DC veteran Bruce Timm running the show, the animation is moody and cool, and just like so many Batman projects before it, the villains might be the best part about it.

Johnny Loftus ( @glennganges ) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.

For more entertainment news and streaming recommendations, visit decider.com