'BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER' SEES THE DARK KNIGHT IN A NIGHT WITHOUT END

Down Gotham's mean streets, Batman must go in his latest animated series iteration as a detective

- Rudraa Abirami Sudarshan

It’s been 85 years since Batman first appeared on the scene, lurking around the dark alleys of Gotham city. Naturally, being around for more than eight decades, the Dark Knight has evolved along with the audience. There are so many versions of Batman and his universe. It is as hard to keep track of them as it is to keep Arkham’s inmates behind closed doors.

The broad term for most iterations of Batman including Steampunk Batman, Vampire Batman or even medieval knight Batman fall under the category of ‘elseworlds’. These are worlds where the characters are reimagined and put in worlds so far removed from their original. It simultaneously preserves continuity and makes way for a fun what-if? scenario. Batman: Caped Crusader is similarly an elseworlds story.

In 2021 it was announced that Bruce Timm, J. J. Abrams and Matt Reeves were going to develop a new Batman animated series titled Batman: Caped Crusader. This would be a more gritty, darker, noir take on the World’s Greatest Detective in his early years with inspiration drawn from the Batman comics in the 1940s to 1960s period.

This seemed promising and hopeful; there’s nothing more revitalizing than a return to the roots. Modern Age Batman has been to nearly every kind of universe but there’s so much from the Golden, Silver and Bronze ages that deserve to be brought to the spotlight. The show was to bring something entirely different to the table. It was supposed to peel back the layers of the characters, and take a deeper look into the dark psyche that Gotham’s citizens possess.

Which it did not.