Paging The Crime Doctor
September 24, 2010 2:44 PM   Subscribe

 
Bonus Bat Link: Batmans worst costumes
posted by Artw at 2:49 PM on September 24, 2010 [2 favorites]


They recolourd The Killing Joke for the hardcover? Does this happen a lot?
posted by GuyZero at 2:50 PM on September 24, 2010


For Absolute Editions and the like? Quite frequently.
posted by Artw at 2:52 PM on September 24, 2010


these are incredible.
posted by shmegegge at 2:53 PM on September 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


Awesome post. Here are all of them. Appointment in Crime Alley is one of my favorites.

I love Batman: TAS. It's beautiful, it's compelling, it's rich, it's omg cool that all these things were true of a kid's show. It's all just so competently done. I mean, how awesome is it that there were title cards at all, much less that they were so tightly stylized and so honest and true to their inspiration sources, much much less that there were enough to have more than a dozen awesome ones? I was a teenage girl when the show was first on the air, hardly the target market, but I watched it carefully, entranced.

I think I must have been at some kind of super-impressionable stage of brain growth then, because I'm suddenly realizing that my model for female beauty still basically boils down to TAS's Talia. Mr. Freeze and his "Nora..." and The Gray Ghost can still make me cry. Dark Deco is what I dream in. Damn, I loved Batman: TAS.
posted by peachfuzz at 3:01 PM on September 24, 2010 [17 favorites]


I loved a lot of stupid shows as a kid. Rewatching the show as an adult, it makes me happy to know that Batman: The Animated Series was actually pretty great, and Mark Hamill is still my favorite Joker.
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 3:04 PM on September 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


#10. Mad As a Hatter: This is one of the few title cards that wasn't done in the distinctive Bruce Timm style, and the classic storybook look of it works very well for the episode.

It's not just a "classic storybook look"—it's a distinct homage to Sir John Tenniel's illustrations for Alice in Wonderland. See, for example, Tenniel's drawings of the Mad Hatter here and here. But yes, all of these are wonderful.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 3:07 PM on September 24, 2010 [3 favorites]


Is this the part where I go on and on about how much I love Batman: The Animated Series?

Yes. Yes it is.
posted by vibrotronica at 3:09 PM on September 24, 2010 [3 favorites]


I'm sour on most cartoons that aren't the Tick, but I'll always have a special place in my heart for Batman: T.A.S..
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:12 PM on September 24, 2010


The weird thing is, these almost all match up to what I would write down as the best episodes of Batman: The Animated Series.

Or maybe that isn't so weird.

And yes, Mark Hamill will continue to always be the best Joker ever. To the point that I think they need to hire a body actor, then dub over the lines with his voice for the next live action movie. And every movie after that.
posted by strixus at 3:16 PM on September 24, 2010 [3 favorites]


I loved Batman:TAS. Anything that's ostensibly a kid's show that quotes Santayana twice in the same episode gets major points from me.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 3:17 PM on September 24, 2010


These are great.
posted by OmieWise at 3:20 PM on September 24, 2010


Batman: The Brave and the Bold is also awesome, though a different kind of awesome.
posted by Artw at 3:23 PM on September 24, 2010 [3 favorites]


Paging Doctor Crime, paging Doctor Crime. Emergency wallet-ectomy in operating theater 6.
posted by Gin and Comics at 3:27 PM on September 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


A comics nerd of my acquaintance was wanting to discuss continuity and canon in comics (vs Doctor Who) with me, and I kind of cut him off by saying Batman: TAS is my Batman canon. Can't beat it. I really wish it were on Netflix streaming.

(And yes the title cards are part of the awesome.)
posted by immlass at 4:04 PM on September 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


Seconding the majesty of Batman TAS. I watched a chunk of this show on DVD recently and was still impressed by the quality of animation, writing and character. The level of storytelling in that show frankly put a lot of today's supposedly quality television to shame. And the voice acting, oh the voice acting.

Personally, the Batman TAS version of most of the Batman characters is usually my favorite version. Maybe the comic version of Bane (especially as written lately in Gail Simone's Secret Six) is better, but Mark Hamil's Joker? Which walks a line between clown and murderer that is so impressive. To this day, I tell people that I am not scared of clowns, but I am scared of the Joker. (Heath Ledger's Joker was also amazing, a piece of acting that I truly admire, but he created that character by stepping away from so many of the conventions of the Joker)

The current version of Mr. Freeze is based on TAS. As is the Mad Hatter and Clock King. Harley Quinn of course also made the jump, but I think that the influence of TAS was felt very strongly in Batman comics for years, and unfortunately a lot of the important lessons of the show were lost or misinterpreted. The show managed to do a lot of its style and storytelling tricks because it was a kid's show, and constrained. I'm not arguing that censorship is a good thing, but merely that some truly great things can come from constraint and restraint. That the suggestion of violence or horror is much more effective, or at least better art, than showing someone's jaw getting punched off.

This isn't to suggest that comics should be for kids herf derf. But it was nice to see Batman smile, it was nice to see that Bruce Wayne the character was able to differentiate between himself and the mask, as these days a lot of writers seem to take the easy way and write Batman as a psychopath.

I'm a bit torn on Grant Morrison's Batman run(s). There's a lot there, it rewards rereading and deep reading. I'm not fond of his Joker sometimes, his Ras Al Ghul wasn't great, but he managed to introduce Damian Wayne and not make it complete and utter crap. He gets characters, even if sometime his dialogue leaves a lot wanting. And Grant Morrison is most definitely a writer that needs an artist that can work to his level. His run has been plagued by substandard artists his simply can't convey the visual storytelling that his scripts demand. There are writer's who can endure a poorer artist, but Grant Morrison's is not one of those writers (and it so often feels like only his work, not a full collaboration unless it is with someone like Frank Quietly).
posted by X-Himy at 4:06 PM on September 24, 2010 [4 favorites]


You know who I bet would have a good Batman voice? Peter Hammill.
posted by kenko at 4:11 PM on September 24, 2010


One of the best parts of last year's Batman: Arkham Asylum videogame is that they used the voice actors from Batman: TAS.
posted by joedan at 4:19 PM on September 24, 2010 [2 favorites]



I'm a bit torn on Grant Morrison's Batman run(s).

Well, Grant Morrison's Batman in his JLA run will always be his best Batman. I'd put it up there with B:TAS and The Dark Night Returns as far as definitive depictions of Batman go.

Outside of the outstanding J.H. Williams III Club of Heroes story the Morrison run on Batman was best described as "patchy", with Tony Daniel and some weird editorial decisions really not helping. Batman and Robin and The Return of Bruce Wayne, however, has been excellent, and even managed to retroactively make Final Crisis and R.I.P. better. I'd say he's almost topping his JLA Batman now.

I'm not fond of his Joker sometimes, his Ras Al Ghul wasn't great, but he managed to introduce Damian Wayne and not make it complete and utter crap.

Evil Robin was a strike of genius, and I'm actually really enjoying the team-up of Old-Robin as Batman and Evil Robin. And his Joker is bloody amazing in this last Batman and Robin.

He also has quite the knack of creating new Batman characters that seem like they've been there all the time (alongside reviving old Batman characters nobody has seen for ages and making them his own).
posted by Artw at 4:36 PM on September 24, 2010


The Harley Quinn episode where you see her backstory as a psychiatrist/psychologist intern depresses the shit out of me. Batman Beyond is worth it just because you know she moves on after the Joker's death.
posted by edbles at 4:39 PM on September 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


I still think that Obama should sing lead in Van Halen.
posted by symbioid at 4:49 PM on September 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


The 'movie' Mask of the Phantasm is an excellent way to check out the quality and depth of TAS. Years later, it still surprises me how striking the storytelling was, and how much of it stayed with me after a single viewing.
posted by Sparx at 4:58 PM on September 24, 2010 [2 favorites]


There's actually another movie, Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero, that I've not seen.

And of course Batman showed up in the Superman and Justice League follow ups to BTAS, which were both pretty good in their own rights though perhaps not great.
posted by Artw at 5:04 PM on September 24, 2010


The SubZero movie is even better than Mask of the Phantasm. It's the high point of TAS I think.

Timm and Dini created the definitive Batman. Everything else is just a pastiche. In the issue of Planetary where they go jumping through alternate Gothams, meeting Frank Miller Batman and Adam West Batman and so on, they never meet TAS Batman, and that's because they're only meeting the imperfect Batmen, not the Platonic form.
posted by painquale at 5:20 PM on September 24, 2010 [3 favorites]


"Be sure to drink your... Harlequinade??"
posted by hermitosis at 5:30 PM on September 24, 2010


And of course Batman showed up in the Superman and Justice League follow ups to BTAS, which were both pretty good in their own rights though perhaps not great.

There's an episode of the Justice League cartoon were Lex Luther puts together a criminal group with a couple other dastardly folks. When the Joker shows up, unexpected, Luther's not scared or surprised, he's just exasperated. Like, "Oh, for fuck's sake. Not this guy." I loved the fact that even the other villians couldn't put up with his instability.
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 5:32 PM on September 24, 2010 [3 favorites]


Artw, I love Morrison's JLA run, but again it becomes problematic when other writer's get to it. Morrison writing the Batgod is fun, because his run has bigger and bigger threats coming. With other writers, a Batman whose superpower is winning becomes a bit boring. Batman and Robin has been great (as has ROBW), issue 13 was outstanding. It has made me think that dialogue continues to be his weakness, something I had discarded after reading All-Star Superman. I don't know, there's a tendency for characters to explicate, and when they do that they all sound the same. Perhaps that is Morrison covering for his artists or not trusting his audiences to put the time to piece together his sometimes fragmentary plots (a fair assumption).

I like his Joker in Batman and Robin, but I found the Clown at Midnight stuff to be not great. I dig Dr. Hurt, and I can't decide if some of the revelations of B&R 14 are a good thing or a bad thing.

Final Crisis was uneven, and plagued by artist switches in some embarrassing times, and perhaps a bit too compressed. But I still love it. I think Seven Soldiers is better, much much better though.
posted by X-Himy at 5:32 PM on September 24, 2010


DC One Million was pretty great as well.
posted by Artw at 5:39 PM on September 24, 2010


So how does Spiderman: The Animated Series compare? That was my other favorite show as a kid.
posted by yaymukund at 5:48 PM on September 24, 2010


I've never seen this, and was interested. I checked it out on Hulu, and they have links for what appears to be the full first season, all leading to kidswb.com. I've only watched part of the first episode, but the quality seems pretty good, and the animation is outstanding, as advertised.

This is the link I'm using for the first episode. It looks like it might have some kind of session or user id embedded, so if it doesn't work, my apologies. You're on your own from here. :)
posted by Malor at 6:21 PM on September 24, 2010


I'd forgotten all about these! Great find!

There's an episode of the Justice League cartoon were Lex Luther puts together a criminal group with a couple other dastardly folks. When the Joker shows up, unexpected, Luther's not scared or surprised, he's just exasperated. Like, "Oh, for fuck's sake. Not this guy."

Adding onto that, my two favorite moments of Justice League also involve Luthor:

The first is when Gorilla Grodd, as the newly-usurped leader of said evil organization, tries to turn the entire population of Earth into apes. Back at the evil badguy lair after the plot has been foiled by the Justice League, Gorilla Grodd is about to introduce his next scheme when Luthor interrupts. Disgusted, he says something along the lines of, "That was your master plan? Turn everyone into apes? Are you friggin' serious?" before pulling out a gun and shooting Grodd in the chest, killing him on the spot.

The other favorite moment is when he and the Flash switch bodies. After a goodly amount of hellraising in the JLU watchtower, Luthor-in-Flash is taking a break in the washroom. He laments that he hasn't wrought as much damage as he would have liked, but then adds, "at least now I can learn the Flash's secret identity." He pulls his hood off and looks into the mirror.

He then pauses, and says, "I have no idea who this is."
posted by Ndwright at 6:36 PM on September 24, 2010 [16 favorites]


So how does Spiderman: The Animated Series compare?

I remember watching and enjoying the Spider-Man animated show as a kid, but I tried to watch it again a few months ago and I just couldn't get past Spider-Man's constant monologuing. They must have had a rule that the show couldn't run for more than ten seconds without someone speaking, because even when Spidey was swinging through the streets, alone, he just couldn't stop blathering to himself. I think I made it through about six episodes before I stopped watching.

Batman: the Animated Series, however, has no such problems. It was my first real introduction to Batman, and to comics in general, which are just about my favorite thing in the world, and I will love that show deeply until the day I die.
posted by maqsarian at 6:38 PM on September 24, 2010 [2 favorites]


And of course Batman showed up in the Superman and Justice League follow ups to BTAS, which were both pretty good in their own rights though perhaps not great.

I would contend the Justice League series was excellent, though it's definitely aimed more at comics fans and has less crossover appeal. There's some really mature and well thought-out storytelling going on, even if it's not as "artistic" as Batman: TAS.
posted by HostBryan at 6:41 PM on September 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


Some metafictional hilarity about Luthor/Flash body switcheroo that Ndwright mentioned: The Flash in Justice League was played by Michael Rosenbaum, who also played Lex Luthor in Smallville. So about half that episode is the guy who played both Flash and Luthor, playing Luthor trying to act like the Flash. It's pretty awesome.
posted by maqsarian at 6:46 PM on September 24, 2010 [2 favorites]


I just realized that my first ever Metafilter comment was about B:TAS, and the title cards.

God damn, do I love that show.
posted by maqsarian at 6:57 PM on September 24, 2010


He cited The Return of Dr X! Humphrey Bogart as a mad scientist / vampire! Awesome!
posted by SPrintF at 7:11 PM on September 24, 2010


I totally had a crush on Harlequin
posted by cman at 7:12 PM on September 24, 2010


It's in my old comment that I just linked to, but I think I should call it out specifically here as well: This page has all of the title cards, along with the music that accompanied them. The music (a lot of it by the late, and brilliant, Shirley Walker) really makes the great title cards that much better.
posted by maqsarian at 7:13 PM on September 24, 2010 [2 favorites]


Batman: TAS is my Batman canon. Can't beat it.

Oh, boy, oh, boy, it sounds like you haven't yet read Batman: Adventures, which is set in your canon (and mine!). Do so, and you can beat on your buddy like Mr. Nice beats on a room full of cops. Bonus? As awesome as these title screens are, they are generally second-place compared to the comic covers. The one where the Joker sits, forlorn and frowning, is awesome in and of itself.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:39 PM on September 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


Well, Grant Morrison's Batman in his JLA run will always be his best Batman.

Superman-powerful villain, unconscious, upside down, on fire, with a note pinned to his chest for his compatriots - "I know your secret."
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:44 PM on September 24, 2010 [2 favorites]


I know it's three in a row, but the issue where Mr. Nice has to leave the team to go help the orphans and puppies, man. Got something in my eye. I hope I'm as liked when I go as Archie Goodwin was.
posted by Slap*Happy at 9:15 PM on September 24, 2010


Thanks for posting this. When I was in college my roommate and I would rush home every day to watch this. I make my kids watch it.

I've been out of the Batman loop for a long, long time. Where would be a good place to start now? I was in a comic shop not too long ago, and it seems like there were half a dozen Batman titles.
posted by HSWilson at 9:46 PM on September 24, 2010


Wow, after watching the first seven or eight episodes, I'm very impressed with this show. Somehow I completely missed it -- one of the downsides of not watching much TV, I guess.

If any of you big fans haven't yet been exposed, the recent PS3/360 game, "Batman: Arkham Asylum" is eerily similar to this series. At least two voices are the same, the Joker and Harley Quinn. I haven't gotten far enough yet to see if there are others. The art direction is very similar. It's quite clear that TAS was probably the major inspiration for the game. If anything, the game artists did a better job, if you can believe it, although the game seems to be set a little further back in time, and it gets pretty grim in spots -- the cartoon seems to stay a little on the lighter side.

If you ever wanted to visit and explore this universe, instead of just watching it on TV, Arkham Asylum is probably as close as you'll get. I knew it was a labor of love, playing it without having seen this series, but the depth of the homage is becoming much clearer now. If you're a TAS fan, even if you're not a gamer, I suggest at least renting it.
posted by Malor at 10:16 PM on September 24, 2010


I haven't played the game yet, but I'd imagine one of the big reasons why Arkham Asylum is a lot like B:TAS is that it was written by Paul Dini, who was one of the primary writers for the show (and the creator of Harley Quinn).

Also, in addition to Hamill and Sorkin, Kevin Conroy reprises his B:TAS role as Batman in Arkham Asylum, which is only right, because Conroy is the best Batman ever.

Also also, Mark Hamill said that Arkham City, the sequel to Arkham Asylum, will be his last time voicing the Joker, which is extremely sad, because Hamill is the best Joker ever.
posted by maqsarian at 11:02 PM on September 24, 2010


Batman: The Brave and the Bold is also awesome, though a different kind of awesome.

I haven't seen a lot of B:B&B but I did enjoy the great ep that spawned Batman Does Not Eat Nachos!.
posted by kmz at 11:19 PM on September 24, 2010


I realized recently that it's Timm and Dini's vision of the Batman that's the one that sticks in my head as Batman. I mean, I was familiar with the character beforehand; I was in my early twenties when the show came out and I hadn't been living in a cave. But the past couple weeks I've been idly doing some big sloppy drawings of Batman and it's really hard to get away from just feeling like I'm riffing on Timm's version. It's even harder with Harley Quinn, since she hasn't been around long enough to have a reinvention that sticks - everything I find when I do an image search for her is just vague little remixes of Timm's really solid design statement. (Which I find myself appreciating more and more as I play with it.)

Drawing Batman led to pondering what kind of comic I'd do with him. And that led to discovering that when I imagine Batman and Harley Quinn and the Joker saying things, it's with Dini's rhythms as delivered by Conroy, Sorkin, and Hamill. They really did a good job of stripping the characters down to their essentials and making them still human.
posted by egypturnash at 12:30 AM on September 25, 2010 [1 favorite]


because even when Spidey was swinging through the streets, alone, he just couldn't stop blathering to himself.

I thought the show did true to comic justice on that. That's just how he acts.
If at any point Peter isn't complaining about MJ, how hard he is working, how he's not appreciated, or how something is going to get found out, he reverts to some inner monologue based off of "with great power comes great responsibility."

That Spider-man series is great though. I think my least favorite part of it is the crappy 3d web slinging.

I also was a big fan of the X-men animated series.

After watching those 3 series over the past two years for the first time in 11 years I have to say that Batman TAS held up the best, then Spider-man, then the X-men.
When I was younger, I would have ranked it X-men, Spider-man, Batman.

I'm a big fan of the Justice League series as well but it went super downhill when they added 4000 new heroes of the day into the episodes. UNLIMITED.
posted by zephyr_words at 2:28 AM on September 25, 2010


"He's the most dangerous man alive." IIRC

Batman: the most dangerous game of all.
posted by Artw at 10:56 AM on September 25, 2010


Batman: the most dangerous game of all.

That would be one hell of an adaptation of The Most Dangerous Game.
posted by Green With You at 11:30 AM on September 25, 2010 [3 favorites]


The Mad Hatter. Oh, my god.
I think I teared up, a lot, the first time I heard Roddy MacDowall's "Would not, could not, would not, could not, could not join the dance."
In fact, I'm doing it now, just writing it.
Best voice acting ever.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 1:00 PM on September 25, 2010 [2 favorites]


Those Morrison JLA stories were character-defining, but they have not aged well at all. Superman has a mullet, every villain has a mullet and monologues even more than Dr. Doom in the seventies, Batman has long fingernails, and most of the worst excesses of the nineties are on display. I don't think they'd be publishable today.
posted by painquale at 5:41 PM on September 25, 2010


@Painquale: The biggest problem with the look of the characters in Morrison's JLA run was that the Warner Bros. DC Marketing Departments seemed to have a rather large say in DC editorial decisions about the look of the characters (not that the 90's were a particularly good time for character design in the comics field to begin with-- Todd McFarlane & Rob Liefield have a lot to answer for when judgement day comes). It'd be interesting to see what it would have looked like if Morrison/Quitely had been given free reign.

Speaking of crappy 90's Superman designs, one of my favorite Batman moments EVER was when Superman Blue: Electric Boogaloo (remember that craptacular editorial mandate?) was being re-auditioned for his position in the JLA due to the change in his powers. While Supes is being put through his paces by Martian Manhunter & the rest of the league in the Watchtower, Bats can't even bothered to be there OR pay attention to the video feed while tinkering in the Batcave on something. When he is asked if new "improved" Supes deserves to be in the JLA, Bats is like "What are you idiots wasting my time for? Of course he belongs in the league-- he's SUPERMAN."
posted by KingEdRa at 12:15 AM on September 26, 2010


Mister Moofoo, totally with you there. I cannot watch that episode ever again without crying. Seriously, fully out omg wtf tears.

It takes a lot for a show to have an episode I can't watch for crying. There are very few shows with one of those. This one has... two or three eps like that.
posted by strixus at 2:38 AM on September 26, 2010


I'm sadly late to this awesome party -- and can't believe nobody's linked to the show's fantastic intro sequence! The dramatic clash of light and shadow, the sleek art deco style, the epic Danny Elfman theme (impeccably choreographed with the action), and the chilling eye-narrowing. Easily the best such intro of its kind.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:57 PM on September 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


This is the show that made me want to write comics and/or for TV. I may never achieve that dream, but teenage me sat down watching eps. of this show and said, "You know, someone *writes* these. Someone takes the time and the pride to produce this level of entertainment, and it's for *kids*." And it was like, after years of writing shitty adolescent sci-fi and reading comics about jacked-up superheroes, I suddenly realized the underlying thematic elements that were at work here were bigger than the action. The only other thing that comes close for me is Astro City (which I've just started reading).

Not too long after, I started writing a serialized story for a newsletter that I published that took place in a world of superheroes. And yet, it wasn't a comic book. I thought this was mind-blowing. Of course, now we have everything from "Soon I Will Be Invincible" to "No Ordinary Family." But for once, I was ahead of the curve. I understood what it meant to be a writer, thanks to this show.

I've been through some rough times lately, but when I finally get around to finishing my story, I'll owe it all to B:TAS. It may not even be any good, but something sprawling that allows me to explore my relationship with my father, the transition from teenage megalomania ("when I am king...") to maturity, and the effect that it all has on the relationships in your life... well, it may not sound terribly original, but it's part of my personal struggle for place and meaning in my life. So, thanks, Timm & Dini and everyone else who went to work proud in the knowledge that they were working on the best show on Television. For kids. Difference made.
posted by Eideteker at 2:14 PM on September 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


That would be one hell of an adaptation of The Most Dangerous Game.

It would be very short.
posted by Artw at 2:24 PM on September 26, 2010


Batman: TAS soundtrack awesomeness - Music of the Bat 101 with Shirley Walker.
posted by Dandeson Coates, Sec'y at 4:48 PM on September 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


So, I just watched Crisis on too Earths, which was kind of lame (basically a big exercise in point missing when compared with the source material) but it has the Justice Lords storyline from the JLA cartoon in the extras, which is still an all time great. Best evil parallel earth superheroes story evah.
posted by Artw at 10:24 PM on September 26, 2010


Crisis on too Earths

I swear that was some kind of weird autocorrect glitch...

I'm a bit worried for All Star Superman now, to be honest, seeing as Crisis on Two Earths was based on a Morrison/Quietly story also and managed to end up so bland.
posted by Artw at 10:32 PM on September 26, 2010


I tried playing the Arkham Asylum demo, but then Quinn's breasts terrified me and I had to run away.
posted by edbles at 5:53 AM on September 28, 2010


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