Well, I had PLANNED to hate Batwheels. Which I finally started to watch this week.
My plan failed. It failed utterly.
I suppose I was expecting some eXtreme mecha-nonsense. I was wrong.
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| Adam West voicing the original Batman? Too delightful! |
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| Most adorable Ace ever. |
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| The Arrowplane and Batwing are best friends. Green Arrow and Batman are not. |
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| Depicting the Riddler as black was an ingenious update of his traditional look and I am now rooting for this change to become mainstream. |
The music (the show is filled with it) is fun and provides leitmotifs for the various characters; the opening theme's homage to the Neal Hefti Batman theme is just one example.
The characterization is expert. The various Bat-vehicles have their own personalities; they aren't merely carbon copies of their owners. They have different abilities and so must work as a team. Their origin story even makes (comic book) sense: the Bat-family was captured, so the Batcomputer AI installed AI in the vehicles to go rescue them.
The versions of the human characters are impressive, in some cases nearly definitive. The awkwardness between strong silent Batman (voiced, believe it or not, by Ethan Hawke!) and playful wise-acre Green Arrow. A Duke Thomas version of Robin that I immediately wanted to see in comics (when IS the last time anyone saw Duke Thomas?!). Wayne Knight as King Tut, driving the Carcophagus? I'm sold!
The characters learn lessons, help one another overcome fears and limitations; it's a great show for kids to acquire life lessons. Reviewers seem to think it's for pre-schoolers; it seems to me a bit fast and complex for pre-schoolers. There are a lot of references that go over the heads of young folk; the Penguin makes a Hindenburg joke in one episode and there are few pre-schoolers who've seen the Hindenburg broadcast.
I'm no pre-schooler, but I'm enjoying it. Perhaps you will, too.
4 comments:
I always thought that tacking on vague "EM Senses" powers onto Duke and dubbing him "The Signal" was chickening out. He was SO GOOD as the POV character in WE ARE ROBIN, and I may watch this just to see him get the spotlight as Robin again.
(He does still appear regularly in the WAYNE FAMILY ADVENTURES web comic on WebToons, and I confess that WFA is currently the only actual Batman media I follow these days.)
Duke was just in Batman #9, if I recall correctly. Also, I had no idea Batwheels even existed. I will be checking it out. As might be evident from my posts, I love animated superheroes.
If you're looking for good alternative Bat storytelling, my current is Wayne Family Adventures. It's a Web comic all about the Bat kids, and they're written with a lot of emotional intelligence. Some people have YouTubeified it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gWi1EruRXM
Not just Duke, but Harper Row. She was introduced as a civilian on the periphery of Batman's world, and she actually served a useful purpose. Making her the most ridiculous Bat kid yet was a waste of what started out well.
I have no problem with bringing new characters into the fold, but it's not too much to want them to bring something of value. Not in terms of powers or abilities, but a new emotional dynamic or perspective would be nice. For all the people in unitards hitting each other, none of this matters unless we care about the characters. Almost all meaningful stakes are emotional.
- HJF1
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