Batman

May of this year celebrated Batman’s 70th birthday, having first appeared in Detective Comics #27. Ironically, our modern DC Comics decided to celebrate this milestone by killing Batman off. This instigated the Battle for the Cowl miniseries that named Dick Grayson (the original Robin) as the new Batman until Bruce Wayne’s inevitable return.

But even if Batman were to remain dead, lost forever to the comic world that needs him, he would never be forgotten by fans thanks to his many other incarnations since first being imagined in 1939. Batman has been a comic book hero, a television hero, a movie hero, a video game hero, and more, so many times that listing them all would probably be ostentatious. Batman is DC Comics’ crown jewel, even more popular than Superman, who has been around longer.

For me, the love of Batman did not begin with the comics, or with Adam West, or even with the wonderful Tim Burton movies—Batman’s 1989 release having marked the then 50th anniversary of the character. No, my love affair with the Caped Crusader began with a cartoon.

I am referring to, of course, Batman: The Animated Series.

This show was so monumental that it changed the face and caliber of cartoons for over a decade, giving us the near entirety of DC Comics right on our television, with the same high quality of writing, voice acting, and animation time and time again.

Batman as a franchise continues to be DC Comics’ lifeline in keeping up with Marvel, seen most notably with the popular Batman live action films staring Christian Bale, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. DC has otherwise been faring poorly against Marvel in the live action venue, and has been going through a number of excellent animated films instead, such as Green Lantern: First Flight, and Wonder Woman.

As much as I have enjoyed the animated movies from DC that I have seen so far (yes, Marvel has had quite a few recently too), I find that they usually leave me with a sense of something lacking. The one exception was the prequel anime to The Dark Knight, titled Batman: Gotham Knight, and the reason for this was actually quite simple.

Kevin Conroy, the man who voiced Batman for Batman: The Animated Series, returned to us in Batman: Gotham Knight after two years of being replaced by other voice actors taking on his quintessential role. If you check on Conroy today you will see that he has completed voice work on a new endeavor, Batman/Superman: Public Enemies. Clearly, someone learned their lesson, something that can also be seen in the choice of casting for one very highly anticipated video game.

The Game

Officially, Batman: Arkham Asylum came out Tuesday, August 25th, and with great expectations after a wonderful teaser of a demo, and great reviews circling the geek airwaves. This is a superb comic book game, we know this already and most of us haven’t even gotten the chance to buy it yet. This game sets new standards, with fun, integrated gameplay that actually allows you to fight like the Batman we know and love, something really only accomplished before with Spiderman: Web of Shadows and the impressive webslinging mechanics (albeit, a less story-driven game).
 

Batman: Arkham Asylum exposes players to a unique, dark and atmospheric adventure that takes them to the depths of Arkham Asylum – Gotham’s psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. Gamers will move in the shadows, instigate fear amongst their enemies and confront The Joker and Gotham City’s most notorious villains who have taken over the asylum.

Using a wide range of Batman’s gadgets and abilities, players will become the invisible predator and attempt to foil The Joker’s demented scheme.

Batman: Arkham Asylum features an original story penned exclusively for the game by famous Batman author and five-time Emmy award winner Paul Dini, whose credits include Lost season one and Batman: The Animated Series.

-Game Overview from the official website of Batman: Arkham Asylum

 

Right off the bat (haha) we have a winner with this game since the story of Batman: Arkham Asylum was written by one of the writers from Batman: The Animated Series, Paul Dini, having written 23 episodes of the cartoon along with several other Batman-related bodies of work.

But even if we threw out the video game’s fantastic writing, threw out the action and how you can so adeptly take on more than one opponent at a time, or sneak about like the ninja detective we all know Bats to be, even if we threw out just how beautiful the game looks, there is still one true gem left to marvel at: the voices of not only Kevin Conroy (Batman), but Mark Hamill (The Joker), Arleen Sorkin (Harley Quinn), and almost every other original voice actor we first heard with the dawning of Batman: The Animated Series in 1992.

The incorporation of these memorable voices makes playing Batman: Arkham Asylum almost like being a part of a new, darker, more adult episode of that beloved cartoon, a show that was truly one of the ideal series for children, and frankly, for anyone else who wanted to watch.

The Series

What made Batman: The Animated Series so unique and influential was that it did not pander to children, it didn’t dumb down for them or treat them like, well, children. It respected the intelligence of the kids that were watching and their understanding of the basic elements of real life that adults face. It was an animated drama, touching on truly adult themes without ever being so far over the kids’ heads that they couldn’t enjoy the show.

As my example for extolling the merits of this now retired animated series, I offer you episode #68: The Trial. This is one of my favorite episodes because it is one of the few times we really focus on Arkham Asylum (fittingly for this article) and we encounter many of the series’ most notable villains.

The Trial

In this episode, minor character District Attorney Janet Van Dorn, voiced by Stephanie Zimbalist (the daughter of the long-time voice actor for Alfred, Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) is brought to the forefront when she is abducted by the inmates of Arkham Asylum. Batman is captured soon after, and with The Joker playing judge, Van Dorn is forced to defend Batman, who is being charged by his nemeses with being the reason they became the baddies they are today.

Van Dorn not only dislikes Batman, but has been an advocate of his capture, believing he causes more harm than good. The villains think they have the perfect setup as they play their trial game, since Van Dorn can only save Batman and herself if she proves Batman’s innocence, something she has never actually believed.

The joke is on the villains, however, when Van Dorn realizes, and is able to prove through cross-examination, that Batman did not create them, they created Batman. The Joker and his many comrades became villains all on their own.

We get a different view of the Gotham world by seeing things through Van Dorn’s eyes. Most kid’s shows wouldn’t risk deviating from the main character for fear of losing their audience’s apparently short attention span. Batman: The Animated Series handled this flawlessly, pulling us in to this otherwise background character’s life so that we actually cared about her and what happened to her throughout the episode.

There is also a profound amount of logic in the case she makes to save Batman. This episode, through Van Dorn, calls to mind accountability of one’s actions—actions and decisions in this case that led many of the characters in Batman’s world to become villains. This episode also shows us what lengths a person (Bruce Wayne) might be willing to go to, to take matters into their own hands, while still offering us an opposing view that being a vigilante is not always acceptable in society.

These are big issues that today’s cartoons would never tackle. And, really, that is a shame. The cartoons of our youth assumed we were smart enough to learn from what we saw without needing everything explained, even if some of the topics were more adult than the viewers themselves. The next generation is at a dire disadvantage here. Cartoons have lost that perfect mesh of ‘adult’ and ‘still-for-kids’. Nowadays, all we have to choose from is either something like Family Guy (definitely adult) or something like Spongebob (hardly intellectually stimulating), which leaves out far too much middle ground for my liking.

Batman: The Animated Series had profound, inventive writing, interesting characters, adult concepts that taught kids real life lessons, and was a continuing story that made it possible to enjoy every change and adaptation that came about after the original.

There was an artwork change when the Superman series began, reanimating the then dead Batman series for cross-appearances that eventually led to the creation of the Justice League, one of my favorite animated shows of all time. Batman Beyond cannot be excluded either, of course, coming about in 1999, set in a future Gotham where an aged Bruce Wayne trains his young replacement, Terry McGinnis.

These shows were stellar offshoots of a great original, and to the viewers’ pleasure they all utilized the same talented voice acting and compelling storytelling every single time. Batman, Superman, Batman Beyond, Justice League—they were all part of the same cohesive whole, with crossovers and interwoven storylines that added to the overall universe, including almost every villain and superhero that was ever thought of by DC Comics. Batman: The Animated Series was even responsible for first introducing the character of Harley Quinn, the psychotic femme fatale jester who graces us with her presence again in Batman: Arkham Asylum, and is clearly the only person alive capable of pairing long-term with ‘Mr. J’.

Conclusion

I shudder to think that Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill almost weren’t kept on the project for Batman: Arkham Asylum. Some of the creators thought their voices sounded too aged and that they weren’t dark enough for the feel they were looking for. Thank goodness nothing actually came of that. We all remember how the unfortunate excuse of an ‘aged voice’ was the reason Megatron was done by Hugo Weaving (a wonderful actor, mind you) in the film adaptation of Transformers rather than the character’s true voice, Frank Welker. It still pains me today that all Welker got were a few pity roles in the second film.

In the case of Batman: Arkham Asylum, after further testing, and after the actors themselves got a look at just how amazing the video game was going to look, the creators came back to their senses and realized that the voice actors as-is were more than dark enough, and carried with them such a large amount of nostalgia for the fans that the voices alone became one of the selling points to get us where we are today—probably standing in line outside some GameStop or Best Buy, or at least that’s where I’m betting several of you were Tuesday.

Since the end of the Justice League cartoon in 2006, many of the voice talents from Batman moved on to other things, but being able to hear almost all of them reprise their original roles for Batman: Arkham Asylum is simply mind-blowing. This is our childhood, a decade of our lives that showed the DC characters, Batman especially, exactly as they were always meant to be. Live actors for Batman will come and go, and already have—Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale—and so will Jokers—Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger—but no one has portrayed these characters, and the other characters from Batman’s world, for as long a stretch as the voices that first brought Batman to life to a generation of eager geeks.

If Batman: Arkham Asylum is not something you were otherwise looking forward to, but you were a fan of that old cartoon, at least rent this remarkable game for some audible flashbacks to better times, back when Batman truly was the Dark Knight and The Joker never failed to make us smile.

~G³

Join me next time for “5 Summer Movies That Missed the Mark and 1 That Didn’t”. All of the titles I will be discussing – X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Watchmen, Terminator Salvation, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Star Trek, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – are films that I loved in the box office and plan to own (I already have Watchmen since it was the earliest release), but only one of those six was truly perfect, in my opinion, from beginning to end. Check back Monday for my take on those six films, and find out which one I consider the most satisfying and well-done.

Thanks for tuning in.

Images taken from:
http://www.warnervideo.com/batmangothamknight/
http://www.digitalsomething.com/news/2026.html
http://www.starpulse.com/Television/Batman_The_Animated_Series/gallery/BATMANANIBO02/
http://dcanimated.wikia.com/wiki/Trial
http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Justice_League_%28TV_Series%29
http://www.playworksonline.com/blog/?p=1453
http://www.realtyworldnca.com/2009/04/03/federal-reserve-warnings-soon-to-be-coming-attractions/

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