Simply once you thought you have been executed getting excited for Batman initiatives in an oversaturated market, who ought to come strolling alongside however “Batman: The Animated Collection” co-creator Bruce Timm? The DC animation legend’s “Batman: Caped Crusader” would possibly very properly be “one of the best piece of Batman media in a decade,” to cite Witney Seibold’s glowing overview for /Movie. It is actually a worthy successor to “The Animated Collection.” The place that beloved ’90s cartoon was restricted by the censors at Fox Children, Timm’s newest animated tackle the Darkish Knight — which practically died on the vine after it was dropped by Max, just for Prime Video to choose it up — is given the area to be as emotionally mature, political, and even scary because it desires to be.
Slightly than placing a superficially grimdark or excessively violent spin on the DC Comics universe, “Caped Crusader” takes benefit of its lack of censorship to dig deeper into not simply the psychology of Bruce Wayne and his rogues gallery, but in addition the underlying themes of sophistication warfare and systemic corruption that’ve all the time been part of the Batman mythology. Certainly, the ’40s-set crime drama re-imagines most of the Darkish Knight’s biggest enemies in ways in which really feel notably well timed in 2024: Clayface is now principally an incel and one large homage to traditional black-and-white horror cinema; Catwoman is a spoiled heiress who resorts to crime when her checking account runs dry; Harvey Dent is a morally compromised district legal professional whose eventual transformation into Two-Face takes on a fair better sense of tragedy; and so forth.
Even The Penguin will get a makeover right here as Oswalda (with an “a”) Cobblepot, a complicated, cold-blooded woman of crime delivered to life with relish by the voice of Minnie Driver. Why gender-flip the Penguin? To paraphrase Timm and producer James Tucker — why not?
Caped Crusader’s Penguin is an element Marlene Dietrich, half drag queen
As Timm famous in an interview with the Tv Academy, the concept for the present’s gender-swapped Penguin took place throughout pre-production when he pointed on the market are way more memorable male Batman villains than there are feminine ones. “And off the highest of my head, I mentioned, ‘We by no means actually might work out precisely what to do with The Penguin, what the gimmick for The Penguin could be. What if we gender-flip The Penguin?'” he recalled. The end result was Oswalda, a burgeoning Gotham mobster who’s simply as ruthless as her male predecessors and does not blink twice at killing a possible traitor, even when it is somebody near her.
Like Oswald Cobblepot, nonetheless, Oswalda has a way of flamboyance that evokes old-school Hollywood with greater than a contact of camp — on this case, appropriately, the drag queen selection. As Tucker defined:
“When he mentioned ‘Perhaps we are able to gender-flip Penguin,’ I simply obtained this flood of concepts. I used to be considering of Marlene Dietrich in her tuxedo and ‘Cabaret’ the musical and the artwork type of cabaret, and I simply began drawing. I immediately obtained a flood of concepts. Additionally, I used to be considering just a little little bit of Harvey Fierstein and ‘Hairspray’ and Divine. It simply was like I knew immediately what it could possibly be.”
Admittedly, Oswalda is not as fascinating as the opposite reimagined rogues in “Caped Crusader.” Even together with her filicidal tendencies (that are actually extra stunning than the violent mood tantrums her male counterparts are vulnerable to), her motives and mindset simply aren’t that totally different from earlier iterations of the character. Be that as it could, her introduction within the present’s very first episode, “In Treacherous Waters,” permits “Caped Crusader” to announce itself as one thing totally different and even surprising. Who is aware of: The already-ordered second season could but reveal there’s extra to this slippy crime mama than meets the (monocled) eye.
“Batman: Caped Crusader” season 1 is now streaming on Prime Video.