The Batman Season 1 Review

Love that Joker, right? So, Legends of the Dark

Knight is back. For how long? That remains to

be seen. But we are covering The Batman. Yes,

and we're covering The Batman Season 1. This

will be a Legends of the Dark Knight episode,

but it will also be syndicated over on Tooncast

Beyond. And at Tooncast Beyond, for those of

you who have been listening for the past year

or so, I have... redone it where we talk about

cartoon shows in season format instead of episode

by episode. And for Legends of the Dark Knight,

we're hoping to get to episode number 50 to cap

off the show. Our goal here now is to cover any

and all aspects of Batman in other media, so

not comics, but TV, other animation, other cartoons,

and films as well. I'm of course TF2 and Mike

joined with Steve Megatron. As always? As always,

yes, that's right. As opposed to not being Steve

Megatron? Yeah. I did name you Steve Jokertron

at one point or another, but that just doesn't

ring true, I don't think. No, it doesn't quite

fit very well. No. It must be because I'm not

insane. Not yet. Well, I'm not. If I had to be

a joker it would be Mark Hamill joker not Kevin

Michael Richardson joker Not that there's anything

wrong with that joker. I just That one's a little

too fatty for me That was terrible pun that was

a baddie bad joke All right, so the Batman season

one the Batman was started up in 2004 I believe

And a lot of people don't like this version which

is funny because I kind of wrote it off originally

right More so out of the fact that I didn't want

to Didn't really want to watch it and There was

really no reason why not to watch it other than

the fact that I just Yeah, I just didn't want

to watch another Batman show and because to me

the BTAS DCAU is brain supreme and always will

be Even in everything I've seen since so I have

seen brave the bold like couple seasons of that.

It's not too bad. I mean we'll eventually get

to that I've watched Beware the Batman, which

I really enjoyed. There's aspects of each one

that makes them unique and good in their own

right. Saying that, I definitely have a new appreciation

for the show. yeah and that's the thing it's

like I'm going like you know we've been obsessed

for years now with DCAU and all the awesomeness

that is the DC animated universe by Bruce Tim

and James Tucker and Alan Burnett and all that

stuff and and at this point I was you know we've

been toying with the notion of bringing legends

back for about a year or so now at this point

and Just one afternoon. I sat down and I figured

okay. What can we do? That is still all about

Batman that doesn't lock us into having to do

what we've already done in the past 40 episodes

I mean, I love the review shows as much as the

next guy. It's my bread and butter as far as

that goes I don't mind breaking cartoons down

episode by episode or even two or three episodes

per podcast, but I'm getting old. As Murtaugh

would say. I'm too old for this bat guano. It's

just one of those things where I wanted to find

a way for us to continue doing the show. At the

same time with the cartoon episodes that are

going to be in this show also cross them over

with Tooncast Beyond. So that gets content over

there as well. And I think doing a seasonal format

is going to be interesting where we can actually

talk about each of the storylines, not necessarily

fully in depth, but enough of it to get a decent

amount of out of each season. To set the stage

well and the funny thing about it before we get

into anything is each season In this series is

referred to as its own series in a sense Yeah

Which is kind of fitting because each one kind

of bookends itself Somewhat continuing but somewhat

not And they do tie up storylines throughout

the series, but it's Because I've kind of skimmed

ahead depending on certain aspects just because

out of curiosity sake right and Some things surprise

me. So Yeah, I mean for me. I'm As we've recorded

these because we're pre recording a lot of the

stuff for legends of the dark night Bez we're

recording these I watched through the whole first

season I don't know in probably four or five

days at one point or another because I just I

Wanted them to be fresh and I watched them all

today, but well, yeah And that's the good thing

about this series, The Batman, from 2004. It's

2004, folks. This was at the point where you

didn't need 65 episodes for just one season.

You needed 65 episodes overall. So each of the

five seasons have 13 episodes in them. And that's

a lot easier to marathon than it is to marathon

65 episodes 130 episode, you know back in the

olden days of syndication in the 80s like with

he -man and and all that how they had all those

but the thing with me is I Figured. Oh, well

actually what it was was I said Oh, this just

hit Netflix. Awesome. I'll give it a full try

because really the only time I had seen any of

this show beforehand is I seen a couple of season

one episodes. The only other time when it was

airing that I was paying attention to it is when

season five hit because season five is the team

up season. And the first thing that hit me was

the Batman Superman story because George Newburn.

It's either George Newburn and Tim Daly, one

of the two. I think it's George Newburn, Dana

Delaney, and Clancy Brown return to reprise Superman

and Lex Luthor in Lois Lane. So, and then I had

actually had The Batman Season 5 on DVD because,

like I said, it was the team -up season. But

for Season 1, like I said, we got 13 episodes

here. I You know setting the stage this show

has as I said earlier has had some some interesting

Love -hate type of relationships with the fans.

Some people love it. Some people hate it. Some

people just don't care The main cast of characters

obviously persuade Batman Later in later seasons,

we've got Batgirl Dick Grayson Robin Alfred's

all the way through detective Ellen yen detective

Ethan Bennett the Joker chief Rojas and Commissioner

Gordon and Mayor Grange a former Batman Mayor

Grange Good old Adam West I know a lot of people

yes, I know a lot of your west Know a lot of

people were pissed at this show because of the

Of the animation of the style of the voice cast

of the characters Reno Romano voices Batman.

He has done a number of things over the years

He actually was Batman in a year after this first

season in Batman versus Dracula He had done He

was the narrator in Curious George a few years

ago Wow Yep, he was in Let's see getting Gotti

in 1994 which is a TV movie Let's see what else

He was in FX the series in 1997. He was in two

episodes of NYPD Blue from 2000 -2003. Recently,

the last... Ooh, I'll have to check out that

episode. I think I missed that one. He was on

VO Buzz Weekly twice as himself. Obviously, VO

Buzz Weekly, for those that don't know, is done

by Chuck Duran and Stacy Jay. They interview

all kinds of voice actors. I still wish that

was an audio show, too. Think it is now. I think

they did put it on iTunes. Hmm. I Think so. I'll

have to check into that if that if that's the

case. Mm -hmm So very very cool, I you know,

I haven't seen much of Of Reno's oh Wait, yes,

I have Wow. Okay another series we love or that

we enjoy 99 and 2001 he was spider -man and unlimited

That's right. I remember that now. Yeah, that's

the one where he had the robosuit mocking Batman

Beyond Well, it wasn't a robosuit this is the

one where he ends up on One to go or whatever

with the the animals all yeah Yeah Yeah, that's

where I remember seeing his name from okay, and

Richard Newman was the bad guy the visionary

or whatever. Yep So yeah going through season

one of the Batman what were you What was the

one villain that you really wanted to see stories

from that you were really interested to see the

stories from Was it the Joker? Obviously. Actually,

no. I was hoping to see... Because I went in

fresh without knowing who was going to be in

it. I was hoping to see the Riddler. Which did

not transpire. Yes, it did. Not that I noticed.

I didn't see the Riddler. Even... He's Season

2. Oh, that's right. It's... Yeah, you're right.

Yeah, first episode of season two, so we'll talk

about the Riddler next time. What interests me

the most is how they take some of the classic

characters and unnecessarily warp them, but they

take them and they give them a whole new thing.

I know a lot of people don't like that. I did

find it in this situation because I didn't know

what to expect. Right. That was kind of a different

take for me because You know the Ethan Bennett

character and yen were kind of a nice You know

Basically like law -and -order type characters

that were you know One was skeptical and one

was friends with Bruce Wayne. So it was kind

of a nice thing there and then You know you had

the new the new Clayface, you had the new, you

know, kind of Joker, new Mr. Freeze, new, you

know, Man -Bat, Clue Master, which I'd never

heard of prior to this, Ventriloquist and Scarface,

I'm sorry, I don't care for those characters

at all. Yeah, they... I didn't write Clue Master

because it kind of gave me like a Riddler vibe

to it, although it was like... It kind of gave

me and I forget what his name is but he was in

the Arkham games and he He was all about the

calendar man kind of gave me a vibe between calendar

man and the riddler mixed and that's what you

get it was clue master right But I didn't I didn't

mind the rest of them I think the mr. Freeze

and the clue master and the the penguin and Joker

and clay face were probably the best villains

for me this season Yeah, you know who who freeze

is done by in this Yeah, I noticed that before

I even run into it Because I heard it I like

that they made him like a jewel thief Well, that

was part of his original like before they did

the Nora freeze before Paul Dini Got his hands

on him and turned him into an emotionally charged

character in the comics as far as I know when

people can I'm not looking at this specifically

but as far as I remember from various DVD features

from from the DC you days They basically said

oh the comics he used to just be a jewel thief

that's all he was he there wasn't anything to

him so yeah they with this they kind of worked

everything in where they kind of took you know

the jewel thief stuff back and they did a flip

on a on Batman 89 well cuz also they had because

mr. freeze was like a jewel thief but he also

was playing with like freezing and cryogenics

in the 66 show yeah Yeah, why don't they have

Eggman and King Tut? Please no, we do not need

Egghead and King Tut. Please don't even. We'll

talk about those villains at a later date, later

episode. That'd be awesome. No. No, no, no. We

don't need Egghead and King Tut in this series.

As the season progresses, we get Firefly. In

one episode and then later we get Firefly and

Mr. Freeze teaming up with each other, which

is kind of interesting and cool. Firefly is Jason

Marsden. I've met him in person. Yes, yes you

have. Super nice guy. Oh yeah, he is. He's awesome.

Out of this first 13 episodes, do you have a

couple of favorites? I definitely liked the introduction

of Clayface. Just because it was kind of a bittersweet

episode and it was totally unexpected. And sad.

I enjoyed the Mr. Freeze episode because I got

a different take other than the Nora Freeze situation.

Right the penguin kind of drove me nuts It wasn't

because of the fact that he moved as fast as

Batman even though that kind of greeted on me

it was Partially the voice mm -hmm. I'm sorry

Tom Kenny And I knew it was him. I'm like it's

freaking spongebob But uh it was the I don't

know, something about the character just drove

me nuts. Ventriloquist and Scarface, I can't

stand in any incarnation just because it's kind

of a dumb bit. Well, the interesting thing with

this version of the Ventriloquist and Scarface

is it's Homer friggin' Simpson. Which, I could

care less. You might as well have Canada and

look like Homer and I would have been alright,

but... Clue master that was something different

that I hadn't seen before Catwoman I didn't really

care for all that much. So I mean I would say

the mr. Freeze episode and the The the clay face

thing were probably my favorite ones Kind of

throwing things off a little bit Yeah Yeah, I

like Catwoman in this series. I thought it was

interesting I like how she stole his belt and

then you had to like Connor to give it back and

how batman's struggling to in this series get

recognition for being the help that he is and

then they're like oh and Batman is working with

so -and -so and he's like that's not what I want

yeah yeah it's it's very very interesting to

see some of the stuff for me episodes that I

enjoyed out of this season I really dug the man

bad episode I thought that was really interesting

and then for me they they kind of well they're

getting this in Gotham mixed up but for a second

there I thought They were gonna have Oswald run

for mayor in this, but no. So we get that going.

The other one I enjoy, episode 12, The Rubber

Face of Comedy, where you've got Clayface versus

Joker, which is something we never really saw.

The final two episodes of season one, The Rubber

Face of Comedy and The Clayface of Tragedy, it's

essentially a two -parter. Which is is really

really awesome and that's another thing that

I enjoy about this series is yeah, you're right

the seasons don't really They each have their

own theme But I think that starts to emerge like

when we get to season three because it doesn't

I don't think it's still season season one and

two are pretty close -knit season three You start

getting like your your Barbara Gordon and then

yep Season four you get Dick Grayson Yeah, and

then in season five you get I mean season four

you get some of the Justice League Yeah, season

four is I know this just from watching season

five season four is that big alien invasion?

Which you get John Jones in season five you get

Superman voiced by his original voice actor yeah,

and then along with the rest of the the Justice

Lakers kind of showing up What I like about this

one when it comes to Batman slash Bruce Wayne

and Alfred is that they have like BTIS Batman

and Alfred always had that back and forth back

and forth But this Alfred is is the Alfred that's

more, you know, he's more of the fighter. He's

more of hands -on He's like if you mix the beware

the Batman Alfred with The BTIS Yeah Almost kind

of like the Alfred from Gotham. Yeah, kind of.

The only... I know this is blasphemy coming from

me, since I always love the gadgets and the vehicles

and everything else. The only thing that bugs

me about this show now, going back and watching

it, at least the first two seasons, I don't remember

if it changes season 3 to season 5. I can't stand

the design of the Batmobile. Yeah, they change

it later. Thank God. I think it's season 3 they

change it because I think something happens to

it. Yeah, it probably blows up. I think it gets

blown up just like they did with the animated

series. Yeah. It'll blow up a Batmobile once

in a while. Yeah, I mean that was just one thing

that I just like it just doesn't... It's too

bulky the the the car itself while it looks cool

and everything else It's just when it's sitting

still and not moving. It just looks too bulky

to it It's not straight to me. It's not streamlined

at all and I know that's silly to even say but

it's just the way I feel about it You know like

you're saying with the clue master and firefly

and catwoman I mean I enjoyed a lot of their

designs like a lot of their designs and in terms

of the tone of the costume and you know the The

aspects of them, you know themselves Hmm, but

uh, you know a lot of the the greatness of this

was just seeing the newer incarnations of things

that happen to people in Batman's life as opposed

to what normally happens. And the other thing,

you know, getting back to Penguin really quick

is that Penguin, the writers here are kind of

working into... other bat mythology with like

the whole wains canes cobble pots the whole gotham

family aspect because the whole when he when

the penguins first introduced you know in this

show turns out that the pennyworths used to bottle

for the uh for the cobble pots way back when

because they had the whole storyline with alfred

versus penguin and all that which i really dug

again because it's one of those things where

alfred is getting to do stuff not just sit in

the cave at the computer or Just you know dust

off the knickknacks in Wayne Manor, so I thought

that was really cool Joker It depends on what

he's doing his his first appearance I was like

Okay It's it's Joker with you know I still enjoy

out clay face screwed Joker over like and his

guys were talking and he's like you guys talk

Yeah, I've never heard you talk before Have you

met punch and Judy? It's just so funny But yeah

Joker Watching it again watching it for the first

time in a long time season one here I like Kevin

Michael Richardson's voice for Joker it works

for the style of the show and the And the way

that the the writing is done for the show But

at this point I need to see more to make a better

Like, this first season with the Joker is really

cool because again, you have him affecting another

major character that turns into another major,

uh, I almost said bond villain, wow, that villain

in Clayface, and I think that is a really cool

story. But he's not really a villain. This one.

Right, no, no, no, what I said was... You have

Joker affecting another major character in this

series, essentially turning him into a classic

Bat villain, except it's a different... Yeah,

you're right. Ethan Bennett was never a, you

know, a villain, but Clayface has always been

the villain. And by the time that part of the

season ended, I almost get like a Venom Eddie

Brock kind of vibe to it, where Bennett was his

own thing, and then, you know... The clay was

its own thing like they weren't They were together,

but they had separate. Well, I don't know You

know what I mean? Yeah, they had separate personalities

for sure. Oh, yeah, and I Felt bad for Bennett's

character overall throughout watching. Oh, absolutely

and It just kind of sucked overall for for his

character Because he truthfully was trying to

use what he'd been screwed with And and turn

it into this this kind of blessing in a sense

Even though it didn't work out for him Which

the later, you know Things will happen in the

later season Mm -hmm with that character As far

as redeeming him I don't know if you... I skipped

ahead so I could see what happens. Yeah, I'm

still watching through, so I'm on season... Because

Basil's Carlo, the actual clay face. Oh, yeah,

I remember. And he's a total D -bag. So it's

very much deserved, and then you get the tale

of two clay face. So it's very fun. Episode one

of my favorite things of this season was the

Arctic bat suit Yes, that was cool. I love that

suit and then he's just like, you know cuz the

first time he got hypothermia and then second

time he's like, you know Alfred's like I've weatherproofed

the bat suit and Then I was like that's so much

less bulky than the one that he had in the Arkham

games now granted I love the Arkham game one

cuz it's like a robo suit Much like freezes,

but it's a thaw suit, but I loved the the gauntlets

how they could Turn to like a defroster Right

and then the rest of the suit was all like white

So it was almost like a white lantern Batman

Yeah Yeah, but yeah the whole Arctic suit was

so great I thought that was so fun and again

it shows off how he can adjust to different situations

Exactly Absolutely love that I can't wait to

see what happens in later seasons whether he

gets another suit that he uses because I've only

ever seen the one Yeah, I'm I don't remember

off top my head. He might get other suits And

he's used other gadgets this first season, you

know, he's used like the remote control batarang

the remote control batarang with firefly He used

the remote control not remote control, but the

the jetpack bat wing thing on his back Which

he used that against man bat too. Yep Yep, which

was an interesting twist how they did that because

he's like, oh I'm trying to make something for

my my niece who can't hear and and then Bruce

finds out that you know, he's full of crap and

then he's like no I have to be like the Batman.

Yeah. I like this. I like the original Kurt Langstrom

from BTIS and all that. I think that's a cool

story, especially what Kyle Higgins did with

him in the Batman Beyond DC animated comics from

DC. I thought that was cool. But this man bat,

because he's not... Okay, yeah, he's... He essentially

makes up the lie about his niece, but he's not

saddled with a wife, and his wife doesn't become

a woman bat and all this and everything else.

I really did dig this version of Kirk Langstrom,

and normally I am not a fan of the man bat character.

I'm not either. This one was actually halfway

decent though. Absolutely. I can't wait to see

if we see more of Freeze. I'm sure we'll see

more of him in future seasons. I thought, you

know, I mean, now it's Clancy Brown as Freeze.

I know they said earlier, they essentially took

Batman 89 and flipped it because instead of Batman

telling the Joker, you made me first, you got

Freeze here basically saying to Batman, well,

you're the one that did this to me. And we get

that whole storyline, which is really, really

cool. That was fun. One of the other notable

things is by the end of the season, Yen finally

trusts Batman and allies with him. Well, he finally

trusts her. Well, they both trust each other.

She kind of lets him go a lot. I mean, she's

going to need some sort of partner because now

that Bennett's off, you know, dripping down a

drain, she's got to figure out something. And

I just love their interactions. I thought the

way that they interact, you know, with her at

first being completely against him and then her,

you know, him slowly letting her in and then

working together. I just absolutely love that.

And I know later, because I've seen the cast

list, so I know Commissioner Gordon shows up,

but what I like about this series is that you're

relying on, at first, Bennett and Yen, and to

a lesser extent Chief Rojas, but you're not giving

us the standard Commissioner Gordon, Chief O

'Hara, yadda yadda yadda. I wonder whatever happened

to Chief O 'Hara. You mean the actual guy or

the character? Character. Okay, yeah, I'm not

sure. Because they never reused him after that.

And then we got Harvey Bullock, which basically

replaced him. Yeah. Yeah. But what I'm saying

is, with the whole Bennet and Yin thing, I think

that was really cool. And now, obviously, at

this point, at the end of the season, we have

Yin and Batman. Working together, which is very

very cool, and it gives a fresh new outlook on

how Batman Can work with the police and I thought

that was really awesome, which it takes a new

police chief to To you know, okay him yeah Other

things with with season one here that I enjoyed

I know again everyone says oh the animation blah

blah blah the animation is not that bad everyone

because it's kind of the same creators that did

Jackie Chan adventures I know a lot of people

compare it to that I can see you know it is pretty

close to that I mean it is but I've only ever

seen like four episodes of Jackie Chan Adventures

so I don't really remember I mean I don't really

and that was years and years ago when it was

originally airing but going back and seeing this

now comparing to all the other deep various DC

animation over the years that I've seen I really

dig this I think is really cool I love how they

essentially make his cape its own character at

times You know where you know he's always you

know flinging stuff out of it or wrapping it

around himself or whatever I just think that's

really cool Those batarangs look amazing only

thing I'm not too thrilled about Besides as I

already mentioned the batmobile bat wave There

are times where Bruce gets a bat wave call and

he just picks up his cell phone Anybody on the

street could look over his shoulder and see a

giant bat on his self like I mean I know it's

a secret identity and all that folks, but I mean

come on He's going to do a little bit better

job protecting it. Yeah, kind of thought that

too. I mean, I can see if, you know, he's in

Wayne Enterprises or Wayne Industries or whatever

they call it in this series. You know, I could

see if he's at his company in his office and

he has to use the super secret bat tunnel thing

under his deskers. Like I could see that getting

a bat wave while I was sitting in his office

by himself. But walking down the street, that's

not just your normal. text message alert tone

that's a special alarm bell kind of thing but

but yeah absolutely really digging the Batman

so far I want people to hopefully comment on

this episode and let us know why you like the

Batman and what you like about it or why you

don't like the Batman what you don't like about

it because I want to see how far the line is

divided like if it's 50 50 70 30 60 40 80 20

that kind of thing because so far as I said I'm

enjoying it I don't understand why everyone was

so up in arms maybe because it was so different

maybe because the The animation was so different

compared to what we were used to or maybe it

was because the it's not your standard back You

and I have said this for years Kevin Conroy is

the goddamn Batman and he always will be But

there are times where the kid and I've said this

before there are times where as much as I love

Kevin Conroy is Batman I don't think his voice

fits the animation style one of these One of

the examples I can probably give is is Batman

v Superman apocalypse Or not not apocalypse Yeah,

it was apocalypse wasn't what was the one it

was public enemies and then there was a second

one I thought it was Batman beast. I don't know

whatever anyway and this This style of animation

with Reno Romano, his voice fits very well. And

I like that his voices are distinguished a little

bit, but they're not, like he has a little bit

of gravel in his voice, but he's not choking

on a rock like Christian Bale usually does. So

that's always fun. And I just can't wait to see

more of this show. I agree. On a scale on the

GCN Universal rating scale zero to five stars,

what would you give season one overall? Hmm Season

one No, I'd give it about a four. I mean I found

that I enjoyed you know 85 % of it Mm -hmm I'm

also gonna give it a four the storytelling is

unique interesting takes a few liberties, but

that's okay every every show is allowed to do

that to bring in a new audience and that was

the other thing is at this point you know 2004

we still have two years of Justice League kind

of left over and when this started you know you

got to figure out something to do with Batman

at the time and hey if you can make your mark

I mean everybody else has made their mark on

Batman why not have these guys do it So as I

said, I'm also going to give this a four. Right

now, folks, you can check out The Batman all

five seasons on Netflix. It just got added. Well,

by the time this goes live, it'll been on there

a while. But that's the best place to check it

out for now. We're going to take a quick break

and come back after this. The Powers of Grayskull

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power and honor of Grayskull, we all have the

power. Well folks, I said we'd be right back,

but apparently not. Apparently the Joker stole

the Batmobile and he got away in episode 41 of

Legends of the Dark Knight. While complete, the

outro is missing. So... Turn in next time here

on Legends of the Dark Knight to hear Steve Megatron

and I talk about more Batman cartoons. Yay! Unleash

the geek in you and visit geekcastradio .com