The New Batman Animated Series Changes EVERYTHING
Batman: Caped Crusader Takes DC Villains Back To Their Roots (& Transforms Harley Quinn)
Other than the femme fatale Catwoman, whose Caped Crusader incarnation Tucker has described as being inspired by Barbara Stanwyck's character Jean Harrington in The Lady Eve, this new Batman series is putting fresh or forgotten spins on other DC villains as well. Clayface, for instance, is not the shapeshifter Ron Pearlman voiced to haunting perfection in the two-parter BTAS episode Feat of Clay, but rather a masked, Lon Chaney-esque murderer in keeping with the character's comics debut. No other members of Batman's Golden Age rogues gallery have been revealed for the show as of yet, but there is one other villain from a different Bat era who has received an unexpected makeover.
Harley Quinn, co-created by Timm and Paul Dini for BTAS in '92, will also feature in Caped Crusader - not as a lovelorn sidekick for the Joker or an unpredictable anti-hero striking out on her own, but as a fierce psychiatrist leading a double life. As Timm explained in the aforementioned EW report:
"I co-created the character, so I have a lot of love and affection for her, but I thought there might be something interesting about bringing her on the show, just not as Joker’s girlfriend... So how do we do that? A big part was just doing a basic flip. The original Dr. Quinzel was a little bit more serious, and then when she became Harley, she got really goofy and weird. So we thought, what if we reverse that? When she's Dr. Quinzel, she's a little bit more whimsical and fun, and then when she's Harley Quinn, she's scary.”
This reinvented Harley doesn't work as a psychiatrist in Arkham Asylum. Instead, she has her own practice and even has Bruce Wayne as her patient. Timm has teased that she'll use her psychiatric expertise to her advantage in her alter ego, which apart from having nothing to do with the Clown Prince of Crime, has also departed from the red and black colour scheme in favour of green and gold. It marks a huge departure from the character that ascended to the heights of comic book popularity in the 2010s, but it's intriguing how Timm and Tucker have reverse-engineered Harley for Caped Crusader's noir theme. With more villains sure to come, there should be other opportunities for the show to reinvent those Batman rogues that debuted in the Silver, Bronze, and Modern Ages of comics, as well as spotlight those who debuted in its 1940s setting, like a certain Clown Prince of Crime.
"Bat Fatigue" has been a real concern and complaint from DC fans over the last 10 years, with the character featured across a variety of comics, TV shows, films and video games, but Caped Crusader looks to be side-stepping that by extricating the character from his most recognisable contemporary self. That safe, digestible guise may have proven a reliable earner for DC and Warner Bros., but it is homogenous and uncompelling in a way something that boasts more authorial intent - like Reeves' The Batman, or looking further back, Batman Beyond - is not. By immersing itself within the Dark Knight's Golden Age, Caped Crusader has aligned with those revered and indeed distinct interpretations of the character - it's a huge breath of fresh, non-Scarecrow-gassed air, and for this particular Bat-fan who loves noir cinema and Golden Age pulp, probably the most exciting DC project of the last half-decade.
[Article continues on next page...]