Batman: Caped Crusader Review - The Dark Knight Returns to the 1940s

Bruce Timm, J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves once more prove that Batman in a period piece is a great combination.

This is a spoiler-free review of the entire ten-episode first season of Batman: Caped Crusader.

There have been a ton of Batman animated series through the decades, featuring all sorts of different interpretations of the character, but the lineage and inspiration behind Prime Video’s new series, Batman: Caped Crusader, is quite obvious from the get go: the rightfully beloved Batman: The Animated Series from the 1990s. No, this is not a direct revival or continuation of that series, in the way that X-Men ‘97 is, but it still feels like a reboot or remake of Batman: The Animated Series in many ways, with a very similar vibe and approach.

There is of course a major reason behind the scenes for that in the form of Bruce Timm, the co-creator of Batman: TAS, who returns here, executive producing the series with two very notable names in the form of J.J. Abrams and The Batman director Matt Reeves. They’re joined by an impressive group of writers like Greg Rucka (The Old Guard), Marc Bernardin (Castle Rock, Star Trek: Picard) and Halley Gross (Westworld, The Last of Us Part II), led by head writer Ed Brubaker. Brubaker’s expertly blended superhero and crime stories in his comic book work, making him perfect for this job, and Rucka and Bernardin also boast similar backgrounds. There’s an inherent danger here of falling flat or feeling like a lesser copy of something so adored, but ultimately, Caped Crusader is a very strong series in and of itself, that once more reinforces that Batman is a comic book superhero who works particularly well in a period setting.