Beware the Batman

[RogueIce]

I enjoyed the first episode, seems like a good start for the series. The voice acting is good and the action very nice. I liked the teaser fight; clearly Batman has plenty of skill, but he also seems just a little raw, a little new.

The characters fit their roles well, and I liked the detective aspects of Bruce figuring out the next target, CSI Super Zoom brain bug aside. I also really enjoyed that this Batman is still clearly a man: when he takes bad hit he's feeling it throughout the episode, not just shrugging it off. Also the part where he dislocates his shoulder and rams it back in was a nice touch. This is a Batman who is clearly not impervious to damage, yet he won't give up, either. Even though that car crash took him out for a little while, he still dragged himself to his feet and kept fighting, especially when Alfred was in danger because of him.

The empty world feeling is a little disheartening, but is apparently a byproduct of the decision to use CGI and I've learned to cope with it in TMNT 2K12, so I can live with it here.

I'll have to wait and see how Katana is going to fit into the show, but overall I have a positive outlook on this series, which is a good thing.

[Batman]

Liked the black on black suit. The yellow utility belt still looks out of place without the yellow oval chest symbol, but you get used to that after a decade or three.
Not sure I like what they did with Alfred but this does look interesting.

[RogueIce]

So episode two has aired. I liked it. Interesting take on a villain: she was definitely a criminal beforehand, and yet she was given a sympathetic backstory nonetheless. I liked it, because it's enough to make you feel sympathy for her and yet the damage is clearly down for her to be recurring. Although Gordon did take her away, so it'll be interesting to see how they handle the inevitable revolving door situation.

I liked the interplay between Batman and Gordon. "Is that justice?" "No but it's the law." It does mean that the odds of Magpie getting the help she clearly needs are pretty slim, which sets up her recurring villainy. Also it's interesting to see the tension between the two. Everyone knows that eventually they'll each earn the respect of the other (unless BtB goes in a totally different direction) but it's not going to happen overnight. Also enjoyed that they showed Gordon's justifiable suspicion that Batman himself was a the one doing the dirty deeds.

And we get more detective work, on the part of Bruce and, which I really liked, Gordon. Often times Gordon seems to be a little too passive, content to let the Bat do the work. I liked how the show took the time to focus on Gordon being a capable cop and even tracking down the villain as well as Batman did, albeit in a different manner than the Dark Knight Detective.

Also yay for Barbara Gordon!

And they continue to build towards Katana. I like this, not giving her a costume straight away, and if the setup at the end of the episode is any indication it's clear that she will have to earn the right to fight alongside the Caped Crusader. It will not be given freely or taken for granted.

[Batman]

Definitely villainous villains with a sympathetic backstory is hardly something new to the Batman myth, Harvey Dent and Victor Fries come to mind.
Picking Magpie (who is pretty much a nonentity as Batman leave alone DC villains go) was...unexpected, but then so was their treatment of Alfred.
While Katana is definitely the massively more well known character, I wish they had used Sasha Bordeaux, given that she was the one who ended up both Bruce Wayne's and Batman's bodyguard and I very much suspect they're basing at least Katana's introduction on her introduction to the batworld.
And since no comment from me on any bat media is complete without me whining about the costume, they either need to change the colour of the utility belt or do something yellow with the chest symbol (either make it yellow like Babs' used to be or bring back the yellow background oval).
And they're bringing Barbara into the narrative surprisingly early.

Also, is it me or do my cheekbones look noticeably broader when I'm in costume?

[RogueIce]

Definitely villainous villains with a sympathetic backstory is hardly something new to the Batman myth, Harvey Dent and Victor Fries come to mind.

Yeah, I explained that one poorly. Dent and Fries had sympathetic backstories in that what drove them to being a villain was tragic. Magpie's was a bit of a variation because she started out a criminal, with no indication there was a reason for it other than "just because" and her sympathetic backstory only occurred after she started on a life of crime and was locked up for it.

I suppose the closest example I can think of to that is BTAS' "Birds of a Feather" which made Penguin a bit more sympathetic in that he was being genuine in his attempts to reform with Veronica Vreeland but the revelation it was a set up pushed him over the edge. Similar with "Harley's Holiday" which, come to think of it, also included Vreeland. Huh.

Not quite the same in that they went back to their previous personas whereas Magpie is apparently someone new created from what happened to her, but close enough.