TV Database The New Batman Adventures (1997)

Two years after the end of Batman: The Animated Series, Warner Bros. revived their biggest brand (possibly because the tamer Superman: TAS was not receiving the kind of ratings they'd like). The revival comes with a revamp in the character designs, however, much to the fans' chagrin.

Personally, I can see why fans would be annoyed. Some of the details here are shaved away into more simplistic designs, whether for budget reasons or as an artistic choice. It results in a Bruce that lost his fringed haircut and instead got a shorter, sleeker hairdo; I much prefer the former as the latter looks like boring and bland, which might be the reason why they used it in the first place as it's easier to draw. It also results in The Joker looking like a more murderous Freakazoid, albeit making his eyes look far more sinister and demonic than the TAS iteration. There's also the Batgirl change: I think it's a good look for her, a sleeker design that accentuates a more gothic and self-confident appearance due to the black lipstick; the TAS design for her made her look too homely. Finally, the Batman suit redesign that gave Bruce the iconic black and grey outfit we've come to known, ditching any blues or yellows. I suppose it was an inevitable modernized design to make Batman's costume more grounded and practical for stealth missions, but there's a reason why there's a big yellow target on Batman's chest - so they wouldn't aim for the mouth - but whatever.

For what it's worth, at least Warner Bros. had the good sense to restore the original TAS intro because that season 2 intro made Batman look like a family-friendly adventure.

This episode is a Christmas anthology episode that largely serves to introduce the new designs and the Bat family dynamic. It's not terribly impressive, having your typical Christmas villain hijinks, save the rather minor detail that The Joker has (implied to have) killed people with his poison this time. Harley and Ivy gets a shopping montage; Clayface gets to fight Batgirl, Santa Bullock and Montoya; and Joker gets to fight Batman and Red Robin (Tim Drake). The Clayface portion of the episode has a nice little moment where Bullock gets nervous about a little girl whose father he had sent to prison, but it's otherwise as average of a storyline as the other two. Seeing Tim Drake also reminds me of the future storyline in "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker", where Bruce had officially ruined another kid's life with his grooming. Dick was right to have bailed.

The only real writing that appealed to me though was the nice little epilogue at the end of the episode where Commissioner Gordon and Batman sit down for a nice cup of coffee.

That is... until Bruce pulled a Batman-Vanish once again. Dick.

Wonder Woman: "I shouldn't be surprised since you indoctrinated Robin into crimefighting at the ripe old age of nine."
Batman: "Robin needed to help bring the men who murdered his family to justice."
Wonder Woman: "So he could turn out like you?"
Batman: "So that he wouldn't."

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As I mentioned in my review for the first episode of TNBA, I feel uncomfortable watching Tim Drake working with Batman because of "Return of the Joker", knowing what's to come. After watching this episode and doing a little research, I found out even more reasons to feel that way: he's an amalgam of Jason Todd and Tim Drake, sharing Todd's backstory and moral ambiguity as a thief. Tim... was doomed from the start.

Batman has a history of many problems in his character portrayal; taking in kids and making them his personal child soldiers is merely one of them. However, in the context of Gotham City, perhaps it's inevitable, and perhaps these kids would have ended up somewhere just as bad anyway without guidance, though that's the only crutch Bruce could stand on as a justification.

I read that Tim's been either overshadowed or just altogether forgotten for the most part throughout DC history, which is a shame because he's the one who brought Bruce to the light again in a pretty dark period of Batman (as I've read), reminding him why he's a hero in the first place. It just makes it more frustrating that we've skipped the darkness of Jason Todd's fate in the first place and do Tim's identity dirty. Just one of many annoyances of this new series (another one being the stripped art deco title cards that gave each episode's opening a unique feel).

I get the reasons why Batman and WB executives did the things they did... but it doesn't make the consequence any less frustrating. Somewhere down the line, a line has to be drawn to say that the fault lies with them instead of "Reason X."