REVIEW: Batman The Brave and the Bold: The Complete Second Season

Robert Greenberger

Robert Greenberger is best known to comics fans as the editor of Who's Who In The DC Universe, Suicide Squad, and Doom Patrol. He's written and edited several Star Trek novels and is the author of The Essential Batman Encyclopedia. He's known for his work as an editor for Comics Scene, Starlog, and Weekly World News, as well as holding executive positions at both Marvel Comics and DC Comics.

1 Response

  1. Someone made a good point that each of the original run of Batman movies was about a different decade in the comics. That’s even more true of the various Batman TV shows – each has been a completely different style than the others, and sparked equal amount of debate about how “not Batman” they each were.

    B&tB was clearly and unabashedly a tribute to the Dick Sprang art style and the goofy “who cares if it’s in continuity” years of the 50s and 60s. They touched on the era in the original Batman The Animated Series in the episode Legends of the Dark Knight, which featured Michael McKean as The Joker.

    It is my second favorite animated batman series, and is only surpassed by Batmanimated because I fear the fans may come to my house and slay me if I say otherwise.

    It’s the first cartoon series (and certainly the first Batman series) that was a can’t-miss affair for me for a very long time. Other shows were caught up with on the DVR if I even cared enough to record them, but I never missed a first run episode of B&tB. Bader’s voice work nails the style of the show, just barely camp, but still quite heroic.

    I was always a bit disappointed they didn’t do a crossover with Batman Beyond, more precisely The Zeta Project, the title character voiced by the selfsame Bader. Odds are there were some ridiculous rights hurdles to jump, but the sheer reality-bending metaness of it would have made it worth it.

    Aquaman’s new persona was brilliant – so much so that if they’d chosen to go with it in the comics, I’d have bought two copies out of sheer respect.

    And speaking of comics, if you can scrape them up, Sholly Fisch’s work on the B&tB comic from DC was spectacular. He teamed Bats up with Sugar and Spike, for pete’s sake.