• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, July 31, 2024

Gee, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen Batman!

Kidding, of course. A new addition to the saga of the Gotham City crime-fighter seems to arrive every other day or so.

The newest one starts Thursday on Amazon -- unless another one premieres today. Amazon’s Thursday entry is “Batman: Caped Crusader,” an animated series consisting of 10 half-hour episodes.

This one seems to take place vaguely in the 1940s. The time frame is established by the stylized cars, tommy guns, and thugs with overcoats and the brims of fedoras casting shadows on their eyes.

The locale is Gotham City, which in this “Batman” -- as with many others -- is a town of dimly lit streets and alleys in which the forces of evil thrive.

Wealthy bachelor Bruce Wayne is still Batman. And he is served by his long-time butler Alfred Pennyworth, who Batman addresses as “Pennyworth,” and not “Alfred.”

There is no Robin, but there is a Batmobile, designed as a ’40s version of the most famous automobile in the history of comics.

Batman also has an assortment of handy, crime-foiling doodads, most of them throwable. He can also throw a punch, which was his weapon of choice in the first episode of “Batman: Caped Crusader” that I previewed on Tuesday.

In this show, as in other “Batmans” (presumably), the rank and file of the Gotham City Police Department are almost all on the take, except for virtuous Commissioner Gordon and his plucky daughter Barbara, an attorney.

In the premiere episode of “Batman: Caped Crusader,” Batman’s arch foe is none other than Penguin.

But hold onto your top hats and cigarette holders, Batman fans! The new Penguin is not a male, but a female, although there is nothing particularly feminine about her.

She is as murderous, ambitious and ruthless as any Penguin or Bat Foe that has come before her. 

In “Batman: Caped Crusader,” she is hellbent on dislodging Gotham City’s reigning crime boss, a man named Thorne.

The new show excels in the art department, but falls slightly short in the style of its animation. It’s a retro style in which the characters do not move with modern-day animated fluidity.

Perhaps the producers, who include J.J. Abrams, chose the style as a way to express the retro nature of the show and its 1940s setting.

I can only assume that Batman fans will take to this new entry in the “Batman” pantheon with unbridled enthusiasm.

“Batman: Caped Crusader” boasts an A-list cast of star voices, including Hamish Linklater, Diedrich Bader, Christina Ricci, Minnie Driver, Paul Scheer, Tom Kenny, David Krumholtz and Haley Joel Osment. 

“Batman: Caped Crusader” premieres Thursday, August 1 on Amazon Prime Video.