Months back, an image appeared of the new Batman: the Brave and the Bold animated series, showcasing Batman, Green Arrow and Blue Beetle. The image mixed the old – Dick Sprang Batman and clean-shaven Green Arrow – with the new – Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle. There was mostly a wait-and-see attitude from what I saw, but those bold enough to criticize it were snarked at unrelentingly by one of the character designers, Mark Manley.

It’s kind of strange, because this is like some kind of weird pattern. So we had Batman: The Animated Series, which undoubtedly helped revolutionize cartoons where quality came first and “BUY OUR TOYS!” seemed secondary. The character franchise and comics were boosted by it all and the show led to like a dozen spin-offs. That’s damn impressive. Then The Batman showed up and the fans understandably cocked an eyebrow. Another show about Batman fighting the usual suspects, only with a different style? What was the point? Add to that the infamous “Batman Embargo” that refused Batman characters other than the main hero himself to appear on Justice League Unlimited.

Sam Register, one of the guys involved with the new show, made a remark about grown men living in their mother’s basements somewhere along the line. Not exactly the biggest insult, but still kind of a dickish blanketing statement to make when you’re trying to sell your show. But that was ultimately tame compared to Manley’s constant yammering about the “baby-men” who didn’t like the Brave and the Bold designs and how they’re ruining the comic industry. One trip through Google and you’d find rant after rant about “baby-men”, including such mature images to go with it like an obese dude dressed as Batman at the computer or a fanboy sucking Logan’s nipple. Classy.

Though to be honest, it’s kind of hilarious in an ironic way because the dude looks exactly like Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons. It’s not that I’m outraged and horribly offended or anything, since there are a couple good points in his ramblings, but it just confuses me. What’s with the animation folks and their decision to respond to criticism with alienation? That’s not really going to help your DVD sales, guys.

Well, anyway, the trailer for the new Batman cartoon came right out of the oven just the other day and it’s pretty rad. Here, take a look.

The reason this looks like it could work is because they aren’t doing a techno remix to “Batman fights escaped criminals, maybe with Robin”, like with The Batman. Instead the idea comes from Batman teaming up with a different superhero in each episode, showcasing a new guest star each time. It’s an idea that Justice League Unlimited used time to time, but phased out a bit once story got in the way. I highly doubt characters like Question and Booster Gold would have had the recent spotlights in the comics if it hadn’t been for those seasons. It’s a concept with potential yet to be fully realized.

Let’s take a look through the trailer and give a semi-informed Who’s Who as I roll into a bunch of tangents.

That would be Batman. You can tell because of how angry he is. He’s angry because his parents are dead.

In this part of the clip, Batman makes mention of one of his old enemies, Kite Man. I honestly don’t know too much about Kite Man, other than that he’s fallen into the same goofball point-and-laugh stable as Stilt Man and Rainbow Raider. He also suffers from what I call “The Unus Effect”. This is when a writer is allowed to kill a crappy character that few people even recognize and does so for the shock value. Except only so many people actually care about him or her that another writer writes the character’s death himself for the same reasons, unaware that said character is already supposed to be dead. See also: Slyde.

Huh. Um… I guess that’s Killer Croc. Maybe. It does go with the reptile creature chewing on Plastic Man later on.

Oh yeah. That’s right. Plastic Man! Plas has had an interesting history with animation. First he made a guest appearance on Superfriends, though I never did see that episode. Then he had his own series in the late 70’s, where he teamed up with a sidekick whose superpowers were bad luck and being a stereotype. Once Unlimited happened, you’d think that he’d show up in at least one background shot, but no dice. There was some kind of legal thing keeping him from being on the show. All he got was a mention when Elongated Man grumbled about how much better he is as the League’s resident stretchy-guy. After that, Plas was given his own cartoon pilot, where he was voiced by Tom Kenny of Spongebob fame. Sadly that didn’t get picked up.

But finally, he’s dusted off and ready to give animation another try.

This reminds me, back in the day, there was a really cool issue of Brave and the Bold about a Batman/Plastic Man team-up. Though the cover didn’t advertise it like that. Batman was investigating a murder and figured it out only because the murder victim was Plastic Man himself. You see, Plas got sick of being the goofy laughingstock superhero and wanted to live a normal, straight life. He started a new identity as a regular guy, got involved with a woman and she went and tried to kill him. I forgot if she stabbed or shot him, but considering he’s Plastic Man, he survived. He just played along so that Batman could gather the evidence and catch her. Then at the end, Plas moped about how he was fated to remain a goofball clown and sadly walked off into the distance.

Hey, now! It’s Blue Beetle. Despite the Silver Age lovefest going on, Ted Kord is being passed over for current Beetle Jaime Reyes. Well, current main Beetle. Booster Gold 1,000,000 just about told us that Ted’s still alive. It makes sense that they’d use Jaime, considering he’s DC’s #1 rookie these days. Of all the replacement characters they’ve tossed at us in the past few years, Blue Beetle seems to be working out the best, still straggling along with his own solo series while appearing regularly in Teen Titans and its Tiny counterpart.

Much like Plastic Man, there was a problem with Blue Beetle appearing on Justice League Unlimited. This was tied into an old radio program about the original Dan Garrett Blue Beetle and the red tape wouldn’t be untangled until about a year after the cartoon went off the air. Bummer. Though Ted did make several appearances in the Justice League Unlimited comic, including two starring roles.

I don’t mind that Millionaire Spider-Man has been replaced with Cyber Venom for one reason: Jaime has Kirby Dots! Look at ‘em go! Yeah!

In that picture, Beetle appears to be punching Kanjar Ro. All you need to know about him is that he’s the most generic of evil alien overlord characters. He appeared on Justice League a couple times, but did nothing especially of note. Let’s move on.

That, of course, would be Green Arrow, going with the very old-school style from his early appearances. Much like Thor and Hercules, Arrow is a guy who gains from his facial hair. Seeing him without his goatee in his early days or in New Frontier never seemed right to me, much like Batman’s old purple kitchen gloves. Hell, even on the old Superfriends cartoon they had the decency to add his beard. Being that it was from the shitty Super Marvin and Wendy era, that was probably the first good decision about that show.

You can’t really make a cartoon about the DCU without Gorilla Grodd. It’s unheard of. He’s an evil talking gorilla with mind powers. That’s something everybody can enjoy! Even the worst Planet of the Apes movie (which is either the fifth one or the one Burton made) is still, at its base, worth watching because it’s all about talking apes.

Now let’s bring back the old Superfriends voice. He always sounded like someone who would be a badass if it wasn’t for the fact that he JUST woke up from one hour of sleep.

The clips from the Batman/Green Arrow team-up seem to suggest that Clock King is going to be a villain here. I’m guessing he’ll have his Silver Age appearance where his head is a giant clock. It doesn’t matter too much, since I could never get into any version of Clock King. No, not even the one from Batman: The Animated Series. Especially not him. I can’t explain it, but there’s something about the whole concept that’s just so boring. That is, unless animated Clock King turns out to be Flava Flav. That I can get behind.

Look, kids! It’s Gentleman Ghost! I’m going to be perfectly honest with you here. I know little to nothing about Gentleman Ghost. I haven’t read a single comic with him in it. I saw his brief appearance on Unlimited, but that’s about it. What I do know is that his power is being invisible and rather than use that to his advantage, he chooses to instead wear a white suit with cape, top hat and monocle. It’s class like that that makes me love him regardless.

Looks to me like Fire. Looking at her appearance here, I can’t believe how far they went with her flame bikini on Unlimited. Already, this incarnation is a step up from Fire’s first comic book appearances, where instead of flying on her own, she had to do so by shooting green flame out of her nostrils to propel herself into the sky.

Wait, is that a step up? I’m no longer sure.

And that trailer is only based on a handful of episodes. According to Wiki, we’ll also be getting Jonah Hex, Deadman, the Green Lantern Corps and the animated return of Booster Gold and Skeets! Hells yes!

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