Batman & Robin

Don't get me wrong. I like a lot of the "Batman" episodes that aired on FOX (when the show was under the title "Batman: The Animated Series"). It's just that the animation in these late '90s installments are better. Since Warner Brothers owns Batman, I like the fact that they could finally have more creative freedom on the WB network than what they had on FOX.

For example, when the show moved to WB, we finally got to see the pyromaniac Firefly (Unfortunately, he wasn't allowed appear on B:TAS while the show was running on FOX). He appeared in only two episodes ("Torch Song" and "Legends of the Dark Knight"), and should have been featured more often like many other Bat-villains (Joker, Two-Face, Penguin, Catwoman, etc.). I would also have liked to see Firefly take on Mr. Freeze (in a "fire and ice" conflict). That would have been a clever face-off, don't you think?

This show needed a lot of improvements. While the first show had great animation and story line, this show has bad animation and replaces story lines for action sequences. What I did like about this show is that it was faithful to the comics even though they did skip Jason, the second Robin, but that is understandable since Jason does get killed by the Joker.

Overall Gotham Nights isn't as good as The Animated Series. For starters the show has been over sylized, so much so that it loses the heart and feel that TAS had. Some key examples of this would be the new Batmobile, Joker, Poison Ivy and Harley. The Characters don't have the depth they had in TAS, they come off as silly little cartoon characters. And the Joker keeps coming off as a common thug, not the Psychotic genius he should be. Bruce Wayne is too cold and calculating instead of a tortured soul fighting for justice.

But the show has its ups, Some of the storylines really benefit from the increased flexibility offered by WB. The crossover with supergirl really shows this. And the inclusion of Nightwing is awesome, he really adds some much needed depth to the show. His struggle with Bruce was really well handled, with the exception of Bruce being so cold as mentioned above.

Overall the show is still better then 99% of TV today, but doesn't quite live up to the greatness that was TAS.

The New Batman Adventures is the sequel that The Animated Series deserved, and its style-differentiation is justified yet it still feels like the sibling to its predecessor.

The New Batman Adventures has more stylized character designs than before, and while that may be off-putting to some, Batman has never looked sharper than he does here; at least I say that with a lot of love.

Batman has always been empowered with rich stories and The New Batman Adventures continues that tradition beautifully. It is a sequel to Batman: The Animated Series, but it stands its own ground just fine.

This a great update of Batman: The Animated Series. Batman is back after a few years of reruns and he is just as cool as ever. Dick Grayson is also back, but he is now Nightwing. Replacing him as Robin, is Tim Drake. Batgirl is also seen more in this show. The animation doesn't measure up to Batman: The Animated Series, it is more similar to the Superman cartoon. But who cares? The show has great stories and is wonderful delight, as opposed to many of Kids Wb's lame toons.