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New CG animated series will be like a procedural.
Beware the Batman will join the DC Nation block on Cartoon Network next year, and producers Glen Murakami and Mitch Watson said it will be fresh take on the popular superhero. IGN talked to the pair before the DC Nation panel at Comic-Con about what to expect.
They duo told us they really want to get back to Batman’s detective roots. Watson says this series will be different in three prominent ways: “One: it’s the first CGI Batman show which is a huge part of it. Two: we’re taking Batman far back into his roots of being a detective. At its core, the show is a procedural. Even though Batman has his gadgets and his gear and his cars, at his core, it’s about a guy looking at clues and figuring things out and putting the pieces together so that ultimately he can solve the crime with his brain as opposed to just with his fists. And the third biggest difference is that you’re not going to see any villains that have ever been shown before in any animated show. There’s no Joker, Penguin, or Riddler. It’s all new villains pulled from the DC universe who are either well known or not known at all. All of those things give the show a completely different feel than shows in the past.”
Since the regular rogue's gallery is out of the picture, you can expect to see Pig and Toad, Anarchy, Metamorpho, Humpty Dumpty, and Magpie among others. Another departure from the typical Batman is his choice of partner. Murakami says she is not a sidekick. “There’s a reason Katana was brought in; there’s a connection with Alfred… She never really becomes a sidekick, she has a past.” He confirmed the Soultaker storyline will play a part. Regarding Katana, he also said, “I don’t think we’re changing it just to change it. I think we’re trying to find new takes on the character, and we want a different dynamic.” Also, Katana is an inspiration for Barbara Gordon in the series. Murakami said, “When she sees Katana in action, it’s her first inkling that girls can do that kind of stuff.”
All of these changes will obviously make for a different Batman. Murakami and Watson both mentioned that they are not doing a dark and brooding Batman. He’s out there solving crimes in order to keep himself from going insane. Being Batman is Bruce Wayne’s “release valve”. Watson said, “In the way we approached Batman for this show, he’s at the beginning of his career, he’s probably been doing it for about five to six years, he’s in his early 30s. And character wise, we broke him into three parts. There’s the public Bruce Wayne, who we modeled slightly after Richard Branson. We wanted to make Bruce Wayne more of an altruistic guy and the company’s [Wayne Enterprise] trying to do good. So, that’s the public Bruce. The private Bruce is more introspective guy who really only deals with Alfred, and Alfred at the beginning of the series is really the only person who sees that side of Bruce Wayne. He’s quiet; he’s a little bit obsessive about particular things.”
Watson continued, “And then there’s Batman. The private Bruce Wayne and Batman are pretty close, but when he becomes Batman he’s even more pulled into himself. He speaks more clipped, not quite robotic, but we wanted him to be like a machine.” Murakami jumped in and said, “He’s trying to solve everything and process everything. When he’s really deep in thought, he’s very focused and his speech is more to the point and concise.”
Watson said concise is the key word. “When he’s Batman, he thinks about the least amount of steps to go from point A to point B. That’s in all aspects of his life.” They carry this to the point of making Bruce Wayne efficient about his food intake. He has to keep his body in prime fighting form, so he only drinks his food. Murakami pointed out, “He’s obsessed with being a crime fighter, he’s obsessed with solving crimes. Ever since that traumatic thing happened to him, he’s become all about being Batman. He’s put all of his energies and resources towards that.”
The discussions during the panel reinforced that point. Batman is a lean, fighting machine. Alfred will jump in and play more of an active role, too. Watson and Murakami also discussed the graphics and shared some concept art. It's apparent that a huge amount of work has gone into building Gotham City, the characters, Bruce Wayne's house, and every single set. Beware the Batman will join the DC Nation block in 2013.
