TV Guide has news on the two-part season finale of The Batman, which airs Saturdays on the CW, as well as a list of guest stars who will appear next season on the show … two words: Justice League:
In the two-part season finale, which begins this Saturday and concludes on May 5, Batman joins forces with Martian Manhunter to stop an alien invasion in Gotham City. And that’s just the beginning: When the show returns this fall for Season 5, a parade of superheroes will guest-star. “Martian Manhunter is starting the Justice League,” executive producer Alan Burnett says, “and he would like nothing better than to have Batman on the team.”
Next season will have appearances by the Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Hawkman and Superman. Hop over to TVGuide.com to see what Superman will look like. The Flash image above is from the April 30 issue of the magazine, which is out this week.
I’ve only seen a handful of episodes of the show, but it’s definitely going on the TiVo now …
April 24th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Superman has a sphincter for a mouth?
WONDERFUL!
April 24th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
It looks pretty good.
April 24th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Superman looks more like a Tim Sale rendition.
April 24th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Superman looks like an all-grows-up version of superman from that crap-tacular losh ‘toon.
LAME! BRING BACK JLU!
April 24th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
I’m not exactly a huge fan of that Superman design, but I’ll wait until I see the character animated before I pass judgement.
This does seem like it will be good news though. The Batman has been an incredibly underrated show since its inception. Its not as groundbreaking as Batman: The Animated Series, but few cartoons have been since then. Still it has solid writing, great animation, and some pretty awesome character designs.
Adding the Justice League through that seems like a pretty awesome idea to me.
April 24th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
I’ll give The Batman props for seeming to be from the same studio that gave us the incredible “Jackie Chan Adventures” which was rife with purposeful continuity.
Some of the re-interpretations are kind of lame, but I did enjoy a couple of the episodes that I caught.
It’s too bad that they killed JLU for this.
April 24th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
That Superman looks atrocious! Why does everyone draw him with thinning hair?!
However, to be optimistic (because *someone* has to) that pic of Batman next to him is pretty bad too, and in no way fairly represents the look the character in the show - which has gotten better over the years.
So I’m hoping the on screen Superman looks better than this crappy coloring book promo pic - just as the on screen Batman does.
April 24th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
I haven’t seen much past the few first series episodes that have appeared on the BBC, but I did download the theme tune for Series 2+ (?) from Cartoon Network.
And…uh…boy, does it owe a debt to Neal Hefti. And James Taylor. And Henry Mancini.
I mean, it’s a good tune, don’t get me wrong. But it’s an updated version of the ADAM WEST theme tune. And that’s a little tiny bit amazing, considering how Westophobic DC are.
//\Oo/\\
April 24th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Well it is fine that they will be introducing all those male heroes on The Batman (though I would have preferred more of the spactacular Justice League Unlimited) - but what about the women?
I think Black Canary at least should show up on The Batman and would love to see some other great women (not wonder woman or supergirl) like: Zatanna, Vixen, Fire and Ice, Big Barda, Starfire
April 24th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
I have only seen a couple of episodes, but those couple were great. I hate to even attempt to compare it to Batman: The Animated Series because they’re so different (and because there is no comparison), so I’ll just say that The Batman can stand on its own nicely.
I’m getting the seasons sets soon, so I’ll have a more educated opinion.
April 25th, 2007 at 6:56 am
Let’s look at the bright side:
More than likely, Barry Allen will be the Flash while Hal Jordan will be Green Lantern… two characters that I haven’t seen since the Superfriends days!
April 25th, 2007 at 9:16 am
I saw about 10 minutes of an episode during the first season. I was, to say the least, underwhelmed byt the character design. But what killed it for me was Batman unmasking and instead of Bruse Wayne, it was Dallas Maverick’s owner MArk Cuban under the mask.
Have they done any work on Bruce, or does he still look like his team is being beaten by the Golden State Warriors?
May 5th, 2007 at 11:26 am
I’ve largely ignored this show because the character designs are SOOOOO friggin ugly (especially the way most of the faces are drawn like hourglasses), but I saw a preview of this 2 part episode and decided to watch it because of the potential justice league connection. I have to say that the story was good, but the designs are just as ugly as before. This is the kind of cartoon that should be heard but not seen.
That pic of superman looks like a beefed-up version of the one from the legion of superheroes cartoon, even has an identical cowlick.
Ugly designs aside, I think the justice league in this cartoon has some potential. I was glad to see hal jordan as the green lantern, he’s the one I grew up with (superfriends anyone?), and thus the one I tend to think of as the “real” green lantern. It’s disappointing though that there are no female leaguers. Wonder woman has been in every rendition of the league, plus (if it’s a licensing issue), there are many 2nd & 3rd stringers they could have used.
May 6th, 2007 at 11:03 am
Well the Batman is not as good as the JLU, but I still watch it regularly. We had five people in the household watching JLU now its just me with The Batman. I was encourged by seeing the martian manhunter and hoping to see a return of the Justice League. When I finally saw the League with no Women or minorities (something that has not occurred in 30 years) I was disappointed, depressed and bit put off. I guess we are really going back to pre-sixites with only one type of hero.
May 8th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Don’t worry, guys. We’ll see the JL gang more diversified.
BTW, Jeff Matsuda is both the character designer on both “The Batman” and “Jackie Chan Adventures”
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:44 am
Ok here’s my point of view, The Batman is not so bad story wise but like everyone here says the character designs are terrible, I mean I know the first few seasons of Batman Animated were not the best in character designs either but they did improve. As far as some characters go gotta say it’s cool that they want to beef them up but is it just me or the Joker looks like a Gorilla? And his voice is ok but I must say that 2 me the best voice of the Joker is and will always be by Mark Hamil and Kevin Conroy as Batman. I just hope that this show improves in the long run by adding the JL, if not PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF PETE BRING BACK THE JLU!!!!!!!!
November 6th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
I just hope they don’t try to do a “Brokeback Mountain” type of story between Hal Jordan and Hawkman. But I like them being back, Jon Stewart and Hawkgirl was used back then because they want a tough black guy and a tough girl.
It’s interesting that “The Batman” try to be different at first (loner, working secretly with a policewoman, etc), then start including old stuff (Commisioner Gordon, Batgirl, Robin, 60’s style music, the Justice League, and so on). Hope that they will introduce the Titans too.
It would be interesting if the new Batman live action movies followed the same path as “The Batman”