Superhero movie fatigue? Get animated with Watchmen: Chapter 1, X-Men ’97, and Batman: The Caped Crusader.
The last four years have not been great for superhero and comic book movies, Luckily, we have animated series to turn to that are well-written, inspired, and put together by creatives who understand the characters and stories we love.
Let’s start with…
Batman: The Caped Crusader sees Bruce Timm‘s return to Gotham with The Batman writer/director Matt Reeves. This isn’t a reboot of Batman: The Animated Series. Timm and Reeves go with a noir, retro take on the Dark Knight set in the late 50s/early 60s.
Batman’s costume is inspired by the early Detective Comics issues with the short gloves, longer ears, and simple, black insignia.
There have been changes which will certainly anger the culture warriors out there. Namely, the gender-swapping of Batman nemesis, Penguin (voiced by Minnie Driver).
Harley Quinn is more sinister, less manic.
There are variations other, classic supporting characters and rogues, but we won’t spoil those. If you loved the 90s series, but are looking for something different, get on Amazon Prime and watch Batman: The Caped Crusader.
The X-Men (later renamed The Uncanny X-Men) has been Marvel’s top franchise since 1980. We are big fans of the Chris Claremont/John Byrne run (see last year’s post here), but read a few issues in the late 80s, 90s, and the 2000s.
X-Men ’97 is an X-Men fans series. It’s set in (well) 1997 but builds around the original Trial Of Magneto (Uncanny X-Men #200) and E Is From Extinction (New X-Men #114 volume 1) storylines.
Best of all, X-Men ’97 draws inspiration from Marvel’s glory days in the 80s and 90s, and there are appearances from other Marvel superheroes,
The X-Men’s old costumes made a comeback including Wolverine’s brown and black costume (which first appeared in X-Men #139).
