Thursday, December 23, 2010

Mystery of the Batwoman

This one is pretty old, dating from the heyday of the 1990’s Batman Animated Series (one of the greatest series ever by the way).  In fact, it was produced by the same team, featuring the familiar voice of Kevin Conroy as Batman and the trademark minimalist animation that has become the standard for almost all of DC’s animated projects.  As always, the technical side of the production is handled very well. 
Moving onto the story, it begins with our introduction to the Batwoman, who is decidedly different, at least in appearance from earlier bearers of the same name.  There is no bright yellow spandex and crazy red masque here.  Instead, they went with a light gray spandex and red bat logo, fitting more with the general tone of the series.  As bat-fans will not find surprising, she quickly runs afoul of Batman.  However, it is not just because he doesn’t much care for other vigilantes operating in his city but also because she is a lot more violent than he is, having no regard at all for the lives of the criminals she fights.
We are also introduced to a number of new female characters who are of course potential Batwomen.  We get to walk along with Bruce as he thinks he figures out who the female caped crusader is and then is quickly proven wrong, a couple of times.  They do a good job with the mystery but by the time the pay off comes you aren’t exactly surprised.  Along the way, you find out that there are personal reasons for the Batwoman’s violence, helping to understand the character a bit but I still think that she should have suffered some sort of real consequence for her actions, which is ultimately the biggest problem with the movie.  Still, all in all a fun, entertaining little adventure that I would recommend for the pre-teen and older crowd. 

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