The seminal Batman: The Animated Series turns 30 today. This apparent children’s cartoon was a staple of ‘90s television, but not just because of its incredible music and routine bad guy beatdowns courtesy of the Caped Crusader. No, there’s much more to this jewel of a TV show, and that’s why no series since has eclipsed it.
Related to Batman, here’s some Gotham Knights gameplay
Batman: The Animated Series featured a lot of firsts. It birthed Harley Quinn and Renee Montoya, saw Mark Hamill voice the Joker for the first time, and began Kevin Conroy’s career as the voice of Bruce Wayne and the Dark Knight.
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Nowadays, it’s impossible for many of us to think of Batman without Conroy, Hamill and Harley Quinn coming to mind, but all of them have their origins in this relatively modest cartoon show.
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Arguably, without the success of Batman: The Animated Series there would be no Superman: The Animated Series or Justice League cartoons.We certainly wouldn’t have Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, which remains one of the greatest Batman films to this day.
But if we’re to pick just one reason why Batman: The Animated Series is the greatest superhero cartoon then I’m going with this: It taught a generation of children that criminals shouldn’t be killed for their crimes.
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Batman’s M.O. rules out murder. He catches bad guys just like flies (Spider-Man is about to sue me for this) but never goes so far as to take a life. This is something that is present in the Arkham games, but back in the time of this cartoon, movies had forgotten about the Caped Crusader’s all important rule.
The fact that a children’s cartoon could excite, thrill and even scare without resorting to breaking this famous comic law made for a more impactful, righteous superhero, exactly as Batman should be. After all, Bruce knows all too well what damage death can do.