Why 'The Crapman' Sucks Part 2: Standing on its own merits

Now let's forget there was ever a B:TAS. Hard to do, but lets try. Now what do you all think is Batman's biggest drawing point? Quite simply it's his rogues gallery. Everyone on the street knows who the Joker, Two-Face, or the Penguin are just from hearing their names. This is not so much the case with many of the other superheroes out there.

'The Crapman' simply destroyed the rogues, the villians. Characters who were once sympathetic and tragic are now monsters. I don't mean exactly morally reprehensible monsters like say on the level of a doctor Hannibal Lector. I mean old black and white Universal movie monster type monsters.

Their version of the Man-Bat, for instance. His motivation? To become the opposite of Batman (Manbat as opposed to Batman). There's no sympathy for anyone on the screen involved in this visual/audio quagmire of when the doctor transforms himself, so the viewer really doesn't care if he is saved or left to his own fate.

Now about the most popular and well known villian ever created for Batman is of course The Joker. When thinking of the Joker, I must admit I hear in my head Mark Hamill's masterful laugh, amazed that such a sinister and wicked voice escaped the mouth of who was Luke Skywalker. But I said we shouldn't compare with B:TAS, but in this case it's just near impossible not to.

The voiceactor they got for their version of the Joker over on 'The Crapman' tries his best to do a Mark Hamill impersonation. He's really trying to capture that laugh, but he fails. One wonders what would happen if Tim Curry got the original Joker role as planned. More than that, the Joker who once was a very sophisticated looking, and acting villian with a sense of total randomness, in this new program is reduced to the role of a talking monkey. Looking at him, you fail to see how he was ever human before.

Now as we move on to the next villian of discussion: The Penguin. One would consider old Copplepot a more cerebral villian, one who matches wits with the dark knight detective instead of trying to match brawn. Not so in this show. The cerebral element is finely tuned out as their version of the Penguin is capable of doing bicycle kicks and fighting wuxia style. And no, his stature and shape are no different from his earlier incarnations either.

Why would they turn the Penguin into a physical threat? Is it because they want to show a distinct difference between the two versions of characters? Can we blame the huge Wuxai movie influx that invaded our movie theatres years ago?

More than this, the villians, and their plans just made little, to no, sense. The show isn't consistant from one minute to the next. Point of reference, their version of Clayface. The writers of the show took a bold move in turning a supporting character of the first season, Ethan, into Clayface. However, in doing so, they shot logic.

In this version, their version of the Joker has a gas that turns things rubbery. Him and his gang used the gas on themselves to turn their feet into rubber to get away(Bounce away). However, minutes later, we're told that the gas has an unknown effect on people. Ethan of course breathes in this gas and turns into Clayface. From this point onward, logic took a turn downward.

Ethan becomes a villian, even though it's shown he can assume his old shape and being without much difficulty. And in the end conclusion of the episode, when his partner defends Batman, he just smiles and goes away. Gee, wouldn't life be convenient if morality is a lightswitch. Moreso, in his subsequent reappearance, Ethan has turned full on villian. Why? Because being good is 'too hard', as opposed to robbing banks. Now why would living clay need to rob banks? No reason was given.

No reason was given. That pretty much sums up the majority of problems in how the characters act/react.

Part 3 to come later.