This article contains spoilers for Batman: Caped Crusader and X-Men '97.
To paraphrase Dr. Doofenschmirtz: if I had a nickel for every time a beloved animated series based on comic book superheroes from 1992 was reinvented including some of the original creative team in 2024 for a streaming service, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice. I’m referring, in case it isn’t clear, to X-Men ‘97, a continuation and expansion of X-Men: The Animated Series on Disney+; and Batman: Caped Crusader, which while not a direct continuation of Batman: The Animated Series is regardless beholden to the latter’s DNA.
X-Men ‘97 debuted in March, and was a critical and ratings hit, even garnering an Emmy nomination for the lauded fifth episode, “Remember It.” Batman: Caped Crusader also carries an impressive pedigree behind it… Bruce Timm, one of the co-creators of Batman: TAS worked with producer JJ Abrams and Matt Reeves (the guy behind The Batman) to craft a new take on the Dark Knight that takes him back not to Year One, but “Week Two.”
Not only that, but the writing staff is a who’s who of “guys who get it.” Ed Brubaker, a comic book writer who wrote Batman for years, as well as co-creating the lauded Gotham Central series, worked as showrunner for the first season. He brought along his co-writer on Gotham Central, Greg Rucka, and other comic book and crime writers to flesh out the staff. Brubaker is also notably a fan of Batman: TAS, and while Caped Crusader isn’t a sequel (or prequel) it is noticeably an homage.
But this is the internet, and on the internet if you aren’t fighting… What are you even doing? Heck, it’s a standby of superhero comics, to make heroes fight before they team up. So why not do it here, too? Why not pit X-Men ‘97 versus Batman: Caped Crusader to see which rebootquel reigns supreme?
In order to do this, we broke things down into several categories: animation style, plot, voice acting, and villains. And while individual preferences of course may vary, we also came up with an overall winner, based on having watched all 10 episodes of X-Men ‘97 Season 1, and all 10 episodes of Batman: Caped Crusader Season 1 (a second season for both is already in the works).
With that in mind, let’s pit Batman against the X-Men, and see who comes out on top.
Animation Style
Both series start with the framework of their forebears but expand from there. A lot of this has to do with the change of aspect ratio: both X-Men: The Animated Series and Batman: The Animated Series were formatted for ‘90s television, aka a 4:3 ratio, versus today’s default of 16:9 (though it varies). There were also different standards in animation for, say, Fox’s afternoon animated shows, versus what an audience expects in 2024.
However, before we even get into what these new shows look like, another important bit to throw in here is that while X-Men: TAS – which was famously rushed out the door to the point the first episode had unfinished art broadcast on TV – hasn’t quite held up, visually; Batman: TAS still looks fantastic. Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski’s noir-infused designs, which pulled liberally from comic book history, the Tim Burton movies, and their own minds are timeless. The pace of the show, the feel and movement of it, everything still works.
I mention this because it puts X-Men ‘97 at an advantage – it’s only up from here – versus Caped Crusader at a disadvantage – how do you expand upon one of the most visually impactful animated series of all time?
…And that’s exactly how things pan out on screen. Despite initially using the same costumes and looks from X-Men: TAS, the new show pluses up the pace and liberally pulls on new animation techniques, particularly those popularized by anime, to make a more dynamic-looking series full of thick, bold lines and propulsive action.
On the other hand, Caped Crusader… Just doesn’t look great. Gotham City is generic, versus the gothic nightmare from the Burton films, or the art deco look Batman: TAS employed. Batman varies wildly in shape from his costumed and Bruce Wayne identities and seems to have a pronounced lip that was pulled straight from Rick & Morty. Much has been made of Two-Face’s design activating anyone with trypophobia (fear of holes) in the audience, and they’re not wrong. It doesn’t look horrifying, it just looks upsetting.
Some of it works, like a very cartoony Nocturna (McKenna Grace) in Episode 8, and several orphans who are aged-down versions of Bruce Timm’s previous take on various Robins. The action is also fluid, and some redesigns like a female Penguin (Minnie Driver) in the first episode are worthy enough to make their way back to the comics.
But overall, Caped Crusader is a massive step down from TAS; where X-Men ‘97 reinvents the look for 2024.
Winner: X-Men ‘97
Plot
What’s perhaps most surprising when you compare the plot of these two shows is that over the course of the season, they take a relatively similar path. Both shows spend the first few episodes easing you in, reminding you what you loved about the previous series, before shaking things up. The big difference is that X-Men ‘97 does this halfway through, while Caped Crusader is a slow build to the final two episodes of the season – and the last episode in particular, which changes Batman lore in a dramatic way.
Like our comparison for the animation style, X-Men ‘97 has a slightly easier ramp here because the original series was embracing the hardcore, soap opera-style serialization present in the Marvel comics source material back in 1992. The new show continues to do that while shaking things up with some serious loss and danger for the characters.
Compare that to Batman: TAS, which other than some loose references here and there, was nearly entirely episodic, versus serialized. For most of the season of Caped Crusader, it’s the same thing. The show seeds some plot points, like the fall of Harvey Dent (Diedrich Bader), Batman coming to grips with the trauma of the death of his parents – spoiler, he doesn’t get over it – and overall corruption in the Gotham police department. But it isn’t really until those two final episodes that things start to come together. The feeling in the first half of the season is mostly, “Oh great! More Batman: The Animated Series.”
To be clear, that’s not a bad thing. Everyone likes Batman: The Animated Series, so seeing Brubaker and company pay tribute to a show they love has its own level of comfort. But in comparison to X-Men ‘97, which handed viewers the warm blanket for the first four episodes before roughly pulling it away, Caped Crusader relies too heavily on what’s come before.
Winner: X-Men ‘97
Voice Acting
Let’s get this out of the way up front: Hamish Linklater’s Bruce Wayne voice – and it’s not helped by the character’s often wide-eyed stares – sounds and looks like Sterling Archer from Archer. It’s meant to be a put-on voice because the show is very clear that Batman is the real personality, and the playboy billionaire is the mask. But Linklater’s broken, chirpy delivery is distracting in those scenes. His Batman voice, mind you, is much better. But if you watched Midnight Mass on Netflix and were haunted by Linklater’s monologues, it’s that same sort of delivery here, and is unfortunately distracting.
The other voice that doesn’t work, and we’ll get to this more in a second, is Jamie Chung as Harley Quinn. Nothing against the actress, but it’s just… Not a Harley Quinn voice.
Otherwise, everyone does a bang-up job on the show. Bader excellently segues from playing Batman on Harley Quinn to Harvey Dent here and laudably makes them two distinct voices. Jason Watkins is initially surprising as a bit more cockney Alfred, but it’s charming and works. And John DiMaggio as Bullock and Krystal Joy Brown as Barbara Gordon are literally pitch-perfect.
As for X-Men ‘97, everyone has good models for their voices already based on the previous show – and many of the actors have continued on to the new series, or are taking on a new voice role if their vocal stylings have aged up in the intervening years. But as much as fans love them all and find them eminently charming, controversial stance here, but some of those voices are purposely ridiculous. In particular, Lenore Zann’s Rogue, while delightful, is way over the top. Cal Dodd’s Wolverine is also iconic but perhaps hasn’t aged well in the modern era defined by Hugh Jackman. And Ross Marquand is a talented mimic, but can’t quite match the gravitas necessary for Xavier.
If there’s one aspect where X-Men ‘97 is stuck in the past – by choice – it’s the vocal work. Sorry, we love you all.
Winner: Batman: Caped Crusader
Villains
X-Men ‘97 brought back some old villains like Mr. Sinister, Mojo, and Sentinels, and mixed in a brand-new villain in the form of Bastion (Theo James). And yes, Bastion perpetuated one of the most heinous acts in animation history with the destruction of Genosha in Episode 5, “Remember It.” But the X-Men’s worst villains have always been, and continue to be, themselves.
That’s why the first season so effectively used Magneto (Matthew Waterson), who led the X-Men until it all became too much – and was one of the final bosses, before again joining the team at the end. Is Magneto a villain in X-Men ‘97? Hard to say, and that’s sort of the point.
Compare that to the villain of the episode format employed by Batman: Caped Crusader: The Penguin (Minnie Driver), Clayface (Dan Donohue), Catwoman (Christina Ricci), and Two-Face (Bader)... Even the seemingly random villains like Gentleman Ghost (Toby Stephens), Onomatopeia (Reid Scott), Nocturna (McKenna Grace) are quirky and interesting, and prove that Batman has the deepest bench of villains of any comic book character (sorry to that Spider-Man).
The one absolute whiff from the show is, as mentioned earlier, Harley Quinn. They depict Dr. Harleen Quinzel as a therapist treating Gotham’s elite early on, and Chung only brings the lightest touch of Harley’s signature vocals to the role. When Harleen puts on a harlequin costume, she becomes a dark version of herself who tortures and breaks rich men to twist them into what they truly are (giant babies, animals, etc). As an original villain, perhaps it would have worked. But tying to an icon like Harley drags the whole thing down in a way that’s more confusing than interesting.
That one miss aside, it’s hard to go wrong with the baddies of Gotham City, and Caped Crusader does right by them.
Winner: Batman: Caped Crusader
Batman: Caped Crusader Vs. X-Men ‘97: Which Show Wins?
Based on the four categories above, X-Men ‘97 and Batman: Caped Crusader each took two – making this a tie. But that won’t do! We need a winner here. So to throw in one more somewhat unfair category, let’s talk about the release schedule.
X-Men ‘97 after a two-episode premiere, was released weekly on Disney+. Meanwhile, Prime Video dropped all 10 episodes of Batman: Caped Crusader at the same time. It’s far too early to make a determination here, but the former show only built its cultural cache over time, while streaming shows dropped simultaneously – with rare exceptions like Fallout, for example – tend to blip and then disappear. It’s unfortunate, too, because there’s a world where the hit of nostalgia provided by Batman: The Animated Series, Again might have been enough to keep fans coming back until the serialization crept in towards the end. Instead, more likely Caped Crusader will get some discussion, and then fade away until Season 2 is released.
Meanwhile, X-Men ‘97 only built its hype over two months and has resonated far into the culture for months beyond that. We’ll see if that continues through the potentially long wait until Season 2, but for now, X-Men ‘97 takes the very specific crown as Best Animated Reboot Of A Show From 1992, in 2024.
Now bring back Fish Police, and we might have a real contest on our hands.
