VIDEO: The Batman “Q&A”

by · June 27, 2011

In this episode of Saturday Morning Glory, Ryan covers The Batman, a lighter, younger, more merchandise-oriented incarnation of the Caped Crusader, featuring vastly “reimagined” versions of Batman’s villains. In the season one episode “Q&A”, Batman faces off against the Cluemaster, a subpar Riddler clone who’s been redesigned to be even more useless than he was in the comics.

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Ryan Lohner

Ryan lives in Sparta, New Jersey, a quaint little burg without much for kids to do except go to the movies. Thus began a lifelong love affair, as even back then he grew to love examining why a film worked, or didn't. He is a member of the Sigma Tau Delta English Honor Society, and currently studying for a Master's Degree in Library and Information Science. His hobbies include running, piano, and annoying people with that damn lowercase forum user name.

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  • Michael A. Novelli

    Well done, Ryan! Just get any ideas about doing an episode seven before me…

  • Rex_Dart

    Maybe I missed it, but did the Cluemaster even leave any clues for Batman in the episode? And, if not, why even bother to give him the same name as the comics character? Wouldn’t, say, “Grotesquely Obese Basement Dweller Man” work better?

    • Actually he did leave clues. Off-camera. For the Green Lantern. Too bad Batman never bothered to answer his land line.

  • REEEALLY hope there’s a thread for this in the forums…

  • Tamsin Parker

    I’ve noticed that Kier actually bears some resemblance to his character, or maybe I’m bust seeing things.

  • Tamsin Parker

    Who is the voice of the young Cluemaster, by the way? Sounds like Tara Strong, but I could be wrong.

  • Tamsin Parker

    Is that Tara Strong as the voice of the young Cluemaster?

  • Tamsin Parker

    I was wrong, it’s Kath Soucie.

  • Charles T. Arthur

    I thank the Lord Spoiler never made it into this show. It would mean someone would have… *shudder* touched that THING with a degree of affection…

  • KenInIL

    I’m not surprised they got the chess wrong. Look closely at the very end – they couldn’t even get checkers right. (Bruce and Alfred have their pieces on different-colored squares.)

  • Platypusman Scuba

    Ryan, don’t take this the wrong way–has anyone mentioned that you sound quite a bit like the late Wally Cox? You may just have a future as a voice-over actor!

    • Rmlohner

      I get Steve Buscemi more often.

  • Andrew Stookey

    Surprised you didn’t comment on the fact that those candy bars apparently stayed edible for over twenty years

  • Rmlohner

    A couple writing notes on this:

    After recognizing Glenn Shadix’s voice, I’d hoped to use his line from Dustin Check In, “Why is everyone always slapping me?” Unfortunately, the fight doesn’t have any good place to use it, so I settled for the Nightmare Before Christmas line.

    After Batman says Yelena did something with her life, I considered saying “Maybe we can all learn something from chess players” and playing one of Bobby Fischer’s anti-Semitic rants. Then I came to my senses and figured it would be way too easy to take the wrong way.

    • nejiblue

      At the end of the day, stuff like the adam west show and the silver age comics will always be part of the character’s legacy, however much people like you wish they would vanish like they never existed. Don’t have to like them, its not like the adam west show ever pretended anything more than a campy romp. And for the record, I hate the whole “serious=better automatically” garbage. Sorry, but I never cared for batman begins. I found it to be a mediocre snooze-fest. The dark knight was good because of mostly better writing and great performance from most of the cast(sans christian bale), NOT because it was “serious”.

      • Animikean

        I second your statement, there may be things in, or out of cannon (depending at the time how Lee/ Didio feel about it) that you like or detest but when someone has thoughts on Batman it needs to be asked, which decade, which one.

        Enjoy the pieces/ interpretations you like (Batman 1989, Batman Beyond, Red Robin etc. for me) and just work around the stuff you don’t care for (Bale’s Batman, Damian Wayne, blatant racism of the Batman serials etc.) like the broccoli on your plate you’re only going to pretend to eat.

        Peace all :)

        • I like the Silver Age style, but there are good ways and bad ways to do it. The thing about the Adam West show was that they really went all out with it. You never got the impression that they were embarrassed and they never tried to get preachy or philosophical. That was why it worked, and that’s why “Batman: The Brave and the Bold” worked. This show kind of went in two directions. You had the silly nonsense like this one, and the really dramatic stuff like in the Clayface episodes, and sometimes they would smoosh it together so that it was too silly to be a “serious” show but not campy enough to be genuinely entertaining.

  • Waffle_Man

    I watched a lot of the last seasons of The Batman just because it was on as the Saturday morning cartoon was having its last death rattle, and it was the only competent cartoon show you could get over the air.

    And come to think of it, I watched a good chunk of the opening season too, because it was always just competent enough that I thought “Maybe the next episode will be the one where they finally hit their stride” although they never quite did.

    From what I could tell there was a definite arc to the series that went “We’re not just going to remake Batman: TAS, we’re going to forge our own identity! No, really, totally different show and, ah, fuck it, we’re just gonna remake TAS.”

    This episode aside, I think this show only looks as bad as it does because it’s being compared to the numerous really brilliant Batman TV shows. Compared to other action oriented kids shows it really was fairly good. I think if it had starred The Shadow or anyone other then Batman people would be calling it an underrated gem.

  • Priscilla

    First off, I just want to say keep up the good work, guys. I really enjoy most of your articles and video shows.

    So, this really shouldn’t surprise anyone at this point, but this show apparently has a lot of defenders on TV Tropes. They claim that the only reason this show is so hated is simply because it’s not B:TAS. However, I think the reason it’s so hated is not because it wasn’t exactly like TAS, but because, as Waffle_Man said, it tried to emulate TAS, and failed.

    The terrible writing and horrid designs don’t help. I know this sound shallow, but that might be the ugliest version of Bruce Wayne ever. And don’t even get me started on what they did to the poor Riddler.

  • Edwin Lee Pope

    THE SHOW FOR ME WAS NOT BAD IT WAS JUST WARD. NOT SOMETHING I WOULD PUT UP THERE WITH THE BATMAN THE ANIMATED SEARS OF BATMAN BEYOND BET IT DID HAD ITS GOOD MOMENTS AND I STILL ENJOYED IT FOR MOST PART WHEN IT DID AIRED. AS FOR THE RETELLING OF IT VILLAINS I NEED TO ASK YOU SOMETHING. WHY HO WHY DID THEY COMPLICITY DUM DOWN THE JOKER IN THIS SHOW. ANYWAY GOOD JOB ON THE REVIEW KEEP IT UP.

  • Jzigleraf

    I respect “campy” Batman and I think it’s a very valid part of who he is. But camp requires soul – that you take the script and go down with your dignity swinging. Adam West had it. Dietrich Bader had it. Hell, even George Clooney had it. Rino Romano… doesn’t have it.
    And seriously? Cluemaster? The guy who’s been totally overshadowed by his friggin’ daughter? Hell, even she thought he was a second-rate Riddler ripoff, and she was dressing up in an eggplant-colored cloak and naming herself “The Spoiler” for most of the first seventeen years of her existence.

  • That was a good review and all, but I think you’re historically incorrect about Batman being brought back to seriousness chiefly by Tim Burton or Bruce Timm. They were important, but they came about after Year One, Dark Knight Returns, The Killing Joke, A Death in the Family, etc.

    • anonymous

      Those were comics though, which by that point were not as much of a mass-medium as they had once been (perhaps because they weren’t for kids).

  • kingofmadcows

    Actually, the Cluemaster in this show looks like Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

  • Danielle Clarke

    I just can’t get over the fact that Batman is voiced by Tuxedo Mask.

  • Jonathan Hunter

    I never really thought this show was a silver age version of Batman. More like a anime version. The lean figure and ‘youngish’ nature of Bruce makes me think that.

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