Detective Comics

The DCAU started in 1992 with the release of the timeless classic, Batman the animated series. The showrunners were Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, mostly. At that time, BTAS was mostly kid friendly and even when it handled dark themes, it maintained a balance between light and dark, which I now think is mostly to fit the TV-Y7 Rating.

Nowadays, the DCAU is in shambles. I just watched Batman and Harley Quinn. It feels like an MCU movie. I’m sorry and I don’t mean to offend the creators of the show I watched and loved as a 5-10 year old, but it had to be said. All of the telltale signs of a Marvel Movie were there. Underdeveloped villains, a joke a minute, unlikely pairings for the sake of sexual tension (cough-blackwidow-cough-hulk-cough), and no members of the superhero team even though the fate of the world is at stake.

But I digress. Let’s forget about Batman and Harley Quinn. Let’s just talk about the regression of the Bruce Timm’s content as a whole. Batman the Animated series- He was probably reined in by the Y7 Rating and Paul Dini. Total masterpiece. 

The New Batman Adventures: Here things start getting a little messed up. Vague allusions to Bruce and Barbara being together (”over the edge”). Night wing handled pretty poorly considering that he seems to hit on just about every female character in the series but it’s nothing too bad.

Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman: Things get pretty weird when Bruce is confirmed to be in a relationship with Barbara who is confirmed to be a college student. “Chase Me”, the silent film, DCAU’s equivalent of a post credits scene, shows him with Catwoman, somehow. Pretty weird.

Batman Beyond: Things get super weird, bordering on the edge of insanity. Bruce apparently has a kid with Barbara while Barbara and Dick (Nightwing) are together. But, the kid dies due to a mugging and abortion takes place. No major harm done. But still incredibly creepy. Bruce has white hair and Babs is in her 30s. You’re lying if you say it’s not weird. 

Batman The Killing Joke: Bruce Timm, possibly high, goes COMPLETELY INSANE for this movie, making Batgirl, Barbara, throw herself at Bruce. It doesn’t help that Bruce ignores her after this but then has to save her after she is tortured by the Joker. Shit-for-brains movie.

My point is that the creative control of the DCAU, especially the Batman side should not lie completely with Bruce Timm.

Or Maybe he just works better within the confines of a PG-13/ TV-Y7 Rating to make his work more palatable.

Star Trek the Original series was great. It just was. There is not going to be anyone denying that Mr. Roddenberry had struck gold with Star Trek the original series. The problem lies in what happened after the original series had faded out of the collective public consciousness. The never-ending cycle of reboots, spin-offs and cash-ins made Star Trek return with a new cast, a new generation, aptly titled “Star Trek : The next Generation”(1987-94). Yet, oddly enough,  this series abided by the same rules set by Roddenberry in the 70’s. These rules included abstention from serialization of stories, conflict between crew members and religious themes. This might have suited the 70’s audience but this was the late 80’s and early 90’s. This resulted in variation in quality. Though the quality of TNG is subjective, general critic consensus holds that it was not as good as the original series. Such rules had a place and time. There is no shame in them becoming outdated. If you want proof that these rules were the problem, just take a look at the critical reception and overall storytelling quality of Star Trek: Deep Space 9. It flouted these rules with gay abandon and won praise in return. This doesn’t mean that Roddenberry wasn’t a visionary. It means that he should have trusted the showrunners more. He should have given them creative control.