New Batman 'toon present kid-friendly Crusader

Mike Manley, character designer for the Cartoon Network's upcoming "Batman: Brave and the Bold" series talks about the new show's approach to Batman, and offers up a pretty apt assessment of today's comic book fanbase.

One of the things I enjoy about this new Batman cartoon is the fact we are going back to a kinder, friendlier Batman. A Dick Sprang version, which is the guiding design principle we are working from and there still is a slight echo of the BT [Bruce Timm] styling, which is a nice break from the grim and gritty. Let's face it, these cartoons are for children, young children 5-10,12 years old. Cereal eating, fruit rollup snacking, toy buying kids, not 30-something, 40-something bitter bee babymen who want these characters in adult situations.

The message boards are already full of babymen angst about the show, how they hate the art, the idea of a kid friendly Batman and I have to just laugh at the ridiculous comments. IMO one of the biggest reasons comics suck ass and have since the 80's is the rise and overtaking of the biz by the Babyman fan and the loss of kids reading comics as a hobby. Now we are stuck with an aging fanbase with limited taste, long memories, a twisted taste where the comic heroes have to be dark, gritty, sexy, adult...REAL!


Me, I'm 40-something and aging all the time. But I don't want my heroes to get decrepit (and embittered) along with me. I remember being 10 and having a whole spinner rack of super-hero (and other types) of comic books available to me--all pretty much geared toward my age group.

I've got my own kids now and think it's downright weird that most super-hero comics today aren't appropriate for them.

A lighter, brighter Batman sounds great to me.

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