I'm a cartoon junkie. I admit it. I grew up with some of the greatest cartoons of our generation. And, while struggling through years of Power Rangers, Poke'mon, and Digimon, there was one program or rather set of programs that I had thought set a bar for quality.

The Batman Animated Series was a breath of fresh air in a crowded landscape of cariactures. I still remember sitting in excitedly while they played the third episode at eight in the evening, the first appearance of Man-Bat in which Batman well and truly got messed up; you could see the blood on his face! And the series just got better over seasons and in the Adventures of Batman & Robin spinoff. These were cartoons, for children, that approached the subject matter like kids were smart and used fundamental movie tricks to present an ambiance that attracted adults as well. I find it a well and true shame that they didn't continue with the trend set by the amazing animated film Mask of the Phantasm.

True The Batman/Superman adventures were a step backward conceptually, but it was only a step, and the writers more than made up for it with Justice League and Justice League Unlimited which as cartoons were almost like an adventure sitcom. My dad's a Trekkie, he tunes in for the mind numbing dross of Stargate: Atlantis, but I tuned in for cartoons. And that's to say nothing of the awesome that was Batman: Beyond.

Now we have The Batman. Now I gave it a fair shake through at least two seasons. I love the inside joke of including Adam West in the cast as Comissioner Gordon, just as he was included in BTAS as The Grey Ghost, I appreciate that the writers had traded setting acuity and updated the presentation for a more ambient and dark appearance. I had hopes that it would perhaps reintroduce the ideas of quality cartoon to the wasteland that my saturday mornings have become.

Then I lost my cable.
I just couldn't afford it. That happens.
So's I wander by a journal here on FA and it refers me to a Youtube where someone has uploaded an episode of The Batman combining concepts from a BTAS episode, The Terrible Trio, a Batman Beyond episode, Splicers, and of course Anthro which is a plus in my book.

It was not a pleasing episode. It tried to do a lot of things, but didn't do any of them particularly well or suitably. Okay, I can deal with that. I'm an adult. So I cued up another episode that had been uploaded. The plot, while predictable at first, was pretty good: a dynamic duo of villains begin combating Batman and Robin in order to get revenge for personal losses and while they're at it, bring up questions of duality and liminalism that appeal to me.

At one point in the show however we have Joker, peeved because this new team is intruding on his fun. Joker has always had a psychopathic fixation on Batman, for whatever reason, and I find it objectively interesting to wonder under what conditions might a villain like Joker with his obsessions be put in a position to defend his enemy. An excellent example of this in the Marvel Universe is when Doctor Octopus saved Peter Parker's life in order to destroy Spider-man later. This was an opportunity to truly delve into an unusual plot hook.

They didn't follow it up.
But they did present an interesting connundrum. Batman and Robin caught the badguys, were going to send them to jail, and the baddies whom have since learned Batman's identity threaten to rat them out. Here again, a gold mine. Nope, we're going to take the idea of Joker getting back at the interlopers and make it shtick for the end of the cartoon! Some Joker Gas bombs and some quasi-permanently deranged villains, and some cute commentary by the Joker end of story.

That's SUCK of the highest order. I feel cheated. I want some good g'damn cartoons. And I'm sorry but until we break the back of this DBZ/Naruto/Poke-trade-a-franchise/fanboi circle jerk bullshit it ain't never gonna happen. I know this journal won't fix the problem, but sometimes, I despair.