Spot the Difference: The Caped Crusader and the Last SonofKrypton

Recently I decided to re watch the DC comics animated series from the nineties. Started with Batman, currently on the Superman series and will watch what I have of the Justice League when that's done. I think by watching the Batman and Superman series' so close together I started noticing a bunch of little differences between the two shows, mostly having to do with the "spirit" of the character.

First noticeable difference is the theme and intros.

Let's start with Batman

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DSrSdVQU7A]

Both the visuals and sound are dark, mysterious, and moody. Also, I read this was the first time guns were shown and fired in an animated series in decades, and the fact that we clearly see Batman punching one of the bank thieves means this show is not intended for kids. Because two years later the Spider-Man series debuted on Fox Kids, and in the whole show Spidey never hits anyone on-screen, and I remember there being a lot of lasers and not bullets.

And Superman

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUcKJflBG8Q]

The first five seconds are much like Batman's theme, except where the Dark Knight's explodes in a dynamic score, Superman's swells into a more light and happier tone. Being the Man of Steel, guns are also shown in this series, to show Superman's bullet proofness, but Big Blue only hits robots and aliens.

That general tone continues in the visuals throughout, Batman is darker and filled with shadows, while Superman is bright and in daylight a lot of the time.

Then I noticed something I hadn't before. The first episodes of Superman are his origin tale, his journey from Krypton to Metropolis. There is no beginning to Batman, he simply always is. And what was needed to be told of Bruce Wayne's past is in flashbacks. I like Batman's way of that kind of storytelling better, but in Superman there are more points that carry over between episodes, rather than them being individual. It's like they were telling lots of awesome Batman stories, and when it came time to do the Superman cartoon they found a way to connect them all together.

Both Superman and Batman have their fair share of antagonists, and maybe their most iconic villains, Lex Luthor and The Joker respectively, had different roles in each series. Whereas The Joker takes his part in his fair share of episodes, Lex is center stage in many episodes throughout the series, and behind many of the other reasons Clark Kent is "out of the office" on an average workday.

There are probably many more differences like that, but those just stood out to me this time.

I think it would have been awesome to see more individual series with different DC characters, maybe not several seasons of each one, but a Flash and Green Lantern series would have been awesome. Also crazy expensive and time consuming, so I understand why there isn't. And I'm not going to complain about the Justice League series either, that was good and I'm going to get to watching it again soon.