Batman v the X-Men 2: The first 13 episodes

I’ve been watching 1990s nostalgia cartoons while using an exercise bike. I gave my initial impressions here but I want to discuss some more detail about the episodes. The problem is there isn’t an easy way to do a side-by-side comparison. There are 76 X-Men episodes and 109 Batman episodes but the first season of Batman is 65 episodes long. The X-Men came in more even chunks spread over five seasons. As season 1 of the X-Men has its own story arc, I thought it would be simplest to use the X-Men-sized chunks to look at both shows. That will give a false impression of change in the Batman show where season 1 is the length of seasons 1-4 of the X-Men.

As I said in the first post, the obvious differences between the two is the elegant and well thought through aesthetics of Batman on the one hand versus the often very ropey art of X-Men on the other. What the X-Men lacked in visuals (and music) it made up for in a serial story telling.

There are deeper differences. Notably, Batman doesn’t need to introduce himself. The show doesn’t let Batman’s reputation do all the work but it never has to explain its own premise. The X-Men on the other hand, particularly in season 1, is very much intended as a primer for the comic book.

We get the early 1990s line-up for the X-Men: representing the originals Cyclops, Jean-Grey & Beast, with the later additions of Wolverine & Storm, then Rogue & Gambit and finally newbie Jubilee. There is one original character Morph, whose role is to get killed in the opening two-parter (it’s the X-Men so he’ll be back later). The over-arching theme of season 1 is the baseline story of fighting anti-mutant bigotry. Along the way, season 1 takes a quick tour through some of the X-universe, including Magneto, Morlocks, Sabretooth, Juggernaut, Genosha, Apocalypse and a version of the Days of Future Past plot (with Bishop as a recurring character).

As I already said, Batman doesn’t need to explain his premise but there is still a back-to-basics aspect to the first 13 episodes. Of Batman’s famous rogue’s gallery of supervillains, only the Joker appears multiple times. Scarecrow, Poison Ivy and Penguin get episodes but the only extensive origin story is a two-part episode on Harvey Dent becoming Two-Face. The emphasis is on Batman fighting organised crime and the idea of Batman as a detective and crime-fighter rather than a superhero.

The X-Men series tries to pack as much mutant IP into the first series as it can. When Gambit, Storm and Jubilee find themselves enslaved on Genosha, they are trapped with a whole bunch of other mutants. Most of these go unnamed but a visually recognisable as other mutant heroes and villains. Cable drops by in the Genosha episodes as well but billed as a mysterious freedom-fighter rather than as a time-traveler carrying on the family business.

The X-Men series is driven by and for the comic books, whereas the Batman series is trying to be not just its own thing but an attempt an a Batman synthesis. Kevin Conroy’s Batman/Bruce Wayne is a distinct version of the character but it is a version that is influenced by the comic book versions, the Adam West version, and the Tim Burton film version. The retro-visuals also tie this version of Batman to older movie and radio serials. In the first 13 episodes, there’s some quiet additions to the wider Batman cast of characters with the addition of Officer Montoya as a recurring character.

So, on the one hand we have a manic X-men and a methodical Batman. Where the X-Men have an advantage in these first thirteen it is in the often histrionic emotional stakes. The hurtling stories make little sense and are often compressed versions of longer comic book story lines but the cast is always just a little bit over wrought by everything (except for Beast who spends most of the season in jail). The Batman series has some decent stories to tell but it purposely lacks momentum. These are episodes that (aside from Harvey Dent) have little continuity on purpose.

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