Plot summary: The Riddler is desperate to prevent Calendar Man from testifying against Rupert Thorne, unleashing Batman’s biggest challenge to date.
For more reviews and rankings of The Caped Crusade, check out the show page. New episodes each weekend.
The Caped Crusader Returns!
We’re back! Some thought the second season would never come as it was originally meant to hit in 2025, and that the show had instead been quietly cancelled despite it being a two-season order from Amazon, with various confirmations of things like changes to writing staff, voice actors recording their lines etc. People are going to conspiracy theory, though.
Speaking of changes to writing staff, Ed Brubaker is out as head writer due to the writers strike, with Geoffrey Thorne taking his place rather than promoting anybody already in the room. In fact the entire room is gone, with the exception of Greg Rucka. I have no idea if that was an instance of the staff following their boss out the door in solidarity, or the producers deciding to toss them because of the somewhat tepid response from many viewers. DCAU veteran James Tucker joins Bruce Timm as co-showrunner after Timm did the job solo in the first season.
And oh hey, we’ve got title cards now! They aren’t as fully illustrated as the classic BTAS ones, but it’s progress. Bullying works! I’ll post them at the bottom of each review.
As of this writing there is no word on whether the show will be renewed for a third season. If I had to guess, given they haven’t promoted Season 2 at all (aside from a game exclusive to a platform nobody has), I think it’ll get axed, which would make me sad.
Notes and Trivia
Episode: 11 (S2.E1)
Original Air Date: July 31st, 2026
Directed: Christina Sotta (5)
Written: Tyrone Finch & Bryce Abood (1)
Animation: Studio Grida (5)
Music: Frederik Wiedmann (11)
Mad Hatter gets the Penguin treatment from Season One, changed to a female character, Hattie Tetch. She hosts an ostensibly popular ‘news’ show, sipping tea and spilling… well, the other kind of tea. She won’t be appearing in the Rogues Roundup section because while she jabs at Batman, they’ll never ‘battle’ and she’s more part of the ensemble.
Calendar Man also gets a minor name change to Julian Gregory, an allusion to the Gregorian calendar. He’s a mob accountant rather than a villain in his own right and his role is minor, so he will also not appear in Rogues Roundup.
The two airfield candidates Batman mentions are named for severely under-credited comic artists Sheldon Moldoff and Jack Burnley. Moldoff already got a shoutout in Season One as a logo in a book Bruce was researching. Burnely was the second artist to draw Superman, giving him a far more muscular physique that influenced American comics for decades.
Alfred lists off Adams Garage, Ward Street Church and The Chandler Arms as GCPD safehouses. The first two are undoubtedly named for legendary artist Neal Adams and Burt Ward, who played Robin in Batman 66, but I’m having trouble with the third. Brynne Chandler wrote on BTAS, so I’m guessing it was for her, though it could be for Romy Chandler, a supporting character from Gotham Central, who already got name-dropped in Season One.
Mark ‘Dez’ Desmond is turned into a crazy monster by Riddler using Hugo Strange’s formula. The comic continuity, Mark Desmond becomes Blockbuster, a similarly hulking monster who has battled Batman and is kiiiind of Nightwing’s main adversary. Next episode will reveal the formula is labelled as ‘Blockbuster’.
Riddler tells The Thorne Mob they’re “more like the Keystone Idiots”, presumably a reference to Keystone Cops.
Flass tells Barbara Gordon “Wake up, Nemo, this ain’t Dreamland.” This is a reference to Little Nemo in Slumberland, a weekly comic strip that ran in the New York Herald from 1905 to 1911.
Tyrone Finch and Bryce Abood join the show as new writers. Finch produced and wrote for Grounded for Life, Station 19 and Average Joe, while Abood must know where a body is buried because they made precisely two short films, a decade ago. Apparently if you want to work on Batman projects you just can!
Recap
Despite being in prison awaiting full trial, Rupert Thorne puts a hit out on mob accountant Julian ‘Calendar Man’ Gregory to prevent him from testifying.
Thorne’s right-hand man, Edward Nygma, promises to get it done, attacking the plane that brings Gregory into Gotham, but Batman intervenes.
Frustrated, Nygma uses chemicals borrowed from Hugo Strange to turn one of his men into a monster, unleashing him on the GCPD safe house holding Gregory. Batman eventually takes it down with the Batmobile.
Unfortunately despite Gregory’s testimony, a crooked judge finds Thorne innocent… but Joker later abducts and gasses him, while elsewhere Barbara Gordon forces Batman and her father to finally have a chat.
Episode Ranking
They do their best to make the opening minutes expository to mixed results. Hattie Tetch’s gossip show is relatively effective at conveying the premise of the episode and that Rupert Thorne has been arrested pending trial since the events of Season One. However the dialogue exchange between Batman and Alfred is overly clumsy, seemingly intended to fill in new viewers or those with scuzzy memories that Bruce has a working relationship with the Gordons but is still not a full ally. But then they end the episode with an explanation as to why they’ll be working slightly closer together going forward, so I dunno, maybe that old practice of ‘re-piloting’.
I talked about Bruce going on a bit of a journey in Season One, growing to trust Barbara and giving her his phone number. They hammer home that they’ve remained in contact since that moment, but then also choose to make sure you know it’s a cold, one-sided relationship, with Batman pressuring Babs to help him with the case and then hanging up on her the moment she suggests Moldoff airstrip, and later pulling his vanishing act when she refuses to help him further. He’s also back to exclusively calling Alfred by his last name, so it feels like a bit of a recommitment to this colder version of the character, extending the journey towards him – as well as Gordon and Montoya – opening up more.
The airstrip made for a solid enough locale for an action sequence, including the classic trope of seeing a plane propeller heading towards a poor sap and then cutting away just as he’s sliced to shreds. I’m a fan of that kind of implied violence, with Clayface’s forced transformation in BTAS being one of the best examples, but Timm also pushes the envelope by depicting multiple ‘on camera’ deaths. I’m not necessarily offended by that notion, but BTAS worked so well because it managed to do so much while staying within the confines of an all ages show. Timm has made it clear over the years his preference is to skew older with sex, violence and cursing, and Season 2 is pushing things more in that direction straight away, though thankfully way short of Gods and Monsters and Batman and Harley Quinn.
The shower scene is the best part of the episode, with Batman silently taking out Thorne’s guards and then tossing a towel at his face in a matter of seconds. Very ‘Bruce confronts Amanda Waller‘. The standoff is solid, with Thorne gloating about how unafraid of Batman he is, continuing to shave and monologue. Naked. Bruce continues to stand in silence in an attempt to intimidate and it doesn’t work, so he instead cuts Thorne off mid-sentence by grabbing the towel hanging around his neck and using it to throttle him. That doesn’t work either, but Thorne mentions a safehouse, which Bats takes as a clue. I don’t think that really was much of a bombshell though, because of course he was under close GCPD protection.
The big sexy sequence they’re hanging their hat on is the fight against the monster, rampaging throughout the hotel and shrugging off everything Batman tries. It’s certainly got that Big Fight feel, decently suited for the first episode of a new season. Lots of smashing through walls and falling through floors and even down to the street outside. Batman repeatedly rams the fucker with the Batmobile so many times it almost felt excessive, but then I came around on it because it sold what a massive threat this thing was, especially as it just reverts back to a still very much alive human mobster afterwards. Bruce takes a mighty beating, including getting tossed around like a doll and even a mini Bane-style back crack, so it would probably be really bad news if there were more of these things…
The music in the above sequence is really good, and this episode in general was probably the most I’ve noticed Weidmann’s work to date. The ominous impending threat of the monster’s approach and the big melancholic swell as Bruce backs up and hits the thing again and again, really driving the point home, before coming down after the fight is over.
They end with the one-two punch of Joker taking out Thorne after he gets away with everything, with maybe the second most solid ‘laughs themselves half to death’ I can recall behind Mask of the Phantasm, and then Batman and Gordon being made to finally form a tenuous alliance, brokered by Barbara. I wonder if there might have been a way to switch those moments around as the Joker one is far more exciting, but hey.
Weirdly, I was ready to place this just below the middle, thinking it’s pretty solid but unremarkable, but as I sat there comparing it to what came before, I kept thinking “Nah, it was better than that one” until it found its way up to what I consider the gateway between the good episodes of Season One, and everything else. Call that a retroactive knock on the first season despite me generally talking it up, or call it a positive sign for what’s to come. Whatever works for you. I do think it’s more the former, as I thought there were a number of little things wrong with this and the overall premise didn’t excite me too much, but I think there are sufficient positives to surpass the slightly dull episodes outside my top 3 last time around.
I will say that if you are someone who absolutely has to have a headline act Rogues Gallery member in every episode, while Riddler is here, he’s very different to what most want from him (see below), and Hugo Strange and Joker have minimal screen time, so this is probably yet another strike against the show for you. I’m good with it, personally, as there were many great episodes of BTAS that didn’t feature any of the heavy hitters… but I can certainly see the argument for coming out of the gate swinging for a new season.
- … And Be a Villain
- The Stress of Her Regard
- Kiss of the Catwoman
- Brute Force (NEW ENTRY)
- The Night of the Hunters
- Night Ride
- The Killer Inside Me
- Moving Target
- In Treacherous Waters
- Savage Night
- Nocturne
Best Performance
Cedric Yarbrough was so good here, particularly in the face-off with Batman in the bathroom, chastising him for not being man enough to kill. I guess I haven’t heard his performance from Season One recently enough, because I wondered if they’d switched actors. He sounds a lot more menacing than I remember. Kudos on the demented laugh after Joker’s poison takes effect too.
Ronan Raftery seems to greatly enjoy his motormouth mobster take on Riddler, which is nice for him. JP Karliak might have been in with a look if Calendar Man had more than two lines. The returning series regulars are solid, perhaps even better than before, but not in a way that really draws focus. And it’s always nice ot hear Laraine Newman, who understands the assignment as a waspy gossip-monger version of Mad Hatter.
Rogues Roundup
Rupert Thorne (Cedric Yarbrough) (sixth appearance)
I liked Rupes having a lavish cell filled with home comforts, with the guards answering to him to such a degree that he gets snippy with them for making him wait for his towel after showering. He also gets some cool points for being unafraid of Batman after he sneaks into his cell, even while being strangled.
I think that’s enough to bump him up a little bit, fitting for an ostensible sendoff as Joker gets him at the end.
Riddler (Ronan Raftery) (first appearance)
I can’t imagine too many Bat-fans will enjoy this interpretation of Edward Nygma. Reimagined as a cocky mobster with a temper, we’ll find out in a later episode they call him the Riddler because of his love for riddling things full of bullets, firing off a tommy gun with wanton delight. I’m sure whoever thought up that pun felt very smart, but I’m genuinely puzzled why it didn’t end there.
There’s simply precious little to play with or explore here. Eddie is having fun within this world, but he’s not very fun for viewers, reduced to a generic goon with a gun. If he were an original character I’d have nothing against him as a ‘general’ type adversary – more dangerous than the fodder but firmly below the main attraction villains – but he’s a character with a tremendous history and dozens of unique takes, yet this feels lazier than if they’d just copied an existing one wholesale. Hell, he even seems kind of dumb!
I guess him injecting Dez with the monster formula after distracting him was kind of fun? But a few seconds does not make up for the rest.
Hugo Strange and The Monster Men (James Urbaniak and Zack Lazar Hoffman) (first appearance)
I’ve always found it funny that Strange is really famous for being a hyper-intelligent psychiatrist who is totally obsessed with Batman, even deducing his identity… and also for making crazy Monster Men. BTAS stuck strictly to the former, but it seems they were trying to give a nod to the latter in JLU, only for him to be replaced by ‘Dr. Moon’ due to the Bat-Embargo.
His appearance here is extremely brief, with Riddler saying he ‘knows a guy’, and then Strange hands over his suspicious green goo for free as a “field test.” A mad scientist, no more, no less.
The monster is a solid challenge for Batman, which helps the collective ranking, I suppose. I thought they were doing a quasi-Solomon Grundy thing at first, given the skin looking grey in certain light, his tattered and torn suit and Timm’s affinity for the character.
- Clayface
- Harley Quinn
- Catwoman
- Two-Face
- Firebug
- Rupert Thorne (↑)
- The Gentleman Ghost
- Flass & Bullock (–)
- The Penguin
- Hugo Strange and the Monster Men (NEW ENTRY)
- Riddler (NEW ENTRY)
- Onomatopoeia
- Jim Corrigan
- Nocturna
- The Joker (–)
Title Card
The Matt Signal 
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