Saturday, March 18, 2023

On The Air: Gotham Knights (2023)

 Batman is dead. Four suspects, including the Dark Knight's adopted son (it's not who you think it is) have been framed. There are familiar characters, but the central figure in Gotham Knights, the latest DC Comics entry from executive producer Greg Berlanti, is not.

Turner Hayes (Oscar Morgan) is a fresh out of the box creation strictly for the TV show, but, then again, Harley Quinn went from Batman: The Animated Series to pop culture icon in record time more than 30 years ago, so anything's possible.

Anyway, Turner's adoption follows the pattern established when Bruce Wayne (David Miller in a brief cameo) had adopted his wards in the books (i.e. Dick Grayson, Tim Drake). Now, we're not sure if there's any sort of Bat-embargo with this series, since an adult Dick and a Tim who's barely out of his teens are factors in HBO Max's Titans, but we'll see soon enough.

The CW's hype machine misfired, claiming that the children of some of Batman's greatest enemies have been framed. That's not really true. We have:

Harper & Cullen Row, a set of siblings created by Scott Snyder during the New 52 era at DC.

Duela Dent, alleged to be the daughter of The Joker, but with her last name, there might be ties to DA Harvey Dent (Misha Collins, ex-Supernatural). Introduced in the pages of Teen Titans during its mid-70's revival.

Also on board are Stephanie Brown, whom comics fans know as the Spoiler, but not yet in costume, and Carrie Kelley, introduced in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns as a future era Robin, brought to the present day of this continuity by the show's creators.

Then, you factor in co-executive producer Danny Cannon (Pennyworth, Gotham), who directed the pilot. He's the one who decided to insert a young Selina Kyle into the early life of Bruce Wayne on Gotham, likely at the request of DC suits.

Let's take a look at the trailer:


Fans are understandably concerned that this series could end up 1 and done due to the shift in the CW's programming philosophy under Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, although the option is there to move the show to HBO Max.

A decent start, so we'll forgive the misleading hype.

Rating: B-.

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