I’m reticent to pull a “book did it better” with this review, but The Lost Years took two issues to divorce Robin from Batman, establishing the conflict between Bruce’s increasing prickliness and Dick’s bristling under his mentor’s wing.
The way it’s handled, though, seems perfunctory – Batman was a jerk, and Robin had enough – and it doesn’t quite gel with the healthy and positive relationship these characters had in The Animated Series. This is an important story, maybe the second most significant one The New Batman Adventures would ever tell (in four weeks, “Mad Love” makes the case for being the most significant). Perhaps “Old Wounds” would have benefited from the breathing room that a two-parter would have given it, because the episode moves so briskly through its events that everything seems rushed and a little thin. I remember that series fondly for its deliberate introspection, getting inside Dick Grayson’s head and tracing his path to a new identity. I have very strong memories of this storyline – not as its animated instantiation but as the five-issue tie-in comic book miniseries, The Batman Adventures: The Lost Years, which preceded the episode.
Though the former Boy Wonder is reluctant to share, he tells his successor about the night Batman went too far, leading to a few confessions with Barbara Gordon (Tara Strong) and a confrontation with The Joker (Mark Hamill) where tensions boiled over.Īlthough the Batman animated project has largely eschewed long narrative arcs and dense continuity callbacks, “Old Wounds” is maybe the closest the show ever came to addressing its own internal mythology in an episode that promises a major revelation to answer the long-running question of why Nightwing gave up the mantle of Robin. Robin finally asks Nightwing (Loren Lester) why he parted ways with Batman. It wasn’t the first time I’ve seen him like that. Examples would be Scarecrow, Bane, and Penguin (the original was basically a cartoon version of the Burton version).“He was so upset he couldn’t even talk about it. And while most of the villains new designs don't really work, there are some that are actually an improvement. And this is coming from someone who overall prefers the older designs.Īlso, I actually think that Batman and Batgirl's suits were improved in TNBA. And the less detailed style allowed for more consistent animation. I think it's a bit of a shame that the show is only judged in how it looks, because I actually think that the writing, characters, tone, etc., is just as good as the original series. More often than not, their main gripe is with the change in animation style. But I have noticed a pattern when it comes to people who dislike TNBA. Even though I personally love the show, everyone has a right to his or her own opinion. Now this is not to take a jab at people who dislike TNBA.
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