YMMV / Beware the Batman

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • In "Hunted", Pyg and Toad often state the importance of nature, but some people note that it seems almost like a secondary goal that they're using as an excuse to go out and murder some millionaires.
  • Following the revelation in "Monsters", did Sapphire undergo Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome and had Took a Level in Jerkass in between her appearances in "Toxic" and "Monsters" or was she a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing all along, which could could also put her love for Rex in question if it was sincere or not. Further adding to the multiple possible interpretations of her, is she really the one who sent mercenaries to run off Old Gotham property owners, or did she just sell weapons to someone else out to do that?
• Ass Pull: The Deathstroke memory wipe in the final episode.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • The show's version of Alfred. Some people like the different interpretation of his character, while others think that he's too different to even be considered Alfred. Others just think he looks weird.
  • Despite his Ensemble Dark Horse status, opinions on Pyg's portrayal are still pretty split. Some fans find the comics version abhorrent, and this version much more charming, while others feel that the Lighter and Softer portrayal "ruined" him, and that they shouldn't have taken away his Body Horror-inducing surgeries that he's known for in the comics.
  • Anarky’s portrayal in the series was fairly contentious. Fans of his morally grey, well-intentioned comic book counterpart tend to hate the Anarky portrayed in this series for being turned into a clear villain. However, the show’s version of Anarky has a decent number of defenders who will say that as long as you treat comic Anarky and show Anarky as two different characters, show Anarky is a compelling villain. At the very least, everyone can agree that this version of Anarky at least isn’t as bad as the version from Arrow.
• Broken Base:
  • The show's animation has been hit with this hard. While the show's storytelling and characters have been mostly well-received and the music and voice acting are almost unanimously praised, the CGI animation and overall visual style has drawn both praise and criticism, with some of the latter coming even from fans of the show. Those who like it praise it for its fluid movement, impressive fight scene choreography, unique character designs and dynamic use of lighting. The detractors criticize the CGI as cheap-looking compared to other shows such as Transformers: Prime, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and even the similarly-styled Green Lantern: The Animated Series. They also feel Gotham is too empty, and others still dislike the character designs in general. Another vocal section just hates it because it's CGI.
  • Alfred using guns^note which, along with the other guns in the show, were replaced with pulse rifles following the Aurora rampage to fight crime alongside Batman and Katana using her, well, katana—making it appear as if Batman is using lethal force—has turned a few fans off. As time went on backlash died down, and some argued that it was more reasonable due to Alfred's advanced age.
  • The inclusion of Katana rather than any of the Robins or Batgirls has also soured many fans, given several of them have yet to appear in any adaptation. Others are happier to see a newer character and better representation of minority characters.
  • Katana's costume: some fans are fine with the change or were at least willing to accept a new direction in the design. Others feel the costume is much less visually interesting and seeing it as less Katana and more Anne Hathaway's Catwoman by way of Movie Superheroes Wear Black.
  • The fact that it's yet another Batman series as opposed to a lesser used hero like The Flash or Wonder Woman hasn't won it many fans. Others simply tune in for Batman.
  • The show not using classic foes like Penguin, Two-Face, or even The Joker in this series, in favor of altered versions of lesser-known villains. Some feel happier with this on the other hand, arguing that it gives a chance for his lesser-known rogues to shine. While others complained that some of these lesser-known villains were so far removed from their comic book counterparts that it would've been better to just use said classics rather than rewriting B or C-list villains into Expies of the A-listers.
  • Beware airing on Toonami caused a whole new Broken Base, with one camp just happy the show was airing, especially after the show was taken off the air by Cartoon Network, and another seeing the show as completely out of place next to shows like Attack on Titan, Black Lagoon and Hellsing Ultimate, all of which skew much older and feature more violence than Beware the Batman. The schedule going from Beware the Batman (which, despite airing with a TV-PG for violence rating, was firmly made for kids and even edited to be more kid-friendly and out of respect for the victims of the Aurora, Colorado theater shooting) to shows like Black Lagoon and Hellsing Ultimate (both of which are rated TV-MA for graphic, bloody violence and, aside from some bleeping of the word "fuck" and all its variations, was uncut) was jarring to say the least.
    • How bad was the anti-Beware sentiment on Toonami? During numerous Q&A's, Jason DeMarco noted that Beware the Batman was the show that they always received the most complaints about.
• Complete Monster: Anarky is a far cry from his comic version. An utter madman who views himself and Batman as two kings on a chess board, one representing order and peace, the other chaos and destruction, Anarky commits all of his crimes out of a pathological love for attention and a sheer enjoyment of being evil. In his first appearance, Anarky grants two petty crooks high-tech weaponry before sending them on a rampage through Gotham, after which he rigs two gondolas filled with people to explode unless Batman can stop them in time. Later, Anarky pits Batman and the League of Assassins against each other as part of a plan to unleash a lethal plague onto all of Gotham, and attempts to bomb a populated park filled with police officers while trying to frame Batman. At the end of the series, Anarky makes corrupting District Attorney Harvey Dent into evil his personal pet project, and successfully drives Dent to institute Martial Law in Gotham while threatening the lives of all those who stand in his way. In the sequel tie-in comic, Anarky unlocks every door in Gotham City for a single night, then tries to spur all of the citizens into a panic-induced riot that he hopes will tear Gotham apart in the ultimate display of chaos. Though soft-spoken and eerily polite, Anarky is the most wicked foe Batman faced in the series, having no empathy, no mercy, and no motive at all except his basic whims.
• Continuity Lockout: The series eventually grew into this, as episodes next week almost always continue off of the previous one. Context is of course not always properly explained on Previously on… segments, as well as the generally more plotted nature of the series.
• Creepy Awesome:
  • Professor Pyg and Mister Toad fall under this thanks to their creepy storybook-style way of speaking and surprisingly strong fighting abilities.
  • Anarky. His voice combined with his Leitmotif definitely help.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Pyg and Toad trying to force one of their many female captives to become a mutant and marry Toad in "Doppelganger" would be completely horrific if not for their The Comically Serious and Deadpan Snarker moments of Pyg acknowledging just how sleazy the whole affair is ("Do you, Mister Toad, take this soon to be non-human to be your unlawfully wedded wife?) and Toad putting so much false sincerity into the whole affair.
  Pyg: Now, Mister Toad, this is the most important decision of your life. Choose with your heart.
  Toad: Absolutely. Eenie, meenie, miney......mo. Would you do me the honor of making me the happiest man-phibian on earth?
  The woman screams in terror
  Pyg: That's frightened for "yes."
• Draco in Leather Pants: Magpie inspires more sympathy in the fans than she does Batman, due to her tragic backstory and appealing character design.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Magpie's portrayal in this show has become fairly popular, with fans praising her complexity as a character, her ability to outmatch even Batman in combat, her entertaining dialogue, and her... appealing character design.
  • Barbara Gordon has the fanbase is screaming with glee for obvious reasons. Being voiced by Tara Strong again probably helps.
  • Cypher, thanks to getting the Adaptational Badass treatment and having a cool design.
  • Professor Pyg and Mister Toad, due to their having a Villainous Friendship and genuinely funny dialogue, gained quite a bit of popularity in their second appearance after originally being lambasted in the first episode.
• Fandom Rivalry: Fans of this aren't happy that Teen Titans Go! has become Adored by the Network and is now pasted all over the schedule, while Beware the Batman is stuck with the same weekend-morning-only schedule as Green Lantern and Young Justice before it. This will probably only increase now that it's been pulled altogether for — what else — more Teen Titans Go! repeats.
  • Beware became something of a punching bag for anime fans when it aired on Toonami, many of whom dismissed it as a kids show and completely out of place on the block which was targeting adults. Supporters countered that several of Toonami's bigger hits (namely Naruto and One Piece) are considered children's shows in Japan, while head programmer Jason DeMarco repeatedly insisted Toonami was never meant to be exclusively an anime block.
• Growing the Beard:
  • The show, while not bad, started out similar to other series in that it's got continuity, but mostly standalone stories featuring the characters, and thus didn't really distinguish itself from many of the other Batman shows aside from using obscure or underused villains. After "Safe", the show moved into an arc involving the League of Assassins, which seemed to be plotted fairly well, as well as putting greater emphasis on Bruce and Tatsu's growing as characters.
  • A character example in this version of Anarky. He started out as a Smug Snake with barely enough skills to back him up and an absurd fixation with chess. It wasn't until "Sacrifice" that he really came into his own, effortlessly conning Lady Shiva and Batman and taking his loss on the chin and moving on to his next plan instead of getting upset and complaining that Batman doesn't consider him a Worthy Opponent.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In the final episode of the series, Harvey finally becomes Two-Face, albeit with his face being covered in bandages, and is seemingly set up as being a major villain for the next season... only for the show to be canceled just when fans felt the show was getting really good and before Two-Face can establish himself as a rogue. Nearly a decade later, another Batman-themed show Gotham Knights (2023) gets Cut Short and ends with Harvey finally making his appearance as the villainous Two-Face just when the series gets canceled, ensuring that for the second time in a row, Two-Face's story will have no resolution because of the show not getting renewed.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • When the Joker was killed off in Batman: Arkham City, the fans that weren't ticked off were excited in the hopes that the sequel would show off lesser known Batman villains.
  • Before the production of this series, the idea of a Superman/Batman animated series was being bandied about. About two episodes in to Beware The Batman, the sequel to Man of Steel was announced to be a Superman/Batman movie.
  • In Teen Titans (2003) when Robin unwillingly becomes Slade's apprentice, he refutes Slade's father son comparison by saying he already has a father, an allusion to Batman. Here in this show, Slade a.k.a. Deathstroke's main motivation is that he is jealous of Batman for being the favored apprentice/surrogate son of Alfred.
  • The casting of Kurtwood Smith as Jim Gordon and JB Blanc as Alfred. We have Gordon, one of the most famous cops in fiction and the Trope Namer for The Commissioner Gordon played by the same man who once played Clarence "Cops don't like me, so I don't like cops" Boddicker and Alfred shares a voice actor with Bane from Batman: Arkham Origins, who nearly killed Alfred during Origins.
  • Many people have noitced Sumalee Montano's voice for Katana sounds similar to Kelly Hu. Hu's voicing Katana in Infinite Crisis.
  • In the final episode, Harvey Dent, having finally become Two-Face, tells Gordon that if the position of mayor is so important to him, then he can just go and be mayor himself. Batman: Arkham Knight's best ending features Gordon becoming mayor of Gotham after 100% Completion.
  • This show's version of Katana is a quiet, snarky Asian woman with martial arts skills, a background in intelligence, and a dark past, who usually wears leather. A few months after this show's premiere, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. gives us Melinda May, who hits every single one of those character traits.
  • This show premiered around the same time Batman: Arkham Origins was released. Both of which were set in Batman's early years, predominantly used lesser-known members of his Rogues Gallery (with some exception), and had Anarky as one of the enemies faced.
  • Christopher McDonald voices Harvey Dent. In Collegehumors Batman series, when Batman is gassed by Scarecrow, among several other pointless fears(roomba's, sunchips, etc;), McDonald appears as a hallucination of Bruces fear.
    • The show's cancellation leading to the show ending with Batman forming the Outsiders... with Young Justice (2010) being revived years later with a season about the Outsiders.
• I Knew It!: Some connected the dots between Dane Lisslow and Deathstroke early, considering Dane and Bruce had so much in common, and Deathstroke had both of his eyes.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: A big sticking point for fans of Young Justice (2010) and Green Lantern: The Animated Series is the perceived over-abundance of animated Batman adaptations as opposed to shows starring other popular DC heroes.
• Les Yay:
  • In Family, Lady Shiva says that Dr. Ravencroft is beautiful, gives her some affectionate names, and strokes her hair. It escalates further into No Yay when she sucks out her soul in such a polite manner right afterwards.
  • In Attraction, Magpie's initial fight with Katana almost comes out suggestive.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Deathstroke, real name Slade Wilson, was once a CIA agent who was booted after his excessive cruelty in the name of protecting his country. Becoming a mercenary for hire soon after, Deathstroke pulled off flawless operations before eventually using his amassed resources to target his former mentor, and the man who got him fired from the CIA, MI6 agent Alfred Pennyworth. Framing Batman as a villain and seemingly murdering Bruce Wayne, all while masquerading as Dane Lisslow, Deathstroke handily tricks the Dark Knight into lowering his guard in a duel by faking his motivations, and later breaks into the otherwise impenetrable Batcave, captures both Batman and Alfred, and prepares to force the latter to watch as he murders Batman before him as a final vengeance against his former mentor for ruining his life.
  • Anarky is Batman's Arch-Enemy, and a chaos-loving mastermind intent on enabling people to "free" themselves from the binds of morality and order. Introducing himself to Gotham by becoming a "patron" to two thugs and turning them into supervillains, Anarky later steals the comatose body of Ra's al Ghul to coerce the League of Assassins into stealing a chemical compound for him, only to reveal he's tricked them into unleashing a plague onto Gotham. Allying with and corrupting District Attorney Harvey Dent while consistently masking his true schemes even to Batman, Anarky succeeds in driving Dent into evil and happily accepts his eventual defeat by Batman, simply proclaiming he's ready to "play again" before enacting his next plans to unlock every door in Gotham and enable the citizens a night of debauchery and anarchy.
  • Ra's al Ghul himself is the leader of the League of Assassins. An immortal warrior who has toppled civilizations over the centuries, Ra's currently uses the mercenary Cypher to mind control scientists into creating the Ion Cortex, tricking the Wayne Foundation into funding the project. Using the Cortex, Ra's knocks out power in Gotham, murders anyone who stands in his way, and plans to strong-arm the leaders of the city into allowing the League to set up shop in Gotham as their new base of operations. Controlling the League through sheer charisma and intimidation, Ra's handily defeats any opponents in combat, notices the most minor errors in his plans and orders them immediately corrected, and nearly took over Gotham City in the matter of a few days, all to enable his growing plan to wipe out what he deemed to be irredeemable crime and filth in the world.
  • Humphrey Dumpler, "Humpty Dumpty", was once a meek criminal accountant with a love for numbers, but after growing horrified at the world of crime then being treated with neglect by Gotham's police department when he became a witness, Dumpler becomes a tragic, brilliant mastermind determined to pay back the crooks and cops of Gotham alike. Dumpler kidnaps and puts a variety of criminals and corrupt lawyers into bomb suits to draw out crime lord Tobias Whale and Lieutenant James Gordon, both of whom Dumpler kidnaps while distracting Batman across the city. Even when Batman rescues Gordon and Whale, Dumpler fakes his death to throw Batman off and gracefully accepts his temporary defeat before returning later to trap Batman and other popular people of Gotham in a murder mystery house filled with booby traps. As Batman barely is able to solve Dumpler's puzzles to save everyone's lives, Dumpler reveals he's punishing them all for their hand in sending an innocent man to prison, showing his taste for justice and vengeance as surpassing all other villains in the show.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Anarky proved himself to be Batman's most dangerous enemies the moment he pitted him and the League of Assassins to manipulate them into unleashing a Lethal Plague that will wipe out nearly all of Gotham.
  • Ra's al Ghul crossed it in the scene he is introduced when he forces Agent Yamashiro to betray and use the Soultaker's sword to drain Alfred's sword on a threat to kill his family.
  • Harvey Dent was just a Jerkass, but deliberately refusing to quell a prisoner riot in Blackgate on the hopes that they might take out Batman pushed him over the edge.
  • The three notes below count based on Batman, who previously pitied those before they crossed it, losing any sympathy he had for the crooks after catching them committing these sins:
    • Magpie crosses this in "Attraction" when after her sanity decimated to a point that she became a psychopathic Stalker with a Crush she attempts to bury Katana alive and then try to kill Batman herself when she gets her heart broken.
    • Sapphire Stagg crosses this in "Monsters" when it's revealed she is the one organizing the destruction of Old Gotham, endangering lives in the process as well as trying to desecrate where Thomas and Martha Wayne were murdered, which really pushed Batman over the edge.
    • Humpty Dumpty crosses this in "Games" when he devolved into The Sociopath and kidnapped Ernie Croskey to force him to kill the ones who was responsible for his plight that wrongfully sent him to prison. However, when Ernie held no hard feelings against his wrong-doers and just want to return home to his family, Humpty then try to kill them himself.
• Older Than They Think:
  • A minor example. This isn't the first time Pyg and Toad have appeared in animated form. They were first animated in Batman: The Brave and the Bold though it was strictly cameos in one episode.
  • Though it didn't speak as much as the one in this show, a talking Bat-Computer appeared in at least one episode of Batman: The Animated Series.
  • Ra's al Ghul breaking out Batman's foes from prison, as seen in "Reckoning", was also done in Batman #400, "Resurrection Night".
• Paranoia Fuel: "Safe" gives us this line:
  "You are never completely safe."
• Replacement Scrappy: Quite a few people didn't seem to care much for Anarky in his first appearance, feeling that he's got a weak gimmick (the Anti-Batman aspect) and that he's not terribly distinguishable from Batman's usual nemesis, which isn't helped by the use of said nemesis's traits. However...
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Anarky's reception in his second episode fared quite a bit better than that in his first, due to him actually being portrayed as a competent schemer who is much different in motives and methods than The Joker. His Vocal Dissonance has also been praised.
  • Professor Pyg and Mister Toad were originally considered pretty poor villains by many people who originally saw the first episode. However, in their second appearance, a lot of people warmed up to them due to their amusing comedic dialogue.
  • The show as a whole became this for DC's collection of animated shows after it premiered. Prior to the airdate of its first episode, there was a lot of controversy surrounding the series and the overall fan reaction ranged from cautiously optimistic to outright hatred, with little outright positivity. After it finally aired, the show received generally positive reviews from fans and critics alike, who praised the dark tone, the characters (both familiar and obscure), the animation, and the strong focus on Batman as a detective in addition to Batman as a fighter. The appearance of an Adorkable pre-Batgirl Barbara Gordon and her obsession with Batman has quashed complaints about a lack of A-list sidekicks. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled before she could become Batgirl, although she did manage to become Oracle nevertheless.
• The Scrappy:
  • Harvey Dent, due to the overall differences between previous incarnations to the point he is near-unrecognizable, and for generally being a poorly written Hate Sink with little-to-no sympathetic qualities (something Two-Face incarnations tend to be praised for).
  • Sapphire Stagg is disliked by some for her own direct actions causing the Ship Sinking of her and Rex by first unable to love Rex past his transformation into Metamorpho in "Toxic," then Took a Level in Jerkass in "Monsters" by acting as the new Corrupt Corporate Executive of Stagg Industries and being a total Smug Snake Jerkass about it to a point even Batman forcibly make sure the Sapphire/Rex ship sinks after thinking Sapphire crosses the Moral Event Horizon and believe she should never again have Rex back in her life.
• Strawman Has a Point: Harvey Dent isn't going to win any sympathy points with his general demeanor or his questionable methods, but it gets a little hard to fault him for his dislike of Batman and Katana after they sedate him, kidnap him, tie him to a chair and put him directly in Anarky's line of fire, all for a very flimsy reason.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • A big point of criticism for fans of the comics, films and previous animated Batman shows is the lack of A-list villains and sidekicks that were omnipresent in said previous interpretations.
  • Anarky's characterization is one for fans of the comic who prefer his Anti-Villain/Anti-Hero portrayal and feel that the cartoon just makes him a Joker Expy.
  • Katana's costume being just a domino mask and Civvie Spandex rather than her more intricate outfits received a bit of this from fans who found the ensemble to be too boring or too similar to Catwoman from The Dark Knight Rises.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Magpie, the Corrupted Character Copy of Catwoman, only makes three speaking appearances, and vanishes from the show around the halfway point.
• Vindicated by History: While the show was mocked and seen as generally being of low quality when it first aired, post-cancellation has seen it become more respected as a show, especially once they started doing more well known Batman villains.
  • The inclusion of Katana is interesting. When the cartoon came out most people, especially those who don't read DC comics, had no clue who she was and that alienated many. As DC began pushing her in adaptations post-cancelation some fans wonder if the show came out a bit too early.
• The Woobie:
  • Bruce in "Secrets" when he looks at a Rorschach blot, has a brief PTSD flashback involving him kneeling between his dead parents, and then lies to Dr. Ravencroft that he only sees splashed ink on paper. Batman's quote in Toxic is another flash of this. You illustrate this better than anyone, Bruce...
  "There are two things everyone in life is powerless against: Love and revenge." - Batman
  • Tatsu. Oh Lord, Tatsu. She gave up literally everything she knew, betrayed both organizations she was a member of, faked her own death, and went into hiding simply because it was the right thing to do. Her clear sadness when mentioning her father's death invokes this too.
  • Alfred. His clear dedication and worry for Bruce as well as his helplessness in the face of him being in constant danger makes you really feel for the guy. The part where his leg is broken is also rather sad.
  • Magpie in spades. She was formerly a kleptomaniac named Margaret Sorrow. After being sent to prison, she voluntarily underwent a rehabilitation procedure that would cause her to no longer desire to engage in criminal activity. It appeared successful, but only succeeded in splitting her into two halves: a normal, seemingly well-adjusted girl named Cassie, and a violent, obsessive, sociopathic kleptomaniac known as Magpie. Ouch.
  • Humpty Dumpty. He just wanted to play with his numbers and his toys...
  • Poor Rex Mason/Metamorpho. Poor, poor Rex. His origin story has always been pretty sad, but the little touches in this version such as him being Driven to Suicide and failing make it even worse.
  • Man-Bat. Poor guy was just an honest, well-intentioned scientist trying to come up with a serum for medical purposes, only to have his research perverted by Pyg and Toad, who then used it to forcefully turn him into a bat creature. And as if this wasn't enough, they also used a Mind-Control Device to force him to do their dirty work.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Silver Monkey. Sure, he's kind of a dick, but it's hard not to sympathize with him when Lady Shiva completely unravels all of his plans and sucks out the soul of his assistant in front of him.
  • Dr. Ravencroft. She may be a deceitful liar, but she shows some honest remorse about Bruce Wayne's "death", and it's hard not to feel really sorry for her when her soul is sucked out.

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