Beware the Batman

Beware the Batman is an American animated television series based on the DC Comics superhero Batman. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment, the series premiered in the United States on Cartoon Network on July 13, 2013 as part of the DC Nation programming block, replacing Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

The series was pulled from Cartoon Network's schedule four months after its premiere, without official explanation. After being put on hiatus, the remaining episodes of the series began to air on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block, from July 27 to September 28, 2014, with a total of twenty-six episodes having aired altogether. The series then premiered in Canada on October 11, 2013, on Teletoon and was cancelled after its twenty-sixth episode.

Premise
In Gotham City during Bruce Wayne (voiced by Anthony Ruivivar)'s early years as Batman, following his initial period of battling organized crime. Throughout the series, he hones his combative skills with the assistance of his butler Alfred Pennyworth (voiced by JB Blanc), who introduces Bruce to his goddaughter Tatsu Yamashiro (Sumalee Montano), a martial artist and swordmistress hired to act as his bodyguard, as well as Batman's partner under the codename of Katana.

Characters
Crime-fighting vigilante Batman teams up with swordmistress Katana and his ex-secret agent butler Alfred Pennyworth to face the criminal underworld of Gotham, led by Anarky, Magpie, the League of Assassins (consisting of Ra's al Ghul, Lady Shiva, Silver Monkey, Cypher) Tobias Whale, Phosphorus Rex, Professor Pyg, Mister Toad, Key, Killer Croc, and Humpty Dumpty. In particular, Anarky was originally intended to be the main villain.

While the developers allowed license themselves to stylize the characters' appearances, the series' villains were particularly designed to be "over-the-top".

Development
After the previous Batman series, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, ended in November 2011, a new series featuring the DC Comics superhero immediately went into production, in order for Batman to return to a more "serious tone". With Batman receiving a new sidekick, Outsiders member Katana, executive producer Sam Register commented that "Katana is gonna be his new Robin, but not necessarily". The series was produced in 3D computer animation, similar to the animation style of the earlier DC series Green Lantern: The Animated Series.

In the wake of the 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting, which occurred during a screening of the Batman film The Dark Knight Rises, the series' content was altered to make the firearms depicted in the series look less realistic. In addition, initial announcements for the series were accompanied with promotional art unintended for public release, which depicted Alfred as a gun-toting butler fighting alongside Batman. Fans of the Batman mythos were upset by this, arguing against Alfred's participation in Batman's exploits and his use of deadly firearms as against Batman's principles. In response to fan criticism, series developer Glen Murakami acknowledged that the poster was an inaccurate representation of what the character's actual role would be; he elaborated that the poster was intended to be an action-themed shot that displayed the cast of characters, but felt that Alfred's portrayal had been misleadingly made more exciting. Murakami joked: "You can't have an action pose of a guy standing with a tray". Mitch Watson also noted the problem with Alfred fighting alongside Batman, as he would be recognized as Bruce Wayne's butler and would reveal the identity of Batman as a result. Regardless, both producers insisted that Alfred would remain true to his intended characterization in the series as Batman's mentor, who could potentially help Batman if an episode's plot called for it. Scott Thill, technology and pop culture commentator for Wired magazine, praised the producers' initial choice to debut the villain Anarky on television, claiming that the character was relevant following the rise of the Occupy movement and the hacktivist activities of Anonymous.

In promoting the series, Warner Bros. debuted a trailer a month prior to the series premiere, featuring action sequences from the first three episodes and highlighting Batman, Professor Pyg and Toad, Magpie and Anarky. On July 2, the opening title sequence was released to Entertainment Weekly, a week prior to the premiere. It depicted Batman, Alfred, Katana and the Batmobile in a stylized red background with stark red lighting effects, contrasted by dark shadows and silhouettes. The show's opening theme was composed by the rock band Dum Dum Girls while the background score was composed by Frederik Wiedmann.

Animation
The requirements of 3D animation at times necessitated that inanimate objects, such as ships and city streets, were built rather than drawn, which created a need for the completion of entire set designs. While this would increase production times, it would also allow animators to bring cinematic qualities of lighting and camera play to the series. Batman's utility belt was fully recreated from cardboard and worn by Murakami's design team in order to test how the belt would function while in motion. Watson said: "If you really built it, it would work". Batarangs were designed to flip-open and function when retrieved from the belt. The Batmobile was also subjected to scrutiny, as a "certain amount of weight" was added to it as it moved on city streets, out of concern that it would be unbelievable otherwise.

Cancellation
Three months after the series premiere, Beware the Batman was pulled from the Cartoon Network schedule and put on hiatus on October 23, 2013. Cartoon Network did not provide an official explanation behind the hiatus, leading fans to believe that the network had already cancelled the series. The network then moved the series to the Toonami programming block on its late-night Adult Swim block, whereupon Toonami first aired the series on May 11, 2014, during the early-morning time slots. After Cartoon Network declared the series a financial failure and decided to write it off alongside fellow Toonami series Sym-Bionic Titan (removing it from the network altogether), Toonami ran a marathon of the final seven unaired episodes of the series on September 28 to avoid abruptly ending the series' run.

Home media
On February 18, 2014, the first 13 episodes of the series were released on Blu-ray and DVD in a collection titled Beware The Batman: Season 1 Part 1 – Shadows of Gotham. The twelfth and thirteenth episodes had yet to air, despite being released on this collection. A second collection, titled Beware The Batman: Season 1 Part 2 – Dark Justice, was released on September 30 the same year, containing the remaining 13 episodes of the show's only season.

Adaptations
Writers Mike W. Barr (co-creator of the character Katana), Scott Beatty, Matt Manning and Ivan Cohen (who wrote the episode "Unique") and artists Luciano Vecchio and Dario Brizuela produced an original comic book set in the continuity of the television series.
 * DC Nation #2 (vol. 1) (2012-11-07)
 * Beware the Batman #1 (2013-10-23)
 * Beware the Batman #2 (2013-11-27)
 * Beware the Batman #3 (2013-12-31): "In The Mouth of the Whale!"
 * Beware the Batman #4 (2014-01-29): "Bat vs. Bat"
 * Beware the Batman #5 (2014-02-26): "Two Katanas"
 * Beware the Batman #6 (2014-03-26): "First-Person Shooter"
 * Beware the Batman (2015-01-21): includes issues #1–6, "Rough Seas" (from DC Nation Free Comic Book Day Super Sampler: Beware the Batman/Teen Titans Go! #1).

An online game titled Gotham Streets was posted on the Cartoon Network site in 2014.