Gotham High

Grocer Man

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(I really have no idea where to put this.)

So a scrapped idea for a Batman cartoon just got released onto the internet. Called Gotham High, it would show a teenage Bruce Wayne going to high school with his future rogues gallery.

Here's a link.

http://jeffandceleste.blogspot.com/2011/01/gotham-high.html

As my opinion: I don't think so. I want to believe you can tell Batman stories without going with the dark and edgy take that's been the norm ever since Frank Millar. But just looking at the concept art, I don't see a revolutionary new take on Batman that bears telling. I see a high school fanfic. That sort of thing worked with X-Men Evolution because school is a pretty big part of X-Men. Batman, not so much. I could see it working as a TV special or maybe a miniseries, (possibly an episode of Brave and the Bold) but not as a full-fledged show. At least, not one that would last long. I know I'm going with the popular nerd opinion, but hey. I'm petty. (Though I read someone of Comics Alliance reading it as a the love child of Muppet Babies and Invader Zim. I would watch that.)

Some of the designs are pretty cool, though. I'd like to see these guys working on something else.
 
From the looks of that page, X-Men Evolution is a whole different story. It messed with the traditional ages and the concept of a mutant school, but was still a serious show that aimed to be like another Ultimization. Gotham High clearly would've been an outright spoof. The Joker, Freeze and Poison Ivy are already mutated. Two-Face is half-scarred as a teen. It's a joke show impossibly depicting adult characters as high school students, not a legitimate take on what their youth would've been like.

At least, that's what it looks like to me. Whether or not it would've been good.... who knows. The rest of the site seems pretty run-of-the-mill, though.
 
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why hasn't WB/DC made a smallville-esque (and i mean that in the most general sense) show about young Bruce Wayne's journey to become Batman? THAT is a show I want to watch.
 
why hasn't WB/DC made a smallville-esque (and i mean that in the most general sense) show about young Bruce Wayne's journey to become Batman? THAT is a show I want to watch.

That's exactly what the original idea for the show that became Smallville was. Of course, there's this possibility this would've happened:
Chris Sims and David Uzumeri said:
David: It's kind of weird, since the original plan for this show was that it was going to be the Young Bruce Wayne Adventures. And if they'd done that, we'd have this Bruce Wayne by now who'd fought the Joker, gotten his back broken by Bane, solved his parents' murder and turned in Joe Chill, saved Dick Grayson at a circus, had Dick Grayson grow up and go away, found a kid lifting tires off of his car and started hanging out with him, had him killed by the Joker, and then taken a dip in a Lazarus Pit before finally at the beginning of season ten someone goes "Hey, what if you dressed up as a bat?"

Chris: And in the final season, he'd meet the Bruce Wayne of Zur-En-Arrh.
 
It's more akin to Clone High (all of histories greatest figures going to school together) than X-Men Evolution

Clone High was a great show

I miss Clone High

I'm going to go watch Clone High, and so should all of you
 
As Fun as the art looks, i don't think the series would work, it being drop is probably a good thing.

A Teen High School Drama staring Batman? That's just wrong.

Harley and Ivy looked cute though.
 
Ech. We spend too much time being pretentious about the "themes" and "subtext" of superhero comics. It's Batman, not Ulysses. While it probably wouldn't be something I'd like to watch as an adult, it seems like a decent enough design for a pre-teen to young teen show.

Captain Canuck said:
why hasn't WB/DC made a smallville-esque (and i mean that in the most general sense) show about young Bruce Wayne's journey to become Batman? THAT is a show I want to watch.

Planet-Man said:
That's exactly what the original idea for the show that became Smallville was.

There was also apparently a treatment for a show called The Graysons about Dick before he becomes Robin. And that sounds way greater than Smallville or The Adventures of Young Batman to me.
 
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As Fun as the art looks, i don't think the series would work, it being drop is probably a good thing.

A Teen High School Drama staring Batman? That's just wrong.
Ech. We spend too much time being pretentious about the "themes" and "subtext" of superhero comics. It's Batman, not Ulysses. While it probably wouldn't be something I'd like to watch as an adult, it seems like a decent enough design for a pre-teen to young teen show.

Again, why is anyone assuming it would be a drama aimed at teens/pre-teens in the vein of XME? Does absolutely anything about those screencaps look like a serious take to you? I am positive(because of the reasons I posted earlier) that it's a spoof show, and we'd be as much in the age range as anyone for it.

It's more akin to Clone High (all of histories greatest figures going to school together) than X-Men Evolution

Exactly!

Zombipanda said:
There was also apparently a treatment for a show called The Graysons about Dick before he becomes Robin. And that sounds way greater than Smallville or The Adventures of Young Batman to me.

Although I personally disagree that a show about pre-Robin Dick Grayson would be anywhere near as good as shows about teen Clark Kent or Bruce Wayne(including the one we actually got about Clark) anyway, the actual pitch for The Graysons specifically sounded ridiculous. It was another CW series, produced by McG, where they changed his name to "DJ" to sound more hip and were vocally aiming to be the successor to Smallville, which at the time was at its focus-grouped, pandering, product-placement-filled worst.
 
Again, why is anyone assuming it would be a drama aimed at teens/pre-teens in the vein of XME? Does absolutely anything about those screencaps look like a serious take to you? I am positive(because of the reasons I posted earlier) that it's a spoof show, and we'd be as much in the age range as anyone for it.



Exactly!



Although I personally disagree that a show about pre-Robin Dick Grayson would be anywhere near as good as shows about teen Clark Kent or Bruce Wayne(including the one we actually got about Clark) anyway, the actual pitch for The Graysons specifically sounded ridiculous. It was another CW series, produced by McG, where they changed his name to "DJ" to sound more hip and were vocally aiming to be the successor to Smallville, which at the time was at its focus-grouped, pandering, product-placement-filled worst.

Since it's in high school, the targeted audience would obviously be teens/pre-teens.

There's also the fact that they're all teens dealing with teen crap.
Those over 19 probably wouldn't have been the shows targeted audience.

It's moot anyway, since it's not going to happen anyway.
 
I think the idea of GOTHAM HIGH is really stupid. The problem is that a young Bruce Wayne can't be Batman in the way a young Clark Kent or Peter Parker can be Superman or Spider-Man. The core concept of a 'young Batman' kinda doesn't work (not because of continuity, mind you).

But if GOTHAM HIGH was about Robin and Batgirl, it would make ten times more sense. But then you'd lose the rogues gallery. (Joker and Harley's kid? Blech.)

Nonetheless, what would be cool about a GOTHAM HIGH is the rogues gallery as people in the class. It's actually kind of a cool idea to build a class around these characters in high school setting precisely because Batman doesn't work in such a setting. But it only really works if they're based on those characters and not 'those characters as kids'.
 
This makes me want Harley and Ivy more.

And I think this would be hilarious, like Clone High. Joker and Bruce having to work on a Science project! Batgirl and Catwoman having to work together on an oral presentation! And Penguin trying out for the football team to be one of the cool kids!

AWESOME!
 
This makes me want Harley and Ivy more.

And I think this would be hilarious, like Clone High. Joker and Bruce having to work on a Science project! Batgirl and Catwoman having to work together on an oral presentation! And Penguin trying out for the football team to be one of the cool kids!

AWESOME!

I agree, it would be hilarious.
 
Since it's in high school, the targeted audience would obviously be teens/pre-teens.

Baffling.

I think the idea of GOTHAM HIGH is really stupid. The problem is that a young Bruce Wayne can't be Batman in the way a young Clark Kent or Peter Parker can be Superman or Spider-Man. The core concept of a 'young Batman' kinda doesn't work (not because of continuity, mind you).

Okay, can I just outright ask: What are the actual reasons that any of you are assuming this would be a serious show, with teen drama and angst and things just not working, instead of a tongue-in-cheek spoof? I gave the reasons why it looks like that to me.

And I think this would be hilarious, like Clone High. Joker and Bruce having to work on a Science project! Batgirl and Catwoman having to work together on an oral presentation! And Penguin trying out for the football team to be one of the cool kids!

An opinion that actually lines up with the pictures shown, and doesn't just jump to the conclusion that a cartoon about all the Batman villains going to high school together with their adult powers, makeup and transformations intact was going to be a failed attempt at serious angsty drama for 13-year-olds to relate to?

:shock:
 
Okay, can I just outright ask: What are the actual reasons that any of you are assuming this would be a serious show, with teen drama and angst and things just not working, instead of a tongue-in-cheek spoof? I gave the reasons why it looks like that to me.

Planet-man, you just lumped my post, unconsidered, in with other people's comments and are reacting to an imagined perspective I don't have. I never said that GOTHAM HIGH would have been a serious teen drama. I assumed such a show would be akin to a Spidey, Buffy, or James Bond Jr cartoon, and gave no indication to the contrary.
 
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Planet-man, you just lumped my post, unconsidered, in with other people's comments and are reacting to an imagined perspective I don't have. I never said that GOTHAM HIGH would have been a serious teen drama. I assumed such a show would be akin to a Spidey, Buffy, or James Bond Jr cartoon, and gave no indication to the contrary.

No, I assumed that is what you were saying, but Spidey and Buffy are still fairly serious dramas most of the time(just not automatically targeted at teens like Venom Melendez is saying, but that's a different part of the issue). Compare those two series to Clone High or what Houde's describing. Yes, as you said, a high school era Bruce Wayne wouldn't work in a Buffy-type show, but on a wacky spoof show it's a moot point, the same way it was for Clone High's high school era Gandhi. Anything works.
 
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Phew. Thanks for telling me what I meant. I thought I had a completely different opinion until you told me what it was. Kinda scary there for a minute.
 
When me and Planet-Man agree, Bass changes his mind.

That's the power of August 28th my friends.

Now imagine an episode where the highschoolers get followed by middle schoolers for a week, Batman with Dick Grayson, Barbara (who will go by her middle name, cause Barbara is too old of a name for a high schooler) is followed around by Stephanie Brown, Catwoman with Cassie Cain, so on and so forth!
 
I daydreamed an idea like this for a Justice League cartoon, once. The exact same premise, except it's the JLA, all going to the same high school.

This is an interesting idea, but overall I don't think I'd watch it. The pastiche nature of it would just get frustrating after a while and I'd want to watch a real Batman show.
 

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