Batman: Strange Days

Returning to the DC Animated Universe he helped build, Bruce Timm returns for a special DC Nation Short honoring Batman's 75th Anniversary. Written, designed, and storyboarded by Bruce Timm, the animated short allowed Timm to takes his original slender and retro designs and craft a period piece set in Batman's early days. The result is pretty damn terrific black-and-white short. Although I usually prefer a little more color in my Dark Knight, my only real complaint is that it is far too short.

Centered around Solomon Grundy/Frankenstein's Monster-style creature stealing a young woman for Hugo Strange's experiments, "Strange Days" features a period-appropriate Batplane and a costume-clad (no heavy armor plating here!) Batman using stealth, smoke, and the shadows to defeat his enemies. As DC Animation seems to have stalled completely after pulling all their original animated programming from the air (with the exception of Teen Titans Go!), Timm reminds us of what can be done with a character given the right creator's passion and talent. DC needs more, not less, Bruce Timm, but at least for a couple of minutes he reminded us of how great we had it for a little while and, maybe someday, could again.