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Batman: The Adventures Continue Season II just reinvented a one-note Batman: The Animated Series villain by giving him a much darker past.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Batman: The Adventures Continue Season II #3, on sale now from DC.
Over the course of its run, Batman: The Animated Series wasn’t afraid to venture into some particularly dark territory. Even so, there was still a line which the series couldn’t really cross. Yet in Batman: The Adventures Continue Season II #3, by Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, Rick Burchett, Monica Kubina and Josh Reed, an obscure character, the Jazzman, returns, crossing into darker and more twisted territory than before.
Jimmy “the Jazzman” Peake made his one and only appearance in the classic Batman: The Animated Series episode “I Am the Night.” In this episode, the Jazzman shot and nearly killed Commissioner Gordon for putting him in prison years before. The Jazzman later came to the hospital to finish Gordon off, before Batman arrived to stop him. From this one appearance, the Jazzman was established as a rather dangerous criminal, nearly killing a character as prominent as Gordon. The Jazzman was a particularly deadly villain due to the stakes he brought to the show. Yet the character couldn’t cross certain lines, since Batman: The Animated Series was still a show aimed at kids. In his latest appearance, in Batman: The Adventures Continue Season II #3, the Jazzman is given a much darker persona, making the criminal much deadlier than ever.
During this issue, Batman and Batgirl are searching for the Jazzman, so they can get information on Black Mask’s operation. When the Jazzman appears, he is presented in a much more disturbing light than before. The Jazzman is seen getting tattoos of musical tunes all over his body. These were tunes the Jazzman whistled right before he killed someone, signifying a different murder for each tune.
This dark and disturbing new fact confirms the Jazzman as a serial killer, something which could only be implied on Batman: The Animated Series. Now, the Jazzman is portrayed in a much deadlier light, with a motif similar to Victor Zsasz. Zsasz is notorious for cutting a different tally mark into his body for each new murder. While the Jazzman’s musical tattoos aren’t quite as dark, the idea is the same, turning him from a dangerous criminal to a deeply disturbed serial killer.
The Jazzman only gets creepier as the issue continues. Batgirl spends the majority of the story trying to escort the Jazzman into police custody, while the Huntress is hunting the Jazzman so she can kill him herself. Later on, it’s revealed that the Jazzman has ties to the Bertinelli family’s murder, explaining exactly why the Huntress wants to kill him. The most disturbing part of the Jazzman’s involvement is that he didn’t even kill the Bertinellis. Rather, he played a jaunty tune on the piano as Helena Bertinelli’s family was murdered in front of her. This is a fairly dark look at the Bertinelli family murder, not to mention the Jazzman’s role in the tragedy.
In Batman: The Animated Series, the Jazzman was merely a gangster, with vague notions of his crimes alluded to here and there. Now, however, the Jazzman is given more explicit crimes, such as murder and a twisted pleasure taken in the deaths of others. With fewer censors, Batman: The Adventures Continue Season II has cemented the Jazzman as a true monster with a series of awful crimes to his name. It’s true that the Jazzman almost killed Commissioner Gordon in Batman: The Animated Series, making him a horrible criminal already. Now, however, the Jazzman’s modus operandi is much clearer, firmly establishing the danger that he poses to others.
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