Batman's had a pretty spectacular career, but even the Caped Crusader has a few moments he'd like to forget. Chief among them would probably be his first live-action excursion, a serial released in 1943 that featured Bats squaring off against a mad Japanese scientist/horrible stereotype. So if you want to check out the adventures of Racist Batman, this week's home video releases is happy to oblige.


• Gotham City Serials: Batman/Batman & Robin


Two more things about these serials: 1) They're both 15 chapters each, and are more than four hours long. 2) Even the narrator in the first serial is racist. From Wikipedia:

Early narration in the first chapter (minute 9:20-9:30), referencing the U.S. government policy of Japanese American internment to explain the abandoned neighborhood of Daka's headquarters, sets the racial tone for the serial: "This was part of a foreign land, transplanted bodily to America and known as little Tokyo. Since a wise government rounded up the shifty-eyed Japs, it has become virtually a ghost street."

Holy crap.

• About Time


The director of Love Actually brings this romantic comedy about a young man who discovers he can travel through time and uses it mostly to hook up with a girl.

• Escape Plan


Braves heroes try to lock up Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in a futuristic, inescapable prison before they have a chance to make The Expendables 3.

• The White Queen: Season One


In the 15th century, three ruthless women play the game of thrones during England's "War of the Roses," and they play dirty in this Starz series.

• Justice League: War


Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and other DC heroes come together for the first time to battle an interstellar invasion by Darkseid.

• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Season Three


Thirteen episodes of ponies ponying around, presumably.

• Hawking


This PBS documentary chronicles the life, the work, and the discoveries of beyond brilliant physicist Stephen Hawking, as told in his own words.

• Fruits Basket: The Complete Series


An extremely charming, bizarrely named shojo anime series about a girl who meets a family whose members all turn into the animals of the Chinese zodiac when touched by a member of the opposite sex.

• The Tick: The Complete Series


Get the complete series of the great, late live-action superhero comedy for less than $10. Truly the world is a poorer place for not having Batmanuel in it. And at least he wasn't racist…