Hi, my name is Frank and I’d like to talk about pop culture, cartoons, and Batman. A thread.
Batman is an amazing character. He is many things to many people. He can be funny, scary, grim, hopeful, melancholic, foolhardy, level-headed, rebellious, totalitarian, etc. etc.
Since the early 90s, I’m pretty sure there hasn’t been a year without a Batman in pop culture. And, for the most part, they’ve been pretty different. 
Even in the comics, he has multiple epithets based on the many things that he can be. (The Dark Knight, The Caped Crusader, The World’s Greatest Detective, etc.)
The many different things that Batman can be has become so apparent that “exploring different kinds of Batman” has become a staple of the different kinds of Batman cartoons.
Heck, that’s pretty much true of most comic characters these days. If the character is strong, they can withstand reinvention in different ways and still feel like the characters.
Which brings me to this piece, which we talked about a lot when developing DuckTales.
Donald’s been around since before we were born and he’ll be around long after we’re gone. He’s a crank, a hero, an adventurer, a parent, a prankster, a selfish villain, an everyman, etc. dependent on who you talk to.
That was how we contextualized any changes to the characters/storytelling we explored. These aren’t set-in-stone pop icons, they’re amazing characters with a history of reinvention that are fundamentally strong enough to shine through, regardless of context.
Carl Barks himself took a one-dimensional Mickey Mouse animated short side character, sent him off to look for pirate treasure, and recontextualized his whole world. Duckburg is built on a foundation of reinvention.
Do I like every Batman? No, of course not. But, as long as the core of the character (not the style or tone or genre or redesign or attitude) is present, I still recognize him as Batman no matter how he changes.
I get the concern with revamps of DuckTales and Thundercats and other properties that aren’t CONSISTENTLY revamped because you’re not used to it. (I’m a little baffled by people complaining about the new Turtles, as we get a new take on those guys every three years.)
For the record, I don’t know if the new Thundercats is good. It sure looks fun and that intro sequence is rad (I know a thing or two about the stress of rebooting legendary intro sequences).
But fans should be excited to see if the characters they love are strong enough to withstand reinvention. Is Lion-O the next Sherlock Holmes? Or Hamlet?
All this is to say, if you believe a character you love is a strong enough character, have faith that they can survive a little exploration and reinvention. If they only work in one very specific context, it’s possible they weren’t that great to begin with.
No one show/creator should be able to completely destroy a great character for all time.
All that said, I’m looking forward to turning Chip and Dale into squirrels. #ChildhoodRuinationAchieved
