When I was a kid, Batman was a more sociable superhero than he's become these days, so much so that he had a separate comic book, The Brave and the Bold, that featured his crime-fighting exploits alongside lesser lights in the DC Comics universe's roster of superheroes.

Cartoon Network (Teletoon in Canada) has resurrected the concept with Batman: The Brave and the Bold, which finds the Caped Crusader (he hasn't yet become the Dark Knight) battling evildoers alongside such supporting cast members as the Green Arrow, Plastic Man, Aquaman and the Red Tornado.

In the episode made available for review, Batman -- in his costume from the '60s -- teams up with the Blue Beetle, an obscure character who actually didn't begin life as a DC Comics hero.

They're hurled through a wormhole to the other side of the galaxy, where they must protect little cuddly puddles of protoplasm enslaved by an evil villain.

Battling aliens on distant planets really doesn't seem within Batman's skill set, but the show boasts a visual style that's crisp, clean, colourful and stylish -- far better-looking than Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The animation is serviceable.

And the show is mildly cheeky. The episode features a passing reference to The Aristocrats that kids hopefully won't get, and, in a prologue featuring Green Arrow, Batman, hovering precariously over a vat of acid, good-naturedly grouses to his colleague, "What is this, now? The fifth or sixth death trap I've been caught in because of you over the years?"

Batman: The Brave and the Bold is an agreeable throwback to a day when comics weren't as angst-ridden and brooding as they are today.

Younger kids and nostalgic parents will find it fun or at least painless entertainment.