Review: Superman Vs. The Elite

You don't want to see what happens when push comes to shove with Superman.

So I did a quick perusal of my old posts and realized I haven’t done a review of Superman Vs. The Elite and figured I should rectify that since I’m on a DC kick. Superman Vs. The Elite is an animated film from 2012. It’s an adaptation of the Superman story “What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice, & The American Way” from 2001. In it, Superman meets and initially befriends a new group of metahumans that want to be heroes. He does his best to mentor the group, who dub themselves the Elite, but they quickly develop a “Might makes right” mentality and attempt to use their powers to overthrow governments. This leads to an all out brawl between Superman and the Elite. Let’s see how that goes, shall we? This movie also featured the return of George Newbern as Clark Kent/Superman, reprising the role from his time on Justice League, Justice League: Unlimited, and Static Shock. It’s nice to get an old friend back in the saddle.

 

The film opens with a barrage of news stories about the troubles this DC Earth is currently dealing with, Dr. Light has escaped prison and is recking havoc, there’s a military skirmish between Bialya and Bekulistan, and a talking head shouting about how super criminals shouldn’t get a three strikes. There is a note about Superman coming in to save the day but that doesn’t stop all the chaos. The man watching the videos, Manchester Black claps his hands together, turning off the screens before saying it’s “time to take your medicine, love.”

 

We cut to a simplified cartoon within a cartoon of Superman stopping two bank robbers. It’s like a very cheesy 50s style bit of Superman stopping crime with plenty of puns. We pull out to Lois and Clark watching the short on a tv screen and Lois saying she didn’t think the S on his chest meant Silly. Clark defends the short, saying that the producers said it would be inspiring. And as he anticipates his other half’s other complains, quickly rattles off the proceeds are going to charity, he’s got an accountant making sure that happens and they’ve got an iron clad contract. She asks if he got creative input, to which he repeats the proceeds to go charity. Lois reminds him he needs to protect his S as everyone is always watching Superman. He makes a crack about how they aren’t always watching and goes in for a kiss, but they’re moment is interrupted by an explosion. A man comes wandering towards them before falling to dust in Clark’s arms. It turns out it’s the Atomic Skull disintegrating people. Clark tells Lois to get somewhere safe and suits up.

 

Superman tackles Atomic Skull and throws him around, slamming him into buildings before they land on a roof. Superman notes that Atomic Skull has gotten bigger. Skull claims the gene bomb that went off to create him is still going off, increasing his size. They fight for a bit before slamming into the pavement again, Atomic Skull telling Superman he killed several people to draw Superman out. Skull blasts a powerline in half. Superman catches it and starts whaling on him. He knocks Atomic Skull into the air and then into a pond, evaporating the pond but also disabling Skull. Superman clearly is tempted to finish him off, he actively holds himself back from giving him one more punch before grabbing the Skull. Lois calls in to Perry to tell him he’ll have a front-page story in 15 minutes and promises she’ll spell check it. Superman flies off with the Atomic Skull.

 

We cut to the evening at the Metropolis bay where four beings fly in. They are Manchester Black, a cockney Brit with a Union Jack tattooed on his chest; Nathan Jones aka Coldcast, a large Black man with chains on both wrists; the Hat, an Asian magician that conjures things, mostly demons and booze, from his hat, and Pamela aka Menagerie a woman covered in snakes like aliens. The group is looking for Superman, Manchester Black volunteers to seek him out.

 

At the UN Superman is called to justify his actions in capturing the Atomic Skull. Professor Efrain Baxter points out that this costs millions in property damage and cost dozens of lives to apprehend this repeat offender. Superman simply says he’s not judge nor jury and is most certainly not the executioner. He claims his powers don’t put him above the law so he must follow it. Baxter asks why, with his power, Superman does not just fix the world. Before adding that he’s playing devil’s advocate and is in fact a big fan, showing off a Superman watch much to his son, Terrance’s dismay. Superman claims that the world isn’t broken, that he believes that humanity is fundamentally good and that he’s just trying to help people reach their potential. His speech is being watched by Manchester in the rafters. The speech is interrupted by the Bialya and Bekulistan ambassadors screaming at each other for violating their peace treaty. Baxter repeats the line about unlimited potential for good, and Superman points out that Good isn’t perfect before flying off to handle this.

 

As he flies, we get a news report about the two countries being at war for some time, and that both sides have access to highly advanced weapons. As Superman arrives, a giant armored bug monster rises up, a product of the Bekulitan bioweapons program. It seems to be bullet proof and it fires basts from cannons on it’s back. Before Superman can attack, it destroys several tanks. As Superman watches, Manchester Black’s team attack, Coldcast distracts the thing with energy blasts before Menagerie flies in, drops her parasitic snakes onto the creature and splits it in half. Unfortunately, this just makes two of them. Superman flies in and beats one down before being blasted. He starts beating on the other one only to be attacked by the firsts. Manchester Black reveals himself, telepathically telling Superman that the creature doesn’t have a brain or he’d have made it rip itself to pieces already. He asks Superman to take off the kid gloves and take this monster down. Superman uses his X-Ray vision to confirm the creature is hollow inside and then attacks. He freezes it with super breath and then smashes down into it, blowing it to dust. Manchester Black compliments him but says that he could use a smidge more flare. Flare being demonstrated by the Hat, who uses a summoned dragon to eat the other monster before returning the dragon into a gold statue and dropping it into his hat. The team gathers and Superman introduces himself, thanking them for their help but also advising they do a better job checking for collateral damage next time. They’re all a little star struck by Superman, Manchester Black then teleports them away before they say something that embarrasses them.

 

The next day, Perry White calls in all his reporters to figure out who these new metahumans are, proclaiming this to be the biggest story since Brainiac ate Boston. Lois asks Clark if she’ll get the scoop on the newbies, but Clark tells her only if she can type 5000 words minute as he finishes up his scoop on the group. Lois threatens to use her feminine wiles on him but he’s already hit send. Lois tells him that for someone that plays fair, he REALLY sucks sometimes. Perry congradulates Clark on his info, believing Clark is getting his source from Twitter of all things. Perry tells Clark to book a flight wherever he needs to go to get this scoop, and to bring Lois if she’s still talking to him. Lois advises him to get used to cold showers for a while. Jimmy Olsen comes over and asks if they’re the real deal. Clark says Superman thinks they might be, but something is a bit off. Lois comes back over to tell them some lady in England is posting online that she knows all about these guys.

 

Superman and Lois fly to England. He apologizes that there’s not an inflight movie and Lois tells him not to be cute. Once they land it’s every report for themselves, Clark adding “unless I find something juicy,” and Lois congratulates him on learning. In England we meet Mrs. Munch, an old cat lady that claims to have helped raise Manchester Black, though she doesn’t drop the name, and says he was a rascal but a good boy. She claims she’ll tell anyone his name if they’re willing to pay for the exclusive. Lois isn’t impressed, saying if Munch knows anything, then Lois is the Martian Manhunter. She tells Clark she’s going to go knock on door and that he should call her if he finds anything. Once alone, Manchester Black appears, saying Lois is quite the looker. He says that his team has a teleporter pod, to explain his sudden appearance. He asks if Superman is stalking him or just checking out Jolly ol’ England. Superman says he didn’t get his cell earlier and he had to start somewhere. Manchester compliments his detective work on tracking the man with the Union Jack tattooed on his chest to England. They formally introduce themselves to each other, Manchester saying he’s an aspiring do-gooder. The two supers fly off to talk.

 

At Striker’s Island, we see how Atomic Skull is being held. He’s hooked up to a generator and his excess power is being syphoned away to the Metropolis power grid. Atomic Skull complains that this is inhumane, but the guard doesn’t seem to care the multiple murderer is uncomfortable.

 

Superman and Manchester meet up with his team outside of town. They introduce themselves, Menagerie hitting on him hard. Superman is excited to meet them and thanks for their help in Biyalia, but says they need to talk. Manchester offers to give Superman the quick version of their origins via telepathy. Superman is apprehensive about this, but Manchester promises that this is a low-level psychic thing, like HD TV in his head, and that he promises not to try to reach deeper to the more guarded parts of Superman’s brain. He agrees.  Manchester telepathically shows Superman his origin, how he lived with his sister and his alcoholic father as a boy. The present Manchester explains that he was the youngest son of five boys and that he was left to look after himself and his baby sister after his mom died birthing her. They went out one day and we see that Chester and Vera ran pickpocket scams to scrape by, older Manchester explaining that their four older brothers ended up dead or in jail, so he worked hard to look after her. One day while counting their take, Manchester’s powers started kicking in and gave him a debilitating headache on the day when cops finally tracked them down. Vera tried to protect Chester but is accidentally thrown in front of a moving train in the scuffle, Manchester’s powers kicked in then and he stopped the train with a mental blast. He then stops the telepathic show and just says that after that he was recruited by the British government as a super human asset. He says he met his team during a disenfranchising tour in Africa and they went freelance. Superman asks if her sister made it, Manchester says that they don’t all get happy endings right before dropping to his knees to telepathic screams.

 

We jump over to a train tunnel where a pair of trains were trapped in said tunnels by some terrorists. The trains are stuck and water is rushing in. Superman and the team arrive to help. They’ve got limited time to work with and unfortunately the team’s teleporter is back at the base. Superman says that this’ll be a test of their imagination. Superman coordinates the group to help him save the passengers.  Firsts, he flies out into the bay and drills his way down into the sea bed and then into the tunnel. Using his strength plus Manchester’s telekinesis they lift the whole section of tunnel out from the water. Hat summons a beast to freeze the water below the tunnel to give them some place to put it down. Chester and Superman lower the tunnel down and Superman congradulates him. Coldcast and Menagerie then return with the two terrorists. Manchester lifts them up telekinetically and demands to know why they did it. When they don’t talk he goes full power on them, making their eyes and ears bleed. He gets they’re Bekulitani, and they attacked to punish England for supporting Biyalia before Superman stops him. Manchester wants to punish them, and Superman agrees but not like that. New copters arrive and Superman and Manchester agree to discuss the philosophy here over a drink later. Menagerie then grabs Superman and forces a kiss on him.

 

Later, after watching that kiss on the news, Lois asks him if it’s the trashy outfit or if she needs to start glueing reptiles on her. Clark tells her it was just the adrenaline thing. He claims the whole group is new and excitable. Lois tells him it better stay one sided excitable and notes her man isn’t 100% on board with the new metas. She notes he’s in the minority as the internet love Manchester Black and co. Clark says they didn’t see him almost lobotomize to Terrorists and Lois says that would have sealed the deal. Clark seems shocked by this but Lois points out that some people think terrorists need to be punished slowly and painfully. Lois decides to change the subject and says her source at the London Mirror couldn’t confirm anything of Black’s story, there’s no birth or death certificate for a Vera Black either. Their research is interrupted by Manchester taking over all the TV and computer screens globally to introduce his team, the Elite to the world. He basically promises that he’ll kill anyone that disturbs the peace, doesn’t matter who they are, where they’re from or how powerful them might be.  As the video ends everyone cheers, including the young Baxter. Clark is clearly disturbed by this, switching into his Superman gear and telling Lois to get her coat.

 

At their lair, Manchester says that should get folks talking. It’s then revealed that his team got the terrorists from the other end of the channel as well and they’re not going to be tortured for info. Menagerie has her parasites go into the goons ears to make them talk. Gross.

 

Lois and Clark arrive at the Fortress of Solitude. Clark is doing research on how the world is reacting to the Elite, his army of robots helping him along. One robot tells him that the Elite don’t seem to be on earth, and that they sent their message through a dimensional tunnel. The robot goes on to say that they’re processing 3.5 million hits on the Elite, but none of those hits are informational. Clark is frustrated by the lack of info on the Elite and their huge support. Lois puts a hand on his shoulder, and he asks if “the world has moved on. To a place that I can’t follow.” One of the robots gets a hit on the Elite’s teleporter over Biyalia. Superman flies off, and Lois asks which of these robots will fly her back to England.

 

As Superman flies, we see Professor Baxter debating the talking head from before. Baxter is apprehensive about the Elite, reminding everyone that Might Makes Right has never been a good or just philosophy. Baxter insists that the Elite will ignore international law and what happens when they turn their philosophy on him. The talking head then says the stupid thing ‘I’m American, we’re the good guys.’ 

 

Superman reaches Biyalia but is hit by a huge energy blast knocking him to the ground. Bekulitani soldiers arrive, intent on killing him, but they’re all attacked by the Elite, who murder them without remorse or pity. After the fighting, Manchester Black lands in front of Superman and tells him not to worry before he passes out.

 

Superman wakes up in the Elite’s base. Coldcast explains that he was on a solar energy drip to restore his strength. His mind will be a bit foggy for a while, though, as he was hit by Coldcast’s neutrino Pulse, Manchester says it’s like an EMP for organics. He says it’s a miracle Superman stayed conscious. Manchester Black takes Superman on a tour. Their base is the largest silicon-based colony of bacteria in their universe, capable of teleporting them and jumping between dimensions at a will. He calls her Bonnie. He says that they thought it might have the capacity to feel so they jettisoned that part of Bonnie’s being ages ago. Superman starts yelling at Manchester for killing those soldiers. He says that someone had to do it. Superman insists they aren’t above the law, they need to how others that they can be better. But Manchester thinks they can’t. He shows Superman a video feed of all the misery and violence going on right now. Superman insists that they can’t throw morality into the garbage. Manchester thinks Superman is so high and mighty because he doesn’t understand fear. He claims humans do and that they love the Elite for taking out the trash. Superman insists it can’t be like this. Manchester drops him off at a car dealership advertising Super Sale with his image.

 

Back in London, Lois is escorted off the property of MI5, who tell her they won’t confirm or deny Manchester Black’s history with them. She’s met by a woman in a black coat in an alley. This is Vera Black. She tells Lois that as far as MI5 is concerned there is no Manchester Black. Sher offers Lois a USB drive and says the world needs to know what her brother is. She says that Manchester wasn’t the only one who went to work for the government and got their identity wiped. Lois asks  why, and Vera tells her it’s because he’s angry and misguided but he saved her life, so she wants t save his if she can. A Superbot lands and asks to take Lois back to Metropolis.

 

At Striker’s island, there’s a power surge and Atomic Skull is able to escape his cell.

 

We cut over to the Kent farm where Clark is having pie with his dad. Pa Kent says that there’s been a lot of talk, none of it good, and how he had to slap a neighbor for saying Superman looked like a fool. Clark is disappointed to hear even Smallville is pro Elite. Jonathan says that the loud, stupid and angry of them are. Clark doesn’t’ think it’s that simple. He’s worried he doesn’t make people feel safe anymore. Jonathan says that when people are scared, they have a tendency to hop on a bandwagon before they see who is driving it. When they wise up, Superman will be there to lead by example, and he’s sure they will. Plus, Jonathan Kent is certain his boy can kick their asses to kingdom come if it comes to it. Clark gets a call from Lois ordering him home immediately.

 

Skull is laying waste to Metropolis, murdering dozens with his blasts. He throws a cop car and nearly crushes Lois and Jimmy. Manchester catches it and his team agrees to show up Superman on his home turf.  The Baxter’s get the message the Elite are in town and Terrance runs to see them. Atomic Skull isn’t impressed, and he lays the smackdown on the Elite. He’s too powerful for any of them beside Manchester to handle. Superman rushes in and tells Manchester to throw up a shield. He contains their energy for a bit before being blown back. Atomic Skull says that his rest at Strikers seems to have done him some good before launching Superman into the air. Manchester holds him off long enough for Superman to return and knock him around, but Atomic Skull unleashes a blast that kills Efrain Baxter. Superman makes the Elite help him, the group holding off Skull long enough for Coldcast to get in close and absorb most of Atomic Skull’s power. Manchester prepares to execute Skull. Superman tries to convince him to let him take Skull back to prison, again saying they’re not above the law. Terrance Baxter and the crowd all chant for Skull to be executed and Manchester blows his skull off. Superman tackles Manchester Black but he’ too slow. Manchester and his team teleport away and Superman covers Atomic Skull with his cape.

 

Elite fever seems to sweep the world. Metropolitans even seem to be siding with the group, thinking their actions permanently stop villains that just repeat their offenses with how Superman does it. At the Fortress of Solitude, Superman sulks. Lois calls him, telling him to pick up or she’ll kick his butt when he gets home. She tells him she’d been able to go through the files on the Elite that Vera gave her. Turns out, Manchester Black gave his father a stroke shortly after his powers kicked in and when he stopped the train to save Vera, the crash killed a dozen people. He asks if the Planet is going to run the story, but she says Perry was stopped by British intelligence. They don’t want to admit they took an uncontrollable teenager and made him a weapon. She doesn’t go into the other members rap sheets but say they have criminal records a mile long. The Elite teleport in then, Manchester saying his sister has become quite the establishment bitch. Superman tells them to surrender now and face judgement, but Manchester tells him to stop as there’s no “or” in this discussion. He believes that Superman doesn’t have it in him to do to them what they’ll do to him. He tells Superman that he can keep doing the bank robbers, mad scientist and other weirdos, but ‘fixing the world’ is the Elite’s job now. He says they’re starting tomorrow in Bialya. They teleport away before Superman can stop them.

 

The next day, an airstrike almost occurs on Bekulistan. But Superman races in and stops it, forcibly ejecting pilots from their planes and using heat vision against their missiles. Once the planes are stopped, Superman declares the fighting is over without a single death. Manchester Black and Hat arrive to inform him they’ve slaughtered the Bialyan and Bekulistan leaders. Manchester claims he read their minds and knew neither side was going to blink until this region was turned to glass. Superman has had enough of this and takes a swing at Manchester while the world watches. Manchester puts up a barrier but Superman bowls through it and knocks him to the ground. The rest of the Elite grab him, but Manchester tells them to stop. Manchester tells him next week the world will forget this war, but they won’t forget Superman taking a swing at him. He promises they’ll take Superman down tomorrow.

 

That night, Lois asks when it’ll happen. Clark guesses dawn. Lois is terrified for Clark, saying that she’s scared they’ll beat him. They’re strong and they’re willing to do what Superman won’t. Superman tells her he heard a child say they wanted to join the Elite someday because it’d be fun to kill bad guys. He feels he has to show them another way. They kiss, but the next morning Lois wakes up on the couch to find him already gone. He left her a note.

 

Superman meets with the Elite, they fly in with Bonnie. From the outside she looks like a giant krill. They want to get the fight started but Superman ask they take the fight somewhere else. Manchester agrees but says they’ll broadcast the fight to interested parties. They teleport to the moon, Bonnie making oxygen for the human metas. Superman tries one more time to get them to stand-down, but they refuses. Manchester hits him with a huge telekinetic blast. He then addresses the world, saying that starting today, rule one is he who has power makes the rules. Rule two, tough love is for losers. The Elite lay the smack down on Superman, Coldcast beating Superman badly with fist and energy blasts, Hat hitting him with magic, and Menagerie chomping him with her parasites. Manchester promises that if any of Superman’s friends try to avenge him, they’re next. To which I say, bro, Batman has a dozen strategies to beat you already and at least four of them are variations of “get (blank) to kick their asses.” Superman has a LOT of friends. Manchester hits him with a psychic blast that induces a seizure. He says that he can’t read Superman’s mind but he can damage the structure of his brain. Manchester forms a barrier and then has Coldcast unleash enough energy you could see it from space. The watching public, including Lois, are shocked that Superman was apparently killed, only a bit of his cape left. We see Clark’s note at this point “Believe, always believe.” Manchester Black starts to gloat, but then they all hear Superman say that he finally gets it. He’s decided to treat them like the world wants him to.

 

He starts with Menagerie. He hits her with a dart full of poison, it’s so toxic her parasitic aliens start fleeing her body in mass. And she dies. Manchester tells Coldcast to basically nuke the moon, but he says he’s out of power after the last blast, they need to fall back and get Menagerie to sick bay. Superman then hits them with a twister of moon rock, saying he’s going to be the one to put the animals down. One of the UN workers asks if that’s really Superman, and another says not anymore. Menagerie is pulled up in the twister. Hat goes to fight him, thinking his magic gives him an advantage… but he forgot about basic anatomy. The force of Superman’s twister is so great it sucks the air out of his lungs, making him pass out. Coldcast tells Manchester to find his mind and blast it. Manchester is freaking out a little, realizing that Superman has been playing them since the beginning. He thought this through and figured out how to take them out. He has Bonnie drop them off in Metropolis.

 

Manchester is certain that Superman won’t do anything with civilians around them. He tells Bonnie to prepare to teleport again, when he see Superman’s S he’s going to flatten the city. Lois, meanwhile, is running to the fight. Superman flies in like a bullet and grabs Coldcast before anyone could react. Superman returns, causing a sonic boom that destroys the streets and flings cars around. Manchester demands to know what happened to Coldcast and Superman says he went into orbit at Mach 7. Superman lands, his face bloodied, one eye completely red, and looking deranged. Manchester starts throwing debris at Superman, he easily dodges. He gets in close and swings at Manchester, Manchester throws up a barrier but Superman punches through it, shouting he finally bought what Manchester’s been selling. He tries to crush Superman in a ball of debris but Superman breaks through. The shock waves of their fight cause concrete and cars to fly about, Terrence Baxter sees a car land on Lois. Manchester unleashes a huge blast of energy, but Superman barely reacts. Superman asks him how it feels to watch his dreams die. He hits Superman with a huge blast, knocking him back.  Superman’s eyes start glowing. Manchester gloats that Superman can barely stand, so he can’t have the power to melt his face. Superman tells him he’s not aiming for his face. We get an X-ray flash into Manchester’s skull and suddenly he can’t use his powers anymore. Superman tells him he used heat vision focused through Manchester’s pupil to cut away the part of his brain that he’d detected was abnormal. Instant lobotomy. Superman starts slapping him about, just to show how weak he is now. Manchester falls to his knees, sobbing, and says that Superman doesn’t do this. Superman says he does now. Terrance runs up and tries to talk Superman down. He says that Superman taught them that there's a better way than just killing. Manchester, wanting to get the final word in, says the world saw Superman break, that he knows better and still slaughtered his team, he’s a hypocrite. Superman then gives a speech about how they let fear guide them to the easy, unhelpful way. Superman then reveals that he’s not like them. It’s revealed this was all largely an act. His army of Super droids protected people from the debris and made sure no one got hurt during his big display. He says he’ll never put civilians in harms way or kill. And in flashbacks it’s revealed how his robots grabbed Hat, Menagerie and Coldcast. He says they’re fine and are being stripped of their powers in preparation to be sent to a supermax prison. He says he had to let the fight go on for a bit to make sure everyone else was taken care of. He then reveals that he got Bonny to betray Black by having his robots promise to take her home when this was all done. Manchester says that Superman is living in a dream world if he thinks he’ll go to jail and rot. Superman tells him dreams are good, they lift us up, and that he’ll not stop fighting until his dream of everyone living in peace is reality. He meets with Lois, who tells him if he does something like that again she’ll kill him and if he ever did that again he’d let her. They fly off and share a kiss as things wrap up.

 

I said before that DC’s animated movies rarely miss and Superman Vs The Elite is no exception. The fighting was great, but the ethical quandary was better. I love how that most of this movie is Superman struggling with the ethics of the might makes right philosophy, and asking if the world has moved towards that, away from him. Superman, unless we’re dealing with an evil version, is the model of morality, justice and ethics, so him truly wrestling with the idea of if his methods work anymore is fascinating. It also helps that one of George Newbern’s big roles was as the English voice of Sephiroth from Final Fantasy series. He can really sell deranged demi-god since he has had so much practice. If you don’t recognize the name, he’s the dude with the long silver hair and the like eleven-foot-long sword. Robin Atkins Downes is also great at Manchester Black. He has a smugness and confidence in him that’s hard to fake, even if his cockney accent made some of his lines hard from my Yankee ears to discern. Superman snapping is one of the most memorable moments of any DC project, if only because it highlights just how much this man is holding back to stick to his ideals. He beat the Elite in under ten minutes, and that was still him not fighting at his maximum. I also loved seeing the world react to Superman losing it. While they’d been so gung-ho for the Elite to do what they do, there’s just something… wrong about seeing Superman on the warpath. You feel like you failed him somehow and now he’s responding to you like you want. It’s just unsettling. So glad that it was just to prove a point. So yeah, loved this movie. Have a good night.

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Review: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

The Angel of Death comes for the wicked of Gotham.

Looking through my old post I realized that I’ve never done Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, and that feels like a major oversight to me. An oversight I shall now correct.

 

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is a 1993 animated film set in the same universe as Batman: The Animated Series. The film is essentially the animated series take on Batman: Year One, covering the first year that Bruce returned to Gotham and began cobbling together his Batman identity. Well, the movie is half that, half Batman in the present dealing with a new original villain, The Phantasm, going around and murdering members of Gotham’s organized Crime families. The two plots are intertwined in many ways.  It stars the late, great Kevin Conroy (1955-2022) as Batman, Mark Hamill as the Joker, Stacy Keach as the Phantasm, Abe Vigoda (1921-2016) as Salvatore Valestra, and Dana Delany as Audrey Beuamont, a woman from Bruce’s past. Fun fact about her, she must have impressed someone in the casting department as she’d go onto play Lois Lane in Superman: The Animated Series three years later. Enough behind the scenes stuff, let’s get to it.

 

The film opens with a 3d render of the Gotham City skyline with I believe opera music played behind it. We then shift to the Shady Lady Casino where a group of mobsters are discussing counterfeit bills. The mobster in charge, Chuckie Sol, claims his bills are so good you need a neutron microscope to spot the difference. Their meeting is interrupted by Batman, who, ya know, beats the crap out of them.  While the goons fight, Chuckie grabs the case and runs. Batman knocks out the last goon and gives chase. They end up in a car parking lot. When alone, Chuckie is confronted by the Phantasm, a masked figure that appears in clouds of mist and has a large hook for their right hand. The Phantasm claims they’re there for Chuckie. Chuckie shoots the Phantasm several times but they don’t move until they get close and cut Chuckie’s hand with said hook. They almost cut Chuckie down, but a car distracts them and Chuckie gets in his own car to try to run. The Phantasm leaps onto the hood of Chuckie’s car, shattering the windshield and cutting him, but Chuckie knocks him off. Chuckie, being a vindictive SOB, turns around to run the Phantasm over, but the Phantasm disappears in a cloud of smoke. The smoke and no windshield distract Chuckie long enough for him to misjudge how far away the end of the parking ramp is and he crashes through it and into the next building. Batman, who was weirdly slow catching up, comes out in time to see the damage… and be blamed for the murder by bystanders. Batman looks around the crime scene and sees someone walking away. He chases after them but only sees a trail of smoke.

 

Later, we see a press conference by City Councilmen Arthur Reeves along with Commissioner Jim Gordon and Detective Harvey Bullock. Reeves is pushing hard to get the police department to punish Batman for his vigilantism. Gordon pushes for Batman, saying he had nothing to do with Chuckie Sol’s death. Reeves insists Batman is unstable, pointing to Bullock and saying that members of the police department agree with him. We switch to a video of the speech that Alfred turns off, saying that his master Bruce is the picture of mental health… before adding that he pressed his tights and put his exploding gas balls away. Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (1918-2014) probably isn’t high on most people’s “best Alfred list” but the man had a talent for dry wit. Bruce, meanwhile, is examining a polymer that was on the windshield of Sol’s car.

 

Meanwhile, a woman on a plane is talking to Reeves, saying she’ll touch down soon and that it’ll be good to see him again. He claims that he’s going to help her clean up some family finance issues. She muses that it’s been ten years since she’d been to Gotham and Reeves asks if she’s going to look up old friends. I wonder if he knew she was looking at the Fortune magazine with Bruce’s face on it or just sensed it. She says he’s ancient history, and Reeves says that’s encouraging.

 

We shift to a party at Wayne Manor. Feels weird to me how often Bruce invites people over to his house when it’s where he hides all his Bat toys, but whatever. Three women flirt with Bruce and ask if he’s ever thought about getting married. A fourth joins them, and warns the others that Bruce will wine them, dine them, and make them feel like the only woman in the world for him, and then he’ll ‘forget’ their phone number. She throws a drink in Bruce’s face for good measure.  Bruce, my man, why invite exes to you parties? He excuses himself to get cleaned up. Reeves cuts him off and offers him a handkerchief to clean up. He comments that Bruce has lousy taste in women and seems to always pick the ones there’s no future with, except for that one gal from a while back, he feints not knowing her name for a minute before dropping it, Andrea Beaumont. Bruce brushes him off and heads to his study to collect his thoughts. He wonders over to a picture of his parents and stares at it until he has a flashback.

 

Twenty-something Bruce Wayne lays flowers at his parent’s headstone when he spies a woman talking to her mother’s grave marker, saying that her father is so overprotective theses days he’s liable to build a moat around her room. This is Andrea Beaumont, obviously. They have a little snafu where Bruce isn’t sure if she’s talking to him or not, Andrea explaining that she speaks to her mom’s grave out loud as it helps her imagine what her replies would be like. Bruce says that he made a vow to his parents, a secret one, that he’s trying to keep. They introduce themselves formally before Andrea drives off. Bruce smiles to himself as he hears a thunderclap, and the sky darkens. Later that night, he dresses in black and attempts to stop a robbery.  Bruce drops the guys as they finish loading their truck. He tells them to get on the ground, but weirdly the six-and-a-half-foot tall man backflipping over their truck and yelling at them to drop is just not as impressive without the cape and pointy ears. A fight breaks out, Bruce using his non-themed ninja tools to his advantage but still gets beaten up pretty bad before knocking most of them out. A fial goon shoots at him with a shotgun, forcing Bruce to fall back as he tries to drive off with the goods. Bruce chases him down and leaps onto the back of the truck. As he clings to the truck, he passes a police car with Officer Harvey Bullock inside who starts giving chase. Bullock and his partner Jonesy pull ahead and try to make the guy stop, but he rams their car and causes it to flip. Bruce, meanwhile, climbs over to the cam and starts smashing the windshield with a hammer. He’s nearly knocked from the truck, but drops some spiked balls to pop the tires, crashing the vehicle. He stays just long enough to confirm the driver is alive before climbing a building and running off. The next morning, Alfred tells Bruce that he just finished reading about his exploits in the paper and asks if he’s sure he won’t reconsider rugby instead. Bruce, who is practicing marital arts with a head and right arm bandage on is pretty sure. He claims that he had the edge, that he had the goons outclassed but they just weren’t afraid of him. He knows he needs to strike fear in them from the start. Alfred tells him to cut the shop talk as Andrea has arrived. She says they met three days ago and hadn’t gotten a phone call so is here checking to make sure he isn’t dead. They flirt fight a little before fight flirting once Andrea reveals she’s got some martial arts training as well. Once he has her pined, Andrea compliments his foot work, asks if he can dance too and they make out, much to Alfred’s surprise when he brings out lemonade.

 

In the present, Alfred comes in to tell Bruce one of his lady friends is dancing on the piano. Meanwhile, a black car drives out to Gotham Cemetery. Inside is Buzz Bronski, an associate of Sol’s who’s come to pay his respects after hours. He brings a wreath and flashlight, telling his men to wait here. When alone, Bronski tells Chuckie he always was a loser before the Phantasm calls out to him, saying his angel of death awaits. The Phantasm chases him through the graveyard, Bronski tripping over a wheelbarrow and grabbing a Pick that fell from it he attacks the Phantasm with it, but they slice the head off the pick. Bronski throws the sharpened edge of the pick at the Phantasm, but it passes through them when they call up the mist. Bronski screams for his men as he runs from the Phantasm.  They hear and run towards him. Bronski falls into an open grave. The Phantasm calls him a loser and then vanishes, but then drops the angel at the head of the grave on him. The goons find what’s of their boss and the Phantasm retreating, and again, they naturally assume it’s Batman doing this.

 

We shift to the morning where an old man named Salvatore Valestra is having his morning coffee when he reads that Bronski was killed and they assume the bat did it. He has a some kind of attack that requires him to get lung full of oxygen from the tank behind his chair.

 

At the police station, Reeves is demanding that Gordon go after Batman, but Gordon still isn’t moving on his stance Batman is innocent. He insists that Batman doesn’t kill, and if they want him, they can get it and storms out. The remaining cops, including Bullock, are down. Batman heard all of this as he hung out the ledge. The cops try to trick Batman into coming to the Bat Signal, but he’s too clever for that. He’s racing away from the city towards the cemetery. He finds the pickax head and more chemical traces that look like the stuff on Chuckie’s car. He makes note of it on a tape recorder before stopping at his parent’s grave. He hears and then sees Andrea weeding her mother’s grave.  He runs off, and after Andrea sees the Wayne headstone, she makes a logical leap.

 

Later, Andrea is having dinner with Reeves who is talking about getting her money into a higher yield account. She’s clearly not listening as she fiddles with a necklace. Outside, in the rain, Bruce is totally not being a weird stalker ex-boyfriend spying on Andrea in his Bat costume. Totally. Totally-totally-totally. Andrea mentions when prompted that she, Reeves and her father used to come to this restaurant a lot when she was in Gotham. He asks about her father, Andrea saying their still close but he couldn’t make it into town. Reeves makes an obvious pass at Andrea, saying he’s always wanted to spend more time with her.

 

Batman, outside, in the rain, watches Reeves caress Andrea’s hand and has a flashback. He and Andrea visited Gotham’s world’s fair. You know, one of those attractions that the forties loved picturing what the city of the future would be like. They go through the ride and are clearly very happy together. After, Andrea asks if they’ll really see anything like this in their lifetime.  Bruce is distracted by a big car in the center of the display. It looks suspiciously like a big black number that hurtles through Gotham in a few years. Bruce tells Andrea that he was distracted thinking about the future, she asks if he means a specific future or the generic kind. She says her dad wants to meet Bruce and tricks him into agreeing. Bruce talks to Alfred as she makes the call, saying that this is definitely not part of the plan, that he must be going nuts. Alfred suggests that maybe it’s the exact opposite. We shift over to Mr. Carl Beaumont’s office where Reeves is working for him. Andrea and Bruce arrive, and they greet each other. Bruce also meets Reeves before he heads out. The trio chat for a bit, Carl clearly doing that businessman thing where he’s getting to know Bruce but also angling to make him a client, talking about the accounts he handles and how important financial planning is. They’re interrupted by Mr. Valestra arriving. It’s clear from moment one that Valestra is one of those clients that Carl can’t say no to and he is very much not happy about that, making a fist as Valestra comes in. He lights a cigar and blows it in Bruce’s face. Bruce and Andrea leave the office, Valestra’s driver making a note of them. Dude seems weirdly familiar…

 

Bruce and Andrea come across some gangsters threatening street vender. Bruce insists he needs to stop this. He fights the three men, kicking their asses but he gets hit by a bat, ironic, when he’s distracted by Andrea getting too close. The goons grab the box of money and drive off. Bruce is clearly frustrated by them getting away and storms off when Andrea tries to look him over. That night, he’s doing sketches of costumes but isn’t making progress. He burns the sketch and asks why he’s still doing this. Bruce realizes that he can’t have it both ways, if he wants to go out and fight the corruption in Gotham, he can’t do it with someone waiting at home for him. Alfred comes in and tells him Andrea is holding on line one for him and she might like to hear that. Bruce says he can’t talk to her right now and storms off. He goes to his parents’ grave; he tells them that he still cares and still wants to do right for them, but with Andrea it just doesn’t hurt like it used to. He says he’ll give money to the city, do anything else to help, he just wants a sign that this is what they want. Andrea arrives and says that maybe they already have and maybe they sent her. They hug in the rain. In the present, Batman barely dodges a copter spotting him.

 

The next day, Reeves is almost run over by a car. It’s Mr. Valestra’s car, he orders Reeves to get in. Once inside he asks if it’s true that the Batman is killing their guys. Valestra is frustrated by this, wondering why Batman is leaning on them now. Reeves suggests getting police protection, but Valestra says a freakshow like Batman will crucify him before he needs another hit on his oxygen tank. Reeves gets out, saying it’s not very healthy in there.

 

Batman, meanwhile, is on his computer. He’s connected Chuckie Sol and Buzz Bronski to Valestra and several dummy corporations that were set up about a decade ago. Batman says that Sal’s having company tonight and tells Alfred not to wait up. Alfred suggests that after Valestra he’s going to see her. Bruce angrily says that Alfred thinks he knows everything about him, to which Alfred counters that he powdered his bottom, so he’d bloody well ought to. Batman drives off in a huff.

 

Batman breaks into Valestra’s house and sees some documents and photos.  One photo in particular caught his eye, which features Valestra, Carl Beaumont, Sol and Bronski from about a decade ago. Also, Valestra’s driver. Weird that man seems so familiar. This triggers another flashback. In it, Andrea tells Bruce that her father is insisting on taking her with him on a trip to Europe and that she’s not sure when she’s coming back. Bruce asks to try to talk her out of it, but then decides to say screw it and ends up just proposing to her. She accepts, saying that she never thought this would happen as she always felt like she wasn’t part of his ‘plan.’ He says he changed the plan. They kiss but are interrupted by a hoard of bats flying up from somewhere. That night, Bruce and Andrea arrive at her home and find Beaumont has guests. She says that it’s weird, as her father usually doesn’t have clients over at the house at this time of night. She suggests not telling her father the good news until later. She heads inside, Valestra’s guard growls at her as she walks in. He flicks his cigarette at Bruce as he drives by. The next day, Bruce is spelunking in the cave, saying that the cavern beneath the house might be as big as Wayne Manor. Alfred, unfortunately, gives him a note and box from Andrea. She says she can’t marry him, saying she’s too young and needs time, and returned the ring. Bruce, heartbroken, throws himself into his work and finishes his first Batman costume. The visual difference when he first dons the cowl even makes Alfred step back in shock. In the present, Batman steals the photo.

 

Valestra drives out to the ruined Gotham World’s Fair. Inside, he’s startled by someone shooting the singing robots at the front. It’s revealed to be none other than Joker. The Joker seems weirdly entertained by the arrival of Old Sallie The Wheezer Valestra. He welcomes Valestra and wants to know why he’s here. Valestra says business, so Joker takes him inside to the house of the future where he’s set up shop. Valestra tells Joker that Batman has snapped and started going after his old partners and he assumes he’s next. Joker is obviously giddy at the thought of Batman going batty. Valestra offers Joker 5 million up front to kill Batman plus however much he wants after the job is done. Joker isn’t super interested, but Valestra says that if he’s taken out, the Joker is next and that his hands are even dirtier than Valestra. Joker agrees to help, saying no one I going to hurt his old pal, Sal. When Valestra starts smiling, Joker ominously says that’s all he wanted to see, a nice big smile.

 

Later, Andrea returns to her hotel room to find the balcony door ajar. Reeves tries to invite himself in, but Andrea says she’s got a killer day tomorrow and kisses him good night. She turns on the light and isn’t shocked at all to see Batman standing there. She says she likes the cape but not the cowl. Batman shows her the photo and asks if she’d seen it. She says she hadn’t, and that she hasn’t seen her father in ages when he presses her. Batman says that’s not what she told Reeves. She tells him to get out. He asks her if she still follows her dad’s orders, and she rather accurately says the only one still controlled by their parents is him.  Once alone she drops her drink and starts sobbing uncontrollably.

 

Later, the Phantasm goes to Valestra’s house. They find him in his office, newspaper covering his face. The Phantasm rips it away, to find Valestra dead, his face contorted into a Joker Gas smile and a camera and bomb in his lap. The Joker, who is on the other end, says he’s disappointed that they’re not Batman. The Phantasm runs, just barely escaping the bomb from going off. Batman arrives in the Batwing and starts chasing the Phantasm over the rooftops. He sets the jet to auto pilot before leaping at the Phantasm. They tell Batman to stay out of this before disappearing in smoke, right before the cops arrive to try to arrest Batman. Batman runs, losing the cops across the rooftops. He’s chased to a construction site. Batman gets with tear gas, but the real trouble hits when a trigger-happy cop blows some gas canisters. Batman is down at this point and bleeding. Batman grappling hooks a copter, and seemingly launches himself at it, but it’s revealed to just be his cowl on a sawhorse. Batman, maskless, runs. He almost is caught but Andrea meets him in her car, and they drive off.

 

At the mansion, Alfred patches Bruce up before giving him and Andrea a chance to talk. He thanks her for her help but still needs to know what happened to her father. She gives him the photo back and explains, saying that his partners met him at the house to squeeze him for money that he owes them. Andrea tries to interrupt but is grabbed by Bronski. Carl begs for more time, swearing that he’ll wire the amount he owes Valestra into his account as soon as the European banks open tomorrow. The mobsters agree, Valestra giving him exactly 24 hours. He either has the money or Carl’s heart in his hand. Andrea goes to her father, and he tells her to pack a suitcase, now. She asks why, as he said he has the money, but Carl says it’ll actually take weeks to get the money out of the investments their tied-up in. Code, “I don’t have the money and I can’t guarantee I can burn other accounts to get it.” Andrea says that she can’t go, she’s going to marry Bruce, but Carl is sure he used up the last of Valestra’s pity tonight and he will kill them. He promises to make it right someday. Andrea says they were on the run in Europe for a while before setting up in the Mediterranean. Her father eventually got the money together, but the mobsters wanted interest in blood. Bruce takes that to mean that the Phantasm is Carl Beaumont and Andrea says that he did swear to get those guys somehow. She says she came back to Gotham after hearing about Chuckie Sol and wants to stop him. She apologizes for coming into his life again and screwing it up. Bruce grabs her as she tries to walk away and they start making out, Alfred again walking in at an awkward moment.

 

The next morning after spending the night together Andrea asks if they can make it work this time and Bruce wants to say yes. He says it is going to come down between him and her dad, and she says her dad doesn’t matter anymore. She heads out, saying she’ll see him tonight. Alfred says it’s good to see them together again and asks what this means for Batman. Bruce isn’t sure, saying a lot has changed, but Alfred correctly points out that they still love each other. He thinks that maybe after this is settled. He looks at a photo of him and Andrea and then his parents, Alfred saying that they’d want him to be happy. Bruce looks at the photo of Carl and his crew, focusing on Valestra’s guard for the first time. He grabs a red pencil and adds the iconic grin, realizing the guard was a pre-acid Joker. Probably went by something like Jack Napier.

 

Meanwhile, Reeves is shrieking at Bullock for losing Batman despite having three precincts on the case. He hangs up just before the Joker comes in. Joker talks to Reeves like they’re old friends and suggests if he calls the cops and the press he’ll say as much. Reeves insists that he worked for Beaumont and never the others, but Joker counters that he used the Beaumont connection for his gain in the end. Reeves asks what he wants, and Joker angrily says he wants to know who iced the old gang. He tells Reeves that it isn’t the Bat, but someone who looks like the ghost of Christmas Future. Joker threatens to reveal Reeves secrets unless he agrees to help. Andrea calls, Joker motioning Reeves to play along. She cancel’s their lunch date but says she’ll see him for dinner that night. Joker attacks Reeves, saying that the coincidence of talking about Carl only for his daughter to call just makes a man want to laugh.

 

Reeves is sent to the hospital, being overcome with Joker’s laughing gas. They hit him with a relaxant, but he’s still laughing so hard he’s crying. The doctors tell him to stay calm. Once alone, Batman stops by. He demands to know why Joker met with him. Through his pained laughter, Reeves reveals that he kept in touch with Carl after he and Andrea went on the run and handled the books for them. He last spoke with Carl years ago during his first City Council campaign when he ran out of money and needed Beaumont’s help. He said no, so Reeves sold him out. Reeves said they said they only wanted their money back. Batman runs off, leaving Reeves to his laughter.

 

Batman heads to Andrea’s hotel room and looks for clues. He finds the necklace she’d been wearing before that had a picture of them in it. Her phone rings and Batman answers. It’s Joker, saying that he’s sending ‘the plane of the future to make you history.” He sends the plane in and Batman is knocked back by the blast.

 

At the Gotham of the Future Exhibit, Andrea arrives and has a flashback. She remembers returning home to the villa to see Jack Napier inside. She drops her groceries, saying that her dad paid them before running inside. Jack grabs an apple from the fallen groceries and eats it as Andrea runs inside and screams at what she saw. In the present, Andrea dries her tears and heads inside.

 

The Phantasm arrives to kill the Joker. Joker comments that she’s harder to kill than a cockroach. The Phantasm takes off their hood, since he figured it out, confirming they are Andrea Beaumont. Joker says the costume is a bit theatrical but he’s not one to judge. He takes a swing at her, Andrea unleashing a smoke blasts to distract him. He fires acid from his flower to melt her hook. They grapple on the ground, Joker saying that she could teach Batman a few tricks. She knees him in the groin and then points out that he’s not laughing, which is odd since he loves laughing at death. Joker says she won’t hear a peep out of him and sicks the robot wife of the future on her. Andrea smashes it and the two fight some more. Joker makes a run for it after hitting her with a novelty sized bologna and escaping into the park. Andrea follows him and is lured to a giant fan that takes away her smoke. She gets sucked into the turbine, but Batman arrives to save her. He throws the Batcycle into the turbine to shut it down and the two drop. Batman confronts her about her father being dead and that she arrived early to kill Chuckie and to shift blame to her dad if she had to. Andrea says that they took everything from her, from them, and that she wants payback. Vengeance is all she has left, so he can help or get out of the way. Bruce asks her what Vengeance will solve, and she counters by saying he should know the answer to that. She disappears in smoke, and he goes after the Joker.

 

He follows Joker into a scale model of Gotham of the future. Joker tries to impale him on a tower, but Batman kicks him in the face, knocking out a tooth. Joker attacks him with tiny helicopters as he rides the train to the port and then starts the timer on some bombs. Batman breaks the copters and Joker tells him in five minutes the whole place is going up thanks to the tunnels packed with explosives. Batman chases him anyway and finds Joker trying to escape with a jetpack. He rushes Joker and hops on the Jetpack. They struggle and ultimately crash. Andrea arrives and grabs him. Joker surrenders and then tells Batman to tell her that means it’s over. Batman warns her this place is about to go up, but she refuses to run, saying this ends tonight. She says goodbye to her love just as the bombs go off. She and Joker disappear in smoke as the park burns, Joker cackling madly. The ground beneath Batman breaks and he falls into the sewars beneath the park and washes out in the pier. At the cave, Bruce laments not being able to save Andrea. Alfred says that she probably didn’t want to be saved. He says that vengeance blackens the soul and that for years he feared that Bruce would become what he’s been fighting against. But he hasn’t fallen into that pit, and he thanks heaven for that. He says Andrea did fall, years ago, and not even he could pull her back. Bruce sees a glittering nearby, runs up and finds Andrea’s locket hanging. We cut to a cruise ship out in Gotham Bay. A drunk guy tries to hit on Andrea who is standing at the bow, he asks if she wants to be alone and she says that she is. The movie ends on Batman on a roof top, the Bat signal in the sky. He leaps into the air and fires his grappling hook to investigate.

 

I should note that this ending has led some to question the canonicity of this movie, as the Joker would continue to menace Batman in future seasons of the show, and Andrea is never seen or heard from again. An episode of Justice League: Unlimited episode entitled “Epilogue” would eventually confirm everything to be canon. In the far future of Batman: Beyond, its revealed that Andrea went on as a hired assassin in her Phantasm guise, eventually being hired to kill Mary and Warren McGinnis, the parents of Terry McGinnis. Why? It was part of a plan to recreate Batman hatched by DC government big wig Amanda Waller. She’d attempted to engineer a Batman by targeting a couple that had a psychological match to Thomas and Martha Wayne, rewrote Warren’s DNA so his children were biologically Bruce Waynes, and then tried to have the parents killed ala Joe Chill in crime alley. But Andrea ultimately refused, deciding you couldn’t MAKE a Batman like that. Flash forward ten years and Terry’s dad is killed and sets him down the path of his Father to. So I guess Joker either escaped her immediately or she decided to let that last bit of vengeance go for some reason. Tis an odd timeline, the Bruce Timm universe.

 

I first saw this movie in probably 1998 or 99, and yes, it’s bugged me for nearly 30 years that we never learned how Andrea was seemingly teleporting in those fogbanks. Like… how? But that’s my one major gripe, no explanation on the smoke teleporting and the polymer clue never really going anywhere. Cast? Perfect, ten out of ten. Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill never gave less than a 11/10 performance as Batman and the Joker. Dana Delaney was great as Andrea, as she played both the cold hearted killer and the heartbroken young women extremely well. I 100% get hiring her to be Lois Lane for the Superman animated series, you see little sparks of Lois’ snark in Andrea that she got to play with later. The plot, solid. Granted, I was a child when I watched this the first time, but I was legitimately shocked when it was revealed that Andrea Beaumont had been the Phantasm all along. And as an adult I can very much respect the tragedy at play here, with it seemingly like fate itself conspired to force Bruce into the mantel of Batman. Then there’s the whole bit about how Carl Beaumont set this all in motion. He was a man that seemed to honestly just want to provide for his child but got in over his head with people you absolutely don’t want to be over your head with. I wonder if at any point they considered asking Andrea’s extremely wealthy fiancé for help, or if the money he owed was a big number even for Bruce Wayne. A YouTube channel I follow, Totally Sarcastic Productions, has a video essay on Batman and how at least the animated Batman specifically views his position of Batman as a curse he can’t escape from. It’s a very well-done video that highlights this movie and how it really does seem to push this idea that Bruce was bound to be the Dark Knight whether he liked it or not. And I love the general vibe of the Bruce Timm Batman, with its odd mix of forties and nineties tech, although it is weird to think that this Batman who has a black and white TV set would go on to join the Justice League in the 2000s. I love the design of the Phantasm, that cloak and mask like a hockey goalie work well to create this ominous figure with their clawed right hand. And I like the overall message here, that Andrea reflects Bruce, that she’s the version of him that let the pain win and decide that she needed to punish the wicked more than protect the innocent. Alfred’s assessment that Vengeance blackens the soul, but Bruce is somehow able to fight it off is very well put. So yeah, an amazing Batman movie that you should really watch if you haven’t seen it before or it’s been a while. Have a good night. 

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Review: Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham

 What horrors sleep beneath Gotham's city streets?

I’m something of a DC animated kick, so I figured I should talk about another animated movie that I really enjoyed Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham. This 2023 film is based on a three-issue comic run by the same name. It’s a reimagining of Batman, with the titular hero existing in 1920s America during the prohibition era. In this version, Thomas and Martha Wayne were killed in 1900 and Bruce spent the next twenty years traveling the world gathering the skills he needed to purge Gotham of evil. On his travels he met and adopted Richard Grayson, Sanjay “Jay” Tawde (Indian Jason Todd) and Kai Li Cain (Chinese Cassandra Cain). He’s finally drawn back to Gotham after hearing Oswald Cobblepot, descendent of one of the founding family of Gotham, disappeared during an expedition to the Antarctic. The founding families of Gotham in this universe being the Waynes, The Queens (yes, Oliver Queen), the Langstroms (as in Kirk Langstrom) and Copplepots. That should be enough set up, lets get to it.

 

We begin with Bruce’s boat, the Argo, coming on the remains of Copplepot’s base camp. His assistant Kai Li radios into St. Bay Station that they’ve found the camp and that everyone there seems to be extremely dead. Looks like death by exposure, with frostbitten skin and such being on display. Bruce himself explores Copplepot’s ship with his other two assistance, Dick and Sanjay. They confirm that everyone they’ve found is dead, but there are two bodies unaccounted for, Oswald Cobblepot himself and a man named Grendon.  Sanjay tells Bruce that the odds of anyone being alive out here are basically zero, but Bruce insists they keep looking. Dick finds Copplepot’s journal and reads a few pages. It describes his and the expedition’s decent into madness. After ten days, Cobblepot is the only one left and his journal says that he hears something calling out to him, saying “It” is coming. Out on the ice, Bruce finds Cobblepot, naked, frostbitten and covered in what look like barnacles. He chases after Cobblepot but loses him when an icy cliff collapses. He drops to the ground and finds a cavern. Bruce examines the cavern on his own, finding a man picking at an ice wall with a small chisel. This man, Grendon, says that Cobblepot is no more, that he’s become what he was meant to be. He also claims not to be Grendon, anymore. He’s been chosen to be ‘his’ messenger to the world. He claims to serve an ancient primordial god that exists outside of time. Bruce sees something on the other side of the ice that seems to give him a stroke. He hears Grendon say that to look upon his master is to drive men mad, so he made some adjustments to better serve. These adjustments being plucking out his eyes. Bruce tries to take Grendon with him, but Grendon refuses, saying his work is not yet done, and then they’re attacked by mutant penguins. The penguins are covered in additional eyes, barnacles, and have long beaks lined with teeth. He fights the penguin beasts off, finally scaring them off with a flare gun, and grabs Grendon, but not before Grendon makes a few more hurried cracks in the ice and something slips out to possess him. Grendon says “it is coming” before passing out.

 

We cut to the Argo, where Kai Li is relaxing until Bruce radios in and tells her to prepare their explosives. The team absolutely line the cavern with sticks of dynamite and other explosives, when set off the cavern is sealed. Jay excitedly announces that nothing will ever get out of that cave again. Dick asks if that was the right call, as that creature could be the find of the century, but Bruce is firm on his decision. He tells Dick about the mutant penguins and his fear that whatever mutated them could get out if that cavern had been left open. Bruce declares Cobblepot ‘gone’ and his team depart with a restrained Grendon. The Argo casts off, with the mutant Cobblepot watching from the icy cliffs with the monster penguins.

 

On the Argo, Alfred comes down to bring his young masters and mistress a snack and asks what the awful smell is. The three young people inform him that Grendon started to rot the moment they brough him out of the deep freeze. According to the smell and tissue samples Dick is looking over, he’s very dead, and yet Grendon is still wandering around the meat freezer they locked him in. In his cabin, we see Bruce looking over a murder board detailing crimes around the world, many of them murders with some evidence pointing to Gotham City. Like the word Gotham City written in blood. Bruce reads Cobblepot’s journal, a passage about how while he’s strayed his “testament” remains in Gotham. Alfred joins him intent on complaining about Grendon, but Bruce cuts him off by saying Gotham is in danger. Alfred points out that Cobblepot was very clearly insane, but Bruce says that he considered that but all the other evidence overwhelmingly suggests there’s a cult in Gotham and it’s incredibly dangerous. It’s been twenty years but he’s finally going home. He hits a button and reveals his Batman costume, for dramatic emphasis.

 

Bruce’s wards set up some chains to hold Grendon down, with Kai Li asking how long they’ll be in Gotham. Both Jay and Dick insist they’re staying in the city for good, but Kai Li is skeptical as in the two years she’s been with them they’ve never stayed put for more than a few weeks. Dick tells her that he’s been with Bruce for close to a decade and the goal that entire time has been to eventually return to Gotham. Grendon, whom they’ve outfitted in a divers suit to try to keep the cold and smell in, cackles and tells them they returned to their doom. Jay shuts the door on him.

 

On the deck of the ship, Alfred comments that Gotham has changed a lot since they left, but Bruce says he hopes it’s nothing like when they left. He has a flashback to his father telling him how the history of Gotham is the history of the Wayne family. Their moment of happy contemplation is ruined by a bedraggled looking man shouting, “We have brought this curse upon us all!” and then attacked Thomas Wayne with a knife. In the struggle, both Thomas and Martha Wayne are killed. Bruce ran to the bell tower of the nearby church on his father’s last words, where he sees a giant squid in the darkness and is attacked by bats. In the present, his kids return to Bruce, Dick asking if it's a good idea to just leave Grendon on their boat. Bruce says that he doesn’t trust Gotham PD to have the same security or precautions as they do so this is the best fix for now. He asks one of them to stay back to watch him, they draw straws, Sanjay being stuck with guard duty. Sanjay sarcastically says he’ll make the best of it, shouting “Just you and me now, Mr. Zero” as he goes below deck. 

 

We enter Gotham proper, seeing cops pouring out bootleg booze, a massive homelessness problem and buildings being foreclosed on, all on the drive to Wayne Manor. They’re met by Lucius Fox at the manor, who has been getting it prepared for Bruce. Bruce asks how the company is doing, Lucius saying that things are going fine so long as the Board of Directors believe all his orders are coming from Bruce. For some reason, they don’t seem that comfortable taking orders from Lucius. Lucius Fox. The most famous Black supporting character of the Batman franchise. Right, this is in the twenties. Bruce tells him to keep up the good work. He asks if Lucius took care of his last shipment, he confirms he has, like all the others it was placed in the “wine cellar” according to his exact specifications. Bruce thanks him but asks him not to romanticize his cave. They’re not inside five minutes before Alfred finds an invitation sent to the manor from Oliver Queen asking to see Bruce for dinner and drinks. A moment later, Bruce senses something is off and then they hear Kai Li scream. They find a body in one of the sitting rooms, his throat bruised and scratches all along his face. Dick and Bruce examine the body and determine that he was killed somewhere else and brought here. As Bruce looks closely at it, he begins to hear cries of pain and screams from the body, the eyes opening to Bruce’s eyes as the body shouts that he’s Langstrom. No one else saw any of that. Bruce says that he’ll call the police after he handles a few things.

 

Later that night, Bruce prepares to have dinner with Oliver. Alfred wonders if this is a good idea, but Bruce says that the group could use some fresh air after all the corpse and old house mustiness. Plus he wants to see Oliver, whom he hadn’t seen in several years. He’s cut off from explain when he notices a man standing outside the window. The man is brought in, he’s Jason Blood. As he introduces himself to Bruce, for a moment Bruce sees a burning demon in a mirror where Blood’s reflection should be. Blood tells Bruce that things invisible to others are more obvious to him. He gives us a rundown on Bruce’s history, his parents were killed in 1908, and he spent the next twenty years studying criminology, psychology, martial arts, ya know, the Batman stuff. Blood tells Bruce’s that his return to Gotham has set certain things in motion. He’s not sure of all of it but knows he needs to tell Bruce three things. 1. He must seek out two spirits, one wrapped in bats, the other in flames, 2. To succeed, Bruce Wayne must die and through death become himself, and 3. Before it can be saved, Gotham must be burned to the ground. Ominous. Bruce tells Blood he doesn’t like ghost stories and to go. They have a struggle, Blood telling Bruce that his dubiety will be his undoing. Bruce pins him to a table, and Blood morphs into Etrigan the Demon, who tells Bruce he’s not his enemy, and that when he sees his foe, he’ll see Etrigan again. All in rhyming couplets as Etrigan is want to do. He leaps out a window. Alfred comes in, sees the burning table and broken window, at least confirming that was all real.

 

We cut over to dinner with Oliver Queen. Oliver seems like a jovial man in this timeline, indulging in wine and old stories about when he and Bruce were in school together. After telling a story about the two of them, Bruce says that’s not quite how it happened, but Oliver insists that you need to embellish stories, it’s part of showmanship. He asks the group about Cobblepot, as he’d heard a rumor Bruce was the one that found him. Everyone tenses up, but Oliver assures them that Oswald was crazy long before he left town so there’s no need to worry. Dick tries to distract Oliver by asking about his hunting trophies. Oliver is very proud of his collection, saying hunting has taken him across the world and that no manner of Flora or Fauna can best Oliver Queen. When Kai Li points out Flora means plants, Oliver says he stands by his statement. They’re interrupted by a “surprise guest,” Harvey Dent. He’s running for mayor of Gotham and Oliver insists he’ll be the man to clean up Gotham’s streets. Bruce and Harvey are clearly happy to see each t other as they shake hands. As Oliver hugs his two friends, Kai Li notes a gold cross on his wrist that seems out of place.

 

At Wayne Manor, Alfred is dusting when he gets a call asking for Bruce. He wants to take a message but the caller hangs up.

 

Back at the party, Oliver is getting really deep into his drinks. After reciting the same story to Harvey as he did to the others, Bruce asks if Langstrom rings any bells for him. Harvey asks if he means professor Kurt Langstrom, and Oliver ads that he’s the “Batman of Crime Alley.”  As Kurt fiddles with his gold cross bracelet, he says there’s been an uptick in crazy folk lately which is saying something for Gotham. Harvey says he’s a bat scientist and that he’s developed an unhealthy obsession with Bat’s and is claiming to be one. Bruce asks for his address and Harvey promises to get it to him. The party breaks up for the night, Harvey heading up to the office and Bruce asking his wards to keep an eye on Oliver as he heads out. Kai Li mutters that maybe Sanjay was the lucky one.

 

On the boat, Sanjay is trying to read a magazine while Grendon continues his crazy ramblings about feeling “his” gift of cold. Sanjay goes to tell him to shut his yap, only to find the cold has spread from the meat locker and the door is so cold it causes frostbite at a touch. Sanjay still does his best to slam the door on him.

 

At Queen Manor, Oliver is incredibly drunk and playing the piano. For as drunk as he seems to be he, plays well. Kai Li asks where Bruce is and Dick says if he’s smart he’s back in Antarctica. In reality, Bruce has suited up as Batman and is exploring the rooftops of Gotham. He finds Langstrom’s lab and sees some police officers looking through it. They aren’t looking for evidence, though, but for any money that Langstrom might have squirreled away. Batman comes in through the window and then kicks their asses. Once they’re out, he sees a summoning circle etched in the ground with candles all around it. Batman uses a monocle and blacklight to follow Langstroms hand and footprints to a hidden last will and testament. Batman grabs it and runs just before Jim Gordon comes in to check on his men.

 

Alfred gets another call, this time confirming that the caller is Barbara Gordon, who has now called four times asking for Bruce Wayne. He offers to deliver a message but she hangs up on him.

 

Bruce reads Langstrom’s notes. He claims that if you’re reading this that he’s dead and that he’s happy for that as a Doom is coming. He claims that the bats speak to him, that they see beyond the world of men and that they promise a doom is coming. We see a bit of his experiments as Bruce reads, which seems to include him drinking a serum made of bat goo. He claims that some Thing is crouching on the doorstep and wants to devour our world. He says that a cult exists around this evil, the Cult of Ghul, and they’ve been preparing the way for the thing. Langstrom says there is a hope, a book called the Testament of Ghul, which has the secrets they need to open the door. Langstrom says that the testament must be kept from the at all costs. Bruce remembers the line from Cobblepot’s journal and deduces that he has it. He runs to try to reclaim the book, and a woman watches him swing away on his grappling hook and smiling.

 

We cut to the library repositor where professor Manfurd gets a call asking about Cobblepot’s research from Batman. Batman asks if he has the Testament of Ghul. Manfurd claims to not know what that is and says that this a restricted repository not a lending library. Batman hangs up. Manfurd opens a hidden safe and pulls that book from it, Batman spying from nearby. Manfurd says that Cobblepot told him to destroy the book but he says he wouldn’t have even if he could. The woman from earlier enters, saying she’s glad of that. This is Talia al Ghul, and she wants the book. Manfurd begs her not to kill him and she promises to leave that business to Daitya, a lizard she releases from a jar. It climbs Manfurd’s ear. Batman breaks in and demands the book, but Talia say and tells Daitya to handle him. Manford turns into a burning hulk and the two fight as Talia leaves. Bruce tricks Daitya into smashing all the walls of the repository, dropping the roof on him while Bruce drops to the floor below. Daitya follows, but Etrigan bursts in too. He says he’ll handle Daitya, he’s going to sacrifice himself to stop it so Bruce can break the curse.

 

Batman chases after Talia and demands the book. She again refuses, saying his bat costume doesn’t frighten her as she’s acquainted with real demons. Batman says he’s going to stop the Cult of Ghul. Talia says that group is gone and she is the last, for now. She throws something in Batman’s face that causes him to hallucinate. She reveals that she left Langstrom in his house and thought that was enough of a message to not mess with her. Batman realizes that she lead him to Langstrom to find the book for them. Batman accuses her of trying to destroy Gotham, she says that she’s trying to honor the city and the damnation that bore it, and then sics a monster on Bruce. The hulking lizard, one might call it a killer croc, attacks Batman, Talia saying you don’t live 812 years without making interesting friends. Croc overpowers Batman, tossing him about, but batman knocks him onto some train tracks, he tricks the monster to stand there long enough to get hit, but it barely scratches it. Bruce leaps onto the train before passing out.

 

Croc returns to Talia. She’s annoyed that the bat lives, but he’s not a real concern to their plans. She orders him to retrieve the key from the harbor.

 

Back at Queen manor, Kai Li and Dick help a very drunk Oliver to a couch.  He says that he used to rib Bruce for picking up orphans at every port but that these two at least are good kids. He lays down and starts crying, saying he owes Bruce more than he could ever know. Dick tucks him in, saying Bruce won’t hold a grudge against a good man. Oliver asks if he is one and says that the sins of the father are heaped upon the sun, fiddling with his cross as he does before falling asleep.

 

Alfred wakes up to find an injured Bruce at a window. Bruce insists on going to the cave to examine the sulfuric substance he got on him during his fight with the Croc before getting treated. Meanwhile, Gotham harbor has frozen over, much to Jim Gordon’s confusion as it is June. Dick and Kai Li arrive with Oliver. Oliver distracts Gordon long enough for Dick to steal a boat and head to the Argo, a creature following behind him in the water. He boards the ship with a shot gun. He finds Sanjay dead, frozen in place. Grendon starts chuckling from the hold. Dick almost shoots him but Croc attacks. Oliver and the others follow on their boat but arrive too late. Dick has clearly been torn in half, and Grendon is gone. Kai Li fights her way on board the ship and finds her surrogate brothers corpses. Heartbreaking. Oliver does his best to comfort her as she sobs and he swears whoever did this will pay.

 

Meanwhile, Talia prepares a ritual to resurrect someone, promising together they will usher Iog-Sotha into this reality and purge it. Daitya returns to her and gives her Etrigan in a bottle. As part of their bargain, Talia got him a demon to replace the Djinn in his bottle, and then must scorch the ground as part of her ritual in hellfire. He does so, resurrecting her father Ra’s al Ghul. Damn it.

 

Bruce examines the sulfur in the case, trying to figure out what part of Gotham sewers Talia is holdup in. Alfred brings him a demonology textbook. Alfred says he’s not necessarily a believer, but he’s seen enough to be wary of the dark arts. Bruce flips through until he finds a passage about the mausoleum of the serpent. The book claims that in 2000 BC, a necromance named Ra’s al Ghul found this mausoleum and resurrected the ancient serpent people to learn their dark magic. His one desire was to bring Iog-Sotha to Earth. Bruce claims that there is truth behind every legend and deduces that ticks on the map in the book are coordinates that lead him to Talia’s temple. Bruce asks Alfred to prepare the solution.

 

In the sewers, Ra’s al Ghul talks about his master and how Iog-Sotha longs to devour earth. Croc and Grendon join them, and Ra’s says they’ll be entering the Serpent’s mausoleum and open he door for Iog-Sotha.

 

Alfred gets another call and assumes it’s Barbara until he hears its from Chief Gordon. Gordon informs him of the murder on the boat, and Alfred asks that Oliver look after Kai Li until he can get in contact with Bruce.

 

Batman finds the al Ghuls as they preform their ritual, interrupting it with a bat-a-rang. Batman faces off against Talia and Croc. He throws acid at Croc, melting him into goo. He tells her he did it through Chlorine Concentrate, not magic. She blows sand in his face, but Bruce throws a gasmask on before he can hallucinate. As they fight, Ra’s continues the ritual. He makes Talia drop Etrigan’s bottle and grabs it. He grabs Talia and tries to get Ra’s to stop, but the ritual is already complete. Lizards and snakes start swarming Batman, Ra’s saying they shall lead him to the eye of Sotha. Batman falls into a cavern beneath the city filled with green ooze as reptiles boil up to the surface. He drags himself to the city streets, sees the clock tower and remembers the bats swarming around him as a child. The bats apparently showed him the coming of Iog-Sotha, saying that even if his mind makes him forget, the madness will leave it’s mark.  The bats tell him he’s the only one to stop Iog-Sotha. Alfred finds him a moment later.

 

Later, Harvey is declared mayor of Gotham. Ra’s says that Iog-Sotha has told him that Harvey Dent is the door and that they must use the Key on him. Grendon says that he doesn’t know of any key. Ra’s tells him that he found Yib Nogeroth, son of Iog-Sotha, in the ice and that he gave Grendon the key, planting his seed in Grendon. They kill him to make him barf up the seed.  The seed quickly merges with his icy form and reforms into a redhaired woman. She’s ordered to go after Dent.

 

Back at the Mansion, Bruce keeps chanting Doom to himself, that it is on the doorstep. Alfred tells Lucias that he hasn’t moved from that spot or spoken to him in hours. Lucius suggests calling Hugo Strange at Arkham, saying they can help.

 

At Queen manor, Kai Li is looking at a photo of her, Jay and Dick, when she hears a metallic clunking.

 

Harvey heads out to his first day on the job as mayor when the red haired woman runs into him. She says that the people have their every faith in him. He takes her hand in greeting, and says he won’t let her down, but as he does, she scratches the back of his hand.

 

Kai Li picks a lock to a chapel. Inside she finds Oliver dressed in a suit of armor with a green cross on his tabard.  He says that a great evil will soon fall on Gotham and he must fight it, as the sins of his father have been heaped upon him.  He says that no man had more sin than his father. He tells Kai Li his father was over 300 years old and he’d made a pact with the devil for that long life. It drove him mad, and in the end, he murdered the Waynes. He says that the evil they did 300 years ago stirred up whatever it is that’s coming to destroy Gotham and he vowed to stop it. It’s why he hunted beasts and why he collected holy relics, like four arrows that were stained with the blood of St. Sebastian. Oliver tells her to go, as the thing knows him and will come for him.

 

Batman, meanwhile is still standing over Langstrom’s corpse. He’s trying to interrogate the body, it seems, but Langstrom speaks only in riddles about what the bats say. Kai Li finds him as Bruce realizes that Langstrom is the spirit wrapped in Bats. Kai Li tells him about Oliver and how he’s dressed as a knight babbling about doom.

 

We cut to Harvey at the office of Dr. Herbert West, who tells him he has a very aggressive form of Poison Ivy. Harvey thinks that’s nuts as he hadn’t left the city in months. West then says it’s stress and that he should try to relax. And to not scratch it.

 

Oliver prays at his alter for the lord to give him the strength to slay the evil. Poison Ivy enters his sanctum and Oliver immediately lobs the knife that killed the Waynes at her forehead. She takes the hit and then morphs into a monstrous plant, Oliver thanks her for surviving as if she died that quick there’d be no sport. They fight, Oliver gets several arrows into her, but she doesn’t seem to notice. He takes a branch through the chest when he tries to rush her with a halberd. Then, without missing a beat, he pulls a grenade and pulls the pin, just as Batman and Kai Li pull up.  They find him alive but dying. They compliment each other on their costumes. Kai Li tries to take the branch out but he says that they’re all that’s keeping him together. He says there’s good news, that he killed Ivy without using any of the Saint’s arrows. Kai Li gives them a moment. Oliver tries to admit to Bruce that his father killed Bruce’s parents, but Bruce already knew. He says Henry Queen did what he did but Oliver did nothing but live as a good man. Oliver hopes he’s right, saying that a bloodline can’t escape it’s stain before dying. Batman takes the arrows and the knife.

 

Meanwhile, Harvey plays with his coin in his apartment. The infection has covered the whole left side of his body. Talia enters his apartment, and he begs her to kill him. She says she will, but he still has a little more to do.

 

Dick and Jay are laid to rest at the Wayne plot. Kai Li tries to tell him it’s not his fault, but Bruce says that he should have seen this coming. He refused to open his mind enough to battle the impossible and it cost him his sons and his friend. Kai Li tells him Oliver was saying the same things about the sins of the father, but she adds that Ezikiel 18 says “The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son.” She insists he doesn’t have to do this, but Bruce refuses. He says that there are two kinds of people in the world. If they see a fire, most people will run and try to find help once they’re safe, but a rare few will run into the fire to try to save who might be inside, and that he knew right when he met her which of those Kai Li is. They’re interrupted by Jim Gordon who tells him his condolences for the loss of his sons and that Barbara want to talk to her. Turns out in this timeline she’d had an accident that left her… odd. She’s known as the Oracle and Kai Li has read about her in Spiritualism Monthly. Bruce says he’ll see her tonight, regardless of when visiting hours are. Bruce doesn’t think the Oracle will know anything, but the  spirit wrapped in flames will.

 

Batman suits up with the arrows, dagger, and Etrigan in a bottle. Alfred says he can’t let him go but Bruce insists that this is what he’s meant to do. Alfred relents, telling Batman that if time is of the essence to take the car, revealing the batmobile. Batman puts Kai Li in charge of the wine cellar and Alfred says goodbye to his son.

 

Batman races to Arkham and finds Oracles room. Barbara is confied to a wheelchair, blind, and speaks through a mechanical voice box. They chat a bit about bats and how their ability to fly in the dark might be why humans are fascinated by them. Batman asks to speak to the spirit wrapped in flames. Barbara calls it up, showing Batman a vision of his father. Thomas Wayne apologizes to Bruce for what he did. He reveals he was born in 1585 and was one of the first colonists to venture to America. He settled Gotham, but the first few years were harsh and unforgiving. They would have died there but Oswald Cobblepot found something beneath the land that he thought could save them. Thomas Wayne, Henry Queen, Cobblepot and Langstrom headed into that unholy place and found the Testament of Ghul. They perform a ritual that involved sacrificing a horses and that seemed to make the land flourish and the men were made immortal. Thomas says that they learned centuries later that this ritual called Iog-Sotha to them. And when they learned what that ritual did, it drove Bartley Langstrom to kill himself, Cobblepot to the ends of the earth, and Queen into killing Thomas. The worst part was the curse was spread to their sons, which is why Kirk and Oliver had to die as well. Thomas tells Bruce that he can stop Iog-Sotha. By becoming what he truly is. He must seek communion with ‘them’ the bats. Batman awakens to find Barbara passed out. He thanks her and leaves.

 

He goes Kirk’s summoning circle, drinks the bat goo and does the ritual. The Bats commune with him and tell him that only the Bat can face him. Batman accepts the sacrifice and is told to go where the curse began. He enters that old temple he washed up in early, finding Dent up againt a wall his infection creating a door. He tosses Bruce a coin and tells him to take care of himself. Batman enters the door way, saying he’ll see him soon. Batman enters the hell dimension of Iog-Sotha. He’s attacked by the reanimated corpses of Oliver Queen, Dick Grayson, and Sanjay Tawde. Batman asks for forgiveness from his boys as they fight. They recover from being stabbed by his bat-a-rangs, but each fall to St. Sebastian’s arrows. As Oliver dies, he thanks god and tells Bruce to kick their asses.

 

Further in he finds a temple that Ra’s al Ghul is praying at while holding the book aloft. Talia comes down to face Batman. They battle, her magic overwhelming Batman for a time. She catches him by the neck and says that she’d like to think under different circumstances they might have been friends before dropping him. Batman spears her though the chest with his grappling hook and then runs her through with the last arrow, saying his friends have a bad habit of dying. She falls into the chasm. Batman faces off against Ra’s, who sent him on fire and say this is beyond his comprehension. He opens the door to Iog-Sotho, saying that to gaze upon him is to see madness. Batman puts himself out and says that he’s seen it. He cuts off Ra’s arm, but he says it’s too late. He claims to be one with his god, the progenitor of Yip Nogeroth, Hastar, and Cthulhu himself. He morphs into a monstrous squid and tries to crush Bruce and then electrocute him. Topside, the moon turns blood red. Bruce remembers all the advice he’d been given over the courses of the movie, and embraces the Bat within, transforming into a monstrous bat creature. He declares himself Batman and rips Ra’s to pieces. Batman rips his throat out, destroying Ra’s form but he seems to merge with Iog-Sotho coming down through the portal. Batman is nearly driven mad by the creatures call but then hears Etrigan’s call. He frees Etrigan from the bottle. Etrigan protects Bruce, saying that the debt has been repaid, and tells him to leave while he handles this. Batman escapes the portal as Etrigan consigns Iog-Sotho to hell eternal. This causes a huge fire storm through the city’s sewers, causing a huge fire that burns Gotham to the ground as Kai Li watches from Wayne manner.

 

Months later, Lucius says that the Bruce Wayne Memorial foundation has set about rebuilding the city. They dedicate statues to him, Oliver Queen and Harvey Dent. He has Kai Li give a speech about how she’ll do everything in her power to make a better Gotham. She says he would do anything for those he loved, and he was stubborn as hell. She promises that he’d return it the city need him, revealing that Batman is resting in the old Clocktower, waiting for the city to need him again.

 

I came across this movie around October of last year, about six months after it was released. And I absolutely loved it from minute one. I like the aesthetic, as while Batman can exist in whatever era you want, he absolutely thrives in this turn of the century era, where technology is good, not great, any super power would be seen as magic, and research involves hours of study instead of googling. In a weird way, Doom’s Batman is one of the lower powered versions of the character specifically because he doesn’t have his super computer for research or other real advanced tech to battle things like Croc or Ivy. He’s literally just a man in a bat suit. I liked how they adapted his villains to this setting, making most of them the products of dark magic or ancient life forms in and of themselves. It all fits well into the eldritch horror niche, where magic come at a heavy price, humans are so insignificant we only grasp a little of it, and other beings far more powerful than us have come before and will come after. Very spooky monster stuff. I liked how they used Oliver in this. Good men being driven to drink by the darkness in their past is a staple of the genre, and I like that they gave him his redemptive moment when he battled Ivy by himself with just his armor and weapons. His end was cleaner than some other characters get in Cosmic Horror stories, getting to die knowing he did good at least once and that Bruce never held his father’s actions against him. The twist that Bruce’s father and the other founding fathers of Gotham was interesting. It’s a different look for Thomas Wayne, usually portrayed as the most selfless man in history, willing to give a man the shirt off his back if they needed it, to do something as terrible as the sacrifices necessary to perform a dark magic ritual. I suppose they were banking on that perception to imply just how desperate he and the other founders were to survive. The Penguin sacrificing a horse to save himself? Normal and believable. Thomas Wayne doing it? Oh he must have been hella desperate. Having Talia and Ra’s being the cultist was a nice touch too, as they’re 1. Both old enough to be a part of an ancient cult, and 2. Still better Middle Eastern representation than Abdul Alhazred. Said what I said, Lovecraft was oft described as racist even for the time in which he lived. I’m surprised they weren’t able to work the Joker or Scarecrow into the plot at all, but more villains probably would have made the film feel rather bloated. It’s stuffed as is, but it all flows together nicely. Like I said, love this movie, give it a watch sometime. Have a good night.

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