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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