Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham

Batman and his collection of villains have always been just one or two steps from out and out horror. So it was no surprise when in 2001, Mike Mignola, Richard Pace and Troy Nixey took Batman and some of his pantheon those few steps into full blown horror territory with no less the definition of weird as inspiration, HP Lovecraft.

The film is set in the 1920s Bruce Wayne (David Giuntoli) is an explorer and has been away from Gotham City for a number of years on his ship with Alfred (Brian George) and wards. He’s been busy though with his funding ventures. One being a scientific expedition and research to antarctica with no less than Professor Cobblepot (William Sayers) leading. But things have gone wrong with Cobblepot gone astray and the expedition having uncovered something very old and dangerous in the ice. Nevertheless they take it back to Gotham, with the professor’s mutated assistant Grendon (David Dastmalchian).

Here Wayne is forced into a confrontation with Talia al Ghul (Emily O’Brien) who is set up on raising Ra’s al Ghul (David Neghban), who in turn wants to raise an ancient cosmic god. This later on leading to a number of revelations the consequences of which are huge.

As much psychological as out and out horror The Doom That Came to Gotham co-directed by Christopher Berkley and Sam Liu from a screenplay by Jase Ricci, takes delight in repurposing many of the characters that the viewer will be familiar with, though the likes of Oliver Queen (Christopher Gorham) and Barbara Gordon (Gideon Aldon) are off kilter which goes with the overall feel of the story that while set in the 1920’s something isn’t quite right but then this is based on an Elseworlds book.

Other characters are taken to gruesome extremes such as Poison Ivy and Two Face. As for the Batman himself he’s the usual tortured soul though with added angst here.

It all very much looks like Constantine territory with the runes, circle and monsters, and for a while there’s an expectation that he’ll show up, no spoilers that he doesn’t and that’s good as he’s a character that can be a scene stealer. The animation is as good as the viewer has come to expect from Warner Bros.

The special features are:
Batman: Shadows of Gotham (New Featurette), audio Commentary with Sam Liu Jase Ricci, a couple of trailers and episodes of Batman: The Animated Series.

Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham, will be available DVD and Blu-ray on 27 March 2023 and Digital Download on 28 March