In 1988, DC Comics left the fate of Jason Todd to the readers. As the second Robin was proving unpopular, DC presented the chance to do away with the character in "A Death in the Family", a storyline published in the main Batman book. After being mercilessly beaten by the Joker and left for dead in a warehouse wired to explode, fans would vote on Jason's survival by calling one of two 900 numbers choosing life or death. While the tally was close, fans decided it was time for Jason to rest. In 2005 though, Jason was revealed to have been resurrected through very convoluted means and had become the new Red Hood, a lethal vigilante. Some say bringing him back cheapens his death, but I feel it actually adds more to the tragedy of the character and Batman's failure to set the troubled youth on the right path. Now in 2020, DC gives us the opportunity to decide Jason's fate again.
"Batman: Death in the Family" is an interactive short film where viewers would decide the path of Jason Todd. It uses the 2010 animated film "Batman: Under the Red Hood" as a reference point with the same animation style, bringing back some of the voice cast, and fleshing out more layers to the story. With the emotional core of its story and a stellar voice cast, "Under the Red Hood" is regarded as one of the best animated Batman films right up there with "Mask of the Phantasm" and "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker." Returning to that film and adding a few new spins to it got me really excited. It's an ambitious experiment, but unfortunately one that doesn't reach its full potential.
As the film begins, we get more insight into the tensions between Bruce and Jason before the events that lead to his death, even delving a little more into Jason's backstory from the comics with his father having been killed by Two-Face. There also seems to be retconned connections to the "Killing Joke" animated film, with Barbara's character design and images from that film being reused along with Jason's implications that Joker did take things further than just cripple her. What's nice about both these additions is that it helps build the father-son relationship and that Jason's drive to go after Joker is deeper than his own forthcoming pain.
There are three different paths to take after Joker leaves Jason in the warehouse: Batman saves Robin, Robin cheats death, and Robin dies. As I was going through this, I decided to go from best possible option to the worst. In that regard, I first chose for Batman to save Robin and it turned out to be not as positive as you'd think. Jason does survive, but Bruce takes the full brunt of the explosion and succumbs to his injuries. To me, this was a sign that the decisions you make would still have some twists and make for some interesting plot turns.
The "Batman saves Robin" option is without a doubt the best one to take, offering more variety of choices to make as it delves into Jason's inner conflict. The trauma of his experience weighs heavy on him as he struggles between wanting to honor Bruce's dying words and giving in to his baser instincts to put criminals down. What's also nice is that the different paths borrow from more Batman stories than the two this film is based on. This includes many elements of Grant Morrison's run, the "Going Sane" storyline, and in what seems to be a major coincidence, the currently running "Three Jokers" miniseries. Even Tim Drake gets some overdue love in this film.
The next option I took was "Robin cheats death." Jason is still caught in the explosion, but survives, though he is gravely injured and laid up for 72 days. In that time, Jason has come to blame Bruce and the whole Batfamily for what happened to him, eventually running away and going on his own murderous crusade against crime. His appearance resembles that of the villain Hush, paying homage to when he was the potential identity of the character. Unfortunately, this choice and the story that comes from it is an absolute waste. There's no real resolution or confrontation between Bruce and Jason, and the way it does end just leaves you wanting.
Then there's the final option of Robin dying that gave us the full-length film to begin with. As such, all we get is a twenty minute recap of the film as Bruce is telling the story to Clark Kent, AKA Superman. There are only a couple positives I can give this. One, Bruce's narration allows us to delve deeper into his mindset as he was progressing through the story. The other is that they got Nolan North to voice Clark again, which is nice as both he and Bruce Greenwood voice Superman and Batman, respectively, on the "Young Justice" animated series. Plus, the dialogue between the two is classic World's Finest.
Speaking of voice acting, as stated before, it's pretty top notch from returning cast members as well as the new additions. Bruce Greenwood's Batman and John DiMaggio's Joker are still worthy successors to Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill. Gary Cole is added on providing double duty as Commissioner Gordon and Two-Face, fitting both characters extremely well. Vincent Martella, who had voiced a teenage Jason in the original film, has a much bigger part here since there's no five year time jump for two of the options to bring Jensen Ackles back. While Ackles is missed, Martella does a great job in expressing Jason's wide range of emotions on the journey(s) the character is taken on.
On a last note, "Death in the Family" is rated R and includes a lot more gory violence and it honestly feels unnecessary. "Under the Red Hood" was rated PG-13 and while it got violent and featured much bloodshed, it still felt tastefully done compared to the new film, which could come off as trying too hard.
As a whole, "Batman: Death in the Family" brings the fun of choice but can only deliver barely half of what it could truly offer. If they were going to return to "Under the Red Hood", maybe they could have released a new extended edition similar to what they did with the 2009 animated Wonder Woman film. While you may be better off just watching the original film, "Death in he Family" is still worth at least one go through to experience it both delves more into the lore and diverges from the already classic film.
No comments:
Post a Comment