SON OF BATMAN (2014)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological, sociological*

SON OF BATMAN was the first of four Batman animated projects launched for the production entity known as the "DC Animated Movie Universe," and it adapted the opening story-arc from Grant Morrison's seven-year tenure on several DC Bat-books. The 2006 arc "Batman and Son" is uneven, to be sure. But SON OF BATMAN manages to leech all the fun out of the original story.

There are grim moments in the original story. The narrative hinges upon Batman learning that, as the result of his having been drug-raped ten years ago by his friendly enemy Talia Al Ghul, he now has a ten-year-old son, Damian Wayne, raised in secret by Talia, her father Ra's Al Ghul, and the League of Assassins. Moreover, because Young Damian has been raised to be an assassin, he's already taken human life. Despite agreeing to be placed in the charge of his crusading father, Damian starts out believing that mercy is for weaklings. His slow metamorphosis to a more nuanced humanity is the main point of "Batman and Son."

Understandably, SON could not chart such a gradual change. Yet the solution of the credited writers, James Robinson and Joe R. Lansdale, is to bring in a villain from another series, Deathstroke, who attempts to usurp the League from Ra's and Talia. This forces Talia to place Damian in Batman's hands to keep their son safe, whereas in the comic, Talia has devious ends of her own, which involve her getting access to the "Man-Bat" serum and creating a League of "Ninja Man-Bats," as Morrison terms them. 

The use of Deathstroke as the principal villain served to simplify the dramatic arc, but it also distracted from the nature of the League's evil under Damian's mother and grandfather. While in Bruce's custody Damian is as hot to avenge his apparently-slain grand-pere as any chopsocky protagonist out to get the villains who slew his master. That's all Deathstroke is here, a cardboard villain who takes over Talia's role in the original comics. I'm not one of Deathstroke's many fans, but his normal character is at least a little more interesting than anything in this movie.

Robinson and Lansdale borrow a number of story-elements from the original, but there's no heart to any of their transmutations. The script seems as obsessed with constant action as any 1990s DIE HARD imitation, but there's no real sense of humans being in danger when the villain unleashes his horde of bat-monsters. And the whole thing is depressingly devoid of humor. The script works in one Morrison joke, wherein Damian bugs his sire to let him drive the Batmobile. But one joke's not enough to allay the overall sense of nihilism.

I grade SON with "fair" mythicity only because the story of the Bruce-and-Damian relationship is important to the Bat-mythos of the comic book, and because the routine script does get across a little of that significance. The end-fight between Deathstroke and Damian, garbed as "The Fourth Robin" (not counting those of alternate worlds), is reasonably entertaining. This was one of the first projects in which Jason O'Mara voiced Batman, and I wasn't very impressed, though he may have gotten better later on.