Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham (2023)

Doom as in Dr. Doom, I presume...?

I presumed wrong! Whatever I could've presumed would've been wrong. This wasn't like any Batman movie I'd seen before - atmosphere-wise a little reminiscent of Gotham by Gaslight maybe - but story-wise it's a new take entirely on the franchise you know and love.

The sins of the father are heaped upon the son...

That's the root of it all.

In the cast list you'll find new variants of most iconic Batman characters of old. Penguin, Poison Ivy, Robin, Harvey... so many are there in a new form. Some that were good are now bad. Some vice versa. Some you won't recognize - at least I'm pretty sure I'm missing a bundle.

On the one hand I'm not a huge fan of spin-off's like this, in that they provide an endless opportunity to build upon worlds that already exist with a pre-existing base of fans that'll be there for each one, even if they don't stay true to their origins at all, that'll appreciate the content even if it's sub-par just because they love the franchise. But on the other hand it's definitely more fun when a franchise tries something new - ties to the old though it may have - than to know what to expect from the getgo.

Except maybe just that it'll be grand and unpredictable.

The story's good. The atmosphere's great. It's chaotic, but it does come full circle, and as a fan of the franchise... it's just fun! It's new. It's different. It's a little all over the place and lacking character depth and continuity but it's also wholesome and - since it is a spin-off - conclusive.

I like the supernatural element too. The mystery. The characters.

These spin-off's really are a lot of fun to watch. Each one a new adventure entirely. It's like reliving the original again and again, in a way.

It may not be all perfect but: refreshing. And rich. In atmosphere, characters and variation.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle