Synopsis
In Batman: Death in the Family and following his death at the hands of Joker, as seen in Batman: Under The Red Hood, Jason returns worse for ware. But instead of taking on the Red Hood persona, this time he takes on a new identity. Hush.
Review
If you’re reading this review you are more-than-likely familiar with the history behind Batman: Death in the Family. The book is synonymous with interactivity having offered fans the chance to keep Jason Todd alive or have him killed at the hands of Joker.
It seems only natural that in looking to bring a new level of interactivity to their animated storytelling, Warner Bros. Animation and DC would look to the same story.
Batman: Death in the Family is undoubtedly an interesting experiment. Taking elements from the original story and spinning them off in new directions and giving the audience control. The film proves especially interesting for fans of Batman: Under the Red Hood by continuing that film’s story.
Much of the footage in Death in the Family is repurposed from Under the Red Hood. Either augmented to include new characters or to update costumes based on different audience choices. But it also means that with the film clocking in at around 30mins in its longest form, there isn’t swathes of new information to take in.
The first, and most obvious, choice comes in deciding Jason’s initial fate. Is he killed by Joker? Saved by Batman? Or coincidentally survive the explosion which was mean to take his life? Two of those decision leads to rather swift but enticing endings for poor Jason, the third option opens the door to a wealth of imaginative storytelling.
All-in-all Batman: Death in the Family features seven different endings. Along the way there are a number of other choices which can influence the ultimate outcome.
Highlight endings include Jason becoming Hush, tying back in to an original fake-out from the Batman: Hush comic. It’s a dark path for Jason but if there’s an ultimate lesson from this film it’s that Jason’s path is rarely a happy one.
The lightest outcome comes in the form of Red Robin. With Tim Drake still ultimately being the one to help save Jason from his darkness. That particular ending feels like one which could have plenty more Elseworlds-mileage for future stories.
There will undoubtedly be those who feel the 30mins-or-under runtime is too short. But given this is both WB and DC’s first foray into interactive storytelling it feels like to experiment in the short-form rather than in a full length feature.
The investment here isn’t in crafting an overly long, complicated narrative which sprawls out across hours of potential branches. Instead WB has clever invested in its technological development, exploring new ways of immersive storytelling which can open up the DC Universe to its audience.
Verdict
Batman: Death in the Family is a thought provoking experiment with a DC story already synonymous with interactivity.
Batman: Death in the Family brings back the Under The Red Hood voice cast including Bruce Greenwood, John DiMaggio and Vincent Martella. Also starring are Zehra Fazal and Gary Cole.
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