Batman vs. Robin

Dir: Jay Oliva

2015

****

While I wasn't overly keen on Son of Batman, I thought there was much more to its sequel. It's a direct follow up to the Grant Morrison adaptation but it is based on Batman: The Court of Owls written by Scott Snyder and illustrated by Greg Capullo and Jonathan Glapion. Jason O'Mara (Batman), Stuart Allan (Damian Wayne/Robin), Sean Maher (Dick Grayson/Knightwing) and David McCallum (Alfred) return for voice acting duties and are joined by voice over veteran Troy Baker as well as Jeremy Sisto and 'Weird Al' Yankovic. The mighty Kevin Conroy voice cameos as Thomas Wayne in a couple of flashbacks, which is a nice touch for fans. Both Jeremy Sisto and 'Weird Al' Yankovic turn out to be presently surprising and Yankovic's version of The Dollmaker is by far the best I've seen across all of the comics and games he has appeared in. Much like Ethan Spaulding's Son of Batman, this animated story arc is unashamedly violent and all the better for it, but Batman vs. Robin takes it to a much higher level. Father and son really do go at it together and the fight between the new and old Robin is also rather brutal but it isn't just the action that is brutal. The very idea behind the story, of secret societies and ultra-conservatism is pretty serious stuff compared to most DC animations. Talon kills without any sense of regret and the young Son of Batman is tempted to follow suit, The Dollmaker kills kids and wears a child's face and Batman is stabbed repeatedly by various undead soldiers. It's pretty awesome really, something the live action DC films could learn from. The character of Damian Wayne is still fairly annoying if I'm being honest but he has purpose and is a little more complex than most comic characters. The script is also refreshingly grown up, with some of the lines being far more killer than most of the punches. Overall it's a breath of fresh air as far as DC animations go.