We’re doing another Batman Month here at the Museum of Schlock. After all, September 19th is Batman Day. We won’t be going for the obvious, big screen adaptations and will instead settle for small screen oddities in animated form. After all, the definitive Batman for me will always be the one I first saw in the fall of 1994 in the form of Batman: The Animated Series. For others, it’s Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy. Tonight’s entry kind of has a relation to those movies, but not really. We don’t get Christian Bale as the voice of Batman, but Kevin Conroy fills in so no complaints there.

2008’s Batman: Gotham Knight is an animated anthology featuring shorts from the top talent of Japan. I suppose Warner Bros. had intended this to be a bridge movie between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight in much the same way The Animatrix was the bridge between The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded. Gotham is still reeling from the loss of “The Narrows” at the end of Batman Begins, a result of the Scarecrow’s fear toxin utilized by Ra’s al Ghul and the League of Shadows to destroy Gotham City by driving the populace mad. Russian and Italian Mobs fight for dominance in the aftermath with Batman and Lieutenant James Gordon trying to contain the chaos.

Our first short is Have I Got a Story for You and features a group of skater punks recounting their encounters with the Batman. We see Batman as a shapeshifting phantom, a giant bat creature, a robot, etc. These character designs remind me of ones I saw in the anime classic Tekkonkinkreet which makes sense as they were both made by Studio 4°C. The next short is Crossfire where we see how two young detectives of the Gotham PD, Crispus Allen and Anna Ramirez, view Batman. Crispus wants to leave the police department due to Jim Gordon’s partnering with a vigilante while Anna defends the Batman. After they’re caught in a deadly shootout between Russian and Italian gangsters, they meet the Batman in person. 

Field Test involves Bruce Wayne testing out a bullet deflecting device created by Lucius Fox of Wayne Industries. As Batman, this device keeps the bullets from hitting him, but when one of those bullets hits a gangster, he vows never to use it again. We finally get some Batman villains in the fourth short, In Darkness Dwells, in the form of Killer Croc and the Scarecrow. There’s a scene of Killer Croc trying to eat Batman followed by a scene of the Scarecrow and his crazed followers putting a cardinal on trial because he helped the homeless and downtrodden. And it all takes place in Gotham’s sewers so it’s like Batman is descending into hell. Great short!

The next short, Working Through Pain, begins with a wounded Batman still wandering around in the Gotham sewers dealing with a knife wound and reflecting back on his time in India where he learned techniques for dealing with pain. The highlight of this collection is the final short, Deadshot, featuring the sadistic assassin of the same name. He’s seemingly hired by the Russian mob to take out Jim Gordon. Batman prevents the assassination of the police lieutenant only for it to be revealed that Batman is the true target. We get an incredible final fight between Batman and Deadshot atop a moving train. Truly the highlight of this collection. 

I think I dismissed Batman: Gotham Knight back in the day due to it being overshadowed by Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, but taken on its own merits, the movie stands on its own. It’s certainly better than many of the animated Batman offerings we’ve received in recent years.

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, episode284, episode 441, episode 442, episode 443,episode 444, episode 450,episode 477, episode 491, episode 492,episode 493, episode 495, episode 496, episode 545, episode 546, episode 547, episode 548, episode 549, episode 575, episode 596, episode 597, episode 598, episode 599, episode 642, episode 643,episode 644, episode 645, episode 670, episode 686, episode 687,  688, and 689) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.