Damian Wayne is back in the ‘Son of Batman’ Blu-ray

One of the biggest disappointments in the movie is that they didn’t add more beloved characters to interact with Damian. If the movie has Nightwing and Jim Gordon, they could have also added in other Gotham characters. Like Tim Drake. Or Oracle. Or Stephanie Brown. Or Oracle. Okay, mostly I want to see Nightwing and Oracle in a movie together — is that so much to ask? Even a mention, for Pete’s sake. There was a moment when Bruce could have mentioned Barbara as one of the people who help him keep his perspective, but he doesn’t mention anyone but Dick and Alfred by name. Beyond not mentioning my favorite DC characters, they also didn’t bring up any of the other Robins. Even when Damian looks at the old costumes Batman has in cases in the Batcave, they only show Dick’s old suit. It just seems odd that they almost went out of their way to not include these characters.

As far as the visuals, most of the characters designs are good (there’s a featurette in the extras about the art style) but Talia’s is … frustrating. It’s the costume. The apparently braless but cleavage-filled costume. And it’s not that her outfit can show cleavage that’s the problem. For instance, the dress she wears later to talk to Bruce has cleavage but it’s makes sense because she’s trying to be alluring to her former lover. For Talia’s main outfit that she actually fights people in, it shows cleavage for no reason other than to make the straight male audience go “Oh look, she has big boobs!” There’s this part towards the beginning where Damian is trying to get Ra’s corpse into the Lazarus Pit and you see a long shot of Talia trying to figure out how she’s going to tell Damian that it’s too late. It’s supposed to be this heartbreaking moment between mother and son and instead I’m thinking “Man, is that still a terrible design.” And then every shot of her trying to comfort Damian at the body of her father is centered around the cleavage. Sorry, but it’s pointless and distracting.

While it’s not my favorite DC movie from Warner Bros. Animation, Son of Batman is worth a watch for anyone who loves Damian Wayne. The plot itself isn’t anything to write home about and even a bit of a mess, but his interactions with Bruce, Dick and Alfred are a treat for fans of the character. Here’s hoping we see more of him in the animated movies, if not the comics themselves.

Besides the character design featurette, the extras include a couple videos about Damian and the League of Assassin as they are in the comics (Grant Morrison does some interviews for it) as well as some trailers for WB licenses. The highlight of the extras is the look at the upcoming animated feature Batman: Assault on Arkham, which is a prequel story to the Arkham games featuring CCH Pounder reprising her role as Amanda Waller and Kevin Conroy back again as Batman. It going to feature the Suicide Squad and looks like serious fun. Oh, and if you did buy Son of Batman for your kids thinking it was a kid-friendly movie, you can at least show them the four episodes Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond and Batman: The Brave and the Bold they put in the extras.