When Batman dropped the four-part “A Death In The Family” from Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo in 1988, fans were given a say in how the story would unfold. In this story, Jason Todd aka Robin would be kidnapped by Joker while in pursuit of a reunion with his birth mother. Fans were provided with a 900-number which they could call and vote whether or not Robin would survive his encounter with The Clown Prince of Crime. If you somehow have avoided this spoiler for the last thirty years and don’t want to know the outcome, skip the next sentence. Audiences proved to be bloodthirsty by voting to have Todd die in the end, which has left it with the legacy as one of the landmark stories in the Batman canon. Ten years after Batman: Under The Red Hood touched upon similar territory, director Brandon Vietti is giving fans a similar choose-your-own-adventure experience with his latest DC Showcase – Batman: Death In The Family.
Batman: Death In The Family uses Batman: Under The Red Hood as a baseline story to give audiences a new experience. This new project uses some selected scenes from the original film with additional material to shape this into something new. In this new showcase, the murder of Jason Todd has been undone and you get on board for the story until you reach the pivotal moment where you can choose whether or not Jason lives or dies, the consequence of which takes you on very different paths that involves characters previously unseen in Batman: Under The Red Hood. Using your remote, you are given a series of choices that can lead up to seven different endings. Depending on how you choose, the experience can last anywhere from 18-31 minutes, or about an hour-and-a-half if you go through all of the different options. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment did an excellent job with handling the implementation of the interactive elements. When I got to the end of my first journey, I was dreading having to go back and find my way to the splitting point, but a handy menu pops up when you have reached the credits where you can jump back to any point where you made a choice.
Given the brief nature of the content and the fluid nature of how the story will unfold for each person, I am not going to give a thorough examination of the plot choices. There are a lot of fun developments to discover, and it is not my place to spoil any surprises. What I will say is this story offers up a lot of thrills in a way that is wildly entertaining. It is a gimmick, but one that feels very satisfying. My only complaint is that, as far as I can tell, there is no way to access a non-interactive version of the story without audio commentary outside of the included digital copy. It just feels like a wasted opportunity to not include that on disc in case you want to be lazy and experience the story without a remote in your hand. I personally chose to go through the story by choosing all of the left arrow choices first before going back and experiencing all the right arrow choices. For maximum enjoyment, I would say leave the choice to let Jason die for your final run through, as I feel that is the most satisfying and poignant note to close on. But, hey, it is your journey, and you get to experience it however you want! A lot of people have gone digital only in recent years, but you are really going to want to pick up a physical copy of the Blu-Ray to experience this story how it was intended.
Video Quality
Batman: Death In The Family comes to Blu-Ray with a stunning and vibrant 1080p transfer. This may be a darker tale, but the colors present in this transfer are practically leaping off the screen with the wide range of hues permeating the frame. Black levels are incredibly strong with no hint of compression artifacts or digital anomalies of the sort. The textures, from the character designs to the environments, are extremely impressive and give the film a real sense of depth. There is some slight banding when faced with harsher gradients. One of the areas where the film really shines is the fluidity of the character designs. The subtle touches that are added to each individual is quite striking. The level of detail these animators put into each environment shines through here. This is simply a beautiful looking Blu-Ray presentation.
Audio Quality
This release boasts a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that more than gets a workout during this kinetic film. There is an immense amount of activity in the low-end which will cause your room to shake pretty consistently throughout this presentation. Dialogue is often accompanied by a heroic score from Christopher Drake or all manner of sound effects, but all of the information comes through clearly without getting muddied. The track engages all of the channels with panning effects and sounds of explosions that really makes you feel like you are in the thick of the action. Warner Bros. knew what they were doing with this track, so those with a good surround sound setup will be more than pleased.
Special Features
- Additional Shorts
- Sgt. Rock: A fifteen-minute animated short focusing on the character of Sgt. Rock. We meet the character as he is sustaining terrible injuries during an attack on his squadron. Upon his recovery, Sgt. Rock teams up with the Creature Commandos to capture a German Nazi scientist. This one is a lot of fun and is filled with great action. This short was originally featured as a bonus feature on Batman: Hush.
- Adam Strange: A sixteen-minute animated short focusing on the character of Adam Strange. We meet him during a particularly rough time on an asteroid mining colony with flashbacks to better days used to flesh out the character. It’s a solid science-fiction tale that shines a light on a character that would not have gotten the opportunity otherwise. This short was originally featured as a bonus feature on Justice League Dark: Apokolips War.
- The Phantom Stranger: A fifteen-minute animated short focusing on the character of The Phantom Stranger. This short feels quite a bit different from the others, as the beginning almost makes you feel like you are in an episode of Scooby-Doo, but by the end you feel like you are in Once Upon A Time In…Hollywood. Peter Serafinowicz does an excellent job voicing our hero with his very distinctive voice. You have to love cults getting taken down. This short was originally featured as a bonus feature on Superman: Red Son.
- Death: A nineteen-minute animated short focusing on the character of Death from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series. This is a very poignant story of Death helping a young artist named Vincent face his demons. This is the perfect use of the DC Showcase line, and it makes for an essential viewing on this disc. This short was originally featured as a bonus feature on Wonder Woman: Bloodlines.
- Audio Commentary: Amy Dallen and Hector Navarro, both former contributors to DC Daily, offer all new insights to the standard linear version of Batman: Death In The Family, as well as the four additional shorts. These two are true comic book fans with a wealth of knowledge that they share including history on the original Death In The Family run, the voice cast, background on some of the more obscure characters and more. This addition is an incredible resource for those who do not have as deep of a knowledge on the history and minor characters from DC.
Final Thoughts
Brandon Vietti’s expansion of the “Death In The Family” storyline is truly a blast to experience in this unique format. While not a new concept in general, the interactive element in play on this disc has not been widely implemented on the home video format. If you were going to forego a digital-only purchase of only one title, make it this one. It is so worth it to pick up the Blu-Ray where you can make these choices for yourself. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has served up a top notch A/V presentation and some fantastic extra shorts to make this set even more worthwhile. If you are a Batman fan, do not hesitate to pick up a physical copy. Highly Recommended
DC Showcase – Batman: Death In The Family will be available to purchase on Blu-Ray and Digital on October 13, 2020.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
