I will admit to not paying close attention to the press release. When Batman: bad Blood arrived I had two simultaneous thoughts. The first was this would feature a vampiric storyline with the other being the Taylor Swift song. Neither proved correct.
The film opens with a good action sequence as Huntress and Batman battle a group of criminals that includes Firefly and Killer Moth. Things do not go as expected as somebody new enters the fray. The story picks p a few weeks later as Batman has gone missing. Nightwing is called in to take up the mantle as Batman, Damien Wayne shows up from his “boarding school” and it turns out this isn’t Huntress, but a new hero on the scene – Batwoman.
Investigating the disappearance to the city’s guardian as well as trying to keep up appearances we find a new villain is in charge, and he is bigger and badder than any of them. Turns out there is another pulling the strings from behind the scenes.
As if Nightwing (as Batman), Robin and Batwoman weren’t enough, we get Lucius Fox’s son joining the fray as well.
Family plays a major role in both the overall plot as well as the inter-character sub-text. This is where the title Bad Blood comes in. What we get is a story that looks to examine Batman’s definition of family, highlighting primarily his fear of loss. And because of this it isn’t necessarily a Batman story as it is about his “supporting” cast.
Special features are pretty good. There is a fearuette discussing the choreography of an animated Batman fight. This runs about 25 minutes and covers quite a bit of ground. “Expanding The Batman Family” is another featurette which, well, discusses the various members of the Batman family and the history those characters. Other special features include a few episodes of animated series and a “sneak peek” at the upcoming Justice League vs Teen Titans.
Batman: Bad Blood is a pretty good story with the expected caliber of animated flash and “wow” we have come to expect.