ANI-MOVIES, *Son Of Batman

As part of the New 52 line-up of the DC Universe animated movies, Son Of Batman is based on the story arc, Batman And Son, but also part of this ongoing continuity. Although it brings to the table since the Justice League just formed, this story has Batman being around long enough to have a kid.

Ra's al Ghul is watching over his ninjas training in their mountain stronghold, when the League of Assassins(not "Shadows")gets raided by some heavily-armed attackers lead by Deathstroke. This version of Slade doesn't have superpowers, and here was trained to be Ra's al Ghul's successor, but was cast out. Unknown to him was that Ra's daughter Talia had a son named Damien after a past encounter of with Batman. Talia manages to escape with Damian leaving Ra's to die(for the last time?), and she takes him to meet his father. Batman at first has trouble accepting Damian's superior attitude, despite the fact that the little creep spent his whole youth being groomed to the ultimate warrior. Damian wants to find and kill Deathstroke, but Batman won't allow him to commit murder. Deathstroke meanwhile has captured the family of former Man-Bat, Kirk Langstrom, in order to create an army of ninja Man-Bats, as well as keeping Talia prisoner. Nightwing joins the ranks after nearly getting his butt handed to him by Damian, who now has taken up the mantle of Robin, although its hinted that he's only the second one to take on the title. After rescuing Langstrom's family, the Damian seperates from Batman to Deathstroke's hidden headquarters, an offshore oil rig with an underwater lair near a Lazarus Pit where he's keeping all his new Man-Bat ninjas. Batman rescues Talia, but not before she is shot by Deathstroke, so he revives her with the Lazarus Pit while Robin fights Deathstroke to the death, although Slade is dowsed with chemicals before apparently drowning so he might return with enhanced strength in future DC Universe installments. Damian decides to stay with Batman and be the new Robin with Talia leaving him so she can rebuild the League of Assassins.

This feature had some ecstatic fight scenes in it highlighting what a skilled ninja Damian was raised to be, plus some quality animation, although you see how much better Under The Red Hood was in comparison. The main problem with this though is the inclusion of Deathstroke as the main antagonist, where he wasn't even in the original comic and has no connection with the League of Assassins, when he could have easily have been replaced with a character like Bane or Sensei who actually had ties to Ra's al Ghul, like Deathstroke is just some character from the DC Comics roster to fill a spot when you need some ass-kicking ruthless merc. Aside from that, Son Of Batman definately has a place in the Batman animated movie pantheon, and is one worth keeping.