ANI-MOVIES, *Batman: Soul Of The Dragon

Meant to be another original in the long line of DC Universe Animated titles diving into the Elseworlds labels, Batman: Soul Of The Demom is an homage to the Bronze Age works of Dennis O'Neil, specifically the Richard Dragon: Kung Fu Fighter comic, largeley inspired by chopsocky and blaxploitation movies. Marvel Comics gained popularity with this in the 70s when they created their mashup series, Power Man/Iron Fist, but alot of elements from the Richard Dragon comic went on to create long lasting martial arts characters in the DC Universe like Bronze Tiger and Lady Shiva. The movie also reflects on O'Neil's more serious approach to the Batman comics which tried to drive away from the more campy years of the Adam West era.

Set in the 1970a, Richard Dragon is a secret agent who makes James Bond-styled entrances, and shared a martial arts school in the Asain mountains years before along young Bruce Wayne, Shiva, Ben Turner(aka: Bronze Tiger), plus earlier incarnations if DC regulars: Judomaster and Cheshire. Their teacher is O-Sensei, and passes his fighting techniques on to them, including the responsiblity of watching over an ancient Muramasa sword. The sword is actually the key to opening up a door to a dimension of snake demons, ruled over by the evil god Naga, of which O-Sensei sacrifices himself to seal the rift. Richard travels to Gotham City so he can enlist Bruce Wayne's help, thus revealing his secret identity of Batman. The two of them go to Lady Shiva's underground tournament stadium, where a criminal originzation also arrives to steal the sword. Richard, Bruce, and Shiva now hook up with Ben to raid the bad guys stronghold, lead by the snake cult leader Kobra(one of the first comic book villains to get their own series!). The four fighters along with Bruce in his Batman gear break into Kobra's lair, and fight their two best fighters, King Snake(secretly Bane's real father) and Lady Eve, as they make their way to a final confrontation with the powerful Naga, with a surprise ending.

The full movie has several flashback scenes in it, meant to honor the old Kung Fu TV series. The casting is above average with Michael Jai-White reprising his Arrowverse role of Bronze Tiger, Kelly Hu coming back to voice Lady Shiva from Batman: Arkham Origins, plus cult movie legend James Hong playing both a good guy and bad guy in the dual role of O-Sensei. The animation is above that done in the previous DC Universe release of Superman: Man Of Tomorrow, but the style of the movie really appeals to fans of 1970s action cinema. For an Elseworlds-themed movie, Soul Of The Dragon makes for an amazing view of a largley underappreciated corner of the DC Universe.