You have to hand it to the folks in charge of cranking out movies and TV shows based on DC Comics characters: They may oversaturate the market with Batman, resulting in near-infinite iterations and continuities running at once, but at least they’re not precious about their marquee hero. For every grim-faced cinematic incarnation of the Caped Crusader from the past decade, there seems to be an animated project dedicated to an affectionate mockery of that same image.
In parallel with Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, and Robert Pattinson playing Batman on the big screen, younger fans have seen him portrayed as a pompous egomaniac (The Lego Batman Movie), a doofus silently frolicking with Commissioner Gordon (Teen Titans Go!), and now, in the straight-to-streaming animated feature Merry Little Batman, a doting and overprotective father voiced by Luke Wilson—a charming actor, but no one’s idea of an imposingly tormented soul.
This Batman may talk of his newly grown beard “upping [his] intimidation game,” but he’s actually let his facial hair grow out because he barely spends any time patrolling the streets of Gotham City anymore. We learn that following the birth of his son, Damian—whose mom, the sorta-supervillain Talia al Ghul, remains offscreen—Bruce Wayne decided to work overtime to clean up Gotham so that he could focus more on his fatherly duties. As a result, he now resides in the safest city in the world,though this doesn’t stop eight-year-old Damian (Yonas Kibreab) from daydreaming about joining his father for superheroic adventures.
