When Batman goes missing, it will take the entire Bat “family” – including new additions Batwoman and Batwing – to keep the peace in Gotham City and unravel the mystery behind the Dark Knight’s disappearance in “Batman: Bad Blood.”

Batman Bad Blood is the latest animated film in what is known to be DC’s best attempt at turning their characters into film. Batman Bad Blood has a great great start and picks up where Batman Vs Robin left off but shortly after the introduction things begin to falters due to predictable tropes. The movie introduces and reintroduces us to the cast in a great way even giving us our first look at Batwoman in the animated films but not to be outdone on the hero side we also get Heretic, a genetically altered clone of Damian, as well as Talia Al Ghul. The way these characters were introduced in the comics is sure to have expectations, and excitement, pretty high for fans especially since DC has earned our confidence with their animated endeavors. Things take a pretty odd turn in the movie and… well…

The film does a pretty bad job at handling its characters. Batman himself is completely lost in this film as he’s punk’d early on and uses an embarassing McGuffin for the film. Batwoman is little more than an interchangeable body to bolster the listing of heroes involved and could have easily been replaced with Batgirl since the movie did nothing to fully differentiate her from other bat characters other than her use of guns. Same thing with Batwing as his introduction and his interactions with the other characters is completely stale and uninteresting from beginning to end. He was simply a poor man’s Tony Stark.

If Batman goes missing you mean to tell me that Dick Grayson would be the only person to show up? No Tim Drake? No Red Hood? This movie is a loose mash up of of the comic story lines Battle for the Cowl, Batman Inc, with a bit of the 3rd volume of Batman and Robin mixed in but its not really handled that great. Where’s the reaction to a missing Batman from Alfred and Damian? These are 2 people who are intricate in Bruce’s life and these two not showing proper time to react is frustrating.

Grayson actually is showcased and handled pretty well. His character received the best attention as the writers actually show depth and understanding of his character given the circumstances. His banter with Damian is some of the best moments in this film. I absolutely would love to have the film end with these two sticking together for a bit more time as Batman and Robin as I think there’s more than a few fun story lines further movies could have been transferred to these DC films.