Batman: Hush, the DC Comics/Warner Brothers animated movie became available for digital streaming or downloading today. I learned about the movie about a month ago, and looked forward to buying it because I really enjoyed the multi-issue Hush saga that played out in the Batman comic book series from issue 608-619 back in late 2002 through late 2003. The comic book story arc brought together the writing talents of Jeph Loeb with the legendary art of Jim Lee.

![Batman & Catwoman.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmVBRQiNoHGKhNzcL3jdZA2oezGwXS8FazBhtkxahGGpw7/Batman%20&%20Catwoman.png)

This year long story was epic in that it featured a who's who of Batman rogues—Joker, Riddler, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Killer Croc, Ra's al Ghul, Talia al Ghul, Scarecrow, Clayface and Two-Face—all who end up, as the story unfolds, manipulating each other while they themselves are mere puppets to a mystery figure wrapped in bandages and wearing a trenchcoat—the villain that becomes known as Hush.

Aside from the customary edgy and bone breaking action Batman has become known for, another awesome thing about this storyline is, Batman's detective skills are put to the test. He, too, is being manipulated, along with Superman and others. There are twists and surprises at every turn. I really don't know why it's taken this long for it to become a movie of any kind.

![IMG_0006.PNG](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmRs66BPiUjGdGFLSSUzcoJCXXfj8un2jBiAiEVXmKqe7U/IMG_0006.PNG)

As it is, though, maybe they should have waited a little longer, so they could rethink some decisions and get it right.

Unfortunately, Batman: Hush, the movie, doesn't live up to the comic book series much at all. The elements are there, but the film doesn't take enough time to develop them, or include what I consider to be crucial plot pieces and characters. Why, I'm not entirely sure, other than thinking it would take too long, or be a little too complicated for movie watchers. Otherwise, I have no idea, especially since some of it is major in scope. Like who the villain Hush turns out to be.

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### Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert!
If you're at all interested in watching the animated movie, I would advise skipping this part. Suffice it to say, though, if you've read the story, and thought it was great as is, you probably won't like the way they did this and I might save you time and money. Your choice.

Batman: Hush, the movie, starts out with Bruce Wayne at a gathering of some kind, deftly avoiding speaking with guests while Alfred and Nightwing talk to him via comlink. Alfred is monitoring things from the Batcave while Nightwing is taking on a drug gang with a heroin shipment that he subsequently blows up. While that is happening, Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, joins the party. It is noted she hasn't been stealing anything for 16 months, and Wayne goes to speak with her. You get the idea that Wayne and Kyle have met before, just as Batman and Catwoman have. Except, Wayne knows her secret identity, while she doesn't know his.

While they are talking, we are introduced to Thomas Elliot, a very close childhood friend of Wayne's, whose parents also died when he was younger, his father from injuries in a car accident, later his mother much slower via cancer. Despite their relationship, though, Wayne hasn't seen Elliot in years.

The reunion is interrupted by a call that Bane, another Batman archnemesis, has kidnapped the son of a wealthy Gothamite family, demanding a ransom that his parents are more than willing to pay. Wayne leaves the party, and so does Kyle, after receiving a mysterious text.

![IMG_0007.PNG](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmc6WS8z15viJckBXT9rBm3DrcUuJvzjKaTTkTzstmfLtM/IMG_0007.PNG)

This is all well and good, and would probably be just fine had it actually happened in the comic book. But it didn't. The comic story starts out in the middle of Batman's attempt to free the boy, taking on hired mercenaries in the process. And instead of the kidnapper being Bane, it's Killer Croc. Why the movie makers decided to switch characters, I don't know, other than name recognition. Bane himself has been a rather iconic figure in Batman's life (having broken the hero's back in both the comics and in the third Christopher Nolan film starring Christian Bale).

In my mind, adding a scene and switching characters were unnecessary, regardless of whether or not the viewer is familiar with the source material. The addition and change doesn't enhance the story at all.

Compared to what lies ahead, it's one of the lesser problems Batman: Hush has, but it's still kind of odd as the story is supposed to be a mystery that slowly develops and unravels. As far as the character switch is concerned, it also makes little practical or artistic sense, as the ferocity and desperation of Killer Croc would have been just as easy to put on screen as that of Bane.

Regardless, Batman is immediately suspicious in either case that something isn't quite right with the kidnapping. For Killer Croc in the comic book, he's just not that smart to pull something like that off without help. In the movie, it's too public for Bane, and his banter during their fight isn't up to par with what Batman is used to getting out of the super steroid pumping terrorist.

![IMG_0008.PNG](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmZhwhML3zVBsc9e6doW6QcTRhQZuDa8uNFsPqVTa6Viaq/IMG_0008.PNG)

At that point, the movie more or less realigns itself with the comic book series. Catwoman swoops in and steals the ransom money while Batman is distracted by the authorities, and he goes chasing after her. She flirts with him as they swing around Gotham, and then, out of nowhere, Batman's line is cut. In the comic, you can't really tell how—something whizzes by and severs it—in the movie it's most definitely a bullet. The result is, Batman has nothing to save himself with, other than the head of a Gargoyle on one of the buildings, which breaks under the impact of his fall, and then he hits the pavement farther below, in dreaded Crime Alley.

Here again, the movie switches characters, this time, who aids the immobilized and dying Batman. (He's suffered a head injury, among other things). Instead of Huntress, a fairly complicated and tragic character in her own right, it's Catwoman coming back to see what's happened to Batman, and then being momentarily aided by Batgirl, who then turns on Catwoman. In the comic book, Catwoman is already under the influence of Poison Ivy. In the movie, she is, too, sort of. Apparently, she's not quite as under as others are.

Either way, Batman makes it back to the Batcave to be looked after by Alfred, who though used to binding up wounds and otherwise playing nursemaid, is out of his league when it comes to brain surgery. In the movie, presumably because we're already introduced to Thomas Elliot, who is, by chance, a world renown brain surgeon, Alfred just goes and calls the good doctor. In the comic, Batman manages to tap out Elliot's name using his fingers and Morse code. Way cooler in my opinion.

![IMG_0009.PNG](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmcN46VcLovfecuuXK2ekW3QxZ9DfKv1UaaY76ENEwjYNW/IMG_0009.PNG)

And it goes on. There's the brief battle between Superman and Batman, where in both versions Batman uses Kryptonite to keep Superman at bay, even though Batman suspects that Superman is indeed resisting Poison Ivy. He is able to get Superman to snap out of the trance he's under by having Catwoman capture Lois Lane (or maybe it's Kent, since she and Clark Kent are married at this point), and basically holding her atop the Daily Planet building. Again, the movie makes interesting choices. In the comic, Lois elbows Catwoman, who loses her grip and subsequently Lois falls off the building. In the movie, Catwoman, seeing that Superman isn't reacting to the reporter's plight, ups the ante by shoving her off.

![IMG_0010.PNG](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmVgXNPErTaVeJy9vHa8ioQc3eF7X6QwKjDZn145h3aLgJ/IMG_0010.PNG)

I won't continue and pick apart the editorial choices the movie makes, but suffice it to say, it continues this way, deviating from the story in odd ways before swerving back into it.

While the comic book story delves into things like the family Batman has built up around him—Alfred, multiple Robins, Huntress, and Batgirl turned Oracle (after Joker shot her) and plays up the budding, somewhat complicated dance that is the Batman/Catwoman romance—the movie does little of the former and not enough of the latter. There are motivations in the comic that are lacking in the movie, such as when Batman nearly pummels the Joker to death after believing the clown prince of crime has shot and killed Elliot.

That is particularly troublesome, because inexplicably missing from the movie are a myriad of flashbacks to Wayne's and Elliot's childhood, where we get much more information about Elliot along with misdirection in the comic book. In short, we get to know Elliot, and what he means to Wayne. In the movie, nada. I'm sure there were reasons for that. One is, time. The movie runs 82 minutes, which isn't horribly long, but all of this other could have added another 20 to 30 minutes easily. I wouldn't have minded. The Batman/Hush saga in the comic book is a masterpiece because of the time it took to tell the story. The movie, not so much.

The other, undoubtedly, is the biggest head scratching  decision the movie makers went with—who Hush actually is. In the comic book, you're led carefully down a path. First, you don't know things that are happening are related. Then, when you find that out, you're not very sure who's behind it. Then, as the character Hush shows up here and there, quoting Aristotle and others, he is revealed as different people—Two Face, who has facial reconstruction surgery and is more or less back to being Harvey Dent—and then Jason Todd, who fans will recognize as the second Robin, and the one who was killed by Joker.

In the movie, there are no such twists and turns. There's no Harvey Dent/Two Face, and no Jason Todd. Or even Clayface, pretending to be Jason Todd. Although, Clayface does show up pretending to be someone else. Go figure.

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Also absent is Tim Drake, Robin No. 3, who does make a brief appearance in the comic book, deadset against Batman and Catwoman getting together. In the movie, it's Damian Wayne, a fourth Robin, who tries to advise his father to avoid the whole relationship via a video call.

![IMG_0012.PNG](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmewqn2nJzEbuonmfcbYyyxBBoJVZbse73xCxgaBwMRiAt/IMG_0012.PNG)

So, basically, due to the lack of character development, or including emotional ties to them, the movie falls flat. There's not as much investment in the death of Elliot or in Wayne's grief over it because we really don't know Elliot that well, or just how much Wayne and Elliot meant to each other. Nor do we get all of the introspection that the comic throws at us as it is continuously narrated in first person by Batman/Wayne. We don't know as much about how he feels, or how this walk down memory lane is affecting him. In the comic book, they are all powerful and profound changes that Batman might never otherwise consider. Ironically, all because Hush is trying to make him suffer, watching people he knows and cares for die, get hurt, return from the dead, all the while it's driving him closer and closer to the line he dare not cross—the line of distinction between hero and villain.

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#### In Summary
I can't recommend Batman: Hush, the animated movie. If it had followed the script outlined for it in the comic book series it derives from, it would have been awesome. The opportunities and elements are there. They just aren't taken advantage of and too much is left out or substituted for something else. I don't know if you'll ever watch the movie or read the comic book arc if you haven't done so already, but you'll note that in my spoilers, I did fail to mention who the villain Hush turns out be in either version. I've done that on purpose, just in case.

That little piece of information is the biggest problem, and it's fairly monumental, despite all that is wrong, changed or missing from the movie, that makes all the difference between a masterstroke of storytelling, and what ends up being a so-so Batman story. It's oh so disappointing too, because the animation crew has done such a good job with a lot of the other adaptations of DC comic book stories up to now.

This one seemed like an easy homerun. *Follow the script*. Instead, they just let it get away.

<sub>All images are screenshots from the DC Universe app of the digital versions of Batman Comics 608-619.</sub>