Batman: Hush (2019)

Batman: Hush (2019)

Dir. Justin Copeland

I'm surely not the only person who wishes that WB and DC would stop doing direct adaptations of existing comic book story arcs and instead focus on creating more original animations. There's plenty of writers who'd be willing to submit something unique.

I read Hush years ago in its first TPB format. Jim Lee's artwork was excellent, but I've had no desire to experience the story again, such was my feelings for it. The animation didn't reverse that decision.

The premise is that an unknown antagonist, the titular Hush, whose face is bandaged to conceal his identity, hopes to destroy Batman from afar by targeting people close to him and by manipulating the other supervillains to work strategically against him.

It's another story that hopes adding more villains will distract from the lack of interesting ideas. The following is probably spoiler, so don't read further if that's a problem for you: on the side of wicked are Bane, Lady Shiva, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Joker, Amanda Waller, The Riddler, Scarecrow, and Clayface, some of whom have little more than a cameo appearance. Plus, seen but not heard are Penguin, Two-Face, and Mr Freeze.

Catwoman (Jennifer Morrison) features, too, but her role is more significant. She's a focus for sexual attraction, but, alas, very little of the more useful literary tool: sexual tension. She's also moody and sweary, which is a weak substitute for mature and adult.

If you want to experience the story and don't like reading, it would probably suffice, but be aware that there's some major changes to how things played out in the original text.

On the plus side, I felt that Jason O'Mara as Bruce Wayne/Batman did better than usual.

- The titular Hush, showing off his favourite DC Comics trading card. -

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