As the title implies, the story places Bruce Wayne/Batman (voiced by Bruce Greenwood) in an alternate past, in 1889 Victorian Age Gotham City to be exact, with the Dark Knight investigating a Jack the Ripper resurgence.
Selina Kyle (Jennifer Carpenter) plays a significant part in the sinister journey, and there's a swell fight scene between Batman and the Ripper inside a dirigible as it floats over the city. However, the real suspense lies in unmasking of the Ripper's identity.
And so, who might the fiend be among Batman's many rogues?That's where the story becomes tricky and perhaps for some, jarring, as it takes Augustyn's concept down a different stretch. Even in its revisionist form, one might assume the sadistic culprit to be the Joker, the Scarecrow or Mad Hatter, but in this parallel track, the Ripper turns out to be one of Batman's closest allies. (No, it's not Anthony Head's Alfred, though the butler-did-it angle would have been a wry nod to such tongue-in-cheek referencing.)
Because of the revelation, I can only say, I'm glad this story is relegated to its own alternate-reality/Elseworld landscape, but at the same time, I can't help but get upset whenever good is exposed as bad, even if the revelation surfaces within a sideline niche.
What rescues "Gotham by Gaslight" from its depressing unveiling is its stylish execution. This is one of the best looking, animated Batman films to come down the pike: a wonderfully weird antithesis to those excellent, colorful "Batman '66" sequels, which plays in the lurid style of Hammer Studios (think "Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde" meets "Hands of the Ripper" with some nifty steampunk laced in). It also mirrors the "The Killing Joke" and "Mask of the Phantasm" in its pensive pacing.
To enhance the film's brooding mystique, Selina is enormously alluring, with a deep, determined charm that better fits royalty than criminality. Her support of our hero is more defined (therefore, secure) in this story line, but it never impedes upon the detective's proceedings. If anything, Selina is more like a potential Emma Peel than the Catwoman and offers her own brand of Watson-esque, inquiry. Though she doesn't come anywhere near her traditional Gotham guise, for the sake of this particular vision, her reserved position is a benefit, since the story already holds enough eccentric personas, including an exotic-dancing Poison Ivy and a trio of street-thugging Robins.
On the whole, I must commend this adaptation's ambition. Like its graphic-novel source material, it takes Batman in a unique direction and yet stays faithful to his mythology, regardless of the Victorian decor and of course, the bold reinterpretation of one of his traditional defenders. (For the record, there are additional, old-era/Elsewhere Batman stories in print, and to see animated versions where he teams with Harry Houdini or enters the Civil War would be beyond dandy, though only as long as the translations don't get too cute or daring in their re-interpretive designs. Batman should always be Batman, no matter what the designation.)
"Gotham by Gaslight" is now available via DVD/Blu-ray and pay-per-view.
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