This Overlooked Batman Animated Movie Pitted Him Against Jack The Ripper

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Where Marvel Comics has "What If...?", DC Comics has Elseworlds, which takes DC heroes and reimagines them in different time periods, different genres, etc. In Elseworlds, the Justice League can become cowboys, Superman can be raised in the Soviet Union, and Batman can fight Dracula.

Elseworlds goes back to 1989 and kicked off with "Batman: Gotham By Gaslight." Written by Brian Augustyn and drawn by Mike Mignola (five years before he'd leave Batman behind for his own baby, Hellboy), "Gotham By Gaslight" throws the Dark Knight back 100 years, revealing what would happen if Bruce Wayne was Batman in the 1880s. Among other things, it turns out, he'd battle Jack the Ripper rather than Jack Napier.

The comic opens with a letter titled "From Hell," which was authored for the book by Robert Bloch and named for the letter the real Jack the Ripper sent to the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee. This letter is supposedly a second edition for the Ripper to let Gothamites know he's begun over in their midst.

Batman period pieces often go back to the early 20th century, when Batman first debuted in the pages of "Detective Comics." (See the recent "Batman: Caped Crusader" cartoon and several other Batman comics). "Gotham By Gaslight" looks back even further to the late industrial revolution, because that's the beginning of cities like Gotham as we understand them. Mignola also redesigns Batman's costume, turning the cape into a collared trench coat. His heavily-shaded gothic style (the black ink being brought out by inker P. Craig Russell and colorist David Hornung) is perfect for the foggy 19th century Gotham. It truly looks like a city lit by gaslight.

Like many popular DC comics, "Gotham By Gaslight" eventually became an animated feature in 2018. Directed by Sam Liu, the film was executive produced by Bruce Timm, the co-creator of "Batman: The Animated Series," and uses his distinctive art style. Subtle details to character designs, like the sideburns on Bruce Wayne (Bruce Greenwood), sell the period setting. There are plenty of other Timm flourishes, too (Poison Ivy is reimagined as a burlesque belly dancer), with the animated "Gotham By Gaslight" making changes aplenty.

"Gotham By Gaslight" the comic is only 48 pages long. There have been sequels, but to get the movie adaptation up to 75 minutes, there were always going to be changes.

Yet, from the onset, the animated film actually cuts some material to skip over Batman's origin. "Gotham By Gaslight" opens with a greyscale flashback to the Wayne murders (reimagined as a highway robbery), then smash cuts to 1889 Vienna. Bruce Wayne is recounting the story of his parents' murder, and how he saw bats fly in the moonlight, to Dr. Sigmund Freud. It's a blatant historical allusion, sure, but not too clever by half. Think about it; Bruce Wayne's backstory is that he traveled all over the world, learning from criminology experts and martial artists to become Batman. If his quest began in the 1880s, then surely Freud would be one of the men he'd seek out to teach him, no?

The comic moves onto Bruce Wayne returning to Gotham to begin his war on crime. "Gotham By Gaslight" evokes Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's "Batman: Year One" in its early pages, and both comics feature narration by way of a journal that Bruce Wayne keeps. ("Gotham By Gaslights" adds in-universe newspaper clippings about Batman and the Ripper layered over images.)

DC Comics

The comic suggests that the Ripper's real London killings happened first, then he too came across the pond like Bruce. The movie instead embraces alternate history and suggests that Jack the Ripper was always a scourge of Gotham City.

The film begins in media res; Batman is already prowling the streets at night and hunting the Ripper. To buff up the runtime, the movie adds to the supporting cast. The first three Robins — Dick Grayson (Lincoln Melcher), Jason Todd (Grey DeLisle), and Tim Drake (Tara Strong) — are reimagined as orphan pickpockets right out of "Oliver Twist."

Selina Kyle (Jennifer Carpenter) is also added to the animated movie as the story's co-lead. She's depicted as a nightclub singer and daughter of a lion tamer (hence her whip) who is also out to stop the Ripper. Joining Batman, she becomes Bruce Wayne's confidante and lover, as usual. Selina is a strong addition to the story; the Ripper's targets (in both the movie and reality) were street working women, so it makes sense to include one of them as the hero. Carpenter is also strong in the part, performing with sultry edge and class too.

Watching "Batman: Gotham By Gaslight," one is reminded of not only the original comic but also another beloved Bat-picture: "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" (directed by Timm and Eric Radomski). In both movies, Batman is mistaken for the killer, there's a set piece involving a wounded Batman being cornered by police and rescued by his love interest, and the climax takes place at a World's Fair.

Then there's the biggest change: the identity of the Ripper. In the comic, they turn out to be Jacob Packer, an old friend of Thomas Wayne's who fell for Martha, was rejected, and had his friends assassinated in spite. In the movie? It's Commissioner James Gordon (Scott Patterson). The killer being someone close to Bruce hits harder in the film because it's a character we're inclined to trust. The twist also flips Gordon's persona as the one good cop in Gotham on its head. He wants to "clean up" the city's corruption, but "corruption" to him means sex workers and other "loose women."

Another sign this isn't your dad's Batman? Gordon dies by immolation in full view, onscreen, compared to Packer only being shot in the comic. The fiery climax of "Batman: Gotham by Gaslight" may not be the ending the comic had, but it's still a must-watch (and/or must-read) for all Bat-fans out there.