DC Studios has given fans the first look at the DCU's Batman in the penultimate episode of Creature Commandos, giving even Doctor Phosphorus a scare.
The raunchy animated series has already given fans a glimpse of future DCU characters like Wonder Woman, albeit as corpses, but that hasn't stopped fans from getting excited by their impending reintroduction.
Recent rumors have teased the possibility of Matt Reeves' The Batman franchise being folded into the DCU. However, the latest episode of Creature Commandos could prove those rumors false in the face of a scarier Batman fighting supervillains like Doctor Phosphorus.
First (Living) Look at the DCU's Batman
In Episode 6 of Creature Commandos, "Priyatel Skelet," fans were shown the origins of Alexander Sartorius, aka Doctor Phosphorus, which included the first look at the DCU's Batman.
After Doctor Phosphorus killed Gotham mob boss Rupert Thorne for the death of his family, he took over his illegal operations, becoming the newest superpowered crime lord in Gotham. He even had his own costume-coordinated goons to complete the look.
Unfortunately for Phosphorus, his crime spree ended when Batman finally caught up with him and took him down. Thankfully, it gave fans the best look yet at this universe's considerably bulkier Batman, who appears to have his classic utility belt.
However, not much else can be gleaned from this silhouette, which was by design according to James Gunn in an interview with Rotten Tomatoes. He jokingly expressed that he wasn't "ready to commit" yet to Batman's look and to have him in "more silhouette:"
"When they first showed the episode to me, there was a lot more Batman. And I said, 'I'm not ready to commit to that... more silhouette!'"
The last time Batman was in silhouette in Creature Commandos was when he briefly appeared as a corpse in Circe's vision alongside David Corenswet’s Superman in Episode 4, "Chasing Squirrels."
His cape intentionally obscured much of his design in the vision, other than his square jawline and pointy ears. But this vision did include Damian Wayne's Robin, who was conspicuously absent when Batman apprehended Phosphorus.
Does Scary New Batman Mean No Robert Pattinson?
Gunn was asked directly by Rotten Tomatoes which Batman this was, simply responding that this is "the DCU Batman." The question was obviously meant to determine if this was Robert Pattinson's Dark Knight from The Batman, but from Doctor Phosphorus' backstory, it's hard to square this being him.
Even if one were to dismiss the look of this Batman, who is considerably larger than Pattinson's iteration, the Gotham portrayed in Creature Commandos is drastically different from the one depicted in The Batman—specifically, the presence of Phosphorus as a Batman villain at all.
Matt Reeves previously stated in SFX magazine (via Deadline) that while his Batman films "push to the edge of the fantastical," they "would never go [...] full fantastical:"
"What was important to me was to find a way to take these pop icons, these mythical characters that everybody knows, and translate it so that Gotham feels like a place in our world. We might push to the edge of the fantastical but we would never go into full fantastical. It’s meant to feel quite grounded."
Having Pattinson's Batman taking down a radioactive metahuman with color-coordinating henchmen seems pretty fantastical, especially when Gunn described this as a Batman already used to "defeating pretty dangerous and scary people, like Phosphorus, who's pretty tough."
Unless something drastically changes behind the scenes, it's safe to assume that this will be an entirely new interpretation of Batman for the DCU.
Creature Commandos Season 1 concluded on Max on Thursday, January 9, and featured the tragic death of a main character.
