In his place the mantle of the Ripper is handed to Jim Gordon. Jacob Packer, the central antagonist in the 1989 book, is completely absent from the film.

He doesn’t adhere to the MO of the real life Ripper, instead targeting both men and women in his directionless crusade against the city’s moral pollutants. The Ripper presented in this film is a far more conventional supervillain who displays prodigious strength and is easily capable of fighting Batman on equal footing. He lurked in the shadows, targeted vulnerable street women and was no match for Batman when the two finally came face-to-face. In the 1989 comic Augustyn attempted to present the Ripper as more or less consistent with the perpetrator of the Whitechapel killings. The depiction of the Ripper also diverges from its historical basis. Their anachronistic inclusion in the film somewhat undermines the deconstructed grittiness that distinguished the 1989 book from its sequel. It’s true that steampunk elements were added to the Earth-19 universe in Master of the Future, but they weren’t present in the original Gotham by Gaslight. The film version is also equipped with utilities that were absent from the 1989 book, including a grapple gun, smoke pellets, batarangs and a motorcycle. This behaviour is something the Modern Age Bruce might indulge to preserve his secret identity, but it feels inappropriate for his more reserved Victorian counterpart. By contrast, the Bruce Wayne in this movie has no qualms about cavorting naked with Selina Kyle on the floor of a hansom cab in the presence of two police officers. The 1989 book attempted to capture the historical mentality by giving us a gentlemanly Bruce Wayne who was easily shocked by Jacob Packer’s lascivious remarks concerning women, and whose only concession to public mischief was attending a boxing match in a waterfront warehouse. One of the broader issues I have with this film is its lack of authentic Victorian attitudes. Given the choice between seeing familiar characters reinvented in 19th century fashion, or seeing characters unique to Augustyn's original books, I personally would have preferred the latter. Comic fans may note that Isley’s portrayal here is at odds with how the Earth-19 version was depicted in Convergence: Shazam! Vol 1 #2 (the film version of Harvey Dent also differs from Mignola’s depiction, and Selina does not match the Earth-19 Catwoman from the Infinite Crisis game). In their place we’re given Victorian reimaginings of more familiar players from the Batman mythos, such as Pamela Isley and the first three Robins. Certain prominent characters that were exclusive to Augustyn’s books, such as Jacob Packer and Alexandre LeRoi, are also absent from the film. So have the flashbacks of the Wayne murders and the plot twist connecting that event with the Ripper's backstory. Elements from Master of the Future have been mixed in with the first book, but the finished narrative is a substantial departure from either story.īoth the Vienna sequence with Sigmund Freud and Bruce’s voyage from Europe to Gotham have been omitted entirely. But all in all, this is a very different story one that's been approached with a markedly 21st century sensibility. The narrative borrows a couple of plot beats from the 1989 comic, such as Bruce Wayne being falsely imprisoned for the Ripper’s crimes, and there are some visual nods to the original art work. The film takes the basic concept behind that book – a Victorian Batman battling Jack the Ripper – and constructs an original story on the same premise. The first thing I should mention is that this movie is not a straightforward adaptation of the 1989 graphic novel. So how does the new animated film measure up to the original comic? Fair warning – this review contains spoilers. But to my mind, the 1989 story remains the finest chapter in the Earth-19 Batman’s sporadic history. The Victorian Batman was also a playable character in the 2015 Infinite Crisis videogame, and his costume appeared in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode ‘Trials of the Demon!' (season 1 episode 15).

The Victorian Batman – or Earth-19 version, to use his correct designation – returned for a 1991 sequel titled Master of the Future before making further appearances in ‘Small Wonders’ ( Countdown Vol 1 #40, July 2007), ‘Night of the Bat’ ( Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer Vol 1 #1, January 2008), Countdown: Arena (December 2007), ‘Pressure Point’ ( Booster Gold: Futures End Vol 1 #1, November 2014), and ‘Return of the Thunder’ ( Convergence: Shazam! Vol 1 #2, July 2015).

Gotham by Gaslight, the original 1989 Elseworlds story by Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola, remains one of my all-time favourite Batman comics.

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