Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (September 24, 2025)
Back in 2018, Gotham By Gaslight offered an alternate Batman who lived and worked in Victorian England. 2025’s Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires follows a similar path and gives us a Mesoamerican Caped Crusader circa the 16th century.
As a young man, Yohualli Coatlb (voiced by Horacio García Rojas in the Spanish version and Jay Hernandez in the English dub) experiences the death of his father (Jorge R. Gutiérrez) at the hands of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés (Álvaro Morte/Christian Lanz). Eventually Yohualli serves as a priest under King Moctezuma II (Jesse Corti).
Located in the temple of Tzinacan, Yohualli maintains a double life. He also operates as the masked crusader Batman to stave off Spanish invaders and get revenge for his dead father.
Although I found the concept of Gaslight intriguing, the end product seemed less engaging. It mainly felt like a collection of gimmicks in search of a story.
On the other hand, both 2018’s Batman Ninja and 2025’s Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League provided surprisingly delightful adventures set in unusual spots. Those gave me some optimism Clash would offer another high-quality “alternate Batman” tale.
The biggest difference between the two Ninja films and both Gaslight and Clash stems from the nature of the lead character. With the Ninja flicks, “regular Batman” found himself displaced but remained the usual Dark Knight.
On the other hand, Gaslight provided a British Bruce Wayne/Batman, not an American Caped Crusader stuck out of time. As noted by my synopsis, Clash follows suit and makes Yohualli – obviously the 16th century equivalent of Bruce – a native to that territory and time.
The shift from the 19th century setting of Gaslight to the 16th century location of Clash means one change to the Batman realm: he can’t rely on his gadgets as much. Gaslight already meant more primitive technology compared to our 20th/21st century views of the role, so the move back 300 years or so ensures a Batman less reliant on gizmos.
All of this seems primed to give us a really creative take on the Dark Knight. Although Clash definitely shifts the character, it still sticks with some tried and true components.
In particular, Clash brings analogies for two Bat-villains. Hernán Cortés gives us a 16th century Two-Face, and we also find versions of Poison Ivy, Joker, Catwoman and Alfred.
While I get the choice to echo Batman roles in this alternate tale, I admit I wish Clash went with fully new antagonists. For the film to seem truly adventurous, it needs to go its own way beyond the Bat-basics.
Still, even with the regurgitated rogues gallery, Clash branches out more than the other alternate adventures, at least in terms of story. It doesn’t match up with the wild vibe of the Ninja flicks but its era and location makes it more different from standard Bat-fare than Gaslight, for instance.
Unfortunately, Clash fails to take advantage of its opportunities. Like Gaslight, it feels so preoccupied with its emphasis on the ways it twists Batman lore than it forgets to create a particularly compelling narrative.
At its heart, Clash gives us the standard Batman origin story. Of course, this differs from the traditional mythology in some ways, but the movie still shows what prompts Yohualli to become Batman and his quest to avenge a death in the family.
Despite the intense familiarity of this plot, Clash comes up with a mix of twists. However, none of these add anything to the overall project.
Indeed, Clash dips its toes in so many different ponds that the story turns into something of a mess. What should bring us a concise narrative spreads out too much.
This occurs mainly due to all those ancillary characters I mentioned. Clash wants to involve a wide array of Batman roles that it loses its way.
Perhaps these exist because those involved lacked confidence in a version that solely focused on the conflict between Yohualli/Batman and Cortés/Two-Face. Maybe they thought that battle didn’t offer enough substance to fill 90 minutes.
And that might be accurate. Even with the padding related to all those other participants, Clash tends to feel slow and oddly dull.
Sure, it packs a lot of action. These scenes lacks impact, though, so the movie the tale crawls and fails to deliver any real excitement.
I wanted to like Clash since it gives us a potentially interesting “alternate universe” Batman. The film simply seems too bland and flat to succeed, though.
Footnote: Clash leaves us with a clear push toward a potential sequel. A short tag during the end credits introduces a new character who we assume will appear more substantially in a possible next chapter.
