Batman: The Doom that Came to Gotham

 In case you're not aware, there's an imprint of DC that lets them put out non-canon, what-if stories with established characters: It's called elseworlds, and the formula is to grab a superhero and change something about them, or to place them in a strange setting for an alternate take. So you get... I dunno, what if Batman were a vampire? Or if Superman had landed in Russia, and had become a communist superhero?

 They're usually short, contained stories. Because the setting or the circumstances are changed pretty heavily, there's a nerdy appeal to them in seeing what they did not just with the superhero, but with their supporting cast: If Bruce Wayne is a Viking, what will they do with Selina Kyle or the Condiment Man?

 The Doom that Came to Gotham is the animated adaptation of an Elseworld title published more than twenty years ago, written by Mike Mignola (the creator of Hellboy) along with Richard Pace and illustrated by Troy Nixey and Dennis Janke. As you might expect from the title, the question it asks is: What if Batman, but Lovecraft?

 Or, like most pop-culture takes on Lovecraft, a light, much pulpier version of his signature cosmic horror. You've got to leave some room to fit in all the punch-outs and chases, after all.

 And in this case, I am very happy to report that these action scenes include a fistfight with Mountains of Madness-style mutant penguins. Faithful yet ridiculous, making the tone of the thing crystal clear.

Chillin'

 Bruce Wayne is heading an expedition to the artic to find a previous expedition led by one Oswald Cobblepot; he finds their boat abandoned, Cobblepot gone feral (the sight of him wandering  the artic wastes butt-naked is a wonderfully grotesque image), and a half-frozen man in an eldritch, cyclopean cave, whom he rescues. But not before the stranger frees That Which Should Not Be and is infected with some sort of parasite.

 The expedition returns to Gotham, where it quickly becomes clear that all this artic weirdness was just a prelude to something bigger. There's a cult trying to summon an elder god or two, an ancient conspiracy that may lead to the end of the world. As Batman investigates, he realizes science and rationalism may not be enough to see things through.

 The story's a decent, very comic-book yarn where half the fun is seeing who pops up next, and in what guise. This gets in the way of the narrative, but I guess that's the nature of the beast.
 As silly as it gets, the plot is a fun, pulpy trawl though Lovecraft-flavored nonsense; And it does have some pretty good horror imagery every now and then. Poor Mr. Dent.

 Dialog-wise there's a lot of appropriately purple prose and some great lines. My favorite comes after Jim Gordon accuses Green Arrow of helping contraband bootleg moonshine. Green Arrow's response: "Tell you what, though. If I do happen upon a case, I'll let you watch me polish it off. At least then you and your boys can see what getting to the bottom of a case actually looks like."

 Nothing else in the script comes close to that level of repartee, but that alone makes it above average.

 Delivery varies wildly: I liked what David Giuntoli did with Batman, and Jeffrey Coombs pops up to deliver an unhinged voice performance. Didn't really find anyone else memorable, for good or ill.

 The art style tries to ape what I imagine is the style of the comic (which I haven't read), and looks like a cross between the old Bruce Timm Batman cartoons and lesser Mignola. DC are putting out a lot of these animated films, but I haven't seen any of them so I can't really compare - the style looks a little cheap to me, a bit flat. But there's a lot of variety in the action and the backgrounds, it never feels half-assed.

 It's...  ok. Horror for kids, well-made enough to be perfectly watchable but not really worth seeking out unless you really like this sort of thing. Or if you want to see Batman deliver a beatdown on mutant (non-albino) penguins, which I admit is a strong selling point.

 Having fun with Lovecraft rather than actually engaging with his ideas properly, and that's fine, I 'd never expect this genre, of all things, to ever do that, to pit superheroes against something so powerful and alien it wouldn't even recognize them as a threat, let alone be defeated in any meaningful way. Wouldn't that be something, though?