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The DC Comics’ Elseworlds formula proves time and again how versatile these iconic characters can be. It’s honestly any wonder why any fan can be upset at a different take because it happens all the time whether it’s Superman Red Son, DC Black Label stories, or the current Absolute universe, which has led to renewed interest in the entire DC line of comics. 

We cannot forget about the Warner Animated Original Films either, films like Batman: Ninja and Batman: The Doom that Came to Gotham, took the foundation steeped in DC history and then got creative. In Warner Bros. latest DC Original Animated film, Aztec Batman: Clash of the Empires, they tried something different. They started with a historical foundation and created an Elseworlds by adding layers to the DC universe.  

“We had to create a story where organically an Aztec Batman would arise in Aztec culture of 1520 and how would that be?” Screenwriter Ernie Altbacker asked. “We don’t have a crime alley to cut through the theater, but we do have a village and we do have Cortés looking for the riches of Tenochtitlan, and the elder, the chief, who doesn’t want to tell him. Cortés’ vengeance is unleashed onto the village, which happens to be Yohuali’s family and friends. That origin fits in there. 

“Head of Ánima Studios Jose Carlos Garcia de Letona and I came up with the larger framework of what we wanted to accomplish,” producer Aaron Berger explained. “Ok, here’s the historical context. Cortés and the Conquistadors are kind of the natural villain of an Aztec story. But then Ernie started layering the DC stuff, then director Juan Meza-Leon came in. We built out from the historical to the DC, into a combination of the DNA above.”

Jose Carlos, from the very beginning, was focused on how to be authentic for Mexico and Aztecs, so the audience would feel seen.”

Altbacker admitted that this was the most difficult DC Animated Original script he’s ever written. “I was like, oh man, we can’t blow this one because of the cultural sensitivity,” he said. Altbacker was assured that they would have some outside help from an expert at a university that has a doctorate in pre-Columbian societies, who would solve any problems they had with the cultural gap.

“I’d write something, then we’d go over it again,” Altbacker continued. “The historical consultant would say, (the character would say this dialogue) more like this, and then slowly I would get it and we would rewrite it.” Plenty of phone calls were exchanged between Altbacker, the consultant and Meza-Leon, who collaboratively kept layering more culture.

“I was very adamant that we needed to include very distinctive historical landmarks that happened throughout the narrative and how those are influenced or sort of created by the decisions that happened in our fictional story,” Meza-Leon added. 

“When I was done with it, the script and the project had such depth,” Altbacker admitted. “Everyone has an arc that’s two or three levels deep. Then it was translated into Spanish by a very talented Mexican writer, Alfredo Mendoza, and it got even more rich.”

But the attention to detail didn’t stop there. The consultant told the producers that a traditional, Big barrel-chested Bruce Timm animated style would not work. “That would not be accurate for what an Aztec warrior would look like,” explained producer Aaron Berger. “So we actually had to trim down the musculature, make him a little more agile, and the fighting style would not be brute force.” 

Berger said that there are plenty of easter eggs because they knew the lore. They snuck in the influence Leonardo da Vinci and his inventions had on Batman. This wound up being something Cortés imported to the Aztecs. “It was much more in keeping with the traditional Aztec weaponry and so we modified the designs with the help of Executive VP of WB Animation Peter Girardi to make sure that we were conforming historically to what the body shapes were and the size in addition to harkening to what the DC audience of what the Warner animation audience will be expecting from a design sensibility.”

Meza-Leon saw this as an opportunity to introduce Western audiences to the Aztec and Mesoamerican culture.

“This is a world-building story, that just gives a fantastical reinterpretation of the story of the conquest of America,” Meza-Leon said. “Research went into it to make the story and setting rich and legitimate, but in order to tell a superhero story like this, certain elements needed to be tweaked to fit the narrative. But it was only done for structured purposes, and that just allowed us to expand the world and hopefully continue the story that was created in other sequels, miniseries, or whatever because the world that was designed is rich.”

There is a possibility for a sequel if Clash of the Empires is received well. Altbacker shared that it was originally conceived as a prestige miniseries, like six or eight 45-minute episodes. Then it was packaged as a trilogy or a two-film package. They tried to boil it down to one film, so major things were cut out. There is a lot of material that Altbacker and the producers are “aching” to revisit and expand upon this unique world they’ve created.

“Technically, I guess you would call it an Elseworlds,” underlined Altbacker. “We’re adding this fantastic element to it, but we use the history of our world and definitive signposts of things that actually happened as a framework around our story of a young Aztec boy that gets his village and father murdered by Cortés. That starts the events of Yohuali Coatl’s transformation into the Aztec version of the Dark Knight.” 

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