My Review of Aztec Batman: Clash Of Empires (2025)

 

Written by Ernie Altbacker And Juan Meza-León

Directed by Juan Meza-León

Yohualli: "A wise man told me once, fear can kill you or inspire you to action."

This movie was released a few months ago with little fanfare but some criticism for perpetuating the use of anti- Spanish "Black Legend". It's also another Elseworlds look into Batman. This time with Aztecs and Conquistadors front and centre of things.

Our Batman in question was a young man named Yohualli Coatl (Horacio García Rojas). He grieved the loss of his mother, questioned the gods and occasionally disagreed with his well meaning father, Toltecatzin (Jorge R. Gutiérrez) on certain things.

The arrival of Hernán Cortés (Álvaro Morte) would soon unsettled Yohualli's community as Cortés didn't take long to show his true intentions and neither did his right hand man, Pedro de Alvarado (José Carlos Illanes) with Toltecatzin becoming a casualty in Cortés greed for gold.

This did lead our hero right into working under  King Moctezuma II (insert) and trying to warn him about Cortés true intentions when the latter made himself known. It didn't help that Yoka (Omar Chaparro), while under the influence of Huitzilopochtli (Luis Burmudez) was also giving the King some genuinely terrible advice about the Conquistadors that had severe consequences for everyone involved.

As Yohualli gained assistance from an Alfred variation and Jaguar Woman (Teresa Ruiz), he also had spiritual encounters with the Forest Ivy (Maya Zapata) and essentially became the much feared Bat God. On the other hand, Cortés became Two-Face and Yoka became the Joker.

The rest of the movie became something of an expected bloodbath with both Aztecs and Conquistadors fully trying to wipe one another out. There's nice nods to previous live action Batman movies, a sacrifice of sorts for the Bat God and the promise much more evil to come.

- Pedro was a variation of Azrael while Jay Hernandez and Raymond Cruz provided English dubs for Yohualli and Yoka.

- The mid credit scene introduced a variation of the Penguin as a Plague Doctor and the design looked fantastic.

- Standout music: There's a subtle use of a certain theme and it's used at the right time.

- Chronology: Set in the 1500s of the Aztec Empire.

I actually enjoyed Aztec Batman: Clash Of Empires. It's a really good Elseworlds story and I certainly wouldn't object to a sequel, though I don't anticipate we'll get one. It's worth a watch if you haven't already seen it.

Rating: 7 out of 10