Warning: Contains spoilers for Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League.Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League is the latest animated Batman film and a direct follow-up to 2018’s Batman Ninja. Following the Batfamily’s adventure in feudal Japan, history has been rewritten and the Justice League has been transformed into the villainous Yakuza League, and it’s now up to Batman to defeat them and bring the world back to normal.

With a premise revolving around an evil Justice League, 2025’s Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League is, naturally, another story utilizing the major cliche of “evil Superman”. The overabundance of evil Superman-type characters in DC and other comic book media has been met with an increasing amount of criticism, and on a surface level, Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League is just another example of that without a single trace of irony to it. Surprisingly, though, Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League has one of the best takes on evil Superman in any comic book story, and there’s plenty that goes into why.

Why The Evil Superman Trope Is Such A Tired Cliché

One Of The Superhero Genre’s Biggest Clichés Explained

Recent years have seen countless people adopt the largely misguided idea that Superman is a boring character because of how good a person he is, so versions of him that are jaded or sullen, like in Man of Steel, or flat-out evil, like in Injustice: Gods Among Us, are popular for being so far removed from that. The overabundance of characters like that has caused people to reject the concept, however, and now, many people hate the evil Superman trope because its overabundance takes away from the positives of Superman’s original character.

The bigger issue with the trope, however, is the lack of nuance to it all. While characters like Omniman and Homelander have some depth to them, most examples are evil largely for the sake of being evil and giving the heroes an easy punching bag, ironically giving them even less depth than the version of Superman the creator was lampooning in the first place. It’s all supposed to be for the sake of deconstruction, but most versions of evil Superman fail because very little is done to make them interesting characters, and that’s not going to change anytime soon.

How Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League Makes Use Of The Evil Superman Trope

Batman’s New Take On Evil Superman Explained

The evil Superman trope has become a prolific part of comic book stories over the past decade, and Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League is no different. When Batman was sent back in time to feudal Japan in the first film, Ra’s al Ghul copied and remade the device responsible to rework the Justice League into Yakuza loyal to his every command. Naturally, Superman was one of the heroes affected by that, and in Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League’s alternate reality, Superman exists as Kuraku, the head of the Hagane Family, leader of the Yakuza League, and Ra’s al Ghul’s second-in-command.

The early parts of the film built Kuraku up as a major threat, and once he shows up, every scene lives up to that by having him be as violent and threatening as possible not just physically, but through how much he tries to put down his enemies at every turn, exactly what one would expect from a typical Yakuza gangster. Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League never fails to sell its take on the evil Superman trope with all the style that’s to be expected of a film like it, and overall, it’s plenty great to see.

How Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League Fixes One Of Superhero Comics’ Biggest Clichés

Batman’s New Anime Movie Finally Fixes The Evil Superman Trope

On the surface, Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League has a very typical evil Superman, but it’s actually a far better take on the trope than others. For starters, Kuraku sees himself as a necessary evil who needs to take over so people won’t lose themselves to evil and destroy themselves, and he even only wanted to take over Gotham because he’s been led to believe everyone there is evil. Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League’s version of evil Superman works because there’s genuine nuance to his evil, a far cry from the general lack of depth other versions typically suffer from.

Something else worth noting is how pathetic Kuraku is supposed to be. While evil Superman-type characters tend to be intimidating figures, Kuraku only knows how to act like that when he’s in control, and as soon as Batman shuts down his powers, he becomes a nervous wreck who can’t even stand his ground. Batman even points out that losing his powers wouldn’t be enough to shake the real Superman, so in a way, Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League’s take on evil Superman works by highlighting how pathetic a character like that would really be.

Tying it all together is the ultimate conclusion to Kuraku’s arc. Evil Superman-type characters rarely ever see the error of their ways, but not only does Kuraku come to understand how much better the real Superman is through a combination of Batman’s speeches and the space-time distortions caused by the Four-Dimensional Origami System, but he even follows through on his change of heart and helps Batman fix their reality. That’s something rarely ever seen with that archetype, and overall, Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League’s take on evil Superman works because it’s used to eventually bring him back to his roots.

Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League’s Evil Superman Proves It’s Far More Clever Than People Think

Batman Ninja’s Writing Is Nowhere Near As Dumb As It Seems

With how much the Batman Ninja series leans into absurdity, it’s easy to write the movies off as being dumb movies with little substance to them, but in reality, the films are incredibly clever in how they handle their characters and overarching narratives. The thoughtful take on the evil Superman trope is the latest example of such, as Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League, being a rare story to give genuine nuance to the evil Superman trope, shows that it’s nowhere near as dumb a story as people say it is.

With how infamous Batman Ninja’s reputation is among anime and Batman fans, it’s reputation is unlikely to improve to a mᴀssive extent, but at the very least, Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League’s clever writing surrounding both the evil Superman trope and its overarching narrative shows that it and its predecessor are some of the best Batman films of all time and deserve another look from fans. Whether that will actually happen is up in the air, but with how great Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League turned out, it would still be great to see.