What is the defining line between gods and heroes? This is one of the main questions explored in Batman Azteca: Choque de Imperios (Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires), an animated feature that blends Mesoamerican history with the mythos of Batman and his rogue gallery. 

Since it was first announced by HBO Max Latin America at the 2022 Guadalajara International Film Festival, Batman Azteca has generated a lot of buzz from fans (and skeptics alike). The all-new animated film is finally in Mexican theaters and available to stream on HBO Max, so here’s a look at reasons to embrace this take on Batman’s origin story.  

This is the first time Batman is not Bruce Wayne

Even though this is not the first time we see an animated Batman film that takes the caped crusader outside of the context of Gotham City – in other elseworlds films, he’s been transported to times and places like feudal Japan and 19th century London – but this is the first time the moniker is held by someone other than Bruce Wayne. Batman Azteca follows Yohualli Coatl (Horacio Garcia Rojas), a young Aztec boy who experiences tragedy when his father is slain by Spanish Conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés (Álvaro Morte). Yohualli is able to escape to Tenochtitlán, where he tries to warn King Moctezuma; however, the high priest Yoka (Omar Chapparro) has other plans. Driven by vengeance, Yohualli decides to ready himself for battle by making a lair in the temple of Tzinacan, the bat god, where he trains and develops weaponry to aid in the fight against Spanish invaders. 

But why make Batman explicitly Mexican? Well, there’s one reason that goes back to Batman’s origins. According to Batman co-creator Bob Kane’s autobiography Batman and Me, the masked Mexican hero Zorro served as one of the primary influences for Batman. This fact is honored in the comics as the film Zorro is the movie that the Waynes went to see the night they were murdered. 

Batman Azteca leans into the lore

Impressive are the many nods this film makes to the source material and other Batman properties, like the integration of Danny Elfman’s Batman theme into the musical score and Poison Ivy reimagined as the deity Forest Ivy. True, there is no god of bats in the Aztec religion– the closest to actual Aztec mythology would probably be the death goddess Ītzpāpālōtl (aka Obsidian Butterfly). But myth-making is still one of the film’s strengths. 

In a press interview at the 2025 San Diego Comic-Con, Director Juan Jose Meza-León and Writer Ernie Altbacker discussed how they approached integrating historical moments with Batman mythology. 

“Within that story, the elements that I believe correlate to every other Batman story is the turning tragedy into something constructive or finding that universal sense of loss or wanting to seek revenge, or wanting to seek justice, or wanting to make the wrong things right.I think that is something universal, that everyone can relate to, why Batman is beloved everywhere. Everybody can understand his motivation: you don’t want anything horrible to happen to the people that you love.”

But even with all of these changes, Meza-León, along with co-writers Altbacker, and Alfredo Mendoza, took great care to keep the identity of the Batman story intact. 

When reflecting on how he and co-star Chaparro prepared to embody the iconic rivals, Youhalli actor Rojas said, “one goes to create chaos because they want everybody to feel the same pain. But vengeance is not the way. It’s justice.” 

The film is full of fantastic performances, originally delivered in Spanish, with Rojas and Chaparro as standouts amongst the all Latino cast. 

Made by Mexican animators 

Not only is there strong Latino representation in its cast, but Batman Azteca also boasts a largely Mexican production team. With the Mexico City-based Ánima Estudios overseeing the animation, as well as ethnohistorian Dr. Alejandro Díaz Barriga, there were many steps taken to ensure the authenticity of indigenous portrayal across the story and visuals. This is actually the first animated film from DC to feature a full Mexican animation team! When asked about the significance of the film making it to theaters in Mexico (and in the days following Mexican Independence Day), producer José C. García de Letona said, “We believe this is an ideal movie for the time.”
Producer Aaron Berger added, “the historical veracity that we tried to achieve…we put as much of that in as possible so that when people go, they’re going to see themselves on the screen, even in the garb of Batman and other DC characters, they will see themselves in their culture celebrated in a way that we don’t think that they’ve seen before.” 

Batman Azteca is a period piece unlike ever before

While there are many aspects of the work on screen and behind the scenes that are evidence of the amount of care poured into Batman Azteca’s authentic portrayal of Mesoamerican culture, the premise of the story has drawn criticism. When the trailer was first released, a debate online quickly erupted when some disapproving fans pointed out how the film may be perpetuating the Black Legend, the historical narrative that is said to weaken Spain’s influence by exaggerating the violent acts and religious intolerance by Spanish conquistadors in the Americas. According to historians, the Black Legend is a tool primarily used by English colonists to paint Spanish settlers as uniquely violent and extreme in their views. Additional criticism for the story’s backdrop 

While Batman Azteca incorporates the real-life tragic encounter of Hernán Cortés and the Aztec people, the film’s central conflict offers a much more nuanced exploration of faith, indigenous resistance, and systems of power.
“I don’t believe there was a more important clash of cultures at that exact time,” said Berger. “More than a clash of cultures, it’s a clash of faith, and I think that embodies something universal and relatable in this particular time.” 

So what sets a god apart from a hero? That’s for you to explore alongside the Dark Knight, Yohualli, in Batman Azteca: Choque de Imperios (Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires) now streaming on HBO Max in the U.S. and in theaters in Mexico.