The May 2013 cover of Game Informer magazine unhinged the floodgates on the newest iteration of the Batman: Arkham franchise, dubbed "Batman: Arkham Origins." The description for Origins on Game Informer’s site is as follows: “The game takes place years before both of the previous Arkham titles when a young, unrefined Batman encounters many supervillains for the first time.”
It’s also confirmed that Warner Bros. Games Montreal is developing the game and not the previous developer Rocksteady Studios. I’m cautiously optimistic for the title, as there is some general promise and intrigue with a reckless Batman character, but the last time a studio worked on an established franchise I loved, it didn’t end well. (*cough* Halo 4 *cough*)
Anyone who spends more than 30 minutes around me knows that Batman is one of my favorite characters in fiction. I have a wide variety of Batman comics, games, movies, television shows, money clip, plastic statues and film cells from “The Dark Knight.” Even growing up, I probably watched “Batman: Forever” 30 to 40 times and had the bat-cave, bat-mobile, bat-boat, bat-wing and a stupid Val Kilmer/Bruce Wayne figure that could have his head be pushed down so the cape and cowl could be placed on top. Batman has had such a colossal role in my life that I shudder to think who I’d even be without him.
In 2009, “Batman Arkham Asylum” was released by British underdog Rocksteady Studios, and it was met with high critical and fan praise, as it was the first game that let the gamer feel like Batman. Stalking prey high above, beating up bad guys with a touch of the button and combating villains like Scarecrow and Killer Croc all within the Asylum was an amazing experience. And Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy returning to their roles from the '90s television series as The Joker and Batman didn’t hurt either.
However, one of the worst parts of that game was the ending. The Joker gets injected with Venom (the stuff that Bane uses to get bigger), and it turns into a joke of a fight as the player fights regular enemies and wails on The Joker at predetermined points. It was a cop-out ending in every sense of the word.
After the events of “Arkham Asylum,” the mayor of Gotham decided it was time to put the criminals in the slums of Gotham and have Hugo Strange be the supervisor. The 2011 version of “Batman: Arkham City” improved on literally every shortcoming “Arkham Asylum” had.
The combat improved, as it incorporated Batman’s gadgets, the boss fights forced the player to use their brains instead of dodging attacks ad nauseum and the rogues gallery of Batman’s villains increased ten-fold with my favorite – Hush– getting his own side story as he seeks to leave Arkham City and ruin Bruce Wayne’s reputation. But the biggest improvement was the ending, which has one of the most perfect Batman endings this side of “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm” and “The Dark Knight.”
After the aforementioned injection of Venom, The Joker is on his last legs and once he injects Batman with his own blood, Batman has to go find a cure for them both. This leads to a final confrontation in a theater with a healed Joker keeping Talia Al Ghul, whose father was instrumental to finding a cure, hostage. The sick Joker shoots Talia after she “kills” the healed Joker. It is then revealed that the healed Joker was the shape-shifting Clayface, and the sick Joker was behind the scenes as puppet master. Batman confronts and defeats Clayface then takes the cure leaving half of the vial left.
Sick Joker, in his panicked state, stabs Batman in the shoulder, and he drops the vial. The Joker tries to sip it up on the floor, but it is in vain as Batman stands above him.
“Do you want to know something funny? Even after everything you’ve done, I would’ve saved you,” says Batman to a dying Joker.
“Hahaha, that actually is… pretty funny,” The Joker retorts.
As he takes his last breaths, the player is left with their jaws hanging as the clown prince of crime has died at his own selfish hands. Batman leaves the theater with The Joker in his arms. All of the inmates stop what they’re doing as they look upon The Dark Knight and his silence. Batman leaves Arkham City and places The Joker on the hood of a cop car as commissioner Gordon asks Batman, repeatedly, “What happened?” Silence is Batman’s native tongue.
Both “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm” and “The Dark Knight” had the same ending of personal sacrifice and giving up what we want the most for a grander purpose. “Arkham City” approached a different angle to Batman’s character. Rather than carrying his lover, Talia Al Ghul, out of Arkham City, he takes The Joker. Batman and The Joker have had a long conversation about order in an unjust world and the presence of random injustice in the world. The two of them were different sides of the same coin.
Arkham City had the gumption to end this conversation in that fashion creating one of the most thought provoking endings I’ve seen in a Batman storyline. No matter how much we disagree with another person’s view on a subject, we at least have to respect and honor that person for having that same level of passion. “The Friends of Voltaire,” written by Evelyn Beatrice Hall, encompasses this thought in its own writings, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
Reach the blogger at shfawcet@asu.edu or on Twitter @MaroonandGamer.
