Highlights
- Batman: Arkham Shadow offers a fresh take by focusing on a lesser-known villain who will hopefully be able to step out of Joker’s shadow.
- The return to Arkhamverse roots in Shadow could provide a welcome departure from its recent live-service shooter endeavor.
- If Joker is absent in Shadow it could allow other Arkhamverse villains, like Ratcatcher, a chance to shine on their own.
Batman: Arkham Shadow may be a VR exclusive, but it’s also the most enticing and exhilarating project that’s been announced for the Arkhamverse in the last decade, at least after Arkham Knight. Indeed, Shadow is finally a return to the Batman: Arkham series and a welcome one at that following Rocksteady’s latest pivot to a live-service shooter genre. There’s a lot to love about Suicide Squad from the perspective of the Arkhamverse, such as the (albeit rushed and unearned) debut of the Justice League, but it was always going to be controversial on a fundamental level due to it making such drastic shifts in gameplay and storytelling.
There are many ways Kill the Justice League did nod to the seminal franchise that came before it and yet its similarities are also where certain narrative flaws and arguably egregious decisions are most apparent. Rocksteady didn’t create a bridge between Arkham Knight and Suicide Squad in a way where its returning characters are all familiar, maybe besides Penguin and the Arkhamverse’s Aaron Cash, for example. But the Arkhamverse, for all its astonishing world-building, has always been unable to shake a convention that’s held it back since its inception: the insistence that Joker not only be featured but also be a focal point or main antagonist. The hope is that Batman: Arkham Shadow will now defy this heritage.
Batman: Arkham Shadow is a Long-Awaited Arkhamverse Payoff
Batman: Arkham Shadow doesn’t seem coy about its central antagonist and their relative obscurity is a huge boon for a history of Arkhamverse lore.
Batman: Arkham Shadow Has One Shadow to Step Out from Most
There’s no doubt that Joker has been a sensational and valued part of the Arkhamverse with the entire franchise centering around him entirely from his debut in Origins to his corporeal haunting of Bruce Wayne’s psyche in Knight. Even Armature’s Origins Blackgate companion piece and Rocksteady’s VR title featured Joker, making Shadow incredibly unique if it’s able to center exclusively on Ratcatcher or any other villains aside from Joker.
Joker has had more than enough time being incessantly wrung out in the Arkhamverse and, while some could argue that he’s the backbone of the series and that without him it may not be quite the same, there are a whole lot of
Batman’s rogues’ gallery
who’ve waited patiently for a leading villain role, let alone a mere opportunity to play a larger role than an overlooked Easter egg.
That’s what Ratcatcher has been up until this point, and for Camouflaj to center on them now is a wonderful direction for the Arkhamverse to take. That is, if it can manage to fully concentrate on Ratcatcher and possibly others without bringing up the Joker in any capacity.
A Batman: Arkham Entry without Joker May Be a Pipe Dream
Unfortunately, one Easter egg in Batman: Arkham Shadow’s teaser trailer already points toward either Joker or his ethically compromised psychiatrist once again having some sort of relevance. A close-up of the rat Batman pursues in the teaser reveals a meticulously placed ID badge for Harleen Quinzel, who had recently become helplessly fond of Mr. J and felt naively seen by him in Origins.
Harleen’s now drawn by a manipulative string of her own making and it’s possible she could already be wearing red, black, and white harlequin suits and pledging herself to a life of crime as Harley Quinn while hand-in-hand with Joker during the events of Shadow. Seeing the Arkhamverse’s Harley as a budding criminal might be entertaining, but doing so in Shadow could inevitably steal the attention away from Ratcatcher, particularly if Troy Baker was to return as Joker.
Unlike Kill the Justice League’s Harley, a post-Origins Harley would be absolutely obsessed with Joker and make her being featured a guarantee that she would at least mention him. For now, until Batman: Arkham Shadow is revealed at Summer Game Fest this June, the hope is that tucked-away villains like Ratcatcher truly do get to have the spotlight to themselves.
Batman: Arkham Origins
Batman Arkham Origins is a spin-off from Rocksteady’s main Arkham series and was developed by Splash Damage. This release follows a younger Bruce Wayne as he finds himself being framed by a mysterious villain named Black Mask.
- Released
- October 25, 2013
- ESRB
- T for Teen: Blood, Drug Reference, Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence
