Rocksteady's latest and final entry in the Batman video game series has been announced, and everyone is clamoring for more details about Batman: Arkham Knight. Some of the biggest topics of discussion are whether or not The Joker will return and if it will follow the logical pattern and be a sequel to Batman: Arkham City by featuring Hush as the principal antagonist.
So far, we've seen that Harley Quinn, The Penguin, and Two-Face are going to be a part of it, and supposedly "Arkham Knight" is going to be a brand new villain's name as well, but everything else is up to speculation. Rocksteady has promised that this is the biggest game in the series, so we can assume that many of the old characters are going to return even though they've yet to be confirmed. It just wouldn't seem like an Arkham game if it didn't include Bane, Riddler trophies and side missions, Killer Croc, and so forth.
Yet with every new game, there are some fresh faces added to the mix. Who should
Arkham Knight feature this time around? Here is a list of ten characters that I'd like to see at least make a cameo appearance.
10. Dr. Leslie Thompkins
For those who aren't familiar with the character, Leslie is Bruce's godmother. She runs a rehab clinic and is very much a surrogate maternal figure in the same style that Alfred has stepped into the role as Bruce's father. This is a low-key character that has never been featured in any of the movies but could fit into this universe very well. All that would be necessary is for one of the side missions (perhaps a Riddler one) to be dedicated to saving her from a bunch of crazed drug addicts or something of the sort.
9. Professor Achilles Milo and/or Rupert Thorne
After Hugo Strange has been dealt with in
Arkham City, the next logical choice I would think for someone to head up the asylum's operations is Achilles Milo. To say he is a D-level villain may be still giving him too much credit, so I definitely would not want to see him play as big of a part as Strange did, but like Leslie Thompkins, a cameo would suffice.
If Arkham itself doesn't factor much into things, then Rupert Thorne should be a constituent of Quincy Sharp or even his replacement, representing the evil corrupt authority figure that every game needs.
8. Lyle Bolton / Lock-Up
How has this guy never been featured in anything but the comics and the animated series?! It's so simple! Out of all of those security guards we've fought in the games, none of them have been Lyle Bolton, who becomes an anti-hero villain that is obsessed with, well, "locking up" the criminals. He has a much more brutal sense of justice than Batman, which puts the two at odds with one another, and he could play a perfect foil for some kind of hostage situation where Batman needs to save people from a torture device he's set up or maybe break a villain out of prison because that character is necessary to the plot.
7. Wrath
Wrath is essentially the Anti-Batman. How can you go wrong? Batman vs. Batman is a concept that hasn't been done in the games yet, and even though Wrath doesn't match up as a villain compared with others who fill similar "evil Batman" roles like Bane, Ra's al Ghul, and Deathstroke, he definitely has the look for it. Give him the same moveset that Batman has and make this a boss fight that has to do with counters, dodging batarangs, and just watch the capes fly around looking awesome.
6. Generic Criminals
Instead of always fighting random mooks, we should have more characters pop up that we might recognize if we're dedicated fans. These could be low-level, unimportant people that you don't
have to know in order to enjoy the game, but for Batman aficionados, they will make us smile. What is better, Thug #5 or Ned Brann, aka The Dagger? Would you rather fight a generic gang or the Street Demonz or even the Ghost Dragons? The Trigger Twins, Catfoot Regan, Beetles Branagan, so on and so forth could be nice little nods tossed in there. Two in particular stand out to me, however. One of the Riddler missions should revolve around him having hired The Clock King, Temple Fugate. Timed missions are going to be built into the game anyway, so why not? Also, as ridiculous as they are, one fight sequence where you take down the Terrible Trio (Warren Lawford/Fox, Armand Lydecker/Shark, and Gunther Hardwick/Vulture) would just kick ass, even if it wasn't part of the main storyline but just some downloadable content for a Nightwing or Catwoman mission.
5. Man-Bat
Man-Bat's inclusion brings an element of the supernatural to switch things up, but it also means that we could have a true aerial fight as a boss battle. There's not much else needed to explain this. Do you want to see Batman fight a giant bat or what?
4. Professor Pyg and the Circus of Strange
Admittedly, it is almost guaranteed that this will not happen. Professor Pyg is just too fucked up of a character to include in something like this. The Arkham series might be the most earnest representation of the Batman mythos to date, taking itself seriously the entire time and trying to remain true to the roots of the character, but I doubt the producers would let it get
this dark. Professor Pyg's plastic surgery and brainwashing techniques, transforming people into genderless drones, are probably too far past the limits. Still, if it will ever happen in a video game, it will be this one.
3. Court of Owls
Scott Snyder's Court of Owls cult is one of the few new additions to the Batman rogues gallery that could carry over into the mainstream with some proper care. I still think that the main reason it hasn't is because they have not fully transitioned the Owlman character into being the head of it, giving people a true figurehead to follow instead of just random Talons and people in masks, but that's a topic for another post on another day. The Court of Owls could fill yet another role of a different type of thug to fight throughout the game, because you could encounter members sporadically here and there. Their fighting techniques could be different, and they could all have the same basic-rendered costumes of the owl masks, cutting down on the necessity to differentiate between them.
2. Jason Todd / The Red Hood
We've seen Nightwing, Oracle, Alfred, Commissioner Gordon, Catwoman, and Robin (Tim Drake), but we haven't had an appearance by the bad boy of the bunch, Jason Todd, who could be a perfect foil for either Batman or for the offspring in their DLC missions. Nightwing vs. Red Hood sells itself, as does Batman fighting his former apprentice. Then again, you could just as easily make him a playable character, because Todd is heroic as often or more than he's villainous. Wouldn't it be nice to play with his difference of morality and be able to kill the thugs instead of incapacitate them? This could even tie nicely back to The Joker, because he's the man responsible for killing Jason Todd and inspiring him to take the Red Hood persona to begin with.
1. SUPERMAN!!!!!!!!
That's right. You heard me. I want Big Blue to pop up! The Boy Scout. The Metropolis Marvel. The Man of Steel himself. The Last Son of Krypton. The Action Ace. Okay, okay, I'll stop. Fans have been itching for quite some time to have Rocksteady do a Justice League game, and this would be the perfect way to transition to one. Introducing Superman makes more sense than any other member of the DC Universe not only because of his status as the top of the food chain and the mascot of the company in general, but also the fact that his relationship with Batman is unlike that with any other in the Justice League. These two are constantly at it, fighting over their idealism, and yet they are the closest out of everyone it seems. This also works as a great tie-in to the upcoming Batman vs. Superman film, and you know Warner Bros. is going to want to keep that fresh in our minds.
Superman can be a boss battle foe, he could help you during a mission, or pretty much anything—but having him as a character in
Arkham Knight would blow fans out of the water.
So there you have it, ten characters I'm hoping to see make some sort of an appearance in the game. Who would you like to see show up? Are you itching for another Mr. Freeze mission? Did Poison Ivy not get enough spotlight yet? Maybe you're a big fan of Crazy Quilt or the Condiment King?
Whatever it may be, leave your comments below!
.jpg "Who doesn't love the '80s?")
.jpg "Knight Rider KIT banner poster")
.jpg "Airwolf cast banner")
.jpg "Street Hawk cast banner")
