Batman: Arkham Knight

So first off, I know it's been a while since my last post. I'm actually not dead though. Still here.

 Time to inflict my opinions on the world once again. Anyway, I know I'm a little bit late on this, but there's some stuff rattling around in my head that I felt like sharing. Let's get started then, shall we? I love the Arkham game series. Arkham Asylum was quite possibly the best superhero game ever when it came out, and then it was surpassed by Arkham City, which is still my favorite superhero game. After that though, there was Arkham Origins, which was made by WB Montreal instead of Rocksteady. Please don't misunderstand; Arkham Origins is a really cool game, but just it didn't continue the upward trend of its predecessors. It did improve on detective mode and Bane, plus it had Deathstroke and a couple other favorites of mine, but even that didn't make it any more  satisfying than Arkham City. Not to mention the different voice actors, who sounded a lot like the originals, but still just weren't quite the same. So after that, I was worried Rocksteady was gone for good and that from this point forward we would receive good Batman games instead of fantastic ones. If that's not a little bit petty and/or selfish, please let me know, but either way that's how I feel. Fortunately though, Rocksteady is making a triumphant return. (Feel free to revisit the gif above this block of text.) As per my usual posts of this sort, I'll post the trailer below.

Just give me a second here...

Almost there...

And...

Aha!

If you like Batman and video games and aren't really excited right now, I don't know what it'll take. You know what? You don't even have to like both, If you like Batman or video games, you should be excited. But the name of the game comes from the name of a character introduced in this story, so the question of the hour is: Who is the Arkham Knight? And I've got an idea. It sounds crazy, but considering who and what the idea involves, crazy seems appropriate. Hear me out on this. In Arkham City, we found this with Harley Quinn's stuff:




Not to mention the fact that during the credits, Harley can be heard singing a slightly homicidal lullaby. Yeah. You see where I'm going with this. Also, this game is set many years after Arkham City. So in summary: Harley and the Joker have a child in this universe, this game is set a long time after the pregnancy test was positive, the man called Arkham Knight is an original character and not in the comicbooks, AND THE IDENTITY OF THE TRIGGERMAN IS A MYSTERY! Wait... wrong Batman universe. So in case anyone isn't following me, I think the Arkham Knight may very well be the Joker's son. It couldn't just be some guy who knows how to fight and put on a costume; this is the conclusion of an epic trilogy, so the main villain has to be significant in some way. Also, the Joker is dead and Harley believes it's Batman's fault. Assuming my theory is correct, this is a man who has been raised by a homicidal psychopath and taught his whole life to hate the Batman. And you know who else's father was killed? Batman. Therefore, it provides symmetry between the two characters, which is always nice. If I'm right, I am the new World's Greatest Detective. And if not, I'm some fool with a computer and a crazy theory... Now that I put it like that, I really hope I'm right...

The Joker

As evil, sick and twisted as he is, I think there are two things you have to credit him for: his choice of weapons and his ability to make the reader simultaneously hate him, and yet at times somehow like him. I mean, if I were a super villain, I wouldn't be crazy(pun...kinda) about his Joker Gas, but some of his weapons are things that I would actually use. Whatever weapon he's using in the picture at teh bottom? sure. One of those bang flag guns that shoots the flag like a spear? Yes. A flower that squirts acid? Absolutely. The classic giant hammer? You bet. An over sized revolver? Definitely. Regular guns and knives seem a little boring compared to this stuff, but you still can't go wrong with those. And I also like his trademark cards. If you happen to be keeping track of the weapons and weapon sets I've said I want (I have no idea why you would be, but just in case), be sure to add Joker weapons, and they're pretty high on the list. And with that half of my thought completed, it's time for the second half, which is the way that the Joker can be hateable and also likeable. Huh. I'm talking about the Joker, but there are two halves/components to my thought process and one of them involves having two different thoughts about him. And that kinda reminds me of our old friend Two-Face ... So I'm discussing one Batman villain while thinking like another ... Freudian! Well, kinda sorta maybe, but you get my point. So, moving on from that sort of brief diversion, I'll now describe the second part of what I like about he who Harley Quinn calls Mr. J. When he says "Why so serious?", he means it. I don't think he takes anything seriously. In the Knightfall storyline when he teamed up with Scarecrow and they were formulating evil schemes, one of Joker's was to call the airport and ask them to page Seymour Butts! And if you played Arkham City, don't tell me that you didn't kinda like him, or that when he died, you weren't sad for reasons other than the fact that he won't be in the next game if there is one, 'cause I know I'm not the only one that felt a bit of genuine sadness there. Speaking of Arkham City, its source material, the No Man's Land series, is a great illustration of my point. Especially one particular scene in I believe the 5th volume. He was about to cut someone up with a pair of giant scissors, then Bane grabbed him, and when was about to be beaten to a pulp, all Joker said was "Oh this is gonna suck." And even after Bane had put a big hurtin' on him and threw him pretty far, he still made a joke and whimsically pointed out that he could see up one of Lex Luthor's employees' skirt. When I read that, I just thought: Seriously, Joker? You're getting beaten on by the man who broke the bat, and all you're gonna say is "I see Europe I see France"? At moments like that, my fellings about him are about as two sided as Harvey's face - before the Hush, or possibly Dark Knight Returns plotlines, that is. And I just reminded myself by using the words Dark Knight that personally, I understand why that movie didn't really show any of what I'm talking about, I think it would've been nice if they did. I think it adds a bit of extra depth to his character when you think: Wow; this guy really is crazy. One minute he's making jokes and seems funny and almost likeable, and the next he's surrounded by people he just killed. And I can't think of a good closing sentence.