Batman: Arkham Knight's Titular Knight Is Not Actually Batman

[TiberiusEsuriens]

I personally am really glad and excited to see a new character. It gets really tiresome when games leech off canon or existing expanded universe stuff. My favorite Star Wars characters didn't even exist when the movies came out. They were created much later, explicitly for the use in games. This lets the devs make the character around the game story and mechanics, instead of forcing the story to fit a more standard mold.

What this really shows though is commitment and faith from DC comics to Rocksteady. These games are no longer just really good fanfiction - making their own villains means that they get to add to the canon villain roster, meaning that the Knight could be used in comics or movies down the road. If that happened it would be a big pat on the head and badge of honor I guess.

 

[bossfight1]

I thought Arkham Origins was... alright. Not as good as Arkham City, but it was still fairly enjoyable. Troy Baker earned his place alongside Kevin Michael Richardson (The Batman), Richard Epcar (MK vs DC, Injustice) and John DiMaggio (Under the Red Hood) as a great not-Mark Hamill Joker (even if one might see a few similarities). The combat and stealthing were still as awesome as ever, though I'm not sure I liked having to do specific side missions to unlock certain upgrades (like having to beat that one Bane goon to get the Disarm-Destroy combo).

It had its issues, though; Gotham didn't feel particularly "alive", save for being swarmed with criminals and asshole, trigger-happy cops, and the villain lineup wasn't exactly riveting. The boss fights were decent, though; Deathstroke was certainly fun, and Firefly, even though it was oddly similar to that awful Poison Ivy fight from the first game, actually felt intense. They just never lived up to the Mr. Freeze fight.

But no matter how many gripes I had with Origins, I still LOVE the Arkham franchise, and I eagerly await Arkham Knight; I just hope they can end the series on a high note.

 

[McMarbles]

It's Talon. They're gonna tie in the Court of Owls.

 

[hermes]

It's the Joker isn't it? Can we just let him rot in peace at the bottom of a waterfall or something already?

If there is one rule in DC about the Joker, then it's "you can't kill him". Unless you're Batman Beyond. Then you can kill him twice in the same movie (as well as giving him a verbal beat down)

Funny that, considering the Joker was a one time nemesis, and was killed in the first number... by Batman, to add injure to the wound (at the time, the "no kill" rule didn't exist).

However, we can always trust WB to shoot on the foot themselves with that. In Origins, the idea that the Joker was a big bad was kind of spoilery, yet the Joker and Bane were the two big factions in MP, they spent a lot of marketing in convincing people the new voice actor was as good as Hamill, and they even give him its own trailer. So, by the time they revealed who the mysterious character was, and that the story was about their first encounter, nobody was surprised, at all...

OT: I believe its a safe bet to assume the "knight" is someone known by Batman, and his identity will be a "big reveal", but I just hope the Joker is kept buried and dead in the game. Recordings are fair game, but having it return as a nemesis at any point would be incredibly lazy.

 

[Tradjus]

Personally I think that if they wanted an anti-batman, they should have just gone with Hush. He's probably the most dangerous foe that Batman has ever faced in my personal opinion.

 

[Rogue 9]

Lets see... who is a knight and related to batman?

... uh, all I can come up with is the knight and squire. That can't be right because he is the batman of England. And they tend to fight ridiculous enemies like British velociraptors with bowlerhats. At least from what i saw.

My only contact with Knight and Squire were in the Battle for the Cowl storyline, which was pretty brief. But now I feel like I need to read all of their material.

There was a 6-issue Knight and Squire mini-series a couple of years ago, right before the New 52 launched. It was a pretty cool series (there really is more to them than just "Batman and Robin only English") and I'm pretty sure it got collected in a trade if you can track down a copy.

OT: I was really hoping for Azrael until I got to the 'brand new character' bit. I'll still cross my fingers for him to pop up anyway.

 

[Buizel91]

Well it isn't the first time they created a new character, Quincy sharpe was created for batman Arkham asylum and so was frank Bowles, both them characters, especially Quincy sharpe, were done pretty well, so I'm not worried one bit

 

[elvor0]

Lets see... who is a knight and related to batman?

... uh, all I can come up with is the knight and squire. That can't be right because he is the batman of England. And they tend to fight ridiculous enemies like British velociraptors with bowlerhats. At least from what i saw.

My only contact with Knight and Squire were in the Battle for the Cowl storyline, which was pretty brief. But now I feel like I need to read all of their material.

Ill narrow it down for you, I saw the velociraptors in Batman Incorporated. Its ended, but you should find a compilation novel of it. It ended recently. It was one panel explaining who is an ally of Batman's organization to keep the earth safe.

Batman Incorporated is incredibly silly. He even recruited a cow to be one of his side kicks. There is even a Japanese Batman with an anime girl sidekick in there if I remember correctly.

Lets see... who is a knight and related to batman?

... uh, all I can come up with is the knight and squire. That can't be right because he is the batman of England. And they tend to fight ridiculous enemies like British velociraptors with bowlerhats. At least from what i saw.

My only contact with Knight and Squire were in the Battle for the Cowl storyline, which was pretty brief. But now I feel like I need to read all of their material.

There was a 6-issue Knight and Squire mini-series a couple of years ago, right before the New 52 launched. It was a pretty cool series (there really is more to them than just "Batman and Robin only English") and I'm pretty sure it got collected in a trade if you can track down a copy.

OT: I was really hoping for Azrael until I got to the 'brand new character' bit. I'll still cross my fingers for him to pop up anyway.

Aww, that's a shame, I was hoping for more british raptors in bowler hats. Well I'll pick up the 6 issue paperback anyway, just for kicks.

Yeah I always thought the idea of Batman Incorporated was a bit silly. My collection of Batman pre 52 runs up to just before Incorporated started being a series, the 1 shot after he comes back from travelling through time (a story much more complicated than it needed to be, by the way) where he takes Damien out and meets the dude who becomes Batwing.

The cow and anime robin does not surprise me. I mean I like Grant Morrisons stories, but some times the way he writes decends into madness. He's like Hideo Kojimas wackier, western, comic book writing cousin.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Wait..I'm confused. So we won't be playing as Batman? Who then?

Damn these developers and their cryptic messaging.

 

[DataSnake]

Wait..I'm confused. So we won't be playing as Batman? Who then?

Damn these developers and their cryptic messaging.

No, we will. It's just that the "Arkham Knight" is somebody else, presumably the big bad of this story. Supposedly a completely new character. My guess is that whoever's running the asylum now (probably Ra's al Ghul or, if the Lazarus pit in City was the only one, his successor) wants a more controllable pointy-eared superhero and decides to make their own.

On the off chance that it is an existing character, here are some of my top picks:
1. Hugo Strange. Yeah, he got blown up in City, but death is cheap in comics. Also, he's obsessed with replacing Batman, has ties to Arkham, and his interview tapes even mention that he has his own makeshift batsuit, which I'd expect to look like the one in the screenshots.
2. Prometheus. His origin story is already "reverse Batman", he was on a wanted poster back in Arkham Asylum, and he dresses like a knight.
3. Jean Paul Valley. Remember, Michael Lane has already taken over as Azrael, so ol' Crazy Paul is free to take a different identity. Plus, he has experience wearing the cowl as a completely bonkers counterpart to Bruce.