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- The villains in the four Arkham games really were a mixed bag. For every well-executed villain, another came along to either feel like glorified cameos or divas not letting other villains shine. Since Gotham Knights is being developed by the same company behind Batman: Arkham Origins and Rocksteady is moving in a completely different gameplay direction with the next Arkhamverse game Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, now is a good time to look back at the Arkham franchise.
Releasing soon, Batman: Arkham games. However, sometimes for all the Arkhamverse's greatness, certain antagonists feel as if they were completely cast aside despite their potential for much more story and content.
On the opposite side, there were some villains that the developers of the Arkham games were clearly more ionate about — perhaps a little too much. Some villains, even some superb ones, had a tendency to be overused or overshadow other villains of the Arkhamverse.
Updated on September 25th, 2022 by Melody MacReady:
The villains in the four Arkham games really were a mixed bag. For every well-executed villain, another came along to either feel like glorified cameos or divas not letting other villains shine. Since Gotham Knights is being developed by the same company behind Batman: Arkham Origins and Rocksteady is moving in a completely different gameplay direction with the next Arkhamverse game Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, now is a good time to look back at the Arkham franchise.
Delving farther into the villain roster spanning across all four Batman: Arkham games, there are even more villains both good and bad who fall into either category. There are a lot of variables that go into what makes these villains go into either tier from storytelling to gameplay. Perhaps the future of DC superhero games could learn from the shortcomings featured in the Batman: Arkham games.
Underused
Lady Shiva
The eight assassins concept is one of many ways Batman: Arkham Origins is considered to be underrated. Of them all, Lady Shiva felt the most like an afterthought. The few encounters with her putting innocents in danger and trapping Batman are clever, but the final conflict with Shiva is short-lived.
The boss fight feels like a prelude to an even bigger boss fight, but instead, it just ends with Shiva vanishing from the story. Since this is never followed up in Batman: Arkham Knight, it's ultimately a waste of Shiva's character.
Clayface
Clayface was well-used whenever he appeared. His cameo in one of the series' best boss fights in Batman: Arkham City. Those two appearances are it, though.
Clayface is one of Batman's more unique villains, and he could have easily made for a side mission in either Arkham Origins or Gotham Knights.
Deathstroke
Deathstroke was one of the best bosses and stand-out villains in Arkham Origins as well as Batman: Arkham Knight, only to be disappointed. In the game, Deathstroke was reduced to being an annoying voice in Batman's communication.
When the player actually got to fight Deathstroke, it was a lackluster clone of the boss tank fight against the titular Arkham Knight. It ends with Batman beating Deathstroke with one hit, which is disappointing since Deathstroke is one of Batman's dangerous combatants. However, Rocksteady could make up for this by having Deathstroke return in Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League.
Black Mask
Originally presented as the main villain of Batman: Arkham Origins, Black Mask was merely a disguise of the Joker who took over the criminal enterprise of Black Mask to create his own. It worked to show how Joker became so powerful so quickly and his origins as Batman's greatest rival, but the real Black Mask was left in the dust as a lackluster side mission.
Black Mask was originally meant to have his own side mission in Arkham Knight, but that was one of many famously cut pieces of content, and he was reduced to a mere last-second appearance in the Red Hood DLC where he was just as quickly killed off.
Hush
Arkham City did so well with the looming threat of the Identity Thief, which turned out to be Thomas Elliot, AKA Hush. By the time the player realized what was happening, the story ends on a well-executed cliffhanger hinting that Hush would return in a sequel.
This gave the impression that Hush would be a larger side story in Arkham Knight, but that was not the case. While the encounter with Hush in Arkham Knight is a memorable one, the mission itself only lasted a few minutes, making all the build-up from Arkham City feel superfluous.
Two-Face
On one hand, Troy Baker gives a great performance as both sides of Two-Face, truly capturing the drastic differences between Harvey Dent and his darker half. Unfortunately, Baker's talents are wasted due to Two-Face barely being featured in both Arkham City and Arkham Knight.
With Arkham City, he was pushed so heavily in the marketing as a central antagonist but only received an appearance in the first portion of the main story. In the Catwoman storyline, he returned as a last-minute boss. In Arkham Knight, Two-Face was reduced to a brief side mission. Someone as dark and tragic as this character could have been one of the games' biggest villains.
Azrael
This is a nearly similar case to Hush where the character was first introduced in Arkham City via a side mission as this mysterious stalker who leaves things on a cliffhanger. He does have a great side mission in Arkham Knight that reveals that he is an agent of the Order Of St. Dumas brainwashed to kill Batman.
Giving the player the choice of allying with either the Order or Batman as Azrael felt like the pivotal choice before a grand finale, but instead, either choice makes the mission end. Azrael's story of rebelling against the Order Of St. Dumas could have been his own DLC story or campaign, but instead, it just stops with an anti-climax.
Overstayed
Titan Henchmen
The first time encountering a Titan-enhanced henchman is a neat distraction; the second time is fine if a bit repetitive. By the third and fourth time Batman fought Titan Henchmen, they are just annoyances. Their biggest problem is that other than the addition of a second Titan or a group of thugs, they are all the exact same fight just repeated throughout Batman: Arkham Asylum.
Every Titan is beaten the exact same way with the player needing to throw a Batarang, hit them a few times, get on their back, and ride them like a mechanical bull. Rinse and repeat three times and the Titan is defeated, making them feel rather dull.
The Arkham Knight
At first, the Arkham Knight is an intriguing villain who comes off as the Anti-Batman in both appearance and methods. However, despite a strong performance from Troy Baker, Arkham Knight spends most of the game just mouthing off in Batman's ear and his voice mod becomes grating.
It would actually be preferable if Batman fought the Knight multiple times rather than hearing him constantly go on tirades acting like a spoiled teenager. Nearly every encounter with the Knight ends with either him or Batman vanishing with the actual boss fights being lackluster. The true and predictable identity of the Arkham Knight really doesn't help his case either.
The Militia
Technically, this is not a singular villain but an army of mercenaries that work for the Arkham Knight and Deathstroke. To be fair, most of the militia side missions in Batman: Arkham Knight are welcome additions that provide a fun time for completionists, despite some repetition with Batmobile gameplay.
However, one or two of them could have been removed in order to provide side missions for even more iconic villains. Arkham Knight had a lot cut out from the game, including Victor Zsasz and Black Mask missions, and they deserved to stay, not yet another drone mission.
Killer Croc
In Arkham Asylum, Killer Croc made for one of the more terrifying missions. In Arkham City, he was reduced to a neat cameo, but was then brought back as a boss in Arkham Origins. Croc made a fourth appearance as a DLC boss in Arkham Knight.
The mission itself was more interesting than Croc, with the villain coming across as nothing more than a big green punching bag. Not only was his new mutated reptilian design a little overdone, but Croc had little development or story out of wanting to kill the warden of Iron Heights. As a result, Croc simply felt lesser than his previous Arkham incarnations.
Ra's Al Ghul
Even in Arkham City, the entire subplot about the League of Assassins becomes more of a hindrance to the plot than anything. When it's revealed that Ra's Al Ghul was behind Arkham City all along, it takes away from all that made Hugo Strange so interesting as the main protagonist.
For fans of the comics, Ra's Al Ghul being the ultimate mastermind is such a cliché that the twist comes off as "been there, done that." Then, when it came to Arkham Knight, Ra's Al Ghul's quest led to a repetitive story about whether Batman would let him die or not, which hardly matters since the storyline will likely not be addressed in Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League.
The Joker
There's no denying that Mark Hamill is a top-tier Joker among fans, and for good reason. Much like Kevin Conroy as a Batman voice actor, Hamill knows the character better than anyone and brings him to life with his voice. However, the Arkham games went a little overboard with him.
One of the biggest complaints about Arkham Origins was that making Black Mask turn out to be Joker the whole time was unnecessary. In Arkham Knight, Phantom Joker provided a fitting end to the character, but he didn't need to be in the game, especially after he was killed off in Arkham City.
Riddler
For the most part, Riddler was there to provide a means to make completionists go wild with fun side quests. That only worked for so long before the character became progressively more annoying, especially with the sound effects given to his long-winded rants, in a nearly identical case as the Arkham Knight.
By the time he appeared again to lay out hundreds of riddles, Riddler trophies, and other tasks across Gotham for Batman, it became tedious. Most of the puzzles were no longer challenging and Riddler himself was simply a pest to deal with.
