Did you guys know they were making another Arkham game?! After City you think they would’ve stopped but for some reason they’re making yet another game about Batman. Crazy, right?!
In the few days since the announcement of Arkham Knight (whose Miami Vice style spin-off Arkham Nights is still pending announcement) there’s been a whorl of theories, especially regarding who the main antagonist will be. Officially, the main villain, who in this game is leading a cadre of Batman’s archenemies against him, has been said to be The Scarecrow which we’re going to call BS on on grounds that the guy couldn’t lead a Little League team (my Elseworlds pitch: Bad News Bats notwithstanding.)
Plenty of theories have gone around, the most notable of which being ComicsAlliance’s reluctant assertion that Hush will be the villain. There’s plenty of valid theories out there, most of which are way more likely to be right than us. But the theory game isn’t about winning. As the internet can surely tell you, theories are all about out-crazying everyone else with something that sounds just right.
For that reason, we’re not saying the following theory is correct — but if it happens to be true then you, by the act of opening this article, owe Multiversity Comics your eldest child. Trust me, it’s in the terms of services somewhere.
Now that we’ve gotten the legal matters out of the way, let’s get to the topic at hand. Arkham Knight will probably have a secret big bad, just like there was one in Arkham City and Arkham Origins. It’s practically the Arkham games’ calling card to advertise one plot and then deliver a game that’s a thousand times more complex than delivered (like Origins going from Die-Hard with spandex to a really loose adaptation of The Man Who Laughs).
For that reason, Scarecrow’s probably not the main villain; it’s too obvious. On a similar hand, having Hush, who showed up in Arkham City to (as our Editor-in-Chief Matthew Meylikhov says) “threaten you and then walk away” is too easy for the often-convoluted Arkham games. What villain could have the gravitas to burn Gotham to ashes and open the gates of hell?
There’s one sort of obscure character from the comic I’m trying to think of… Victor Zsasz, maybe? No, no, that doesn’t sound right. Lets try again.
That’s right, suckas. We’re going to Omega-level territory with this one as we explain why Rocksteady’s been teasing The Hole in Things for the past couple years. For those who haven’t read Grant Morrison’s Bat-Saga, well, spoilers for everything up to “Batman Incorporated” are going to show up, as well as spoilers for Arkham City.
Before that though, we should probably introduce Dr. Hurt. Long-story short, he’s a mysterious satanic figure (in the same vein as Mephistopheles) and leader of the influential society The Black Glove who showed up to ruin Batman’s life and claimed to be a Thomas Wayne who faked his death, all before turning out to be a fragment of Darkseid possessing Bruce’s demon-worshipping ancestor sent back in time from Final Crisis to kill Batman before he shot Darkseid. (Seriously, if you haven’t checked out Morrison’s Bat-Saga it is a trip.)
And if our idealist hopes are worth anything, we think he’s going to be the main antagonist of Arkham Knight for five big reasons.
1.) The Gates of Hell
One of the side quests from Arkham City that we all seem to have agreed to never talk about is the series of cameos from Azrael, AKA Michael Washington Lane. Like Hush, he shows up to do the whole “threatening Bruce about the next game” shtick (and we’ll look at Hush’s appearance in just a bit). Lane talks about a prophecy, that Batman will “close the Gates of Hell” and “from the ashes of Arkham, the fires will rage and Gotham will burn.” Pretty heavy stuff, and considering that the Arkham Knight trailer ends with the logo literally on fire, that prophecy has a pretty good chance of coming through.
Honestly, there’s not many villains I could imagine having a large enough presence to (even metaphorically) open the Gates of Hell besides Hurt. R’as already had some sort of a spotlight as the main bad in City and even if he’s brought back that just seems lazy (albeit plausible.) Scarecrow could definitely cause a massive panic, but he also doesn’t fit into the mastermind mold that such a huge threat would represent, leaving Hurt to be a pretty good choice, considering his Devil motif connecting with the Gates of Hell theme. And considering how similar Scarecrow’s plan is to the widespread panic from Hurt’s gas attack on Gotham in “Batman and Robin Must Die”, maybe he’s filling in the Professor Pyg role for Hurt.
Continued below2.) Michael Washington Lane
Lane first showed up in the comics as one of “The Three Ghosts of Batman.” They were three former cops manipulated by Simon Hurt (that guy again?) in his attempt to create another Batman; Hurt’s situation for Lane involving murdering his own family and becoming The Bat-Devil before changing his ways and becoming the new Azrael, successor to the original Jean-Paul Valley who was, in a word, cray. Cray and dead.
Now, it’s reasonable that they could’ve just chosen Lane as Azrael because literally no one wants Valley back. But taking a closer look at Washington’s bio in City, there’s an interesting tidbit no one’s talked about:
Years ago, Lane was part of a program to create the ultimate crime-fighter. Instead, it turned him into an insane criminal. Thwarted by Batman, Michael confessed to his sins to a priest of the religious sect The Order of Purity.
Could that program have been the same one that Hurt used in the comics to create The Three Ghosts of Batman? It wouldn’t be that hard to make them, especially in the Arkham franchise where all you’d need to do to make one of the Ghosts, Bat-Bane, is turn around, find a venom-enhanced henchman and put a little cowl on him. Bat-Cop, the last Ghost, is also a frankly low-budget villain. Did Azrael warn Bruce of Hurt’s plans because of his experience with Hurt’s experiments?
3.) Father, Dearest
There’s another interesting aspect of the Arkham Knight trailer that made me reconsider the Simon Hurt theory. The trailer’s framed by a monologue from Thomas Wayne reading from his will while contrasting with all the money Bruce has spent on his gadgets. Has anyone considered the idea that Thoma’s monologue isn’t a flashback, but taking place in the present?
Hurt, disguised as Thomas, could show up and give Bruce this speech, criticizing him for wasting his resources on “fast cars and outrageous clothes.” After all, that seems like an uncharacteristically pretty shitty thing for Thomas to assume his son might do with his cash. One of the main conflicts could be Batman being robbed of his resources by Hurt while he organizes an army of villains to wear down Bruce, destroying him mentally and physically. A Batman who’s been kicked out of his home and stripped of all resources would be a Dark Knight we’ve never really seen before (and could explain why The Bat-Mobile figures so prominently in Knight, if we’re in need of a base of operations).
But wait, Bruce Wayne could go out in the public and say that this guy’s not his dad. How could Bruce keep public appearances if he’s been forced to live in his car with his Bat-Pajamas?
4.) Hush.
I hope you didn’t get the wrong idea when I said that Hush isn’t going to be the main bad of Knight. He’s almost certainly going to be a major force, but not the end-all be-all. He wasn’t even the original mastermind of his debut story and The Riddler’s probably too busy setting up green statues behind fences to mastermind the destruction of Gotham.
In City, Thomas Elliott showed up; his face cut off and replaced with a perfect replica of Bruce’s. Where did Elliott come up with the idea to replace Bruce? Don’t tell me that it’s because he was resentful of him; that’s just a part of it. What if Hurt appeared to Elliott as Thomas Wayne and promised him his place in the Wayne legacy in return for using his surgery skills to assist bringing down the son who’s wasted his money like a disgraced playboy? With Elliott in Bruce’s place, maybe even shutting him out of the Bat-Cave, that’d only put Batman in a more dire situation to prove himself as the real Bruce Wayne. As the real Batman.
As the real Arkham Knight.
(Note: IMMEDIATELY after writing that line I found out The Arkham Knight is actually meant to be an entirely new character. It could be Hurt or Hush in disguise wearing the uniform to taunt Bruce a la Thomas Wayne’s original bat-suit or just further proof that our theory is crazy.)
5.) The New Frontier
Okay, so even though I’ve given a few reasons why he’s going to show up and to be completely honest, while the last four theories were grounded in some kind of evidence, this is pure conjecture/idealist hope. You may have noticed that I haven’t exactly explained where Hurt will come from. Well. in the comics, they didn’t for a while either. Hurt wasn’t an enemy from Bruce’s past (appearance in “Robin Dies at Dawn” notwithstanding). He was a hunter-adapter sent through time by Darkseid to destroy Batman before he could stop him.
Continued belowImagine this: Batman and Hurt have their final confrontation. Hurt gives Batman a speech like at the end of “Batman RIP.” That he’s The Hole in Things Bruce will never understand before he drops off and dies or something (even just straight up re-do the end fight at Arkham Asylum as a sort of book-end for the series.) In a post-credits scene, Bruce is back in his cave, the villains all defeated and Gotham finally at peace, Bruce begins to place the cowl back in its case when a sudden burst of wind and blue flashes by. Superman stands behind Batman, his red cape flowing.
“Bruce. We need you.” More lights and blurs pass. Wonder Woman, Cyborg, The Flash, Green Lantern, and Someone Who Is Not Aquaman stand by Superman’s side. Cut to black.
Rocksteady said Knight is their final Arkham game, not their final DC Comics game.
A couple years later, on the Xbox Two or whatever consoles we’re using in 2016 (just in time for Superman vs. Batman), the Justice League game comes out. With a DC character already firmly entrenched in his own popular game universe, it makes sense to just throw all the DC hero cards in that canon. The game’s probably great, and probably deals with The Justice League fighting Darkseid (following the recent tradition of making him The Justice League’s first villain). At the end of the game, with most of the Justice League battered and on the floor, Batman (of course it has to be Batman) has the final showdown with Darkseid and wins. Darkseid, in an effort to keep Batman from ever stopping him does exactly what he did in the comic, sending a hunter-adapter into the past to keep Batman from killing him in the future.
Yeah. Not only are we saying that Arkham Knight will feature Simon Hurt, but as a direct result it’ll lead directly into a Justice League game that adapts “Final Crisis” or at least that opening arc from The New 52 “Justice League.”
Okay, probably not.
Still, it’s wishful thinking. Even if they ignore the Hunter-Adapter side of Hurt’s story, he’d be a great villain for the Arkham finale: one who’s always been in the shadows, hidden away way deeper than any of Rocksteady’s other notable easter eggs. Will he show up? Well, Hush is a lot more marketable than the demonic ancestor/alien god we’re rooting for, but Hugo Strange showed up in City so why not dream? Either way, I think we can all agree a Zur-En-Arrh level induced by Scarecrow would be off the chain.
If you’ve got any theories of your own, think I’m crazy, or have some serious questions about the child-betting laws in our Terms of Service, sound off in the comments!
