Why a bat family's role in future Arkham games may be set in stone

Before Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Rocksteady could do no wrong. It managed to create a brilliant action-adventure Batman foundation with Metroidvania and Zelda elements and a fluid, rewarding combat system that would go on to inspire countless games. Also, the cherry on top is that Arkham all games respected the Batman mythology and DC lore it inherited and developed in an original continuity drawing explicit influence from Batman: The Animated Series. Now, if the rumors are correct, Rocksteady hopes to bring the entire line back to the formula.

It would be great to see Rocksteady return to Batman and that Arkham games in particular because that was its bread and butter, but that was a decade ago. Rocksteady had a great recipe where Batman was always the main character and companions eventually became playable as either stars of their own DLCs or supplementary companions that came and went during scripted encounters. Seeing Bat Family members get their own Arkham games would be wonderful, but if a formulaic return to tradition is what will satiate the masses, it's unlikely that gamers will be rid of Batman anytime soon.

Family

Batman: Arkham Shadow's director discusses challenge maps, narrative direction and more

In an interview with Game Rant, Batman: Arkham Shadow's game director Ryan Payton talks about challenge maps and how the story intersects with the game.

The Arkhamverse can't avoid key Bat-Family characters forever

An overview of the Arkhamverse timeline would illustrate how there are only so few years left Arkham games to cover where Batman plays a lone role. Batman: Arkham Origins and Batman: Arkham Asylum are the only entries so far that actually allow Batman to be a solitary figure casually talking to his companions via cowl comms and trying to convince himself that he works better alone, such as when he's in Batman: Arkham City and Batman: Arkham Knight he's firing off Catwoman or a Robin left and right.

Ironically enough Arkham Games have actively avoided origin stories for the Bat-Family while emphasizing origin stories for Batman's rogues gallery, but Knight kind of muddies the waters when it debuts an origin story for Jason Todd as both the Arkham Knight and the Red Hood. Shadow is now expected to provide origin stories for at least a few iconic Batman villains, and Bat Family recruits like Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, and Tim Drake appearing for the first time in the canon are on the table.

There is already a legitimately high probability that Barbara Gordon will be invited to the Batcave and given a cape and cloak during the events of
Batman: Arkham Shadow

– especially if her father is one of the public officials kidnapped – since she's still in touch with Batman and has probably been dying to work with him again since helping find the Penguin's arsenal in
Origin
.

Batman's popularity in the Arkhamverse may ensure he's not going anywhere

That said, it's probably best for Bat Family affiliates to simply get their own standalone DLCs where they can be main characters, like Robin in City's Harley Quinn's Revenge or Batgirl in Batman: Arkham Knight's A Matter of Family (which includes Robin as Batgirl's Dual Play companion). Really, KnightThe Dual Play feature broadened the roles of the Bat-Family characters while maintaining Batman as the protagonist, and has since gathered a thick layer of dust and cobwebs.

Dual Play is an ideal way to have Bat Family companions appear in the game, actually lends itself to Batman and another character acting as a dynamic duo, and will hopefully be revisited in a possible future Arkham game developed by Rocksteady. Gotham Knights' blunder might not necessarily have been enough to dissuade studios from going all-in on a Bat Family-centric game, but with the Arkhamverse having such a long and popular lineage where Batman is unsurpassed in popularity, it's unlikely that the Bat Family will ever to reach the same pedestal.