Most Underused Villains in the Arkham Games

The Batman: Arkham series is beloved for a reason, and the Arkhamverse has featured many of Batman’s greatest and most obscured villains over the years, providing players and fans with a Rogue’s Gallery to be proud of. However, even some of Batman’s best villains falter a tad across a multitude of the best Batman Arkham games, for they can be seen as underused and underutilized.

Considering the Batman Arkham games are so large in life, it’s no surprise that some villains were left sidelined, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Listed below are many great villains that the Arkhamverse introduced, but didn’t exactly deliver on using these brilliant DC villains to their truest potential.

8 Deathstroke

The Ultimate Assassin, Reduced to a Tank Boss Fight

• Featured in: Batman: Arkham Origins, Batman: Arkham Knight

The Terminator himself has abilities and martial arts skills that rival that of Batman, which is why their legendary clash in Batman: Arkham Origins is so fun. These two expert combatants use gadgets against each other, throwing fists, kicks, and counters – but that one fight spells the end of their feud, even though it would’ve been great to see them battle again.

Deathstroke does return for Batman: Arkham Knight, but everyone can agree that the fight itself is mediocre at best since Deathstroke is reduced to a Cobra Tank battle that has already been experienced twice before. The fact that the person who could go fist-for-fist against Batman is reduced to a tank-boss battle is disappointing, to say the least.

7 Hush

The Twisted Villain Who Seeks to Dismantle Bruce Wayne’s Life

• Featured in: Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Knight

Hush was criminally underused in the Arkham games. First teased in Batman: Arkham Asylum, then revealed in Batman: Arkham City, Hush was a promising threat that would uphold the greatness of Thomas Elliot and his spite towards Bruce Wayne. However, this hope was diminished in Batman: Arkham Knight when Hush was reduced to a quick time event side mission that had Batman sucker punch Hush and that was about it.

There is so much room for Hush’s growth and the dismantling of Bruce Wayne’s private life as both a father to the Bat-Family and a CEO at Wayne Industries, and yet Hush doesn’t take to any of it. Hush is a great villain who definitely deserves to do something more.

6 Calander Man

A Chilling Villain, Always Seen Locked Up, But Never in Action

• Featured in: Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Knight (cameo)

Calander Man is most certainly one of the creepiest aspects of the Arkhamverse. Everything about him is menacing, from his design to his motives. Committing heinous crimes on every holiday that he has memorized, Calander Man’s antics make him worthy of the death penalty and staying behind bars to avoid any more despicable acts of twisted violence.

Players can interact with Calander Man in Batman: Arkham City throughout different holiday seasons, and the fact that he is still locked up despite the free reign of a prison city, shows how dangerous he is. However, players never get to experience this danger directly, and they can only imagine what twisted schemes Calander Man had in store for Batman: Arkham Knight’s Halloween.

5 Two-Face

Bruce Wayne’s Best Friend, Tragically Turned to… Catwoman’s Villain?

• Featured in: Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Knight, Batman: Arkham Shadow

A character with so much potential and history, reduced to side missions for Catwoman in Batman: Arkham City. Two-Face is brilliant and twisted in every aspect of his design and personality, and his suffering from DID makes him compelling to watch and terrifying to fight against. However, Two-Face’s potential was left on the reserves for a lacking side mission in Batman: Arkham Knight who just wants to rob banks.

Batman: Arkham Shadow did a brilliant job of showing the Arkhamverse relationship and brotherhood between Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent before Harvey’s Dissociative Identity Disorder grew worse. It’s a great origin for Two-Face, and the potential for one of Batman’s greatest villains to be one of his former best friends is truly tragic.

4 Clayface

The Horrific Twisting Monstrocity Only Features at the End of Arkham City

• Featured in: Batman: Arkham City

Clayface plays an important yet disclosed role in Batman: Arkham City, where he plays the role of the Joker to trick Batman into thinking he’s completely healthy. Despite the greatness and unexpected nature of this twist, Clayface himself doesn’t serve much purpose in the entire series outside of an awesome boss fight.

Considering Clayface’s potential as a villain, some more moments with him would’ve been great, especially in Arkham Knight with refined graphics and mechanics that could truly make a menacing clay monster work – especially after Clayface’s mixture with the Lazarus Pit.

3 Killer Croc

What Starts Out as a Terrifying Monster in the Sewers Becomes a Beat-Em-Up Boss

• Featured in: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City (cameo), Batman: Arkham Origins, Batman: Arkham Knight (DLC)

Killer Croc had one of the scariest levels in Batman: Arkham Asylum, and running down into his sewer lairs was one that many with nostalgia for the game will remember and hope to forget for how terrifying it was to skulk about this domain with a cannibalistic crocodile man chasing Batman so he could have a bat-themed snack.

Despite the terror in Killer Croc, the villain rarely returned, and while he features as a boss fight in Batman: Arkham Origins and a side mission for the Season of Infamy content with Batman: Arkham Knight, he’s wildly underutilized – as having free roam over Gotham in Arkham Knight would’ve made for a fun time hunting the terrifying Killer Croc in the sewers below.

2 Black Mask

A Sick and Twisted Mob Boss of Gotham City Reserved for a Twist

• Featured in: Batman: Arkham City (cameo/DLC), Batman: Arkham Origins, Batman: Arkham Knight (DLC)

Black Mask was one of the central villains of Batman: Arkham Origins – or so audiences thought. Black Mask had put a bounty on Batman’s head on Christmas Eve, and many bounty hunters and assassins had claimed the bounty to collect on the head and cowl. However, this bounty wasn’t even made by Black Mask, but in fact Joker in disguise.

Black Mask’s later appearances were reduced to a one-time side mission and even his murder by Red Hood in a DLC challenge pack for Arkham Knight. Considering the gang wars of Gotham City are one of the more interesting aspects of Batman’s character, it’s a shame Black Mask had little involvement.

1 Bane

Physically and Mentally Strong to Rival Batman, Reduced to a Hulk

• Featured in: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Origins

Bane is arguably the most underused villain in the entirety of the Batman Arkham series. His first debut in Batman: Arkham Asylum in some ways ruined his image, as the calm and calculating villain who could break Batman and bring Gotham to its knees was reduced to a hulking fool who acted more like the Incredible Hulk than he did as Bane.

There were some great moments with Bane, like his entire arc in Batman: Arkham Origins, however, it was a shame to see Bane at his highest potential just to be left with a gigantic brute of a character in future installments. It would’ve been great if Bane returned to Gotham in Arkham Knight, cured of his TN-1 brain fog, and back with a vengeance against Batman.