An Arkhamverse Villain’s Absence in Batman: Arkham Shadow is Felt

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home December 10, 2024 31 Views 5 Min Read
An Arkhamverse Villain’s Absence in Batman: Arkham Shadow is Felt



Batman: Arkham Shadow is for Blackgate Prison what Batman: Arkham Asylum is for Arkham Asylum. As Irving “Matches” Malone, players get to observe or interact with tons of inmates and characters who were introduced in Batman: Arkham Origins and Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, and the pool of antagonists or bosses players encounter is purposefully cherry-picked from fellow prisoners or individuals working at the prison. This keeps Batman: Arkham Shadow’s narrative air-tight as Matches and Batman hunt the Rat King, and high-profile villains are never made more important for the sake of fan service.




Of course, it’s interesting to see what Origins and Origins Blackgate’s characters are up to as Batman: Arkham Shadow is a direct follow-up to those installments. Hearing Lonnie Machin’s Anarky speak to Vic Sage is enlightening, for example, and the notable absence of Oswald Cobblepot’s Penguin is explained as him feigning reformation and exchanging immunity for incriminating evidence on Carmine Falcone. However, one antagonist who’s made at least some sort of appearance in nearly every other Arkhamverse game so far is nowhere to be found—the Riddler, whose absence comes as a relief.

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Batman: Arkham Shadow Takes Another Much-Deserved Break from Riddler


Before Batman: Arkham Shadow, Riddler was undoubtedly the most prominent Arkhamverse villain besides Joker and permeated each game—other than Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate—with his signature green collectibles and challenges, both of the physical and cerebral variety. He’s the easiest Arkhamverse villain to despise by a mile, excessive trophies notwithstanding, and yet it’s tough to overstate his significance in the franchise.

Batman: Arkham Origins debuts a soft origin story for the conundrum artist, known then as Enigma. Here, Enigma presented Batman with intercepted GCR comms towers to put back online, network relays to destroy, and datapacks to obtain, but his threat level is markedly low compared to his machinations later on in the timeline. Interestingly, Batman: Arkham Shadow takes place only half a year later and Enigma himself is nowhere to be seen or heard of beyond an incredibly subtle reference in the Riddle of the Minotaur payphone puzzle and Gotham Herald newspaper report, though his handiwork and environmental puzzles are clearly inspirations for the Rat King’s wide catalog of destructible collectibles.


Batman: Arkham Shadow Puts Collectible-Oriented Arkhamverse Antagonists into Perspective

Batman still has a wealth of meticulously strewn-about collectibles to hunt down in Batman: Arkham Shadow, but without a bowler hat-clad egomaniac like Riddler to taunt and berate him the whole time it hardly seems like arduous or grating work. Indeed, radios can be torn away and broken before much of their Rat King propaganda can reach players’ ears, and even then it is greatly appreciated that the Rat King’s digitized voice isn’t perpetually mocking Batman or the player.

Batman: Arkham Shadow is proof of how full-length Arkhamverse titles don’t need Riddler in order to fill out a game with collectibles and that’s an exciting prospect since it opens a door to many other super-criminals taking on that role instead. The Rat King’s rodent-shaped idols substitute question mark-shaped trophies while radios, bombs, and maps litter maps with more to collect or destroy (all before even considering Echoes of the Past, ancient runes, or patient session tapes), diversifying the pool of oddities, puzzles, and items players may be tasked with optionally seeking out in the future.


Therefore, there is more than enough evidence to suggest that incessant nagging and deprecation are what made Riddler a nuisance, not a plethora of collectibles. Riddler will sprout up again eventually if more Arkham games are in the works, but Shadow demonstrates that collectibles don’t need to be exclusive to him, and that’s a boon for the franchise’s longevity and ingenuity.

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