Why a Harley Quinn Arkhamverse Game is Long Overdue

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home December 26, 2024 11 Views 5 Min Read
Why a Harley Quinn Arkhamverse Game is Long Overdue



Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has nearly shuttered and, while it’s unclear whether additional future content was ever planned, no more content will be added. The complete Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League package includes Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, King Shark, Joker, Mrs. Freeze, Lawless, and Deathstroke with a smattering of multiversal Brainiac boss fights and a story campaign that sees its Justice League slain in cold blood besides Wonder Woman.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has now rescinded this decision, though, with Wonder Woman seemingly still deceased while Flash, Green Lantern, and Batman are expected to have made it through the game’s events unscathed. The Justice League’s affiliates being even mostly alive still makes it seem as if Rocksteady, DC, or Warner Bros. has plans for them in the future. Regardless, the Arkhamverse’s own Harley Quinn has proven herself to be an indelible fixture of the Arkhamverse and is more than deserving of her own single-player game.

a (5)-3

Related


Batman’s Arkhamverse Future Should Be Forever Marred by Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League tugs at Batman left and right and one fateful choice made should haunt Bruce Wayne and the Bat Family forever.

Why Harley Quinn is the Arkhamverse’s Most Nuanced Character

Harley Quinn has humble beginnings in the Arkhamverse. As a mere physical and psychological punching bag for both Joker and Batman, Harley has been undervalued and trodden over since Batman: Arkham Asylum. Here, Harley plays the role of a dutiful and naive henchwoman—the most classic and enduring interpretation of her character, at least until recently.

Batman: Arkham City made no distinct change to Harley’s personality until its Harley Quinn’s Revenge DLC, where Harley is in mourning. This throughline continues into Batman: Arkham Knight, though she’s highly underutilized in the narrative considering that Joker’s infected blood is causing his psyche to manifest in Henry Adams, Christina Bell, Johnny Charisma, Albert King, and Batman. The only silver lining to how little she appears in Knight is that she is given her own brief DLC episode depicting a prequel sequence with her breaking into the Bludhaven Police Department.

This is one of the single best interpretations of Harley as it gives players insight into how tortured her mind and thoughts are, replacing Batman’s Detective Mode with Psychosis Mode. The Arkhamverse’s tried and true freeflow combat translates perfectly well to Harley, and it wouldn’t be unimaginable to see how this story pack’s gameplay could segue into a standalone single-player Harley Quinn game.

Harley Quinn’s Potential is Only Now Brimming in the Arkhamverse

Now, ever since Batman: Arkham Knight, Harley has been remade in a new image and with a far more interesting character development in mind. Batman: Arkham Shadow offers a glimpse into Dr. Harleen Quinzel before she became Harley Quinn, and it’s here that Bruce Wayne sympathizes with Harleen as someone who seems devoted to healing inmates and helping them rehabilitate.

This makes it doubly ironic that, after every encounter Batman and Harley Quinn have throughout the Arkhamverse, it’s she who kills him in the end.

Of course, that’s all been undermined by Bruce likely not being dead in actuality. With more Arkham titles surely on their way, it’ll be interesting to see if any of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s other lore-rending decisions are retconned later on.

It’d be an astonishingly bold choice—not as controversial as a four-player live-service looter shooter, perhaps—but giving Harley Quinn her own game would be a natural choice as she’s been as pivotal as Batman, if not more, in the Arkhamverse. A prologue or prequel could finally depict when Harleen donned tights and became Harley in the series, and having Batman be an antagonist she eludes would be a phenomenal way to capitalize on how engaging Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s Batman Experience museum is while continuing the rich story that Batman: Arkham Shadow lays formidable brickwork for.

Source link