The Arkhamverse Should Continue to Emphasize Bruce Wayne

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 28, 2025 4 Views 6 Min Read
The Arkhamverse Should Continue to Emphasize Bruce Wayne
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Batman’s Arkhamverse is at a critical junction following Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Batman: Arkham Shadow. Any future Batman game in the Arkham series will probably be met with excitement, to be fair, and with any luck the series will continue to mold itself the way that Batman: Arkham Shadow has: with a great deal of faithfulness in adhering to previously established lore and gameplay while also not being afraid in the slightest to tell an authentic, bold story. Part of that boldness, at least in Batman: Arkham Shadow’s case, was indulging in a decadent and nuanced examination of Bruce Wayne.

Of course, Bruce is technically always playing a large role since he’s who inhabits the Batsuit.

But, with Batman famously being a dominant gradient of Bruce’s character, there’s an unmistakable distinction made when Bruce is not wearing the cowl. Such sequences are incredibly important as a result, regardless of how few times Batman removes his cowl in the series. Having so much time dedicated to Bruce in Batman: Arkham Shadow, whether he’s dressed as an inmate at Blackgate Prison or not, has demonstrated how precious these moments are and will hopefully inspire future Arkhamverse games to consider more of the same.

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The Aftermath of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Paints a Clear Portrait of Batman’s Arkhamverse

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s story has ended and with it Batman’s Arkhamverse future has a fairly blank canvas to work with.

Batman’s Arkhamverse Needs to Let Bruce Out of the Cave More

The Arkhamverse is currently comprised of seven mainline games: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Origins, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, Batman: Arkham Knight, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, and Batman: Arkham Shadow (in release order). Batman being the focal point has always been favorable due to how little Bruce would contribute to gameplay when, dressed as a Caped Crusader, he can otherwise glide around. Bruce’s appearances in the series before Batman: Arkham Shadow reflect this disparity:

  • Batman never removes the cowl in Batman: Arkham Asylum and the only place where players can actually see what Bruce would’ve looked like is his character biography illustration.
  • Batman: Arkham City opens with Bruce getting himself forcefully admitted to Arkham City, where he regains consciousness and has an opportunity to knock out Penguin before he has Alfred drop down a Batsuit in a Batpod.
  • It’s not until Batman: Arkham Origins that Bruce has considerable significance in both gameplay and the narrative due to the poignant conversations he shares with Alfred Pennyworth, the opening of the Cold, Cold Heart DLC at Wayne Manor, and the Initiation DLC’s Challenge Mode campaign.
  • Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, like Asylum, keeps Bruce in the Batsuit the entire game.
  • Batman: Arkham Knight has Bruce play a minor role with his most prominent moments revolving around his secret identity being revealed to the world—one profound scene sees Bruce unmask before Thomas Elliot in Wayne International Plaza’s penthouse.
  • Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League features a hologram of Bruce who, with his identity already public, unmasks to lament about his Bat-family (Tim Drake is supposedly murdered by Batman’s clone at this point) and gives a long monologue about how to thwart a compromised Justice League.

There isn’t much left to unpack about Bruce’s trauma that hasn’t been touched on or psychoanalyzed in the Arkhamverse, let alone other Batman-related media, but having Batman: Arkham Shadow debut Dr. Leslie Thompkins was phenomenal as it added a nuanced layer to not only Bruce’s backstory but also Harvey Dent’s. Plus, it did so without rupturing the connective tissue of previously established lore. Bruce’s exaggerated voice and demeanor, like the cape and cowl, are another lens that he perceives Gotham City through.

As Irving “Matches” Malone, Bruce begins to sympathize with certain characters like Joe and Dr. Harleen Quinzel. Moreover, Leslie is able to humble Bruce in ways never seen before in the Arkhamverse. If future Arkhamverse games wish to succeed, Bruce can no longer be left out of the picture.

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