There are high hopes for Monolith’s in-development Wonder Woman game, even though it’s still mostly shrouded in mystery. It will be the first proper, modern Wonder Woman video game, which will ideally raise the character to the relevance of Batman who, alongside Spider-Man, is perhaps the best-represented superhero in the world of gaming.
As fans await more news about Wonder Woman, they mostly only have two sources upon which to base their speculation: the Batman: Arkham series and Monolith’s Middle-earth duology. The high-fantasy premise and action-adventure gameplay of the latter is expected to inform Wonder Woman, and the more mature tone of the former may be similarly influential, especially if both IP are meant to exist within the same narrative universe. All of this is to say that, despite there being no gameplay revealed for Wonder Woman, there’s plenty of reason to believe that it will be a worthwhile game from a team that has already proven its excellence with previous titles. Hopefully, it will get the ball rolling for another, equally important DC hero.
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The two aren’t connected, but Batman’s Arkhamverse has an opportunity to influence Monolith’s Wonder Woman in more ways than one.
After Wonder Woman, Warner Bros. Needs to Push Out a Superman Game
A Superman Game Would Complete the DC Superhero Trifecta
Although DC Comics has spawned countless fantastic characters, it would be hard to argue against the notion that Superman, Batman, and Wonderwoman are its three most iconic. There are in-universe reasons for this: these characters are arguably the most competent and powerful in the world of DC Comics, often assuming positions of leadership. But there are also greater metanarrative and thematic factors contributing to why this trio is so enduring in culture and broader media.
Batman represents human cunning, ingenuity, and willpower, his “Dark Knight” mantle cementing him as a terrifying force for order and justice. On the other hand, Superman and Wonder Woman are aspirational figures, true superhumans that are the unattainable pinnacle of what society should strive for. They work hard, but they also enjoy innate gifts, which makes their relationship with society fundamentally different from Batman’s. At the same time, Wonder Woman being steeped in the history of Themyscira while Superman is a corn-fed, blue-blooded American makes them polar opposites in some ways.
With Batman getting fantastic video game representation and Wonder Woman hopefully following suit, it should only be a matter of time before Superman gets his due adaptation. He is one of DC’s “big three” heroes, but more importantly, he’s a unique character that could serve as a strong backbone for a standalone adventure, and one that is meaningfully distinct from both Wonder Woman and the Batman: Arkham games.
Making a Superman Game Would Be Tough, but Worth It
Superman has long posed an infamous challenge for game designers. After all, when a protagonist can defeat the overwhelming majority of physical threats with a single flick of the pinky, any semblance of gameplay balance essentially gets thrown out the window. But TV shows, films, and comic books have been writing around this roadblock for years now, so there’s no reason why a video game couldn’t do the same thing. It would probably just take a bit of ingenuity.
A Superman game would likely have to buck most of the trends of the action-adventure genre in order to work. For instance, Superman wouldn’t be able to take on a crowd of henchmen like Spider-Man or Batman would, as precious few human and alien threats would actually pose any sort of difficulty for him. Perhaps a less combat-oriented approach would work for a Superman game, though this would require a good deal of outside-the-box thinking when it comes to designing gameplay. Whatever route it takes, Warner Bros. shouldn’t avoid a Superman adaptation for too long, especially as its portfolio of superhero games continues to grow.
Monolith
- Date Founded
- October 25, 1994
- Headquarters
- Kirkland, Washington, United States
- Parent Company
- Monolith Productions
- Known For
- Fear