Future Games: Arkham Knight - The Joker (Part 1)

One of my most anticipated games (hopefully this year) is the next installment of the Batman Arkham series, which is rumored to be named Arkham Knight. Sure, we had Arkham Origins, which was pretty good as far as storyline is concerned, but I think it's time we get some answers from Arkham City.

For those who haven't played Arkham City, go and get it now. Even if you're not a gamer, get it just for the incredible storyline. The great thing about these games is you don't even have to read comic books or be remotely familiar with Batman. When I first played Arkham Asylum I had never ever read a comic, aside from Garfield and the occasional Calvin and Hobbes. Now I read them all the time, especially Batman.

As said before, Arkham City left way too many questions that didn't have answers. I would say don't read below if you don't want spoilers, but the game came out in 2011, so it's a bit late for that. But just in case you hate spoilers, then don't proceed.

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Arkham City left these questions that did not have answers:

Is Joker really dead? Okay, we all saw it. The Joker had a good last laugh and died, because the cure was smashed and there was no time to make another batch. Besides that, Ras Al Ghul's body went missing after the final story mission and his blood held the cure. Yes, we saw the Joker die, but a lot of fans are skeptical that they would actually kill off arguably the most beloved super-villain of all time. Alas though, times like that do come. I mean, I was pretty bummed when Hellboy died, but sometimes you just need to end the story and the Joker might have outlived his usefulness for the Arkham series.

Although, if you played the game after you beat the story missions, you will hear inmates giving their opinion the whole manner. Some say, "Joker can't be dead ... can he?", "What if it was Clayface Batman brought out of the theater?", "Joker's died before." Stuff like that. But there is also some who have accepted Joker's death and Rocksteady may have done just that with the DLC, Harley's Revenge.

This short and sweet DLC takes place two weeks after the events of Arkham City and it's where Harley Quinn, Joker's gal, get's revenge for her puddin'. Of course, that doesn't happen, Batman and Robin save the day, but, the Joker's really not dead rumors are still running rampant amongst the old Joker gang. Some said the Batman killed him, others actually come to the Batman's defense and say, "It's not his style. The Batman doesn't kill." But again, Rocksteady may have killed off the Joker, because earlier in the game, if you stop and listen to the radio as Robin, Vicki Vale says that Commissioner James Gordon is not telling anyone where the Joker's body is, but there could be more to that. What if there not telling the media due to they think Harley will kill a bunch of people trying to retrieve it? What if there is no body and it mysteriously disappeared? Or maybe a certain lady from the government secretly confiscated the body for experiments?

Now I know what you're thinking, "Who the hell would buy a dead body?" Actually it does happen, even in our real life world, comics and games should be no different. If you didn't have a keen eye during the game, you would have missed banners for a group called Cadmus. Cadmus is a group from the DC universe, they're different versions of Project Cadmus - comics - where the specialize in genetic engineering. They were responsible for creating a few superheroes of their own - and the DC Animated Universe (Justice League/Justice League Unlimited) they were created as a way to stop the metahumans (superheroes) in case they went rogue and tried to destroy the planet. They still cloned superheroes (such as a clone of Supergirl), but they were still hellbent on pinning the blame on all of Earth's problems on the Justice League. This version of Project Cadmus was ran by Amanda Waller, who in the comics is the leader of the Suicide Squad.

So, what I'm saying with this whole thing with the Joker being taken by Project Cadmus is that maybe Amanda Waller thinks that a cloned Joker would be a key to the Suicide Squad's success. But once a psycho, always a psycho, and we all know that the Joker could never reform, even if his DNA has been altered to do so.

Now, this is just an idea, and it's not even my favorite one. My favorite one is that Batman is obviously feeling some sort of resentment towards the death of the Joker. He does have that one rule where he doesn't kill, even though he didn't kill the Joker, but he still died and there wasn't a thing Batman could do and that bugs Bats. You could tell in Harley's Revenge that Batman just wasn't himself and seemed a lot less thrilled with saving the day.

Now play with this idea, what if the Joker is haunting Batman. Not like a ghost, but acting like his conscious. It may sound far fetched, but when I'm thinking of it, it would be cool to see. Sometimes learning skills from your enemy can sometimes work. Just imagine the Joker being inside Batman's mind; it doesn't have to be a ghost, it could be Batman's guilt, and we all know with all the crap he's gone through since Arkham Asylum that its had to done a number on his psyche. So hearing voices of a past fiend shouldn't be all that far-fetched. Also, they can play it up like Joker is still alive, but in Batman through memory. Kind of like what they did with Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker when the Joker's DNA was embedded in Tim Drake's. Something like that, but it's all Batman, no DNA fused with his or nothing. Just his mind going berserk.

Or they don't have to bring the Joker back. He's been the main antagonist for all games now. Not that he would be in this one, he would just pop into Batman's mind or play with his vision every now and then, kind of like a Scarecrow hallucination.

Next part: Where is Scarecrow and how CAN he play a part in Arkham Knight?