Predictions
Speaking of Victor Zsasz, its possible he might also make an appearance in the game. His origin story involves losing money to the Penguin at a Casino, with the Arkham City interview tapes confirming this happened while the gangster still had his face bottleless, so Origins could include Batmans first meeting with the tallying serial killer. This seems likely as a trail of bodies across the city would allow for use of the games detective analysis, a feature new to the franchise that allows the reconstruction of crime scenes. The only reason this might be emitted is if the publisher considers it too gruesome, but writer Geoff Johns (Paul Dinis talented replacement) has never been afraid of a little gore, and given this is a Batman story horrible crimes are to be expected. Other than him there are a few other characters that might return, such as Catwoman and Harvey Dent. I doubt Two-Face will make an appearance, yet his past life as a attorney may crop up in the game, perhaps working alongside Batman to help him track down certain criminals. Catwoman, on the other hand, might appear as a fully-fledged criminal. Her relationship with Bats wont have developed into a friendship by this point, so showing her purely a thief would enable the writer to show how their relationship began, while also providing another opportunity for the aforementioned detective mode. Of course shed be a side-mission at most, given she doesnt kill so wouldnt make a very good assassin (well she actually killed Black Mask in the comics, but his presence in Arkham City shows that doesnt happen in this version of the story).
In terms of the other assassins that might crop up in the game, since there are five left unconfirmed, Im gonna take a wild stab in the dark and suggest someone from the League of Assassins will show up at some point. I know, crazy right? I must be mad to think so outside the box! Anyway, out of everyone in the League its perhaps most likely that Talia al Ghul will be the one to make an appearance, as this would allow the origin of their love story to be explained, possibly culminating in Talia defending Batman against the other assassins later on in the game. Apart from her and Ras there isnt really much point speculating, as 90% of the Dark Knight rogues gallery could potentially take the role of the other four assassins, though a less mutated Killer Croc, desperate for money to cure himself, or Jarvis Tech/Jonathan Crow out for money to help develop their research would also make a lot of sense and help provide some diversity to the list. Chances are most of the side missions will involve largely unheard of characters like Anarky, given all the villains (with the exclusion of Scarecrow) were used in City and the developers of this game wont want to just use all the same characters again. However, if written well this shouldnt be problematic, as a good writer might even be able to make Rat-Catcher a credible villain, so Geoff Johns could do wonders with the likes of the Ventriloquist, a character I suspect may crop up at some point in the game. Arkham Origins looks like a worthy sequel to the best Super-Hero game of all time, so I recommend you pick up a copy when its released on October 25th. Who do you think will be in Arkham Origins? Share your thoughts in the comments below.