Sequels, sequels, sequels. Often they are unwanted and ultimately as well received as a surprise colonoscopy performed by Mr. Freeze. However in terms of Rocksteady’s Batman game franchise; we just want more and more and more…And then more…But less villains. Please; less villains.
With Arkham City and Arkham Asylum making our jaws drop several times on two different occasions the sequel is inevitable but not as obvious as it may be with (spoiler) The Joker’s Death at the end of Arkham City meaning Batman could be looking for a new angle, a new villain and we here at WhatCulture towers are here to offer a few ways they could do this with a few select story ideas…
1. Return Of The Joker
The Story:
The villains of Arkham City start appearing throughout Gotham after the City’s controversial final plan means all of Gotham’s super villains are released under compassionate grounds (or some other form of convenient government mishandling that aid the narrative) and, predictably, start wreaking havoc on the residents.
As Batman it is your duty to stop and apprehend these villains who are destroying Gotham but as you do that a plan starts to become apparent; the spots of destruction aren’t random enough to be these criminals working without plan. Who is behind it? Well…I think you see where this is going.
The Joker has managed to fake his own death to stop Batman worrying about him whilst in the mean time convincing all of Gotham’s criminals to work in a co-ordinated manner to best destroy the Batman and then take Gotham’s soul with it.
Awesome Moment: Batman’s captured and beaten and ‘The Boss’ stands over him. Through his bleary vision the face comes down to say hello and it’s The Joker.
Reason This Should Be The Story: The Joker has been a vibrant, funny and destructive delight in the last two games and it would be sad to see him go.
Reason This Shouldn’t Be The Story: Batman has enough brilliant villains to be able to get around the gap The Joker will leave, and going back to a Joker villain would be a bit of a safe journey for Rocksteady.
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27 Comments
Good article, and very valid points. But isn’t the sequel to Arkham City going to be a prequel now? When Batman first met joker?
I think so, I would totally buy the game if Joker returned, my mind would be blown. But then again, there so many other awesome villains too…
I think they should set it back in the Si
Ver age or even the golden age of comics,also I think it should be more open world as in you wake up as Bruce wayne in Wayne Manor,which you could customise,then you see a bat- signal through the window do you go to the bat-cave or do you carry on as Bruce Wayne? Maybe you could switch between playing Batman or Robin during the main campaign
Out of all of them I think the Scarecrow one would be the best. First off DC wants to bring light to all of its hero’s in preparation for the Justice League movie. And while it has been rumored that the next one would be a prequel their are too many clues on a sequel. And it would be a great way to show all their hero’s from the Justice League
They should just do a Batman Beyond game.
GREAT IDEA
best idea!
Yessssssssss!!!!!!!!!
I agree with you. What I wanted to see for Arkham City was Terry as a DLC. But for him Arkham City is a training simulation, seeing he wasn’t born during its events. And his Oracle character would be Max. Or maybe he was thrown back in time. And Wonder City contains a Chrono-arch to allow him to go back home. But other than that, he has to fight his way through Arkham City etc.
Great ideas. Here’s mine, Harley is soooo upset of Joker’s death that she makes The Riddler hypnotize Clayface to make him think he was the real Joker (like in the game when he impersonates him) this next part is optional, she has The Riddler hypnotize her to, so that she never has to remember the real Joker’s death. OR, the Joker that stabbed Batman in the end, was Clayface, and Joker NEVER dies. OR Joker got the secret of immortality and didn’t die. Please tell me what you think.
I think that if the Joker is brought back
It should be the real Joker and not Clayface.
I can’t wait to see what they come up with
One thing is clear though, the Arkham series needs the real Joker.
the Riddler is cool, but his more of a mental challenge to Batman.
The Scarecrow is ok, but what is suggested here just sounds like a huge mind trick.
How about this for a working title ” Batman: Gotham Asylums”
Set in a quarantined Gotham City, in wich the way of the muzzle and gun has taken over
Awesome Moments: Batman’s use of the Batmobile and Batwing
Reason why this should be the story: Batmobile and Batwing
Reason why this shouln’t be the story: you tell me
Love the idea of using both batwing and batmobile, however I’d go with a different plotline. I think, if they do bring the justice league in, that they should make it a lot like arkham city in the sense of plenty of villains all in one area. He could face off with croc(muscle), penguin(resourses), skarekrow(different kind of muscle), etc. And if they go with adding the league they could also toss in lex luthir as the brains if the whole ordeal, making a spin off series for each leager even easier
Joker needs to come back in one of two ways: clays ace faked his death or ra’s al ghul used the pit after he too is resurrected, but is unable to control the joker I mean who can. Justice league should be left out of it. Death means nothing in batman because ra’s is a walking freakin loop hole indignant possibilities with amazing villains but the joker is a necessity. I would also like to see more robin/night wing gameplay maybe a multiplayer cuz just challenges for them was very disappointing. I enjoyed the asylum and fell in love with city time for an Arkham Nation.huh huh huh ha ha ha ha ha!
For the Scarecrow Titan Epidemic, instead of the Justice League, how about Robin, Nightwing, even Catwoman? Huntress? A Batgirl? :P
There could be a multiplayer add on where every person playing multiplayer with you, is a different member of the Justice League, and that includes being Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, Catwoman, and the Creeper (Jack Ryder’s alter ego) please tell me what you think
If its a prequel I’m out I’m so tired of having great games building up a great story just to go back to the beginning. Maybe it’s just me but when I’m finished with a game I ask myself what happens next not what happened before the first game.
The idea of having an arkham city prequel with The Joker would be amazing however Mark Hamill has said that he wouldn’t play The Joker again and tbh he was fantastic as The Joker and I doubt it would be the same without him.
did anyone see Harley Quinns pregnancy test on the table in the steel mill? It showed that harley was pregnant so i would like to see if Joker’s child would appear at all
The DLC for Arkham City, Harley Quinn`s Revenge, seems to cover the whole pregnancy angle. I won`t spoil it for those who haven`t played it, but you should play it and then give your thoughts on sequel ideas.
the story should be set when batman and joker first meet each other in the silver age of comics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:)
No, haha. It can’t be a prequel, i can’t imagine the justice league being gritty or realistic in the silver age. Rocksteady is going to change it, Im pretty sure they dont to do a prequel, too many plot holes, when the Arkahm city incedent happened why didn’t they show up? I can imagine this prequel to become Lego batman 2 with different art and gameplay. It has to be an independent game. So you can play as all of the characters, because when was he last time we had a decent superman game?
Why not do No Man’s Land? Joker didn’t play too much of a part till later (so logically cut him, and replace him with quinn). Have gotham devastated; with one one coming to help, the city breaks into small neigherhood gangs that batman, who tries to get government intervention and fails to do it as bruce wayne, comes back and begins to reclaim territory, fighting human gangs, super baddy gangs, and the GCPD! Allows you to have multiple story arcs at once, multiple missions, and gives you a bigger play land.
Perhaps a Titan Croc? Hes already 11 feet tall. When Joker was Titanized, he became like twenty feet tall. Croc would be like 40 feet on Titan. You’d have to use Batman and Robin to take him down. Maybe a way Scarecrow or Black Mask uses Croc as a pawn to slow them down. Batman would have to follow the path of destruction in the sewers or somethin like that.
I think the best way for any of these stories to work is if scarecrow plagues the jla with fear toxin which makesthem attack batman, as he takes out each of them to apply a cure, the final battle could have batman beat but the jla help and knock scarecrow, in his arrogance batman demands they leave but then gets whacked round the head with something, the next scene could be after the credits where you see batman gagged, and then just hear the jokers laugh…
English is not my first language, so sorry for any typoes in advance. Also, SPOILER ALERT, just in case…
The HQ DLC was awful, at least to my opinion. It used a really blunt and crappy easter egg to kill an entire possible story arc that was so beautifully hinted, and for what? The marketing told that HQ DLC would be an epic colclusion to AC, but AC’s own ending was that, DLC’s ending added nothing to the story and all characters were as smooth as a plate full of rocks for breakfast. Quinn was supposed to have a plan, but she just messed around and got her ass kicked, twice!
I know and agree that after two games and DLC in the spotlight, Quinn could only had made a small cameo or only be hinted in easter egg form in any possible sequel, but did they really have to kill of… See the easter egg of the DLC. It’s only my opinion, but it seems that someone was just lazy with the way they hoped to just make many gamers forget a story twist with a kinda “Noh, we changed our minds. There, lets put that easter egg in your face and just call it forgotten, right?” They could have as well just paint an X over the original easter egg and leave office for the day. Are they going to do the same with other sequel hinting easter eggs in the future? What’s stopping them now?
Why am I trash talking about people that made two great games? Simple. They got too much money and thought that it’d be easy and sweet to just not bother with the coming work. First the DLC was made too fast and without any soul and ended up as a crappy epilogue to a good game. Now rumors seems to indicate that they actually plan to do a prequel with the Justice league? Smells like a lazy means to make a cheap story by adding other superheroes to the story. Why bother telling great new Batman stories, if you can filler with other superheroes?
And silver age? I’m not the best to say here, since I was too young to first learn about Batman by comics, but after Burton movies and animations I have done my best to fill that void. Anyway, I know we do not need to push Arkham verse too dark, but it’s not a good idead to make easy new plot developements by making it lighter either. Also, prequel sound like one of two things or both. Joker’s back (in which case either it’s a hated new talent or Hamill returns, and then it means he could have returned for a sequel also) or/and they want to simply get an easy story by hinting events that we already know are going to happen.
I hope all of my reasonings are way off and the next possible game is going to be a something out of this world. However, I fear that the DLC is not a sign that kicking Dini out of the team was a good idea or that they are as interested in the story anymore as they were in the start. Dini is not the only Batman writer in the world, but he did a good job. I hope I’m wrong, but…
What would be cool is having it set in gotham and switching perspectives from batman to robin to nightwing to batgirl/catwoman. Then have a few epic fights where batman is teaming up with one or more of the teammates in spots and ends with all of them united fighting the big bad boss of the whole thing with batman saving all of them with a bright idea. Would be sweet to have fighting moves that are combinations with other characters.
Clayface fell into the Lazarus pit they should do something based off of that.