Batman Arkham: Court Of Owls - 10 Villains That MUST Appear
Just please, not the Joker AGAIN.
Batman Arkham: Court Of Owls is the rumoured follow up to Warner Bros Montreal’s Batman Arkham: Origins. The flames of this rumour were fanned recently by some mysterious artwork, which Eddie Mendoza uploaded to his ArtStation portfolio before quickly deleting them.
The images featured Batman fighting off Talons, the assassins from Court Of Owls. Mendoza claims the images were just drawn for fun, but the suspiciously short time they were up for has set the rumour mill in motion.
We’re four games into the Batman Arkham series now, with three main series games and Origins as a prequel/spin off. Though the game was perhaps not up to the standard of the other three, it was still a pretty good game in its own right, and hopefully a sequel should iron out the kinks. If Court Of Owls is indeed more than a rumour, odds are it will take place some time between Origins and Asylum.
With that in mind, there’s a whole scope of villains to be included. Some have featured previously but can still offer fresh surprises, while other great villains haven’t featured at all yet. To balance newcomers and returning stars, the list is split 50/50 between those two camps.
10. Harley Quinn
Let’s kill two birds with one stone here; before we get onto Harley, the Joker should be addressed too. Despite WB Montreal telling us Black Mask was the lead villain and Joker being dead for Arkham Knight, the Clown Prince Of Crime had a starring role in each and every game. Surely it’s now time for him to sit this one out?
One thing which could be much more interesting is the development of Harleen Quinzel into Harley Quinn. She featured pre-breakdown in Origins - though she was starting to crack by the end - and has fully embraced the Harley persona by the time Asylum took place. Origins showed Joker starting to crawl into her head, and hidden tape recorders offered more details in Asylum, but they could certainly dig deeper.
She was a scene stealer in the games and in the Suicide Squad flick, so there’s definitely going to be a lot of fans wanting to see more from her. Showing her struggling with her new persona, or trying to impress a (hopefully absent) Joker would be a good way to show her in a new light.