10 Reasons Rocksteady's Next Arkham Game Should Be Batwoman
3. She Deserves To Be More Than Just A Costume
DC Comics
One of the biggest problems with a lot of comic book video games is that they can sometimes reduce an entire character to just another costume. It's what happened to John Stewart in the Injustice games, and while it didn't make too much of a difference, the Dick Grayson-themed Robin skins in Batman: Arkham Knight were pretty jarring given the Robin of that title was actually Tim Drake.
Likewise, with Batgirl, it could be argued that Rocksteady have the opportunity to just make a Batwoman skin and go from there. However, Kate Kane and Barbara Gordon are so different from each other that it wouldn't make any sense to adopt that approach - she deserves to be her own character, with her own model, dialogue, and personality.
There's been a tendency in Arkham following Origins to repeat animations across different characters. Deathstroke had some of Robin's staff attacks in the prequel, and most of Arkham Knight's characters shared a specific few takedown animations too.
The occasional repeat is fine, but Kane is her own fighter. She isn't Batman, she isn't Batgirl - she isn't like any of Batman's allies. That should be reflected in a game.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
