10 Video Game Plot-Holes You Can't Ignore
2. Batman: Arkham City - Why Does TITAN Poisoning Affect Batman Worse Than Joker?
The Arkham series plays loose and fast when it comes to TITAN. Exposure to the glowing goop acts by turns as a steroid, mutagen, poison, and mind-altering entity. That threadbare consistency is a problem, particularly in Batman: Arkham City.
Following his exposure to raw TITAN in Arkhm Asylum, Joker finds that the substance is slowly killing him. It’s strange, then, that when Batman – the near super-human Batman – is poisoned via a dose of Joker’s blood he begins to succumb within only a few hours, and doubly strange when you consider that his exposure was diluted.
You could argue that Joker fell into a vat of chemicals and survived. But in that case TITAN exposure should have had little lasting effect. You could also claim that Joker has a super-human immune system. In that case, in Arkham Knight, the four civilians exposed to Joker’s blood should have lasted only as long as Batman.
Interestingly, TRALI, where the body rejects donated blood, leading to severe respiratory problems, fits Batman’s symptoms almost perfectly. Except, there is no cure, only treatment. Still, tweak the story just slightly, and this could have made for a compelling timer. And no plot-hole.