11 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About Batman: Arkham
5. Paul Dini's Contributions To The Arkhamverse Started Before Asylum
Although the Arkham series is very much Rocksteady's own baby, it owes a lot of its initial success to the work of Paul Dini. The writer was one of the key architects behind Batman: The Animated Series and it was he who laid the groundwork for the Arkhamverse as we know it today, not just in terms of his contributions to the stories of City and Asylum, but also in how BTAS inspired so many of Arkham's elements.
For starters, BTAS alums Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and Arleen Sorkin all appeared in Asylum. Their portrayals of Batman, Joker and Harley Quinn are all definitive, and they all stemmed from BTAS.
Likewise, although Rocksteady opted not to retain Dini's services for Arkham Knight (for the worse, one could argue), the writer still had a major part to play in fleshing out the rest of the Arkhamverse. He wrote tie-in material for Arkham City, the titular Phantasm of Mask of the Phantasm is referenced in Arkham Origins, and the whole plot thread from Arkham City involving Hush stealing Bruce's face stems from his underrated stint on Detective Comics and Streets of Gotham, which he was writing alongside the development of the first two Arkham titles.
It's a huge shame Dini didn't get to wrap up the threads he established in City, but his influence was still pivotal.