12 Reasons You Were Wrong About Batman: Arkham Origins

Warner Bros. Montreal's prequel doesn't deserve any of the hate whatsoever.

by Ewan Paterson

Met with hostility from the very get-go, developer Warner Bros. Montreal's first foray into the Arkhamverse was bound to have its fair share of haters, but the mild reception it received upon its release was both unwarranted and illogical.

Batman: Arkham Origins introduced a character-driven narrative on par with some of DC's finest animated films, innovated the already well-refined Freeflow system pioneered by Rocksteady and highlighted an area of the Caped Crusader's career not often explored.

So why then, is it looked upon with such dismay?

There are of course things that the titular prequel could have improved upon, but the sheer disdain that many gamers have for the title just seems misplaced - an angry reaction to the absence of the series' creators, Rocksteady.

WB Montreal took the franchise to places not yet traversed by their predecessors, placing an emphasis on The Dark Knight's detective skills and his relationship with Alfred. Not only that, but Origins actually improved upon the foundations laid by the previous developers, yet popular opinion seems to dictate that its existence is unnecessary.

Origins has enriched the series rather than tarnished it, and it's about time time Bat-fans saw it for the stellar title it truly is.

Content Producer/Presenter

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.