12 Reasons You Were Wrong About Batman: Arkham Origins

by Ewan Paterson

1. Expanding The Arkhamverse

The Arkhamverse was born with Rocksteady's first title, but many questions regarding its existence have proved to be elusive. Fans have argued time and time again over what is and what isn't canon, and just how much of the DC Universe it encompasses as well.

Many of these questions remain unanswered - and will likely stay that way - but both Arkham City and Origins alluded to a wider DC Universe - one much larger than Batman and Gotham City. These nods and winks became increasingly more prominent in Origins, with references to Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Superman, The Flash and more significantly, The Suicide Squad.

Origins helped to cement and establish the 'Arkhamverse' as a significant portion of the Batman-Mythos, as demonstrated by the semi-sequel animated adventure, Assault on Arkham.

Origins is an easy target for a number of reasons: it's made my a different developer, it recycles assets, it changes some core aspects etc. but this does not mean it deserves near enough the hate it gets.

For every 'miss-step' made, Origins brought valuable changes to the table that made the Arkham formula even greater. So like it or not, when Rocksteady departs from the series this year Montreal will be there to take over, and while there will always be skeptics - the Arkham franchise really couldn't be in safer hands.

Do you love or hate Origins, and do you want to see more prequels or other Arkham titles after Knight? Let us know in the comments!

Denshattack! Review

17 Gaming Secrets Only Losers Discover

20 Upcoming Video Games That Might Surprise You

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.