Batman: Arkham 2017: 10 Ways To Make The Perfect Damian Wayne Game

3. Bring In Villains New And Old

The Flamingo
DC Comics

You may not think it now, but Batman Beyond was a huge gamble for Warner Bros. when it debuted in 1999. The prospect of a newer, younger Batman made sense on paper (Terry McGinnis was, after all, WB's reply to Peter Parker), but the studio was still navigating uncharted territory. A new rogues gallery was called for, supplemented occasionally by callbacks to the past, and for a mythos that's arguably more famous for its villains than it its heroes, it was a pretty brave move to make.

The likes of Blight, Inque, Spellbinder and Shriek could never compete with series icons Joker, Riddler, Poison Ivy and Scarecrow, but they were far from dismal. They were their own thing with their own themes, gimmicks and personalities, and while not every Beyond rogue managed to resonate narratively or visually, the series could still boast of an iconic repertoire of evil-doers before it was untimely cancelled in 2001. If all goes according to plan, Montreal should be able to do the same.

It's not even a case of the studio having to create new villains, because there are whole areas of the mythos that remain untapped to this day. The bloke in the image above, for example, is The Flamingo, one of the villains introduced under Grant Morrison's tenure over the Bat-mythos. He eats faces, which more than warrants an inclusion I think, but there are also characters like Killer Moth, The Broker and the Ventriloquist who have all established canonical existence within the Arkhamverse through various Easter Eggs, riddles, and short stories. Take a break from Joker for a bit, and give this new Batman a new threat to face.

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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.