Batman: Arkham Origins - 10 Coolest Easter Eggs, Secrets And References Explained

10. Year One, The Killing Joke, And Other Nods To The Comics

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Perhaps even more-so than Asylum and City, Arkham Origins was heavily wedded to the Dark Knight's actual comics.

Whereas Rocksteady had elected to depict a Batman at the peak of his years, thus freeing them from having to do an origin story or to mirror certain comic book storylines (Asylum only has a passing resemblance to the Grant Morrison, Dave McKean comic), Montreal were slightly more constrained in what they could and couldn't ignore. It still had to feel like the Arkhamverse, but there was no ignoring the defining moments from the comics that made Batman who he is today.

So, in fleshing out the burgeoning years of the Arkhamverse, Montreal decided to put a twist on some of the character's key storylines. The events of Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's Year One are recounted in the game's extortion tapes, with explicit reference made to Jim Gordon's affair with Sarah Essen, as well as Arnold Flass, a corrupt GCPD cop allied to Commissioner Loeb.

There are also some cursory nods made in the direction of The Long Halloween and The Killing Joke. The former features on a board in the GCPD spotlighting the Falcone crime family (with Selina Kyle also present on the list of connections), while Joker makes explicit reference to the theme park he would eventually use to torture Jim Gordon in the latter during the final stages of the game.

Add to that glances to Knightfall, Joker's origins as Red Hood and more, and you're left with a veritable who's who of nods towards the Caped Crusader's comics.

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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.