Spider-Man PS4: 10 Things It Must Learn From Batman Arkham

3. Don't Oversaturate One Villain

Spider-Man PS4 Mr Negative
Insomniac

Although Batman has a massive rogues' gallery to boast of, there is one villain that holds particular preeminence both on and off the page. The Joker is that villain, and while he's very much the best Bat-rogue out there (a status elevated whenever Mark Hamill lends his voice to the character), the clown prince has been oversaturated as of late - nowhere more prominently than in the Arkhamverse.

In Asylum, City, Origins and Knight the Joker serves as an ancillary antagonist. Every game is his game, and while that's fine to a degree, all of Batman's other villains take a back seat. Fans were desperate to see the likes of R'as Al Ghul, Scarecrow and more all genuinely take a leading role, and while they both feature prominently in City and Knight, neither game is theirs, so to speak; the Joker overshadows them all.

While it's unlikely Insomniac will do the same with Mister Negative, owing to the fact he's not all that famous a villain, but it could just as easily happen with Norman Osborn or Wilson Fisk, both of whom are nailed on to play a key part in the story at some point.

If anything, this new title is showing Insomniac are aware of character fatigue. No one would've thought that Mister Negative would anchor a video game, and yet he is. Props to them for making it happen.

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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.