The Gotham Knights Rise
One of the biggest shocks of the new Gotham Knights reveal, a game which I myself speculated could be the next game in the Arkham universe (a fact that turned out to be false, however Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League does take place in the same universe so… I guess I was right about parts of each?) was the reveal that Batman himself, Bruce Wayne, died.
After all, this is Batman. While his sidekicks are an important part of the comics, nobody would play a Superman game where the main playable character is Jimmy Olsen. The segments of Spider-man where you played as MJ were interesting, mixed up the gameplay, and gave the story time to breathe, but they weren’t the main draw of the game- the main draw was the chance to step into the shoes of our friendly neighborhood Spider-man.
The game’s creative director Patrick Redding explained the decision. “We wanted to take away any certainty, any feeling of safety, so we could take a Gotham City where Bruce Wayne has been operating as Batman for, like, 15 years – with all that history, his whole network of allies – and then take him out of the picture. It really demands players figure out, ‘How would I step up, and how would I protect Gotham City?'”
As far as an explanation goes, it definitely makes sense, and the stakes will definitely feel high. After all, Batgirl’s alter ego- Barbara Gordon- was famously crippled by the Joker, and a wheelchair is visible in her apartment. Likewise Red Hood himself, Jason Todd, was killed and resurrected in the comics.
However, comic book logic might still be at play; as grounded as Batman is compared to Spider-man or Superman, there’s still supernatural elements at play, and there’s numerous avenues for him to come back within the game. For one, Gotham is littered with Lazarus Pits, which villain Ra’s al Ghul has used to bring himself back to life on multiple occasions, and which the game’s villains, the Court of Owls, have used for their own purposes.
Which member of the Bat Family are you most excited to play? Let us know.