The most compelling
aspect of the story in “Batman: Arkham Knight” for me was Batman’s ongoing hallucinations
of The Joker. I had heard a number of complaints throughout the years, starting
shortly after “Arkham City” came out, about the fact that the “Arkham” series
keeps using Joker as the main villain for its games. Batman has, arguably, the greatest
rogue’s gallery of any superhero, so why keep falling back to Joker when you
could give someone else the spotlight? I personally never minded the fact that
Joker was the main villain of “Arkham Asylum”, “City” and “Origins”. I love
that character, and it made sense to me that in situations where there are a
whole bunch of villains, all with their own plans, that Joker would eventually
out due them all and prove himself as the greatest danger – like he did in “Arkham
City”. However, I could certainly see where those making the complaints were
coming from. With that
said, it wasn’t until “Arkham Knight” brought Joker back in the way that it did
that I realized the “Arkham” series didn’t keep falling back on Joker because
he is the best or most popular or because they couldn’t write a good story with
someone else as the main antagonist, but rather because the “Arkham” series was
meant as a single story chronicling the relationship between Batman &
Joker.
Despite how pivotal Joker is to the story
Rocksteady is telling and the attention to detail they have always shown in
regards to the Batman property in their games, the way they set up Joker’s return
involves a complete misunderstanding of what Joker is. The story says that Batman and four others are
all turning into the Joker because they have been infected with his blood.
Joker, somehow, got a bunch of his blood samples into a hospital’s blood bank
before he died, despite the fact that he didn’t mention doing that in “Arkham
City” and Batman didn’t need additional motivation to come up with a cure as
Joker infects him as well. Joker’s blood was only harmful because of the Titan
disease he got from using too much of Bane’s Titan serum at the end of “Arkham
Asylum” and Batman developed a cure for that. Apparently, curing the Titan
disease wasn’t enough for five of the infected who somehow got a new disease
from Joker’s blood that turns you into the Joker. And here in lies the real problem:
when did Joker become a Vampire? Why on Earth does Joker’s blood make you
become Joker or at least give you a similar type of insanity? Plus, what kind
of blind luck is it for Joker that he infects people with one disease and then
it turns out his blood has an even worse second disease that no one knew about
and medical science has never seen anything like?
This plot element was
a terrible way to try and bring in characters to give Joker’s legacy a physical
presence and make it feel like he wasn’t ever going to be truly gone, which is
something that should have been covered by Red Hood instead. The Joker
hallucinations start after Batman is given what should have been a lethal dose of
Scarecrow’s Fear Toxin. Based on this scene and one at the end it appears that
Joker’s blood makes Batman completely immune to the usual damage caused by
Scarecrow’s Toxin, and it now only serves to hasten the process of Joker’s
blood turning Batman into Joker. That doesn’t make any sense and seems to imply that Joker
has a natural immunity to Scarecrow’s toxin like Poison Ivy, which he doesn’t.
It would have made more sense to lower the amount of Fear Toxin Batman was
exposed to and have the hallucinations and behavioral changes be caused by
temporary neurological damage as a side effect of his exposure. You could then
say that he now believes and starts behaving as if he is becoming Joker because
that is Batman’s greatest fear. Previous Batman stories have brought up the potential
of Batman having a psychological break and becoming just like Joker. Some have
even gone so far as to say that both Batman and Joker know it could happen and
that it’s one of the reasons why Batman won’t kill and the main reason Joker is
obsessed with him. This would
not only allow for all of the Joker related events/hallucinations throughout
the game to still happen while making sense, it would also make Scarecrow
responsible for them. That way Scarecrow doesn’t feel as much like the awkward
3rd wheel of the villains as Joker & Arkham Knight are the only
ones interacting with Batman for most of the game. It even would have helped
the game’s ending.
The
end of the Joker story in “Arkham Knight” was an amazing experience from a game
design standpoint. Seeing Batman lose himself to the Joker inside his mind and
playing as the Joker in his own Batmobile, then as a 3rd-Person Shooter
and finally a First-Person Shooter, as you try to destroy all the statues of
Batman popping up around you was very engaging. It brings you into Batman’s
mental struggle to regain control by making us the thing he is trying to take
control back from – an unusual position for the player. Yet, from a story
standpoint it is bizarre and jarring that the key to beating this unbeatable
Joker disease is not any sort of cure, but a sudden, unprovoked, onset of sheer
will power. Batman is cured because he wants to be, why didn’t that work
earlier when the disease was less developed? Had it all been a result of temporary
neurological damage from the Fear Toxin messing with his psychological state it
would make sense that he would eventually be able to recover on his own. Batman’s
brain making a physical recovery would have left the hallucinations as just a
lingering psychological problem due to his own stress doubt and paranoia.
Overcoming that through mental fortitude and determination makes sense, but
beating a physical disease doesn’t.
To say that
Joker’s unique case of insanity is transmittable goes against a core pillar of
what Batman has always been about. Batman has always touched upon ideas about
the human psyche. Batman is one of the world’s greatest and most disciplined
minds, hence the important title of World’s Greatest Detective. Rather than
facing off against super-powered beings, he fights the criminally insane – for
the most part. Sometimes characters don’t just represent certain personality
traits or facets of our minds, but represent disorders like Two-Face does for
split-personality disorder. To say that Joker’s mental illness/madness can be
transmitted like, say, HIV is a fundamental misunderstanding and
misrepresentation of mental illness/madness. I should point out that I am not
bringing this up from some politically correct standpoint that thinks “Batman:
Arkham Knight” needs to be more responsible and promote more understanding
& compassion for those with mental illness. I am bringing this up as a
Batman fan that takes issue with a group of writers telling a story that lacks
an understanding of how the mind works when insanity, sanity and the line
between the two are so fundamentally important to the Batman property and
touched upon within this very story.
This fundamental lack of understanding put on display
results in the entire Joker story making no sense. His blood should not have
been able to have any effect on people, let alone make them crazy, let alone his
particular breed of crazy, it shouldn’t have been sped up by the Fear Toxin and
a biological infection should not have been able to be beaten psychologically
by Batman just willing himself to not be diseased. It is incredibly disappointing, and quite frankly baffling, that in the final entry of a six year arc about Joker
this is what Rocksteady and DC were comfortable going with.
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