Mental Madness (Batman Arkham Asylum/Knight)
SPOILERS AHOY FOR ARKHAM KNIGHT!
Batman is a really messed up dude when you get down to it. Few, if any people could get over something as watching their parents get gunned down on their 8th birthday, and even worse is the fact that Bruce has a monumental legacy to live up to. Like plenty of people have said, “you gotta be pretty out there to dress up like a bat every night and punch people.” Adding to whatever issues he has is the villains of Gotham and the different effects they have on his mind, particularly Scarecrow and the Joker.
In Batman Arkham Asylum, the Bat gets hit with Scarecrow’s Fear Toxin not one, but three times. Keep in mind that just one dose sends people into a feral panic that leaves them with severe PTSD, just look at Officer Owens at the start of Arkham Knight. So getting hit with the stuff three times…yeesh. Each experience is more disturbing than the next, starting with seeing Commissioner Gordon dead and culminating with repeating Batman: Arkham Asylum‘s intro sequence, but with you bound up and carted through the asylum instead of Joker. Sure, the Scarecrow levels are little more than avoiding getting caught by his giant glowing eyes, but the environments sell that there’s just a lot of weird crap that goes on beneath the cowl.
LAST CHANCE FOR SPOILERS, WE WARNED YOU!!!
Arkham Knight takes this to a new extreme not just with the return of Scarecrow, but showing the aftereffects that the Joker’s death in Arkham City has had on Batman. Joker sent his tainted blood out to multiple hospitals in Gotham, and while most donations were accounted for, four people weren’t so lucky. Fortunately, Batman has set up five containment cells to hold them and study their blood to search for the cure. The fifth person the cell is for just happens to be for is Batman himself, whose ‘Jokerization’ is slower than the other four victims. With Scarecrow and the Arkham Knight’s invasion already taxing his horribly diseased mind, Joker is still around in Batman’s noggin and constantly teasing or berating him for his actions. Batman is strong enough to ignore the Clown, but sometimes Joker just manages to get to him. It’s to the point where Batman can go “Joker” for a bit and beat down on Scarecrow’s men and nearly kill them.
And then of course, there’s the first ending. After giving into Scarecrow’s demands and surrendering himself to Scarecrow, Batman is injected with the evil doctor’s Fear Toxin. This is all Joker needs to take over Batman’s mind and show the Dark Knight just what would happen if the Clown Prince was back in the picture, which involves a lot of murdering his competition like Killer Croc, Two Face, and Penguin. The city is in complete and utter anarchy as Joker steps out and marvels at all the chaos. Batman manages to turn the tables on the Clown by showing his fear of being ignored by the people of Gotham and banishing him to the dark corners of his mind to be forever forgotten. This isn’t just a moment for Kevin Conroy to deliver his classic line again, this is the moment where Batman masters fear and becomes the legend that’ll live on for years to come.
Understand our reasoning? Disagree? Let us know in the comments below.
