No Joking around with the Arkham Knight

Few games have more buzz around it than the Batman Arkham series that are made by the development company Rocksteady and with good reason.  These games have literally let the player know what it feels like to be Batman.  While playing any of these games one could say “BECAUSE I’M BATMAN!!!” and nobody would correct them.  But I am not writing to swoon over Rocksteady, I am here to talk about the new game Batman Arkham Knight and about the main villian of the game, the Arkham Knight.  

There has been a lot of speculation regarding this character, a lot.  There have been countless pieces written on this topic, but today I am going to do something a little different.  I am going to tell you who the Arkham Knight should not be.  This has been a topic of debate between my friends and I for countless hours, and my friends are HARDCORE Batman fans.  With all that debate a clear number one candidate rose from the ashes.  This candidate is The Joker.  The Joker should not be the Arkham Knight in any shape or form, and I will even take it a step further.  The Joker should have no affiliation or dealing with the Arkham Knight at all, and let me tell you why.

Please do not label me as a “Joker Hater” or someone who does not understand why the Joker is so important to the Batman mythos, because I understand it very clearly.  Batman cannot exist without the Joker, and the Joker would not exist if Batman was not around, it is that simple.  The Joker tests Batman on much more than a physical level.  He makes Batman question his own morals and beliefs, everytime they encounter one another it evolves and gets even more complex, the stakes get higher.  And all of that is great, it makes for some great storytelling.  But, the Joker card has been played to death.  (Pun intended)  The Joker has been the main villian for all three of the Arkham games.  Even when you thought while playing Arkham Origins (yes I know Rocksteady did not make it but they still consider it to be canon) “hey Black Mask is pretty cool! So is Deathstroke and the assassins, its good to get a break from the Joker every once and awhile”…..BOOM .  Black Mask was actually Joker the whole time, this was very disappointing.    

As a Batman fan myself, I have has enough of the psychological and morality warfare with the Joker, I already spent three games doing so.  I want to see Batman be tested by someone who is truly his equal, not just in intelligence, but is physical and tactical prowess as well.  I want, and I think I speak for the majority, Batman to fight ….another Batman!  Batman fighting basically an evil version of himself, who does not want to see that. 

Thankfully I think this is the route Rocksteady is going to go on, based the looks of the trailers and previews.  I am not saying the Joker should not be in the game at all, do not misunderstand me.  I seriously think he will show up in some kind of Scarecrow-induced hallucenation, that would make the most sense to me as Joker’s death in Arkham City clearly still haunts Batman and Scarecrow is one of the primary villians.  But, it is time for Batman to take on his greatest enemy, which in this case, is not the Joker. And I could not be more excited.