Batman: Arkham City Players Were Misled About the Game's Resolution

 Batman: Arkham City Players Were Misled About the Game's Resolution

Batman lovingly carried the Joker's body away from the scene of their final battle in the Arkham City game's horrific conclusion. Easter eggs in the game encouraged fans to interpret it in a certain way, but Batman now maintains that everyone misinterpreted what happened at the time.

Batman is pursuing the bad guy Darwin Halliday through the multiverse in Batman #135 (by Chip Zdarsky, Mike Hawthorne, Jorge Jimenez, Mikel Janin, Adriano Di Benedetto, Tomeu Morey, and Romulo Fajardo). Darwin is transported to a different dimension every time, where Batman joins him and the local Joker is brought back to life. Batman then faces a variety of Batmen from other Earths in quick succession, including the Adam West Batman. The Batman from the video game series Arkham, however, is the most unexpected Batman he encounters. And Arkham Batman tells him right away to murder the Joker the moment he gets the chance.

Arkham Batman Doesn't Miss the Joker

Joker transformed into a huge, lumbering monster during the events of the Arkham video game series by injecting himself with a modified version of Bane's Venom serum. Batman was able to defeat the Joker and restore him to health, but the poison in the Joker's blood caused him to die gradually. Batman battled to save Joker, but his own depravity caused him to perish. In a nod to a game-integrated Cain and Abel image, Batman carried Joker's body out of his stronghold. The reflection suggests that the two were in some ways brothers and that Batman has been damaged as a result of failing to defeat his foe. However, Arkham's Dark Knight asserts on his own behalf to the Batman of DC's primary universe that Joker should be put to death as soon as possible.

Arkham's Symbolism Doesn't Reflect Where Batman Is Now

When Arkham Batman runs into the regular Batman, the latter remarks, "He lay in my arms, dead. Even though I made an effort to save him, that day I felt a weight fall from my shoulders. Batman and Joker's connection in Arkham City was heavily symbolic, and Batman's tangled feelings for Joker seem to indicate a shared fixation. Batman #135 demonstrates that, despite the possibility of any "brotherly" ties between them, Batman was unquestionably relieved when Joker passed away and expressly doesn't view it as a tragedy.

Arkham's Batman & Joker Weren't Brothers

Given that the Joker from the Arkham series was one of the darkest characters that fans have ever seen, this makes sense. The Joker hired a dozen assassins and released them on Gotham; he also bombed a significant hotel, took control of Arkham Asylum; sparked a gang war in Arkham City; and, in Arkham Knight, came dangerously close to possessing Batman's mind. It makes perfect sense for Batman to be relieved that the Joker is finally dead, yet his happiness casts a very negative light on Arkham City's conclusion. It transforms the final moments of Batman and the Joker from a Cain and Abel comparison to a man who is at last free from his worst enemy.

Batman and the Joker have had a remarkably intricate and complicated relationship for literally almost a century. Batman doesn't feel like he lost a brother; instead, he felt relief when he died, and now that he's back, he's eager to murder him straight away, proving that most players misread the ending of Arkham City.