Only a couple of months out from its new release date, fans now finally know a couple more super-villain antagonists they will contend with in Gotham Knights. Mr. Freeze has received quite a bit of screen time already in terms of Gotham Knights’ marketing, but that has been a low bar. Thanks to Gotham Knights’ new trailer at Gamescom, fans now know that Mr. Freeze will be joined by Harley Quinn and Clayface. The trailer itself seemed to reveal a lot of key moments from all three villains’ storylines, which Gotham Knights coins as “villain crimes.”
These storylines will have players interacting with villains and their minions an undetermined amount of times, with what looks like multiple boss battles throughout. Harley Quinn was expected to appear in Gotham Knights after her inclusion was teased at SDCC, but Clayface was a surprise that fans may not have anticipated. Clayface’s inclusion demonstrates that there may still be a bunch of content and characters Gotham Knights hasn't shared, and while it is fantastic to see a lesser-known villain such as Clayface, Gotham Knights will hopefully feature other obscure villains as well.
Clayface is Deserving of a Villain Storyline in Gotham Knights
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Clayface’s fictional history is a little muddy, but in the most iconic and longstanding iterations of the character depict him as a shape-shifter made out of a protoplasmic, clay-like substance. He's not unlike Marvel’s Sandman, capable of substance manipulation to generate practical implementations like hammers or spiked balls at will, but traditionally adopting the fearful appearance of a large mud monster.
The most iconic alter ego of Clayface is Basil Karlo, a B-list actor who adopted the persona of the fictional murderer Clayface, who he had previously played before in a movie. Clayface has had many alter egos since Karlo, and Gotham Knights may have already narrowed down its Clayface as Matt Hagen from Batman: The Animated Series.
Indeed, Gotham Knights’ environmental reference to the name Roland Daggett was already a considerable homage to the character, and now that Clayface has been confirmed it seems it may have been directly alluding to Hagen and not Karlo. Clayface’s one-liner, “See you at the premiere,” may have applied to either iteration of the character, but Daggett’s name in connection to Clayface seems to confirm that it will in fact be Hagen.
Clayface was most notably featured in Batman: Arkham City as part of the game’s biggest plot twist, but was also creatively referenced in Batman: Arkham Asylum, and featured as a boss in Batman: Rise of Sun Tzu. The character is more than deserving of a significant villain feature in Gotham Knights, and it will be interesting to see how his minions differentiate from other villains’ minions, as well as how Clayface develops throughout his unique storyline.
Other Obscure Villains Gotham Knights Should Feature
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Gotham Knights featuring Clayface is fantastic, but there are other antagonists who could benefit from a similar amount of screen time. Fans may be itching to see how Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl, and Red Hood would interact with Batman’s most prolific enemies, but his rogues' gallery goes much farther than the Joker or the Penguin.
Harley Quinn and Mr. Freeze are both big-name villains fans are likely familiar with, and there will hopefully be a lot more villains for fans to be excited for, especially if Gotham Knights has the biggest open-world Gotham City in games. That said, Gotham Knights may have teased a fourth villain without officially revealing them in its Gamescom trailer.
There is one particular shot of an individual wearing a gruesome pig mask. Pig imagery had already been somewhat hinted at with a shield-wielding mini-boss bruiser enemy that resembled a Minotaur, but this is a much more distinct pig aesthetic. Some fans immediately rushed to the idea that this was alluding to Professor Pyg, which would be an incredible addition, though it is a theory at the moment.
Other antagonists Gotham Knights could consider as more obscure enemies should include the Ventriloquist and Scarface, Anarky, or Firefly. Others are surely considerable as well, but fans may have to wait until Gotham Knights launches this October to find out who has made the cut.
Gotham Knights is set to release on October 21 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
