Highlights

  • The Batman: Arkham series maintains a strong continuity and world-building through its unique gameplay and recurring character lineup.
  • The repeated appearance of Joker as the main antagonist in each game is underwhelming and may be beating a dead horse.
  • It would be more interesting and seamless to bring back Troy Baker's version of Joker from Arkham Origins in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League as part of its End Game content, which seems to rehash the Joker yet again.

Rocksteady and WB Games Montreal’s exceptional Batman: Arkham series is a wonderful continuity that maintains a terrific throughline from Arkham Origins to ArkhamKnight chronologically. Likewise, no one game in the franchise is far better than another because they’re all unique in their own ways, from having no open world or side quests in Arkham Asylum to having a huge open world and a driveable Batmobile in Arkham Knight. The connective tissue between each game, however, is its recurring character lineup and rogues’ gallery, whose development in each title creates astounding world-building.

The only aspect of each game’s rogues’ galleries that is a bit underwhelming, though, is the fact that Joker appears as a main antagonist in every one—even when he’s an incorporeal being haunting and subsuming Bruce Wayne’s psyche in Arkham Knight. Of course, Mark Hamill is the seminal, quintessential Joker and his work is phenomenal, but it did the character a disservice to have him repeatedly show up yet again as an antagonist. Now, if Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League unsurprisingly rehashes Joker once more like it seems keen to, that’ll be beating a dead horse—or rather Joker’s dead, incinerated corpse.

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Rocksteady Never Taking Its Batman Series Back to Arkham Asylum is Its Best and Worst Choice

The Arkham games were quick to move on from the titular insane asylum and that was both an excellent and underwhelming choice on Rocksteady's part.

If Joker Returns, It Should Be Troy Baker’s Prequel Joker from Arkham Origins

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s ‘End Game’ Teases the Joker’s Return

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has only had a handful of moments where it was afforded praise thus far, including the reveal that it would have Kevin Conroy reprise the role of Batman for the last time. Otherwise, Rocksteady’s been in hot water since it was announced that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was a live-service shooter.

The consensus seems divided now on whether the game is fun or not after previews and closed alpha opinions have been shared, but it makes sense that Rocksteady would want to quell negativity by leaning fully on content that could be exhilarating. End Game content would’ve needed to be shown sooner than later anyway, but seeing that a post-launch expansion will take players to a post-apocalyptic and Joker-themed setting is probably Suicide Squad’s most intriguing effort now besides its core conceit of killing the Justice League.

Recycling Joker wouldn’t necessarily be the most creative path Rocksteady could take with such seasonal content, at least unless it can do so with a level of quality and care that the Arkhamverse’s Joker demands. Instead, double-dipping on Troy Baker’s younger Joker from Arkham Origins could be the most seamless and non-confrontational way to have the character back if Rocksteady is adamant about him returning somehow.

Troy Baker’s Joker Could Substitute Mark Hamill’s in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

It’s more than likely that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League ’s Joker-themed End Game event will be some surrealistic hallucination or a multiversal occurrence, especially where alleged story leaks of the game are concerned.

This would be a way to bring Joker back that doesn’t need to step on any toes in the Arkhamverse’s established canon, although doing so would essentially retcon any choices made beforehand and therefore endlessly unravel that narrative thread anyhow. Even so, it’s also likely that Mark Hamill would be back to voice Joker if he had known that Kevin Conroy was up to play Batman in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

Still, depending on who this End Game’s Joker truly is and whether players will get to actually see this iteration, it would probably only be an agreeable choice on Rocksteady’s part if it was to reprise Troy Baker’s Joker. This could be easily explained as players seeing Joker from years before, back around the time that Arkham Origins would’ve taken place, perhaps with Task Force X entering a parallel universe where Joker is an omnipotent tyrant. That said, the surrounding environment in the End Game concept art looks decidedly post-apocalyptic and suggests that it’s set following Brainiac’s successful invasion.

If so, perhaps this is either explicitly informing players that Task Force X will be unsuccessful in thwarting Brainiac or a depiction of an alternate universe where Joker never died in Arkham City. It’s unclear for now if this concept art leans on spoiler territory for the main game’s story, but as a live-service game it’s important for Rocksteady to get out in front of its endgame and post-launch content as soon as possible, and more light will be shed on it in a couple of days when a livestream reveals End Game gameplay with notable streamers.