Arkham Night
Author's Preface
Five years ago today, Batman: Arkham Knight was released. It was the day I had traveled back from seeing my family in the USA to my then residence in the UK, and I had massive jetlag and the game, which I had preordered, waiting for me at home. I have never been so grateful for jetlag, which helped me stay up two days straight playing it. I had loved Arkham Asylum and Arkham City beyond reason (and still do!), and I was worried that the new game might not live up to their standards of excellence. I needn't have worried. The game exceeded my expectations and more, and I have played it many, many times since its release date.
I loved everything about it – Mark Hamill being back as Joker gave me more joy than anything I have experienced since (my housemate at the time was concerned about my hysterical screeching at Joker's "Miss me?" moment at Ace Chemicals, which I still believe was fully justified!) And I couldn't have imagined that we'd be blessed with Mark's Joker doing another musical number in singing "Can't Stop Laughing," which was another hysterical screeching moment – we need more Mark Joker singing in general. (My dream is an animated Batman musical, but sadly I'm not in a position to make that happen!) The whole voice cast is stellar – particular shout-out as always to Kevin Conroy, eternally the Dark Knight, and John Noble as Scarecrow is probably my favorite version of the character ever, or at least tied with the Animated Series version.
I only have a few minor disappointments with the game, and they're still disappointments after many repeated playthroughs – first is that the Harley pregnancy that was hinted at in Arkham City was completely dropped (although the DLC resolved it as a false positive pregnancy test, it's a huge disappointment for those of us who wanted a Joker baby!) And the second is the Jason Todd reveal as the Arkham Knight.
Remember that Star Trek: Into Darkness thing where everyone guessed that Benedict Cumberbatch was going to play Khan, and the people involved with the film kept denying it, only for him to play Khan? Same thing happened with Arkham Knight – I saw a preview of the gameplay at E3 in London, and when the Arkham Knight refers to Batman as "old man" and clearly has a personal vendetta against him, I guessed it was Jason Todd. The whole internet guessed it was Jason Todd, which was denied by the makers of the game. And then it turned out to be Jason Todd, which was hugely anti-climactic.
I personally think Jason Todd is, in Joker's words, "a whiner," and some of my favorite moments of the game are the flashbacks to his torture by the Joker, because I'm very sadistic with fictional characters I hate, as you might have noticed by my treatment of Riddler in various stories. So I can't help but be disappointed that by the end of the game, after we get to become Joker (another favorite moment! Shooting Riddler is so satisfying! And the fact that he can't shoot Harley is just adorable, as is the fact that he's scared of her hooking up with Riddler!), we are foiled by the Whiner stealing Scarecrow's rightful victory away. A major disappointment of the game is the fact that we can't choose to become Joker at the end – I would have loved that so much! In fact, I still have a hard time finishing the game when I do replay it, because the ending is very upsetting to me – my one consolation is that Joker is still singing after the end credits play, very sadly admittedly, but you can't keep a good man down!
My most recent playthrough of the game coincided with Bearer of Writers Block messaging me asking if I could write a story where Batman becomes Joker at the end, and what would have happened in that case. Which I was super excited to do. But then I thought I might combine this with revising some of the other stuff I didn't like about the game, and writing (hopefully!) an interesting, alternate version, which I've titled Arkham Night, a joke I'll explain later in the story (I know, Mr. J would be furious about explaining jokes, but sometimes the comedy is in the explanation, and he knows it!)
I hope you enjoy it, whether you're familiar with the game or not! If you're not, I highly recommend it, and it's probably for sale pretty cheap five years later. If you are, I hope you enjoy this alternate exploration of what could have happened after Arkham City – my version is set fifteen years after those events, rather than nine months later. The disease in Joker's blood has a much slower rate of infection in this than in the game, so Batman is still hallucinating Joker, but it's only recently that he got to that stage. Exactly what on the verge of retirement Batman wants to deal with, right? And you'd better believe Joker appreciates that joke.
As always, thanks to everyone who reads my work and reviews and supports me in my writing – you are all awesome people! And deepest thanks to everyone at Rocksteady for the Batman: Arkham series. Happy fifth birthday to Arkham Knight!