Specters and Superheroes: Unveiling the Secrets Behind Batman: Arkham Shadow

The ghost of Gotham’s dark past once again haunts the Arkham-verse, setting the scene for a new Batman story in the Summer Game Fest reveal of Batman: Arkham Shadow’s cinematic release. The dark knight’s past is interwoven with his approaching action-packed end in this latest trailer for the long-awaited Arkham-verse film. It is already dark in Gotham City, and the ghost of Batman’s past haunts his present, trying to warn his future.

The Ghost of Arkham's Legacy

The Arkham series is commonly praised for its rich narrative and complex characterisation, specifically of its eponymous protagonist Batman. This latest chapter in the series, Arkham Shadow, promises to deliver an exploration of Batman’s early solo career and the equal opportunity to explore him, and the Gotham underworld, in a new yet familiar light. This title is particularly intriguing because it places the ghost of Batman’s future self inside the mind of the Batman of his past, the unrefined bat-vigilant.

A Prequel to the Darkness

Hailed as a direct prequel to Arkham Asylum, Arkham Shadow fills in one of the most crucial time gaps in the Arkham timeline: the period immediately following Arkham Origins and before Batman, once again voiced by Roger Craig Smith, has become the full-blown, worldwide icon that the comics have established him as. It is this precise narrative vantage point – as Batman emerges from the novice phase but prior to his full-blown, iconic peak – that allows for this newfound critical eye on the mechanics of Batman’s very growth into both hero and damning spectre for Gotham’s criminal element.

The Enigmatic Rat King: Gotham's Newest Ghost

At the centre of the event ‘Arkham Shadow’ is the Rat King, a villain who, despite the shadow of Ratcatcher, is really a very different kind of menace: a villain who no longer just controls an army of vermin, but an entire cult, leading a revolution against the foundations of Gotham City. It’s this image of the Rat King as a charismatic leader of an ideologic revolution, whose influence sets the stage for Batman’s struggle against a foe and an enemy unlike any he has ever confronted.

Ghosts of Villains Past: Harley Quinn and Scarecrow

Although the Rat King looms over the rest of the series, Arkanoid was never going to avoid including villains early in their conception; Harley Quinn and Scarecrow are both given roles, the former depicted well before she became the Joker’s moll, the latter equally unsettling in his early pure-sadistic incarnation. Their storylines imply that the Rat King’s revolt is but a hinge in a Gotham that seems to be tottering on a knife’s edge, its future depending on the incarnation of Batman who shows up.

Symbols and Shadows: The Cultural Ghosts of Gotham

The trailer’s obvious but perceptive use of ‘Bullet With Butterfly Wings’ by The Smashing Pumpkins underlines the wider (dis)enchantment of the circumstances in which Gotham’s citizens become collateral damage in this war between gods; and the nods to the Easter eggs expressed in the appearance of The Gray Ghost and the Monarch Theatre speak to an understanding of Batman’s heritage and to the Oedipal dilemma of masks at the heart of his origins.

A Look into the Future

The imminent arrival of Batman: Arkark Shadow seems like an irresistible opportunity to engage not only with the ghosts of a great game’s past, but also through them with the narrative strands of future games. Beneath a sky-darkening swarm of bats, a city cries out for the daredevil capes of a vigilante hero in this, his fifth year of elevating a much-maligned medium to artistic heights reminiscent of the Golden Age of comics.

Exploring the Ghost in Gaming

When it comes to video games, the word ‘ghost’ brings to mind the ghosts of the title screen — those spectral residues or presences of the deceased, abiding in the architecture of the digital landscape. But in Batman: Arkham Shadow, the ghost is more a metaphor for the omnipresent presence of past deeds; past conflicts; and the constant conflict between the light and the dark of Gotham — and of Batman — inside and out. This game also invites us to come to grips not only with its literal ghosts, but its figurative ones, as well.

Batman: Arkham Shadow shows how the Arkham series will be a haunting influence that’s here to stay and will continue to challenge and drive new and old fans of the concept.