Rocksteady and Silver Age Batman

So news was released this week that the developer behind Batman Arkham Asylum and Arkham City are set to release a new Batman game in 2014. There is one catch though! It's going to be a more stylized version than the past two games were. This is due to it being a prequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum and set in the Silver Age backdrop.

Well what does that mean exactly? For those who aren't familiar with the term Silver Age, this was an era in comics where everything was more lighthearted and goofy. Before the Frank Millers of comics decided to brood everything up, comics were over-the-top and weird. To use the best example, the 60's Adam West Batman is a good idea of what the Silver Age represented. Shark repellent, quippy dialogue, running around with a large bomb, and being punny are all things that the Silver Age of comics boiled down to.

The question is, why would Rocksteady go this route? After two successful games with a grim and gritty realistic Batman, why go the route of the 60's and more recent Brave and the Bold cartoon? It would seem that would possibly turn off a lot of fans that don't want a more comedic take on Batman. But perhaps they have a plan on how to make it work, especially if it will be a sequel. Here's what I think could happen...

If the game is indeed a prequel, why would they offer such a drastic change of appearance to it? The city of Gotham feels to dark to ever have been a colorful and chipper city to begin with. But Rocksteady does have something they can fall back on to bring this different world into the game and have it still fit in. Enter Batmite.

Similar to Superman's magical 5th dimensional imp Mr. Mxylt...spt..lck...the big headed floating man in a derby......Batmite is a creature with magical powers that from time to time would come and cause mischief with Batman. Batmite is a character who grew to love Batman and idolize him. So every once in a while he would make an appearance and change a lot of weird things to see his hero in action. At one point he even changed the characters to reflect their name counterpart. So someone like Catwoman was actually a cat. Stuff like that. He even can make appearance in the DC offices and force them to write a book with him in it. His reality-warping seems to know no bounds.

So it would seem to introduce a character like Batmite could give the Arkham series a different look with the more simplistic artsy appearance of the Silver Age. But there's one other route they could go which seems to be the one more possible. A few years back, a writer found a way to incorporate all of Batman's history into the life of one man. As this writer (Grant Morrison for those of you wondering) has experienced trippy hallucinations due to drugs in the past, he wrote a story that found an explanation for the weirdness of the Silver Age and an incorporation of Batmite into it as well.

In the flashback, Batman was attempting to understand the psyche of his villains, most notably the Joker. To do so, he subjected himself to not only sense deprivation but also many drugs to figure out how the villains think. Thus, the psychedelic experiences that many Silver Age books inflicted to Batman. The man who overlooked these happenings also implanted a hypnotic trigger in Batman, that when triggered, caused Batman to pretty much lose it. He changed costumes and became more violent and had Batmite following him around.

If Rocksteady goes with an approach to the next game, I'm going to say this will be it. A villain is able to get into the head of Batman which changes the entire world and seems to set it in the Silver Age era. This would excuse the style change and maybe explain the Justice League involvement. And if one were to suspect the beginning of Arkham Asylum as a clue, then the Joker would be involved as well. Which would tie in what caused the Joker to be taken in at the beginning of Arkham Asylum in the first place.

In truth, it doesn't matter to me how they decide to do this game. Rocksteady made two amazing games with Batman, something that I don't think anyone expected them to do. This new route of Silver Age and inclusion of the Justice League sounds like them ramping up their game and testing the waters for some other possibilities. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, and for those cautious about a drastic change, I think it's in capable and trusting hands.