“Why So Serious?” Because…..I….F**KING…..HATE...YOU!

For this entry I will compare and contrast a comic and a game. I recently finished both the comic The Dark Night Returns and the game Batman: Arkham City. I am not new to the Batman world. I’ve followed the caped crusader on his journeys during his Saturday morning cartoons and have watched, played and read several branching comics, movies, and games. I also want to state that I am sort of a minority when it comes to what is popular. For instance I do not love Nolan’s trilogy of Batman (Though that does not mean I do not like Nolan, in fact Memento is one my more favored movies). I think Jack Nicholson is the best movie adaption of the Joker. And most recently, I do not like Arkham City anywhere near as much as I cared for Arkham Asylum. In fact Arkham City, to me, is the second most overrated game of 2011 (Skyrim is number 1) And it is a game that reaches a actual level of frustration, not because of difficulty, but because of how crappy it is.

            I guess I should first explain why I feel this way before I go any further. I should also note that there are several reasons that can be described as (to many of my friends they consider all the following) nitpicking. One of the main reasons is the open world. WHY IN THE WORLD IS IT OPEN! Batman does not need to be an open world adventure. While Arkham Asylum was in a sense an open world, all the areas were well designed and everything was well contained. The main difference was that I would not have to glide, hook, dive, pull up, dive, etc… from point A to B to do the next story mission, get stuck beating up random thugs (and yes I know I have the option to just run away, but to me if the game puts it in there I feel the need to complete it. Towards the end I did just say screw it! I honestly just wanted to be done with the Game at that point,) and complete way to many Riddler trophies. The main complaint with these issues lies in the design of the city. It is frustrating to navigate. If it wasn’t for the augmented reality challenge upgrade Grapnel boost I probably wouldn’t have finished the game. The only upside to the city was the Riddler trophies. Not the physical ones, but the picture ones that reference stories to other Batman characters and events. The ones that had to be lined up as well were okay. But the actual city itself was arranged in a manner that was so ridiculous that a toddler could have done better. Seriously! Why was the city so decrepit in just a few months? Why were buildings leaning, why was the bridge so messed up, why was the seaport overflowing? And I know the criminals love explosives but if Batman AA to AC is just 18 months than what the hell happened!

            Another distress was the fact that predator mode sucked so much this time around. That was by far my favorite aspect of Arkham Asylum! I never felt closer to being the Dark Knight when I was running around corners and taking cover in the rafters. To me Batman isn’t the physical bad-ass the combat makes him to be. I always envisioned Batman as using combat as a last means necessary. Superman was always the brawler of the two. Then again they are two very different universes with two sets of villains and goals. But in Arkham City predator mode was made to feel cheap and often repetitive. I enjoyed the tactics used in Arkham Asylum. Sneaking underneath a level to come up on a partially broken wall with explosive gel to blow somebody off the level in an instant knockout was always fun. The reactions of the enemy A.I. were also better. Though they were more like set pieces versus spontaneous, the feeling obtained was gratifying. The fear in their voices and drastic movements was always well worth it as you took down their friends one by one. Arkham City completely removed the set pieces. The open world ones were the worst. The only option was to fly up to a high building than drop down behind an enemy and choke them out. If you tried any other way it usually ended up with the played being spotted and shot to death in an instant by an enemy close by. While on the subject of gameplay the new upgrades were almost completely useless. There were too many of the old mixed with the few new ones thus it cluttered the gadget equipping menu and the quick use combat equivalents. Often, both became confusing to remember which button to press for which gadget. This was especially annoying if you were trying to get high chain levels.

            One of my last complaints was the story. I mean seriously, why am I so serious, there is a giant prison in the middle of a freakin’ city! SERIOUSLY! Who thought that was a great concept for a story? Though the same writer from Arkham Asylum came back for City the lack of pervious backing from the Batman Universe seemed to strain the writers. While the incorporation of new villains (Game story that is) into the story like Hugo Strange and Ra's al Ghul seemed like a good idea they really weren’t. For the first few hours I cared about what protocol 10 was, but after the Joker became involved I started to forget about it. But Protocol 10 ended up being another one of the SERIOUSLY! WHY! moments. Let’s just kill all the inmates, it’ll be okay! If they were going to do that then why wouldn’t they have just done so in the beginning or when Batman turned down Ghul the first time? I know I’ve gone on more than a rant, but one last thing I’d like to mention was the Mr. Freeze battle. One minute they are working together, then they fight, then they help each other (Well Batman agrees to a sidequest, which were also ruined this time around as well,) Just WHY!

            Other than the DLC I have nothing more major to complain about. There were a few things I did like. They were mostly combat related and dealt with the added variation, but again there are faults here too, mostly button confusion and non responsiveness of controller. The hatter sidequest was also amusing.

            Finally getting back to the main point of this blog, I just read The Dark Knight Returns for class over the winter break. It was a Graphic Novel I always wanted to read and Frank Miller is a legend. Though it took this class to get me to read it, I can honestly say it exceeded all my predictions. I absolutely loved the realistic look into Batman in an after Cold-War setting. The cultural influences fit right at home in the Comic Universe. No more was it about putting criminals away. It had become more of an ending to Bruce, an obsession. The most common reference I can think of now is Dexter with his Dark Passenger. The urge to do what is “Right.” What is most fascinating is what the definition of “Right” is and what it has evolved into for Bruce after being Batman for 30 odd some years I believe. This brings to mind the article in the beginning of the graphic novel.

           

            “But they never talk about the mean one. The cruel one. The one who couldn’t fly or                       bend steel in his bare hands. The one who scared the crap out of everybody and laughed at all of the rest of us for being the envious cowards we were.”

            This quote really is what Batman is all about. The smart one, the one who could get away, the one with unlimited resources, the one with a tragic yet played out purpose, the one who just won’t give up. All these are what make up Returns, and in exchange make it great. While not all these values are in the Batman Arkham game series, I feel that the story of Asylum fit this mold better than City. While the only connection so far is that I have recently beaten the game and read the comic shortly ago, the death of the Joker is another incident that links the two. However the means by which each is done is quite different. In City the Joker ends up killing himself by causing Bruce to drop the Vile of antidote for the poison in his blood. After this Batman says he would have ended up saving him despite everything he has done. This is somewhat like Return as Batman wasn’t able to kill the Joker, he kills himself instead as Batman couldn’t. While Batman uses his body for an explosion, the repercussions are completely different. Returns has Bruce so close to killing the Joker that you almost believe that Batman will break his oath to get rid of the menace once and for all. It is something that Bruce has been struggling with all along. In City Bruce is much younger but still has some feelings for wanted Joker dead. Mainly that he had killed the only Woman Bruce loved and not to mention poisoned Batman and several thousands of people and other events from the previous game. But like the rest of the game, it all felt fake. Despite Joker killed himself in both versions, one on accident and one on purpose, there was little doubt that Batman would have saved the Joker. He was too static in City to be capable of any change, much less emotion or depth. This again can be taken from other quests in the game. “The most prevalent to me is the Freeze incident in which they form a love/hate relationship that Freeze breaks. Still Batman agrees to save Nora. Another is the fact he declined Ra's al Ghul’s offer. This shows Batman is still too obsessed with his mission, and himself, to compromise it in any way. It’s that cockiness that changes in City and Returns. In City Batman is at a physical peek and doesn’t need any help other than removing the Poison. In Returns the cockiness comes from his refusal to acknowledge the idea of his physical inclination from ageing. I think Bruce would have definitely considered going into the pool for more health, but in Millers universe that wasn’t an option. Instead he fought through the pain, especially in the slum yard. In a way Bruce wanted death, the honorable death, but in all actuality Bruce was just clinging on to that hope that he could change the city or the world, and through some odd series of events, he did. Gotham City Imposters too works like the vigilantes in Returns but is done so through a competitive online shooter now available to download for $15 on PSN and XBLA. I also hope to read Miller’s follow up The Dark Knight Strikes Again. It sounds like it is more of a collaboration of super heroes than a representation of cultural effects on society in the graphic novel format using a beloved icon to produce the fears/savior of a society.

            While I know most of this blog entry was a way for me to vent my frustrations with Batman: Arkham City I think the parallels and contrasts were both interesting as Millers world of Batman has become increasingly more common in the graphic novel/comic and game world. If I think of any more later I will try to update.