Batman Arkham Origins: A Game that Lives up to its Name

Superhero origin stories are a subject that causes most of us to roll our eyes, especially if it's a popular character that's been adapted many times before. Batman's origins have been told almost as many times as the Bible has been translated into different languages, but that doesn't stop the story from being recited. As most myths go, the details of the story are sketchy and leave a lot open for interpretation, but before we go down the Batman: Arkham Origins route and diagnose what the storytellers did with their take on the Batman origin, let's go over the basics of the seeds of Batman's origin. Young Bruce Wayne watched his parents gunned down in an alleyway. At some point he has a spiritual experience with a bat or bats that imprints on him. Bruce Wayne swears vengeance on criminals and travels the world to prepare himself for a one--man war on crime. Apart from those basics, the rest is elastic in how these events play out. In some stories, Bruce Wayne is a lost soul without guidance, in others he is laser-focused from the moment his parents' blood hits the pavement to never allow another innocent to suffer the same loss he has. Sometimes, Bruce Wayne knows the identity of the killer (Joe Chill), in others, the killer is never caught (my personal preference) and Batman is created to find the man who murdered his parents. It doesn't really matter, what matters here is that with two shots and a random act of senseless violence, the scourge of the Gotham underworld has been born. So let's take a look at how other media has adapted Batman's origin story.

At one time, the only real serious take on Batman was the 1989 adaptation by director Tim Burton called, funnily enough, Batman. The film was known for its new take on the Dark Knight, with a Gothic setting where Batman was nothing more than a myth to the eyes of Gothamites. The film also starred Jack Nicholson as the Joker, and netted him an exorbitant amount of money in back-end box office deals. The film was memorable for its stylish design, memorable score, and possibly the coolest Batmobile ever created. Weirdly, even though this was the first outing for Batman, his origin was sparse, with a brief flashback to his parents being gunned down by Jack Napier (the future Joker), and that was about it for seeing the beginnings of Batman.

The next origin story to hit the screens was Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, arguably the greatest Batman film ever made. Once again, through the use of flashbacks, we establish Batman's beginnings, his memorable first night out on the streets, and his eventual donning of the cowl. If you thought Burton's Batman was melancholy, Mask of the Phantasm was positively tragic, with Bruce falling in love, and eventually losing his love, Andrea, both characters on tragic paths.

It would be a long while before another Batman origin hit our screens, in fact it would be over a decade before Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins hit the cinemas. The story was a thorough retelling of the Batman origin story, with the killing of his parents, the traveling the world learning every craft and skill he can, before returning to Gotham armed with theatricality and deception and assuming the mantle of Batman. Nolan's Batman tale is arguably one of the greatest takes on Batman, certainly in the initial film, and gave Batman to a new age of fans. The film's aesthetics would also influence many Batman projects after this one, and would also add a gritty level of realism that many other filmmakers would try an emulate in the superhero genre.

Then there was Batman: Year One, which featured Bryan Cranston as Lieutenant James Gordon. This followed Frank Miller's Year One comic storyline, and was an excellent adaptation of the comic book.

However, we digress, and it's the Arkham Origins we've come to discuss. But first, Arkhamverse Batman has his opening shots with the Scarecrow fear toxin-induced flashback to his parents' murder.

The scene is short and sweet and drives home the seed that started the whole tragic tale of Batman. Because that's what Batman is - tragic. A lonely figure stuck in a cycle of hurt and pain, and the Arkham series of games manages to give us the most pain-seared version of the character. These few moments, that make up less than 0.5% of the entire game, do more for laying the tracks of what's to come down the road…

Batman: Arkham Origins is narratively the first in the series of the Arkham games, and even though it wasn't authored by beloved Rocksteady, it's a damn good game on its own, with Batman squaring off against Black Mask and eight assassins all out for Batman's blood and the $50 million bounty placed on his head. You would think that a game called Origins would tell the heroic tale of Batman and how he came to be, but WB Montreal are doing an origin story of sorts… Arkham's origins.

This game gives us the origin of the Batman mythos in so many different areas. Batman first encounters his rogue gallery in this game, he's working on the wrong side of the law, having to build up a level of trust with James Gordon. Origins also gives us the best version of Bane that's ever been portrayed outside of the comic book. This is a Latino Bane, one who is calculating and methodical, and one who works out very quickly who Batman really is.

There's also a great scene when Batman is first publicly sighted. Despite the game's reviews not being as stellar as its Rocksteady brothers, it does capture Batman in such a unique way, because this is a game that builds a world. It's a game that plants seeds for what's to come, and all this from a game that was designed as a stand-in for Rocksteady's entry. It did also introduce one of the best features in the Arkham games, and that is the ability to reconstruct crime scenes using evidence, a feature that would find its way into Arkham Knight.

Whilst the game has never seen the remastered treatment like the other Arkham games, it is a game worth all the praise it receives, and with its cinematic score and film-quality narrative, it's a treat for any gamer or Batman fan to indulge in.