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00:00Welcome to the Madhouse, Batman! I set a trap and you sprang it gloriously!
00:07Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we're looking at the entire timeline of Rocksteady's Arkhamverse.
00:14Nice of you to say, but you of all people should know there's plenty wrong with me.
00:22Before we begin, we publish new content all week long, so be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
00:30You could argue that the Arkhamverse truly began way back in 1992, when Batman the Animated Series hit the small screen for the first time.
00:40Helmed by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, this version of the Batman and his rogues gallery was revolutionary.
00:47Naughty, naughty! Jump around like that and Doctor won't give you a lollipop!
00:52True to his comic book origins, Kevin Conroy's Bat was a detective first, and saw that each of his villains, no matter how twisted, was a person desperately in need of help.
01:03Rest well, my love. The monster who took you from me will soon learn that revenge is a dish best served cold.
01:14The Animated Series gave us Harley Quinn, and completely rewrote Mr. Freeze's origin, among other things, and has taken its place as one of the greatest TV shows, animated or live action, ever made.
01:27If anyone should be getting a testimonial, it's you.
01:29I'm just a night shift.
01:31We're not going to chronicle the complete timeline of the cartoon, but it's crucial to understand its influence, because when Rocksteady set about making the definitive Batman game, Paul Dini was brought on as a writer.
01:43Here's the deal. I'll let you off if you promise to do a little favor for me.
01:50The entire series draws inspiration not only from the comics, but from the cartoon.
01:55However, while 2009's Arkham Asylum is the first game in the series, it's not the first entry in the story when you look at things chronologically.
02:04To go back to the beginning of the Arkhamverse itself, we have to look at the tie-in prequel comic series Batman Arkham Origins, released in 2013 and 2014 to coincide with the game of the same name.
02:17It's really just setting up Origins' major players, introducing us to characters like Black Mast and Commissioner Loeb, as well as showing what state Gotham City is in when we join the Caped Crusader in the game itself.
02:29Commissioner Loeb, any comment on the rumor that it wasn't actually the cops who captured Mr. Day?
02:33There is no such thing as a Batman.
02:36Batman makes an enemy of Black Mast, a.k.a. Roman Sionis, giving the most diligent fans Black Mast's true motivation for putting a bounty on the Dark Knight's head.
02:47Confirm Code 10, this is a breakout.
02:49Suspect identified as Black Mast. Repeat, Code 10 suspect is Black Mast.
02:54By Christmas Eve, the situation has reached boiling point.
02:58This is where Arkham Origins itself begins, the spinoff developed by WB Montreal while Rocksteady was hard at work on Arkham Knight.
03:07We're starting with a clean slate, and you're not on it.
03:10Black Mast sends eight assassins to kill the Batman, some more dangerous than others, so that he can take over Gotham's criminal underworld unimpeded.
03:20These mark the first appearances in the series of often seen villains like Bane, Deadshot, Deathstroke, and ultimately, the Joker.
03:28Yes, after Batman finally catches up with Black Mast, we discover that he's actually been the Joker in disguise the entire time.
03:36And by we, I mean you.
03:42This plot twist didn't go down great considering a lot of people wanted an Arkham game about a villain other than the Joker,
03:49but it's always fascinating to see the Dark Knight and the Clown Prince of Crime go toe-to-toe early in their careers.
03:56Just who the hell are you?
04:00I'm the guy with the money.
04:03And the gun.
04:07Along with all those villains, Batman also makes allies with James Gordon and encounters Barbara for the first time.
04:14In the game's first DLC, Cold Cold Heart, we see the origins of Mr. Freeze as he tries desperately to save his cryogenically frozen wife Nora, losing himself in the process.
04:26After Arkham Origins, there was Arkham Origins Blackgate, a minor sequel that released on the Nintendo DS and PS Vita back in 2013.
04:35Gotham City is mine now. Three months ago, I took down the deadliest villains it had to offer.
04:41This was a taste of Arkham for people without home consoles or who wanted their Batman fix on the go.
04:47The game takes place three months after Arkham Origins, as Batman tries to contain a mass breakout at Blackgate Penitentiary.
04:55Handsome, strong, and in touch with his feelings. Every girl's dream.
05:01Gordon returns yet again, and we have the first chronological appearance of Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman.
05:08Crucially, comic book characters Rick Flagg and Amanda Waller also appear, though we're not going to see either of those two again for a while.
05:17Identification now.
05:19Captain Rick Flagg, Batman.
05:21Never heard of you.
05:23Batman manages to get his villains back in their cells, and the threat is contained.
05:27Who dares to challenge my intellect?
05:30After Blackgate, we enter Stranger Territory.
05:33Batman Arkham Underworld may have been released in 2016, but it's set between Arkham Origins and Arkham Asylum, following the villains as they grow in power.
05:43We ready to get this party started?
05:46It's one of the few games in which you're not playing as a member of the Bat Family, but as one of the handful of iconic villains.
05:53But as a mobile game, very few people played Arkham Underworld, and it has minimal bearing on the plot.
05:59Moving on to something that does impact the plot, we have two more tie-in comic books, Batman Arkham Knight Genesis and Batman Arkham Knight Batgirl Begins.
06:09Genesis concerns the identity of the Arkham Knight years before this was revealed, while he's being tortured by the Joker in the bowels of Arkham Asylum.
06:19Batgirl Begins looks at Barbara Gordon's early time as the first Batgirl, and indeed, the only Batgirl we see in the entire Arkhamverse.
06:29This leads into the Arkham Knight Flashback DLC, A Matter of Family.
06:42Finally, we got the chance to go back in time and play as Batgirl, when she and Tim Drake's Robin go after the Joker and Harley Quinn at the derelict Seagate Amusement Park built on an oiled oil rig.
06:55Joker has also captured Commissioner Gordon, in an attempt to lure Batgirl and the Boy Wonder out so that he could kill them once and for all.
07:13Batgirl triumphs, of course, and Commissioner Gordon is saved, but this doesn't last long.
07:19As we see in Batman's fear gas-induced nightmare in Arkham Knight, the events of the killing joke happened in the game's continuity, just as they did in the 1988 graphic novel.
07:37By the time we reconvene with the Bat Family, Barbara Gordon has been shot through the spine and paralyzed by the Joker.
07:49But we're still not at Arkham Asylum, because in 2014, an animated movie was released that serves as yet another prequel.
08:01This is Batman Assault on Arkham, and it sees the return of Amanda Waller and the first real appearance in the Arkhamverse of the Suicide Squad.
08:10The line-up is made of Harley Quinn, of course, as well as other mainstays Deadshot, King Shark, and Captain Boomerang.
08:24But they're also joined by Killer Frost, Black Spider, and KG Beast this time around.
08:31I'm Amanda Waller. I'm here to indoctrinate you convicts into our special forces.
08:36Joker and Harley have split up, presumably after he turned on her yet again at the end of A Matter of Family, and she's with the squad, until Joker sweet-talks her into reconciling with him.
08:51Women! Am I right, officer? Can't live with them, can't kick them out of a moving car.
08:56The movie culminates with various members of the squad presumed dead, and Deadshot a free man about to assassinate Waller.
09:04But, of course, he never went through with it, as we'll see later on.
09:08Now it's time to venture into the Asylum. Almost.
09:12Longtime fans of the games will know that Arkham Asylum came with a tie-in comic book in its limited edition boxes, The Road to Arkham,
09:20in which Batman, en route to Arkham, having recaptured Joker, talks to Oracle.
09:25Stand back, fool, I've got a bomb! Huh? Alright!
09:30He confesses his misgivings about what the Joker is really planning.
09:34This leads directly into the game, which opens with Batman and the Joker in the Batmobile as the Dark Knight delivers him to Arkham.
09:42In the years between Origins and Asylum, Batman's career has come a long way.
09:47His rogues gallery is now intact, with many faces from the iconic roster appearing in this fledgling game.
09:54Right away, we see Killer Croc and Harley Quinn, and will later be introduced to Poison Ivy, Bane, and Scarecrow.
10:02Hey, Sharpie, love what you've done with the place.
10:07That's wardenshop to you!
10:09Upon arrival at Arkham, Batman meets Quincy Sharp, the Warden of the Asylum, and is led through the intensive treatment wing at Joker's side.
10:18He surrendered almost without a fight. I don't like it.
10:23But just as Batman confides in Commissioner Gordon that Joker was caught too easily, the Clown stages his breakout,
10:30fleeing deeper into the Asylum before Batman can follow thanks to Harley working on the inside.
10:36Batman gives chase and is soon contacted by the Riddler, who has a few hundred puzzles for him to solve,
10:43and he stops to rescue a group of hostages from the serial killer, Victor Zsasz.
10:47But the simple story gets miles more complex when Batman catches up with the Joker, only to have a giant mutated henchman unleashed on him.
10:56The mystery deepens, and Batman emerges onto Arkham Island, where he finds out that as well as Warden Sharp, Commissioner Gordon has been captured too.
11:06Where's Gordon?
11:07Wouldn't you like to know?
11:09I'm over here!
11:10Shut up!
11:13He follows Harley and Gordon to the medical facility, where he encounters Scarecrow for the first time.
11:19Please help me, Batman!
11:24This is the first taste of Rocksteady's version of the Fear Toxin, in which Batman sees Gordon dead,
11:31and then finds the bodies of Thomas and Martha Wayne in the hospital morgue.
11:36Father.
11:38You should have stood up to him, son. Like a man.
11:43Descending deeper into the building after overcoming Scarecrow's toxin, Batman finds another test subject, Bane.
11:51Bane.
11:57I thought he broke out of Blackgate!
11:59Cut me down!
12:02He finds out that Joker has been developing something called Titan under one of his most common aliases, Jack White,
12:09liaising with Dr. Penelope Young at Arkham.
12:12According to our bank records, there have been multiple payments starting last April until two months ago, then nothing.
12:18The payments came from a company owned by a Mr. Jack White.
12:22Batman saves Young, along with the other doctors, and then fights Bane, knocking him into the sea with the Batmobile after saving Gordon.
12:30Titan is a serum that Joker believes can be used to make super soldiers, essentially, and makes Bane even deadlier.
12:38So do you think Dr. Young's been experimenting with Venom, the same chemical that turns Bane into that animal?
12:44Yes.
12:45Batman's next stop is the Arkham Mansion, the ancestral home of the Arkham family.
12:50He's been finding strange slabs with messages recorded on them from the spirit of Arkham this entire time,
12:57detailing the early life of the founder, Amadeus Arkham.
13:01More on that later.
13:02In the mansion, he encounters Scarecrow yet again, reliving his parents' murder in Crime Alley, and he fails to save Dr. Young.
13:11He wants an army, a horrible twisted force to destroy Gotham, but he couldn't do it without the formula.
13:16While he rescues her from Zaz and destroys the formula for Titan so that Joker can't make more of it,
13:22she's killed by a bomb that Joker plants in the mansion's safe.
13:26Batman then wants to go straight for Joker, but to do that, he has to get Harley first,
13:32and she's now holed up in the island's penitentiary.
13:46During her retreat, she releases Poison Ivy from her specialized cell in the Green Mile.
13:51Batman pursues and easily subdues Quinn, encountering a few interesting Easter eggs courtesy of the Riddler,
13:58the cells of Two-Face and Calendar Man, and none other than Clayface,
14:03still locked up and shapeshifting between Gordon and Sharp to trick Batman.
14:08Just before he reaches Harley, Batman finally saves Sharp.
14:22Batman learns from Harley that Joker is in the Botanical Gardens working on Titan,
14:28but in order to make an antidote, he needs Poison Ivy to direct him towards a special plant,
14:33which, coincidentally, only grows in the sewers Killer Croc is now occupying.
14:39Batman goes back through the sewers to get the Spore,
14:42dealing with Scarecrow for the third and final time along the way,
14:46and then faces off against Ivy in a Titan-induced boss battle, taking her back to her cell too.
14:52Finally, it's time to take down Joker in a climactic boss battle on top of the Asylum's visitor center.
14:59It's basically a rematch between Batman and Joker,
15:03but some of the Titan survives and makes its way to Gotham.
15:07It's basically a rehash of all the Titan mini-bosses we've already fought, ending in Batman punching Joker in the face while detonating explosive gel on his knuckles.
15:17I'll never let you win. Never.
15:28But some of the Titans survives and makes its way to Gotham.
15:32If you did all the side quests, you'll also have learned that Quincy Sharp believes he's being manipulated by the ghost of Amadeus Arkham, continuing his work of purifying Gotham from its violent offenders.
15:44And if you solved all the riddles, the Riddler will be taken into GCPD custody.
15:50Finally, you can also find a secret room in Sharp's office in the mansion, containing his plans for the Arkham City Project.
15:58We're almost ready to jump straight into Arkham City too, but DC predictably released another prequel miniseries to lead into it.
16:06Simply called Batman Arkham City, this one followed Quincy Sharp's campaign to be elected mayor of Gotham and the beginnings of the Arkham City Project, backed up by the private military, Tiger Security.
16:19The comics also revealed Hugo Strange as a key player, one of Batman's most notorious villains because he's one of the only ones who knows that Batman is Bruce Wayne.
16:30A mobile fighting game called Batman Arkham City Lockdown also released in December of that year, taking place shortly before the main game, but has minimal impact on the plot other than giving us new ways to fight some more classic rogues.
16:44In 2011, two years on from the release of Arkham Asylum, Arkham City dropped.
16:56For the first time in the mainline games, we got to spend time with Bruce Wayne, as he's captured and brought into Arkham City while trying to speak against it.
17:05The project cordoned off a huge deprived area of Gotham, known as Old Gotham in Arkham Origins, and turned it into an open air prison, leaving the city's most notorious super criminals to fight with each other with minimal oversight or intervention.
17:21After being captured, Batman calls in the Batwing to drop off his suit and equipment and begins investigating Arkham City from the inside.
17:35Early on, he gets waylaid by Two-Face, who's holding Catwoman prisoner. He defeats Harvey Dent and rescues Selina. She's nearly killed by Joker in the process, but then leaves the Dark Knight behind to further her own private goals.
18:05The trajectory of the bullet leads Batman to the church, where he finds Harley Quinn trying to kidnap any and all medical professionals she can find. After this, he pursues her to Sionis Steel Mill in the amusement mile.
18:19The steel mill has been renovated with Joker livery, and after exploring via the boiling hot chimney, Batman is captured by the Joker.
18:27Joker reveals that the Titan has made him gravely ill, hence Harley's search for a doctor. He transfuses his own blood into Batman and reveals that he's also sent batches of infected blood into Gotham, motivating Batman to find the cure for him.
18:58The mystery around Hugo Strange and Arkham City is all but abandoned by the Caped Crusader as he desperately tries to find the cure he needs, since without it, he won't last the night.
19:14His first stop is the old museum, now controlled by the Penguin, who's holding Mr. Freeze hostage.
19:20Freeze is the only person in Gotham City who might be able to develop a cure, so Batman goes through the long process of defeating Penguin, and to everybody's surprise, Solomon Grundy, a comic book deep cut most notable for appearing in The Long Halloween.
19:51Grundy is our first real clue that there's something else going on underneath Arkham City, something Batman will go on to investigate next when he determines that the key to the cure lies with Ra's al Ghul.
20:03Ra's al Ghul is the near-immortal leader of the League of Assassins, who constantly resurrects himself using Lazarus Pits, one of which is found underneath Gotham.
20:22The League is holed up in an abandoned underground area of Gotham called Wonder City, populated with automatons.
20:34Batman discovers that Wonder City was built centuries ago by Ra's as part of his plans to master the Lazarus Pit, triggered by his discovery of Solomon Grundy and his ability to come back to life.
20:50Batman battles Ra's and briefly fools him into thinking he's going to accept his place as the new leader of the League of Assassins.
21:04It's all a ploy to get a blood sample, and Batman succeeds, returning to Mr. Freeze.
21:11Along the way, Batman will also re-encounter Deadshot, who's assassinating political prisoners.
21:24He'll save the lives of Jack Ryder and Vicky Vale, he'll investigate a serial killer who's stealing people's faces, he'll contend with the Mad Hatter, take down Zaz again, and finally, he'll reunite with Bane.
21:38The victim's face has been removed and the head wrapped in bandages. There have been three murders in Gotham over the last month with the same M.O.
21:46Bane is hiding in the old Crank Toy Factory and wants Batman to help destroy three of the six barrels of Titan that survived the events of the previous game, only to betray Batman and reveal he wants all the Titan for himself.
21:59Dr. Young's Titan formula. The payaso managed to send some off Arkham Island before you stopped him.
22:06There's also a minor subplot around Asriel, who leaves fiery bat symbols for Batman to find and offers himself up as a worthy replacement should the worst ever happen.
22:22Back at the GCPD, Freeze develops the cure, but won't give it to Batman because Joker is threatening Nora.
22:37The iconic Mr. Freeze boss battle takes place here, with Freeze learning all of Batman's predator techniques so that he can't use the same takedown strategy more than once.
22:50But, during the scuffle, Harley steals the cure by blowing up the wall on the other side of the safe, taking it back to the Joker before Batman can use it on himself.
23:00Batman follows, but throughout the game, we've been hearing Hugo Strange count down the hours as he builds up to activating something called Protocol 10.
23:16As Batman and the Joker reunite, with Joker seemingly cured, Protocol 10 is activated.
23:23Batman now abandons Joker to finally deal with Strange, who's been manipulating Quincy Sharp the entire time, even going back to Arkham Asylum.
23:39Protocol 10 is actually a plan to completely raze Arkham City and eradicate the criminal elements within, finally purging Gotham of crime.
23:49As Ra's al Ghul intended when he began building Wonder City.
24:00This is how we find out that it's been Ra's' plan all along.
24:05Your part of this is over, Professor Strange.
24:09Ra's kills Strange, but in the process, Strange orders the detonation of Wonder Tower, the imposing building he's been hiding in for the whole night.
24:19Ra's seemingly dies in the destruction, but with no body, nothing is conclusive.
24:25While all this is ongoing, Catwoman is having her own side story.
24:30She had four episodes released as DLC, but which were later smoothly integrated into the base game with the Game of the Year edition.
24:38In her storyline, Catwoman's also been locked up in Arkham City and is trying to get her loot back from Hugo Strange.
24:51This leads her to Two-Face, where Batman first encounters her, and then to Poison Ivy, who's also in Arkham City.
24:59Ivy's not happy with Selina because Selina forgot to water her plants.
25:04After a fight, they come to a deal, and Ivy helps Selina break into Hugo Strange's vault.
25:10She finally gets her things back, but this coincides with the activation of Protocol 10.
25:17It's not like he'll die. It's Batman, right?
25:20Catwoman now has a choice, escape with the loot or go save Batman.
25:26Except, it's not actually a choice, because if you pick the first one, you'll get a game over and respawn.
25:43It's Selina who saves Batman from the ruins of Wonder Tower.
25:47After all this, and with the Bat now back in action, the two main plot threads converge in the Monarch Theater.
25:55The same theater the Waynes visited the night they were murdered.
26:05Joker, cured of his ailment, has captured Talia Al Ghul, Raz's daughter and Batman's longtime love interest.
26:14Al Ghul! More! Bravo!
26:20It wasn't ever you.
26:21Talia has stolen the antidote so that Batman can use it, and this is when the game's famous plot twist happens.
26:28A second Joker, still sick, kills Talia, and the healthy Joker transforms into Clayface, who's been working for Joker all along.
26:38Why sign up with Joker?
26:43The role of a lifetime!
26:46The true final boss is Clayface, and he and Batman battle in the ruins, but it's too late.
26:54Clayface is defeated and Batman regains the antidote, only for Joker to attack one last time and knock it to the floor, where it shatters.
27:04Do you want to know something funny?
27:06Even after everything you've done, I would have saved you.
27:11Batman was able to take half of it and was going to give the rest to Joker.
27:15That actually is pretty funny!
27:23Hearing this, the Joker dies with a smile on his face, and Batman will never be the same.
27:30After this, we have a few more tie-in comics.
27:33There's Arkham Unhinged, which digs into the Arkhamverse backstories of Batman and his villains,
27:38and Arkham City Endgame, a six-issue miniseries following the fallout of Joker's death.
27:44We see Batman and Gordon watching over Joker's body in the morgue, expecting the Clown Prince of Crime to have one final trick up his sleeve.
27:52Gang warfare breaks out in What Remains of Arkham City, which is exactly what the Joker wanted in the event of his death,
28:00while Batman revisits Arkham Asylum and considers Joker's legacy.
28:05There was only one DLC for Arkham City, Harley Quinn's Revenge,
28:10in which players control Robin as he rescues Batman from Harley, who's trying to avenge Joker's death.
28:16Quinn's got him trapped.
28:18We'll get him out of it.
28:20Tim nearly dies in the process, and Batman almost lets Harley kill him.
28:25Luckily, the Boy Wonder is unharmed.
28:28It hurts, don't it?
28:30What have you done?
28:33Now you know how it feels!
28:36Harley Quinn's Revenge takes place after Arkham City Endgame, but before we start gearing up for Arkham Knight.
28:43With massive hype building around the final entry in Rocksteady's core trilogy, supplemented by Arkham Origins in between,
28:50it was no surprise that DC released even more comic books, with a prequel comic book series simply named Batman Arkham Knight,
28:59which ran from 2015 to 2016.
29:02Some of Batman's more unpopular villains reappeared here, including an electrocutioner wannabe.
29:08We spend a lot of time with Batman as he grapples with his identity and wonders whether he does more harm than good.
29:15The same year the Arkham Knight comic book was concluding, we also got an additional surprise entry into the Arkhamverse,
29:22Batman Arkham VR.
29:30This VR game is so short it's hard to even consider it a game as opposed to a tech demo.
29:37But it was made by Rocksteady and did release across VR platforms.
29:42Some awareness of your movements would be appreciated.
29:46You have to get dressed as Batman, talk to the Penguin, solve puzzles from the Riddler, and wrestle with Batman's intrusive hallucinations about the Joker.
29:55Though it came out after Arkham Knight, it was set just before it, but doesn't add too much to the story.
30:02Ultimately though, we reconvened with Batman proper in 2015 on a fateful Halloween.
30:08The first thing you see when you start a new game in Arkham Knight is the Joker's body,
30:13as we're prompted with a context-sensitive button to ignite the incinerator that destroys him.
30:18This is Rocksteady's way of assuring us that yes, the clown is gone.
30:23But, says Commissioner Gordon, so is Batman.
30:34It's now time for somebody new to threaten Gotham.
30:37And that somebody new is Scarecrow, back after being almost killed by Killer Croc during Arkham Asylum.
30:54Scarecrow unleashes his new and improved fear toxin on the patrons of Paulie's Diner,
30:59and then announces that he's going to fill the city with his gas.
31:10Gotham is promptly evacuated, giving Batman free reign to destroy any and all buildings with the Batmobile,
31:17which is finally here as a drivable vehicle, for better or for worse.
31:22First on the agenda is Poison Ivy, who may be able to manufacture an antidote or countermeasure to Scarecrow's toxin.
31:37As such, Scarecrow has tried to recruit her by sending Harley Quinn to break her out of custody at Bloodhaven PD
31:44in one of the Arkham episode's DLC packs.
31:48Harley, come to free me, again?
31:51Though Nightwing tries to stop them, Harley and Ivy are more than a match for the former Boy Wonder, and they escape.
31:58But Ivy doesn't want to play nice with Scarecrow after all, and ends up taking her hostage.
32:04Batman saves Ivy and meets Scarecrow's new militia for the first time, then pursues the villain to the new Ace Chemical Factory.
32:12Scarecrow said he had a plan, that together we could take you out, and Gotham would be ours.
32:19After solving a handful of car-based puzzles, Batman is briefly cornered by the Arkham Knight,
32:25who knows all of his weaknesses, but remains a mystery.
32:29Oh, and avoid the Bat symbol. It's a little trick. It's where his armor's the strongest.
32:35Aim for the weak spots, the shoulders first, then coordinate fire at the points where the plates meet.
32:41Meanwhile, Oracle has been captured.
32:44Batman now has a choice.
32:46He can escape the factory, but leave the toxin to be unleashed, or he can try to neutralize Scarecrow's bomb.
32:53He chooses the latter, and in the process, ingests enough fear toxin to start seeing visions of the Joker.
33:05Myth me?
33:07He's mostly successful at stopping the stage of Scarecrow's plan, though Oracle is still captive.
33:13But, the game takes a break from the action to explain how Arkham Knight is connected to the Titan plotline of the previous two games.
33:21Through a flashback, we discover that Batman is keeping four people captive in his latest base, the old Panessa Movie Studios.
33:29These four people were all infected with Joker's contaminated blood, just like Batman himself was.
33:36One of them, Henry Adams, appears to be completely immune.
33:40The other three, meanwhile, are slowly mutating into the Joker, complete with pale skin and green hair.
33:56It's the influence of the infected blood and Batman's anxieties over not being able to stop himself from turning into the Joker, too,
34:04that causes the hallucinations he's plagued with throughout the game.
34:12Back in the present, and Batman's new priority is rescuing Barbara, now in the custody of the Arkham Knight.
34:19But, other rogues are taking the opportunity to exploit Gotham.
34:23Two-Face is robbing banks, Penguin is smuggling weapons, Firefly is back and burning down fire stations,
34:30and Catwoman is being held captive in the old orphanage by the Riddler.
34:41Batman also needs to wipe off the Arkham Knight's hundreds of tanks and defuse bombs with the Batmobile before the night is through.
34:48Batman also has to face off, literally, with Hush, who spent the events of Arkham City murdering prisoners
34:55and cutting off their faces so he can transplant them onto himself.
35:00So, I finally have your attention. Come and join the party.
35:05If you try anything stupid, Wayne Enterprises will be looking for a new CEO.
35:10He makes himself look like Bruce Wayne, and we don't catch up with him until he infiltrates Wayne Tower.
35:17Batman also tests Asriel extensively when he returns to Gotham,
35:21but finds out that Asriel has been brainwashed by the ominous Order of Saint Dumas,
35:26which wants him to assassinate and replace Batman.
35:29And finally, Arkham Knight's serial killer storyline revolved around Professor Pig,
35:34a relatively new and deeply sinister villain in Batman's oeuvre.
35:44As well as all these side missions, there were additional ones added in the Season of Infamy DLC,
35:50which also takes place during the events of Arkham Knight.
35:53In these, Batman has to tie up some more loose ends concerning the League of Assassins,
35:58Killer Croc, and Mr. Freeze.
36:04The League is caught up in a power struggle between Roz, now a shadow of his former self,
36:09and his other daughter, Nyssa.
36:12Croc has lost nearly all of his humanity after being subject to gruesome experimentation
36:16aboard Ironhide's penitentiary, a brutal prison inside an airship.
36:27Finally, Mr. Freeze goes after the Arkham Knight's militia when they capture Nora,
36:32the daughter of Mr. Freeze.
36:35Finally, Mr. Freeze goes after the Arkham Knight's militia when they capture Nora.
36:47This ends with Nora refusing to return to Cryostasis and Victor having to say goodbye to her,
36:52letting her go once and for all.
37:04You can do these during the game or even save them until the end, but they all take place that night.
37:11Back to the base game, while tracking Oracle, Batman has to reveal to Gordon that Barbara
37:16has been working for him for years, and that it's his fault that she's now in danger.
37:21She works for you?
37:24This is all your fault.
37:26I will find her.
37:30But he can't rescue Barbara just yet, as he's diverted to the Stagg Enterprises airship.
37:36Stagg has something called a Cloudburst, intended to distribute medicine,
37:41but which Scarecrow wants to use to spread the fear gas far and wide.
37:45Scarecrow came to me. He needed my help with the Cloudburst.
37:51What does it do?
37:57Unfortunately, Batman can't stop him, and Scarecrow escapes with the Cloudburst,
38:02after Batman finds out that it was actually being built to use as a chemical weapon to be sold for profit.
38:09After this, he catches up with Oracle and the Knight, but tragedy strikes.
38:14During a fear gas hallucination, Barbara Gordon takes her own life, wracking Batman with grief.
38:21You will bring death to all who follow you.
38:25He doesn't have time to come to terms with this though, because Robin calls him in for assistance.
38:30Well, look who's too late to save the day. How's it going, Batbrain? It's been a while.
38:37Robin has been watching the Joker blood victims at the movie studio this whole time,
38:42but now Harley has heard about what Batman is doing, and wants to make one of the victims her new Joker.
38:49He's got the Joker in him. They all have. That means they're mine! I'm taking them!
38:55She's already proven herself to be a better crime boss than Mr. J ever was,
39:00and is significantly more formidable after his death.
39:03Take me on home to the asylum.
39:09She manages to free the Joker victims, and Batman and Robin work together to take them down one by one,
39:15with Harley eventually resolving that nobody will live up to the Joker.
39:19Nobody except Batman, who's undergoing the process himself.
39:24You killed them, didn't you, Henry?
39:27All bats!
39:30Robin tries to lock Batman up so that the city will be safe if he does turn into the Joker,
39:36but Batman turns the tables and locks Tim away instead, refusing to tell him about what's happened to Barbara.
39:42However, this diversion gives Scarecrow enough time to get the cloudburst working, devastating Gotham.
39:49I need your help.
39:50From where I'm standing, you need a miracle.
39:53The bat's last resort is to beg Poison Ivy for help.
39:57Miraculously, she's able to commune with Gotham's ancient tree network
40:01and release enough chemicals to neutralize the fear gas, though she dies in the process.
40:07Nature always wins.
40:13Commissioner Gordon himself has now been captured by the Arkham Knight,
40:17and Batman finally comes face to face with his new rival.
40:21This twist was predicted by people familiar with the comics,
40:25thanks in no small part to the various flashbacks and references we get to the second Robin.
40:30But it's still a classic moment to see the Knight take off his mask and reveal his identity as Jason Todd.
40:36You really have no idea, do you, Bruce?
40:42Jason.
40:44Todd was believed to be dead, but was instead captured and tortured by the Joker in Arkham Asylum,
40:50fooled into thinking Batman had completely abandoned him and easily replaced him with Tim.
40:55How long did you wait before replacing me, huh?
40:58A month? A week?
41:00I trusted you, and you just left me to die!
41:04That's not what happened!
41:06The two argue, and we find out that the Arkham Knight couldn't let Barbara Gordon die.
41:11Oracle has thankfully survived. Her death was just another hallucination.
41:16Get me my daughter.
41:20Dad!
41:22But another Bat-family ally has now been captured,
41:26as Scarecrow has taken Robin from Panessa all the way back to Arkham Island.
41:31With Jason torn between his identities as Robin and the Arkham Knight,
41:35Batman pursues Scarecrow, who successfully unmasks him as Bruce Wayne for the world to see.
41:41Wayne. Bruce Wayne.
41:46Now the world can see you for what you truly are.
41:50He then injects Batman with enough fear toxin to make him publicly lose his mind.
41:55But if Batman has any superpower, it's his willpower.
42:00Do you not understand? It is over.
42:04Get ready for the encore.
42:10He's too strong and has been through too much to succumb to the toxin,
42:14fighting against the Joker in his mind as Scarecrow threatens to unleash the clown.
42:19Batman emerges victorious thanks to Jason Todd,
42:22who returns to help him under a new identity, the Red Hood.
42:26And Batman injects Scarecrow with his toxin, reducing him to madness.
42:31With his identity now known,
42:33Batman finishes dealing with his villains and activates the Nightfall Protocol.
42:38It's done. Gotham is safe.
42:41Thank you, Bruce.
42:43Swarmed with press, Bruce Wayne returns home,
42:46only for Wayne Manor to catastrophically explode.
42:50We just saw Bruce Wayne, now known to be the masked vigilante Batman,
42:54enter his home, refusing to...
43:00As Gordon mentioned in the intro, we've now seen Batman die.
43:04Except, not quite.
43:06Because we get a teaser that something else is happening,
43:09as a criminal encounters a bat-like creature in the streets.
43:13Hey, freak, maybe you missed the news. Batman's dead.
43:17That look don't scare us no more.
43:19Is Batman back and using fear toxin as a weapon?
43:23We wouldn't have an answer to that question until nearly nine years later,
43:27when we reach the final piece of the Arkhamverse puzzle,
43:30Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League.
43:33But Arkham Knight isn't done yet,
43:36because some of those Arkham episodes are set after the game.
43:40In the Red Hood DLC, we catch up with Jason Todd,
43:43who's now fully assumed his new vigilante alias,
43:47taking down Gotham's criminals with his new superpower, Gun.
43:51He goes after Black Mask in an underwhelming mission.
43:54Black Mask, you should have left when you had a chance.
44:00We also reconvene with Nightwing,
44:02who's finally ending Penguin's criminal career as he tries to escape the GCPD.
44:07Hey, boss, we're getting you out.
44:10You are? Where's Nightwing?
44:12Oh, he's right here. We thought you'd want to say hello.
44:15Oh, I do.
44:22Ah, sod off.
44:24Catwoman's here, too, and she wants revenge on Riddler
44:27for holding her hostage for the entire game.
44:30Oh, gee, it's locked.
44:32And encrypted, so good luck.
44:35Voiceprint accepted. Welcome to Riddler.
44:38Thanks, Eddie.
44:40Last of all, Robin.
44:42Tim has finally tied the knot with Barbara,
44:44but he gets waylaid while they're trying to honeymoon
44:47because Two-Face is, predictably, up to no good.
44:50So the boy becomes a man.
44:53Too bad it's short-lived.
44:58The episodes are hit and miss,
45:00but at least all our favorite characters got epilogues.
45:04We're not getting to that beach, are we?
45:08I think the honeymoon's over, Barb.
45:10At the end of the Arkham series,
45:12the state of play is that the world knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman,
45:16and Batman is dead and gone,
45:18unless the rumors circulating among Gotham's criminals are to be believed.
45:23The Bat Family comes into their own as his sidekicks,
45:26at least for a while,
45:28and Harley seems to finally put her fanaticism about the Joker behind her.
45:32But beyond the games,
45:34DC's ragtag team of antiheroes was gaining more attention.
45:38So that's it?
45:39What, we some kind of suicide squad?
45:42Both 2016 and 2021 saw Suicide Squad movie releases,
45:47one of which was critically panned as one of the worst superhero movies ever made,
45:51and the other of which is one of the best.
45:53You were gonna save me?
45:56It was a really good plan, too.
45:59Well, I can go back inside and you can still do it.
46:02Warner Bros. decided that the Suicide Squad needed a video game,
46:06and that was what finally came out in 2024.
46:11My name is Amanda Waller.
46:14I am the director of Argus.
46:16Not seen since the 2014 tie-in animated movie and Arkham Origins Blackgate the year before,
46:22Amanda Waller and Rick Flag are back,
46:25and they're recruiting four familiar faces to Task Force X.
46:29Harley Quinn, Deadshot, King Shark, and Captain Boomerang.
46:33Brainiac has invaded Earth,
46:36starting with Metropolis,
46:38and has put every member of the Justice League under his control,
46:41with the exceptions of Wonder Woman and The Flash.
46:44There was another prequel comic book to lead up to this release,
46:48explaining more about how our four heroes came to be under Waller's thumb.
46:52This one was called Suicide Squad Kill Arkham Asylum.
46:56When it comes to the actual game,
46:58Suicide Squad is one baffling choice after another.
47:02First was Warner Bros. mandating that Rocksteady had to make it a live service game,
47:07something not one person in the world wanted.
47:10But then, they went and brought Batman back.
47:13Still using shadows to scare the crap out of criminals, huh?
47:18We do learn that he's been using Scarecrow's fear toxin,
47:21but other than that,
47:23he's pretty much the same Batman as in the previous games,
47:26but with his character development erased.
47:34Alright, boomer's a goner.
47:36He's also under the control of Brainiac,
47:38and is murdering people with his batarangs as he hunts the squad,
47:42though he begins by going after the Flash,
47:44bringing him under Brainiac's influence too.
47:54When the squad goes for the Dark Knight himself,
47:56we get to find out what it's like to be a villain in one of the Arkham vs. Stealth arenas,
48:01with Batman stalking you from the shadows.
48:04This was interesting for all of ten seconds,
48:07but eventually devolved into a fear gas induced boss fight
48:11where you fight a gigantic caped crusader.
48:18We also learn that the Bat family seem to have been murdered off screen
48:22if Robin's bloodied mask is anything to go by.
48:30Hopefully, they survived,
48:32but given Brainiac's Batman brutality,
48:34we'd be surprised.
48:36Batman's story ends when he's publicly executed by Harley Quinn
48:40and deployed to lure out Superman.
48:50It's surprising to think that 2022's Gotham Knights
48:53dealt with the death of Batman in a better way than Rocksteady was able to,
48:58but that's the world we're living in.
49:00The rest of the Justice League also perish,
49:03either to the squad or, in Wonder Woman's case, to Superman.
49:11There are some fun callbacks,
49:13as Poison Ivy returns having been reincarnated,
49:16and we also get to meet Lex Luthor for the first time,
49:19but ultimately, well,
49:21you'd struggle to find anybody who thought that Suicide Squad
49:24was a worthy entry in the Arkhamverse.
49:27In the time since release, player count has plunged,
49:31with only a few hundred logging in to play the Joker update for Season 1 on Steam.
49:36Updates have also come weeks later than Rocksteady promised,
49:39and Warner Bros. has made it clear that the game has been a financial flop.
49:43The Suicide Squad is now apparently doomed to trek through DC's multiverse,
49:48killing Brainiac after Brainiac after Brainiac,
49:51with nobody ever dying for good,
49:53thus removing any of the emotional impact
49:56that the game's bold story decision to kill the Justice League may have had.
50:00Unfortunately, this version of Batman's story doesn't appear to have a happy ending.
50:05Few would disagree that it would have been better had Batman's fate at the end of Arkham Knight remained an enigma,
50:11as opposed to having him come back for one of the worst encores in history.
50:15It's also deeply disappointing to have Robin, Oracle, Nightwing, and Alfred all disappear too.
50:22But the Arkham name brings cachet,
50:25and this game desperately needed it to persuade anybody to give it a chance.
50:30We're certainly better off imagining that Arkham Knight was the end of the series,
50:34and hoping that Warner Bros. stops mandating what Rocksteady does for future releases.
50:39Even when you're evil, you're still too good.
50:45And that was the complete Batman Arkham timeline explained.
50:49Which Arkham game is your favorite?
50:52Which villain do you like the most?
50:54And what do you hope Rocksteady does next?
50:57Be sure to let us know in the comments.
50:59Did anyone catch the game last night?
51:04Thanks for watching!

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