All of the intrigue and eeriness surrounding the Court dissipates: While we do have minor side quests involving the Court, these are paint-by-numbers missions with little to no depth. Unfortunately, Gotham Knights abruptly sidelines the Court after an extensive massacre by the League of Shadows, another recurring group of antagonists in the Batman lore. My love for all things cultish and creepy meant I had high hopes for these new villains. Naturally, the prospect of butting heads with them was one of Gotham Knights’ biggest initial draws. The Court has only ever been featured outside of the comics in the excellent animated film Batman vs. They are cultish and creepy, they work in the shadows, and they’re an actual threat to Batman because they are also a threat to Bruce Wayne. The Court comprises the richest and most powerful families in Gotham, who maintain control through espionage and assassination. What makes this worse is that Gotham Knights mishandles a group of villains who, throughout their runs in the comics, are compelling, insidious embodiments of the city’s lurid history: the Court of Owls.ĭespite being one of the canonically oldest entities in Batman’s universe, the Court was only introduced to the Batman mythos in 2012. Freeze changing the weather? Where is the structural damage after Clayface’s escape? The Gotham of Gotham Knights, however, is static, monotonous, and boring. Rocksteady’s takes on Gotham, along with WB Montréal’s own in 2013’s Arkham Origins, to a lesser extent, achieved a strong tie to the deeper aspects of Gotham, since they treated Gotham as a rounded character. Tailored events occurred in specific neighborhoods, giving Gotham depth, and thus, identity. (In Arkham City, Joker blows up a tower in Arkham Knight, Batman often “redecorates” buildings and roads with his tank.) In Arkham City, Two-Face’s minions, prominent in their two-toned wardrobe, break into banks and cars Joker’s henchmen in clown makeup hang around carnival-like sets. This Gotham feels like a flat plane of monotony rather than a patchwork of personality.Īrkham City and Arkham Knight dealt directly with Gotham itself as character and space: You experienced permanent alterations of architecture or landscape. However, I found it to be completely bereft of character: Its homogenous, lifeless districts are only different in name, and it doesn’t evolve at all over the course of the Bat-family’s campaign in Gotham Knights. It is, at least on the surface, striving to emulate Gotham. This is a city flooded with fog that clings to buildings in the distance multicolored lights punch through the dark gentle rain cascades down walls and latex suits gargoyles hang omnipresently on various buildings. Every night, the four patrol an open-world Gotham. Gotham Knights sees you take on Batman’s mantle as the defender of the titular city after his death, in the shaky boots of four proteges: Batgirl, Nightwing, Robin, and Red Hood. Thinning any one of these will lead to a less rich tapestry of whatever Batman story is woven. Gotham, Batman, and his rogues’ gallery are inexorably tied together: All the great Batman stories are woven out of these three threads. It’s a pity, then, that in the latest open-world game set in Gotham, WB Games Montréal’s Gotham Knights ( which I did somewhat enjoy), this kind of rich characterization of the city, as a unique character unto itself, is dimmed, along with the villains therein. This depiction is at the crux of Arkham City and Arkham Knight. Not only did the trilogy pull from the animated series’ brilliant voice cast, but modeled its version of Gotham on the dark deco style: the Gothic architecture, large moon, art deco interiors and exteriors, noir mood, and lighting. When Rocksteady created its Arkham games, the developer drew from this episodic masterpiece. When I think of Gotham, it is this Gotham that comes to mind. This formed what the show’s producers called “ dark deco,” a unique aesthetic drawn from Tim Burton’s Batman films, detective noir, and art deco. Batman: The Animated Series’ animation department had a standing order from the show’s co-creator, Eric Radomski: Instead of working on the industry standard of dark colors on white paper, backgrounds would be painted using light colors on black paper.
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