Recently, they revealed the new follow up to Batman Arkham City. It will be call Arkham Origins and will be a prequel. Not in the way that Batman Begins went all the way back, but it will be Batman’s first run-ins with some of his most popular supporting cast. They made sure to not just say villains so I am expecting Commissioner Gordon and maybe even a sidekick or 2 having a decent sized role. The actual plot of the game involves kingpin, Black Mask, hiring 8 of the world’s best assassins to try and take out Batman on Christmas Eve. So far I believe the only confirmed assassin is Deathstroke, one of the more badass DC comics characters who has been able to retain his badass status despite having his ass handed to him by some teenagers on a regular basis. You can’t just throw that kind of premise at a comic geek and not expect me to absolutely obsess over who the next 7 characters are. I want to know. I NEED to know.
Ra;s al Ghul from Arkham City
Past contenders
There are already some pretty great assassins appearing in the games. As the king and princess of the most elite assassins, Ra’s and Talia Al Ghul would making fitting foes given their personal connection to Batman, Ra’s being a former mentor and Talia being a former lover. They also have been done already, and they also don’t seem to be the type you have to hire back up for. I’m guessing more of a goon squad of assassins, like say Deadshot. He definitely lacks the hand-to-hand prowess of Deathstroke, but his modern way of shooting people from impossible distances certainly ranks him among the best. There is just something to Deadshot’s appearance in Arkham City that makes it seem like Batman’s first run-in with him though. He’s more of a wild card.
Bane from Arkham Asylum
And then there is Bane. There is a problem with Bane. Bane is to Batman, what Venom is to Spiderman. Both were a product of the “Xtreme” days where everything was bigger, better, and badder. The old generations didn’t like it, but the new generations clung to it. To this day, a lot of people don’t get Bane. He has never not been a roided out luchadore to them, but when he debuted, he was supposed to have a strategic and analytic mind to put him on par with Batman and give him an edge that practically every other powerhouse character lacked. Because of this disconnect, Bane has often times been portrayed against that persona from everything from further comic appearances to cartoons. The Arkham games being some of the worst offenders. This would be a great moment to make up for those past mistakes.
Catman from Secret Six
Anti-Batmen
There are other dark reflections of Batman out there too. There’s Wraith, who was one of the first ones. He wasn’t exactly an assassin though. He was more like a really aggressive Batman without the “no kill” code, but he was also from the cheesy Batman days. The modern Catman was more of a modern Wraith. He started out like a male Catwoman, but Gail Simone turned him into a mix of Batman and Kraven the Hunter. Jungle Batman! He used hunting knives and feral instincts to pull off up close kills. It would be interesting to see a Talon, one of the Court of Owl soldiers, show up, but it is WAY too early in the career of Batman to start dropping those bombs on him.
Prometheus
Prometheus is probably the most twisted version of Batman. A true Anti-Batman, and not because he wears a similar costume like those other guys. He was a child who saw his criminal parents gunned down Bonnie-and-Clyde-style by the cops and swore to a life of destroying the justice system. He is said to rival Batman in terms of intellect, and like Batman, he is ready for every and any situation. His superpower is prep time, and he has covered all his bases. In his first story arc, it took the whole Justice League to take him down, so I’m not sure what Batman is going to do by himself. He does get a quick nod in Batman Arkham Asylum though.
Lady Shiva bests Huntress
League of Assassins
When you are looking for the best of the best assassins in the DC Universe, look no further than the League of Assassins. 4 of the characters mentioned so far have been among their ranks (Ra’s, Talia, Bane, and Deathstroke). Most of the time their ranks are depicted as red shirt ninjas all looking the same, but every so often they find a more colorful comic-book-y character to take up the cause. David Cain is not one of those characters. He kind of reminds me of Deathstroke without all the comic-book-iness. He’s simply an aging professional killer. His reputation in the DC world is he is one of the best so he fits the mold, but I don’t know how interesting he would be as a video game boss. Lady Shiva on the other hand is a shoe-in. She is like the female Deathstroke. She is a precise killer, master fighter, and has on more than one occasion gone for more supervillain flare. Like Deathstroke, she is also a big fan favorite getting a lot of panel time to shine as well as the occasional heroic duty to keep us rooting for her. Out of everyone on this list, I would bet she would show up. It would be a big mistake to bench her.
Bronze Tiger
This League is not all ninjas and guns though. They have dabbled in magic and science fiction. Bronze Tiger, for instance, has no powers, but as Ben Turner, he is one of the best martial artists in the DC Universe. The League obviously wanted him on their side., so they created a bronze tiger mask (get it?) that would essentially hypnotize Ben into doing their dirty work. It would be an interesting hook for a video game boss, me thinks. It’s certainly been done even though I can’t think of one off the top of my head, but it is a tried and true trope. Another operative, Whisper A’Daire, was given the ability to shape-shift into animals by Ra’s Al Ghul. These Arkham games haven’t shied away from mutation (remember Poison Ivy hopped up on Bane’s venom), but I think her lack of popularity might be her downfall. She’d be pretty interesting though especially if they could work in Man-Bat or Talia’s Man-Bat assassins.
Black Spider
Suicide Squad/Secret Six
If you aren’t going to look at the League of Assassins than there is always the Suicide Squad, secret agent Amanda Waller’s team of mercenaries trying to shave years off their prison sentences. One such bad guy is Black Spider, who has gotten a bit of a reemergence since the new 52 reboot. He seems to be one of the more active members of the Suicide Squad book along with Deadshot and Harley Quinn. He is an expert martial artist dressed in a uniform that is a mix between batman’s and Spider-Man’s. He is a quick, acrobatic fighter who uses quite a bit of different gadgets to get out of the sticky situations. Another core member of the team who seems to be missing since the reboot is Plastique. She looks like your run-of-the-mill femme fatale. Kill you with a look or a smile. She is also a demolition expert. At one point, she had a Gambit like ability to explode objects with a touch, but she classically rigs explosives. Considering the Arkham games penchant for having an interactive map, having the occasional bomb go off could be kind of fun.
Cheshire’s creepy smile
There is another character that appears on the Suicide Squad named Tattooed Man, but there are 2 separate DC comic characters with that name. One of the them is an old-fashioned kind of boring supervillain type. The other is a street-raised urban thug, who I prefer named Mark Richards. They both have the ability to make their tattoos a reality, and even though Mark Richards was never really a Suicide Squadder, that is exactly the kind of nip and tuck comic adaptations are popular for. Another character who isn’t really a Squad member is Cheshire. She was on the Suicide Squad related team, Secret Six, though. I’ll be honest. Cheshire kind of bores me. She is like Lady Shiva-lite, and she has only ever been interesting through her tumultuous relationship with Green Arrow’s former sidekick, Arsenal. Than again, she is a poison specialist, and Arkham City made poisoning Batman kind of interesting.
My Best Guess of the 8 Assassins
1. Deathstroke – duh!
2. Bane
3. Prometheus
4. Lady Shiva
5. Bronze Tiger
6. Plastique
7. Black Spider
8. Cheshire