Batman: Arkham Shadow’s Bosses are an Arkhamverse Gold…

Batman: Arkham Shadow may be following the path of all the Arkham games that came before it, but it is hardly a mere shadow. Gameplay and narrative are superb in Batman: Arkham Shadow with intricate worldbuilding and lore in an environment as intimate as Blackgate, and its bosses are inspired by the game’s locus in the Arkhamverse’s confounding timeline.

The Arkhamverse’s antagonists are a huge draw to the series and go a long way in distinguishing one Arkham game apart from the others. It can also be neat to see one antagonist reappear multiple times throughout the series, though this has either been a boon or a curse depending on what their character development has entailed and how their boss fights have been designed. Taking inspiration from Shadow, future Arkham games would be wise to consider which villains could be best applied to boss fights.

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While the number of years between Shadow and Asylum is still vague, Batman's Arkham series will hopefully take its time in the prequel era.

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By Jared Stewart

Batman: Arkham Shadow’s Bosses are Few Yet Fascinating

Batman: Arkham Shadow only features three boss fights: Carmine Falcone, Lyle Bolton, and a Shadow Batman figure manifested via Dr. Jonathan Crane’s prototypical fear toxin. Regardless of whether or not more were intended or in consideration, who receives a boss fight and how their boss fight is designed is reflective of Shadow’s meticulousness when it comes to character treatments and development.

Carmine Falcone’s boss fight was overdue in the series and it is great in context because, not unlike Penguin, he’s a crime lord who has little respect or fear for Batman and needs to be violently humbled before soliciting information. Likewise, a Ratcatcher boss fight might’ve been fantastic under different circumstances but would’ve been redundant in the context of Shadow’s narrative as Otis Flannegan is technically an insightful NPC and not an antagonist.

Lyle Bolton’s boss fight is great because it allows Irving “Matches” Malone to get in bed with Carmine Falcone, though it’s doubly exhilarating as it gives players a comprehensive boss fight that they can’t rely on the Batsuit or gadgets for. Takeo Yamashiro (truly an undercover GCPD cop named Chris Nakano) and Bird are also fought while Bruce Wayne is disguised as an inmate in Blackgate, but they’re designed like ordinary enemies without gimmicks or unique attacks. The Shadow Batman boss fight is quite special since it’s canonically Batman’s first fear toxin-induced hallucination sequence. Rightfully so, it’s especially poignant and reflective of Bruce’s inner turmoil.

Harvey Dent—who was unknowingly Shadow’s Rat King but only becomes Two-Face right as the game’s credits roll—having a boss fight could have undermined the tragedy of his dissociative identity disorder diagnosis and confronting him at the end of Shadow is wholly climactic regardless.

Therefore, these boss fights strike a chord that reverberates to echo Shadow’s titular Jungian theme. Unfortunately, not all Arkham games have had boss fights be as harmonious. Shadow takes a quality-over-quantity approach with its bosses and, while a decently sized handful of bosses should be expected in an installment as enormous as Batman: Arkham Knight, future games can hopefully decide what antagonists to include by considering how impactful their boss fights or set-piece sequences may be in tandem with the story being told.

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Mr. Freeze's story has been told so succinctly and thoroughly in the Arkhamverse that another prequel appearance could seek to ruin it.

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By Jared Stewart

Batman’s Arkhamverse Has a Notorious Boss Fight Imbalance

Between Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Origins, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, Batman: Arkham Shadow, and Batman: Arkham Knight, the Arkhamverse has featured many boss fights with recurring and debut antagonists. Some villains don’t actually have a boss fight and are instead better represented via set-piece sequences, such as Mad Hatter in Origins, City, and Knight or Killer Croc and Scarecrow in Asylum, and some are more intertwined with their game’s stories than others. City gets away with a random assortment of villains due to them all being housed within Arkham City, for instance, while Origins has eight of its antagonists tethered loosely to the bounty on Batman’s head.

Asylum’s Bane is a fun culmination of mechanics as he emulates a regular Titan brute, which is about as much that could be done with Bane to make his boss fight interesting since the Arkham series was in its infancy. Bane then has two boss fights in Origins—one at the Royal and one during the second Blackgate riot. The first is akin to Asylum’s with Bane behaving similarly to a brute enemy once again, though the second phase gives him Venom-fueled attacks that make him much more oppressive. The second, however, is starkly unique as its second phase has Bane inject himself with TN-1 and become a hulking monster who players employ stealth tactics against.

Mr. Freeze’s boss fight in City is one of the Arkhamverse’s best with dwindling stealth takedown strategies suddenly being vital to remember.

Ra’s al Ghul’s boss fight in City is cinematic and epic as it progresses through routine phases but, as an antagonist, Ra’s is weakened by his surprise role as Arkham City and Protocol 10’s master planner. Ironically, Professor Hugo Strange is revealed to be working for Ra’s, who dies almost immediately after killing Strange. Both deaths are then rather trivial with the game’s overarching plot of Protocol 10 expressly swept under a rug to make room for a finale with Clayface and Joker, which results in a dizzying third act.

Professor Pyg’s boss fight in Knight hardly seems like one given that players are primarily subduing Dollotrons and intermittently catching and throwing Pyg’s cleavers back at him. Still, there is arguably no worse boss fight in Knight than Deathstroke.

Deathstroke’s boss fight in Knight is perhaps the franchise’s most damning and a perfect example of antagonists demanding the right time and place for an appearance or boss fight. This boss fight is essentially a culmination of Battle Mode Batmobile combat with Deathstroke replacing the Arkham Knight as the red-and-white militia’s commander, and yet that could’ve been left to Simon Stagg’s Cloudburst boss fight and the Arkham Knight’s massive drill pursuit sequence due to its unsavory conclusion.

Reheating Ra’s al Ghul’s nachos as a couple of Origins boss fights do, Origins’ Deathstroke boss fight is memorable due to its emphasis on parries that can be satisfying and cinematic when consecutively landed (an in-game achievement even exists for defeating Deathstroke without failing a single counter). Thus, the fact that Batman effortlessly knocks Deathstroke out the second he emerges from his tank squanders Slade Wilson’s role in Knight, much less the Arkhamverse in general, and begs the question of whether he should’ve been included in Knight at all.

Some bosses may be filler content to ensure the game’s open world is saturated, but that shouldn’t be an excuse for lackluster or incongruous bosses. Thankfully, future Arkham games have a blueprint to follow now with Batman: Arkham Shadow, especially if Rocksteady truly is returning to the action-adventure formula.

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