One of the most well known superheroes around today is the caped crusader Batman. Almost everyone knows his story and have experienced something featuring the character. The amount of content surrounding him is immense, which is great for fans of the character but bad for the rest of DC Comics expansive roster.
Batman is DC's most profitable superhero, so it makes sense that the focus of its products would be on him. He has gotten the most films of any DC hero, and the same goes for video games. Players do not have to look far to play a game about Batman, but it is a disservice to other characters like Aquaman and even Superman that do not get as much time to shine. Even the upcoming Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad: Kills the Justice League have connections to Batman, with only Wonder Woman deviating from that.
DC Games Has a Long History with Batman
Batman games have been made since 1986, with the first title simply called Batman. It was very basic by today's standards, as it was an isometric action-adventure game. Players were given control of Batman and went through some pretty simple levels, with the game released to critical acclaim. Ever since then, Batman games have been being released on a pretty regular basis by different developers.
In 2008, Traveller's Tales began its LEGO Batman series that spawned three entries and a spin-off called LEGO DC Super-Villians. After LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, the titles involved the majority of the Justice League, but the focus was still put on Batman and his rogue gallery, as he was the titular character after all. Even LEGO DC Super-Villians focused more on Batman's villains like Joker and Harley Quinn than it did the other DC Super-Villians, with the game even taking place in Gotham City the majority of the time.
In 2009, Rocksteady began its critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham series. The series revolutionized the superhero genre and brought players through an exciting original story involving a whole host of iconic villains and locales. Arkham Asylum brought players to the iconic Asylum, Arkham City gave players a small segment of Gotham to explore, and Arkham Knight opened that up to the majority of Gotham City. WB Games Montreal made a prequel to the series called Arkham Origins that highlighted the beginning of Batman's career. There was even a VR title based in the Arkham universe, Batman: Arkham VR.
Batman also headlined two of his own Telltale Games series, Batman: The Telltale Series and Batman: The Enemy Within. Both games brought Batman to the click-and-point adventure genre for a brand new fresh interpretation of the character. Both series were praised for their story and faithfulness to the characters, even with a few technical issues.
In the next two years, two DC games are going to be hitting store shelves, and both of them are connected to Batman in some way. Gotham Knights, a co-op action adventure game from WB Montreal, is based in Gotham City and follows members of the Bat family after Bruce Wayne’s death. Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League does not put players in the shoes of Batman, and it will feature the rest of the Justice League, but it is the next entry in Rocksteady's Arkham series and is also heavily connected to Batman.
There Are So Many Underused DC Characters
Monolith Productions is working on Wonder Woman, a game that will follow Wonder Woman on a new adventurer, and DC League of Super-Pets: The Adventures of Krypto and Ace is set to hit store shelves sometime in 2022. As far as any other non-Batman DC superhero titles go, though, nothing has been revealed yet. There is nothing coming for Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Cyborg, or even DC's second most popular hero Superman. The rest of the Justice League seems to have been forgotten with Batman taking center stage.
While Batman is a profitable character for DC, the rest of the characters being left out of the fun is a genuine shame. The other members of the Justice League deserve their time to shine in their own video games. An Aquaman game could follow him as he reclaims the scepter, Flash could participate in a time travel story, or Green Lantern could get a space faring adventure.
DC is sitting on a treasure trove of interesting characters that are begging to be explored; it just has to be willing to give Batman a rest for a little while to allow the other heroes to shine.