The Man Under the Mask

“You’re afraid. But not of me. Tell us, Mr. Wayne……what do you fear?” ~ Ra’s Al Ghul, Batman Begins

Fear is a powerful force. It can destroy in minutes what takes a man years to build. Fear can make the bravest man cower, the strongest man weak, the sternest man doubt. And now that force is consuming a city one man has dedicated his life to protecting. As fire and ruin slowly turn Gotham City into ash, Bruce Wayne/Batman still struggles to save it. But his enemies, numerous as they are, hinder whatever attempt he makes.

And now that list has grown; now the mysterious figure known as Arkham Knight has joined the war against the Caped Crusader for the very soul of Gotham City. But, many wonder, just who is this man? Where does he come from, and why does he have such intimate knowledge of Gotham’s Dark Knight? The information about him has been sparse, but what we do know is that he knows many of Batman’s secrets; the way he thinks, the way he acts, the weaknesses in his own armor, and the identity of the the man hiding just under the mask.

Speculation has fueled discussion on whether or not this is either an entirely new enemy in the Batman mythos, or a preexisting figure taking up the mantle of an Anti-Batman-like foil. Batman has such a rich history of creating some of the best heroes in the DC universe, but he also has a history of creating some of his own worst enemies. As the season of winter slowly fades and becomes the flames of upcoming summer, let’s take a look at some of the possible names hiding under the armor, and try to speculate just who might be the Arkham Knight:

Dick Grayson / Robin I / Nightwing
First Appearance: Detective Comics #38, 1940

“You prepare yourself for this day – well, prepare is the wrong word. Do you prepare yourself for the sun to rise, or for water to flow from a tap? No. These are knowables. These are eventualities. I knew I would never see him as an old man. No, he’d leave us in a box, with jet black hair, and the only lines on his face would be ones brought by injury. You knew it wouldn’t end well. Despite all the training. All the brilliance. All the strength … under it all there was just flesh, blood and bone. And a man who never feared death. You know as well as I do he was frightened of a great many things, but his own mortality barely made the top hundred list with him.”

Roughly a year after Batman’s own comic debut, fans were introduced to Dick Grayson, an orphaned trapeze circus performer who is eventually taken in and becomes the Dark Knight’s first official student, later sidekick, and even later still a fully-recognized hero in his own right. Despite eventually striking out on his own, Batman and Dick Grayson/Nightwing remained close friends. In fact, Grayson has even taken up the Batman identity on several occasions, most notably after Bruce’s apparent death during the events of the DC’s Final Crisis storyline.

Many people suspect that Arkham Knight is Dick in disguise, having been possibly manipulated or brainwashed into becoming an agent of evil against his former ally. What drives this possibility all the more, however, is Rocksteady’s Lead Animator Zafer Coban apparently made a small slip of the tongue during an interview with 4Player.com in which, at roughly the 4 minute mark, Mr. Coban makes the following remark:

“Obviously, like we mentioned earlier, we’ve got Scarecrow, Nightwing li- liasing together, trying to take down The Bat.”

While this may be a red-herring, if proven to be true, it would be the ultimate twist of betrayal to pull off against Batman, by using a person Bruce considers as a close, personal friend, and later adopted son, now being used as an instrument of his own downfall. The very act would break any lesser man.

Probability: 70%

Jason Todd / Robin II / Red Hood
First Appearance: Batman #357, 1983

“Ignoring what he’s done in the past. Blindly, stupid, disregarding the entire graveyards he’s filled, the thousands who have suffered, the friends he’s crippled. And I thought… I thought I’d be the last person you’d ever let him hurt. If it had been you that he beat to a bloody pulp, if he had taken you from this world, I would’ve done nothing but search the planet for this pathetic pile of evil death-worshiping garbage and sent him off to hell.”

Shortly after Bruce parted ways with Grayson, he attempted to continue his mentoring role with a new Robin, a street orphan by the name of Jason Todd. However, it became apparent that Todd wasn’t the same person that Grayson was; he was too violent, too hot-headed, too reckless. And, according to DC, very unpopular with fans. In an unprecedented move, DC allowed fans to decide Jason Todd’s fate in the penultimate chapter of their Death in the Family storyline, one where The Joker had kidnapped the second Robin, beaten him nearly to death, and then left the boy tied and bound in a warehouse full of explosives as Batman desperately raced to save him. Two separate 900 numbers were set up, and by a narrow margin of only 65 votes, fans had decided that Robin II needed to die.

Of course, death in comics isn’t always so permanent, and after two separate attempts to reboot the DC universe, Jason Todd was brought back from the grave as The Red Hood, a villainous moniker once, ironically enough, used by the Joker himself. Under this guise, Batman learned that Todd had survived the attack, and was waging a one man war against anyone who got in his way of personal vengeance. In the current DC Universe, Todd/Red Hood is something of an Anti-Hero, and even worked with Batman on occasion, though the relationship is, to put it mildly, tepid at best.

In the Arkham Universe, Jason Todd has yet to make an appearance, though he is mentioned a few times during the course of the storyline (notably in Arkham City). While many would say that Todd hiding under the Arkham Knight armor would make sense, recent news seems to have deflated this theory, as Rocksteady has confirmed that Jason Todd would be appearing in the game as a playable character.

Probability: 0%

Prometheus / ?
First Appearance: New Year’s Evil: Prometheus #1, 1998

“I took the name because I wanted to take fire from the Gods themselves. Steal their knowledge and techniques and use it against them.”

While there have been several people to carry the Prometheus title in the DC Universe, the one fans have speculated the most about is the second. The unnamed son of two criminals, Prometheus watched the police eventually corner, and then shoot them both dead; an event that seemed to mirror the events that a young Bruce Wayne experienced years ago. The event shocked the poor boy so much, in fact, his hair turned instantly white. Ever since, Prometheus has made it his life’s mission to “annihilate the forces of justice,” wherever and whenever he could.

Utilizing money hidden by his parents (and by extorting a few low-level crime bosses), Prometheus began to develop his skills. During this time, he trained as an underground pit-fighter in Brazil, performed mercenary work in Africa, and even joined several terrorist groups in the Middle East. He also attended some of the finest academic schools and universities in an effort to sharpen his mind.

Afterwards, with this being comics, it gets a little muddled with the use of alien technologies and parallel dimensions; it should be noted that the man almost single-handedly defeated almost the entire current Justice League roster, and would have succeeded if not for the timely intervention of Catwoman. While the character has yet to physically appear in the Arkham universe, players can see an old ‘Wanted’ poster issued for his arrest in the first Arkham Asylum title, and a dossier of the character can be found in the old GCPD building in Batman: Arkham City. This has led many fans to speculate that Arkham Knight may simply be an “upgraded” version of Prometheus currently working with the Scarecrow and company.

Probability: 50%

Azrael / Michael Lane
First Appearance: Azrael: Death’s Dark Knight, 2009

“I bring a message. Dark days are coming, Batman. The prophecy is coming true. You are the warrior who will close the gates of hell. You are the one who will save this day and in doing so events will occur that you cannot stop. From the ashes of Arkham, the fires will rage and Gotham will burn. And you… you will burn too.”

Trained by the secretive Order of St. Dumas as assassins bent on enforcing “God’s Will,” the Azrael moniker is one handed down through the centuries to the order’s most deadly assassin. In the DC universe, two people have carried that title. One being Jean-Paul Valley; who, during the pivotal “Knightfall” storyline (the one where Bane breaks Batman’s back), takes up the actual mantle of Batman. He even “upgrades” the batman suit during his tenure, adding in all sorts of lethal tech to his arsenal. However, Valley proved to be a hard-lined and rather brutal replacement for Bruce/Batman, and was eventually defeated by a full-recovered Batman.

The second, and apparently current, person to carry the Azrael title is African American ex-GCPD officer Michael Washington Lane. Lane appears to be deeply committed to the order, though as to what his or the order’s ultimate goal is during this crisis is currently unknown. Many speculate that either Lane, despite warning Batman of what is to come, has somehow become brainwashed or altered by the Scarecrow toxin and fitted into the Arkham Knight suit to fully test his abilities and usher in personally the prophecy he warned Batman about during the events of Batman: Arkham City; or that the first Azrael, Jean-Paul Valley, has returned and is exacting a measure of revenge against his former ally.

Probability: 40%

Hush / Thomas “Tommy” Elliot
First Appearance: Batman #609, 2003

“Ah, but we both know our play isn’t over, Bruce. And ultimately I will emerge as the hero of our bitter comedy.”

One time childhood friend of Bruce Wayne, Thomas Elliot attempted to murder his own parents in an effort to gain their financial wealth; that plan however, was partially foiled due to the surgical skill of Thomas Wayne, Bruce’s father, who saved his mother’s life. Elliot focused his hate upon the Waynes as a result. Growing up, Elliot became a master surgeon, spending years of his life planning an elaborate revenge scheme against Wayne/Batman. Disguising himself as the villain Hush, his face covered in bandages, the two eventually meet during the events of Arkham City in the Gotham Cathedral, which has been made into the new medical facility for the prison.

Batman and Hush would meet up later on in the storyline, after Batman begins to track several murder victims who have had their faces removed by someone using complex forensic methods to cover their tracks. He’s even a little shocked to learn that the finger prints left at one crime scene is a match to his own. After Batman uncovers a third victim matching the same characteristics as the previous victims, he realizes that there are traces of bleach nearby and follows the trail, eventually locating an Arkham inmate who confesses to being paid off by someone claiming to be Bruce Wayne to dump the body and clean up the area.

When Batman finally tracks Hush to his hideout, he finds out that he has surgically altered his face to look like Bruce Wayne, vowing to ruin the Wayne name. He ends up escaping, though Batman vows to track Elliot down after the events of Arkham City. Many have speculated that Thomas Elliot could be continuing his elaborate revenge plot by becoming a dark caricature of Batman by donning the Arkham Knight suit.

Probability: 20%

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