Characters / Batman: Arkham Series – Rogues Gallery (Knight)

Batman: Arkham Series character index
Batfamily: Batman
Rogues Gallery: Arkham Asylum (The Joker • The Scarecrow • The Riddler) | Arkham City | Arkham Origins | Arkham Knight | Miscellaneous Foes
Arkham Staff | Gotham Citizens | Metropolis Citizens | ARGUS and Task Force X | Justice League

Members of Batman's Rogues Gallery who, in the Batman: Arkham video game series continuity, first appeared in Batman: Arkham Knight.

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The Arkham Knight & His Army

The Arkham Knight (MASSIVE UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Arkham Knight

"Always defending the weak and the helpless. That's what I like about you: Predictable! And that's why we're gonna win!"

Voiced by: Troy Baker ^{Other voice actors}Raphaël Cohen (Fr), Luca Ghignone (It)

Little is known about this mysterious new foe, apart from his name, except that he holds a great yet obsessive contempt for the Dark Knight and will do everything in his power to ensure the Batman's demise. Yet this same obsessive contempt would cause him to be impulsive and opened to the Dark Knight's attacks.

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Provides examples of:

• Adaptational Badass: While most incarnations of Jason Todd are badasses in their own right, none of them are at the level of this incarnation, who leads an army of professional killers specifically trained by him to kill Batman and manages to take over Gotham in mere hours.
• Adaptational Heroism: In the comics, Jason Todd, after his death and resurrection, started out as an acolyte of the League of Assassins who took over Gotham's criminal underground, leading up to his plan to force Batman into killing the Joker. Subsequent appearances inconsistently depicted him as either a genuinely good guy or a genuinely bad guy, sane or insane, differing from writer to writer. His goals are never clearly stated. Here, most of his dirty work is under orders from Scarecrow. As for his mental state, he's clearly suffering from textbook psychosis, and whereas in the comics Jason is angry because Batman didn't kill the Joker to avenge his death and then replaced him as Robin within months, here he honestly believes Batman abandoned him to his fate. He also still cares for both Barbara and Alfred a great deal.
• Adaptational Villainy: Despite the Adaptational Heroism above, he does go along with Scarecrow's plan to cover the eastern seaboard in fear gas, which is much more extreme than anything his comic counterpart ever did.
• Antagonistic Offspring: They aren't biologically related but blood doesn't end with DNA as he is one of the sons of Bruce Wayne, the man he opposes.
• Antagonist Title: His name serves as the subtitle of Batman: Arkham Knight.
• Anti-Villain: He's been put through one hell of a Trauma Conga Line, and it has not been easy on him.
• Ax-Crazy: For all his pretensions, namely technical capabilities equal to the Dark Knight and a smug pride in the belief that he's the superior adversary who will finally destroy the caped crusader, he's on the edge of cracking for much of the game and takes it badly when Batman continues to survive.
• Badass Bookworm: He created all the tech that he uses to hunt down Batman all by himself. Justified because he used to be Jason Todd, so he would have both likely been taught usage of those gadgets by Batman himself, and used some of his gadgets as well in his stint as Robin.
• Bad Boss: While he's never seen physically harming his soldiers, his obsession with Batman causes him to care very little for their safety. He frequently berates them when they fail to kill Batman, and should there be one soldier left standing in a predator mission, the Knight will simply tell Batman to finish him off, saying he has plenty more. He'll also threaten that while Batman can break bones, he knows true pain.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: The Knight's real identity is Jason Todd, who after being tortured and manipulated by Joker for over a year, came to hate his former mentor for not saving him.
• Berserk Button: Batman, full stop. He loathes the Caped Crusader with a passion and Batman's continued survival causes the button to be increasingly locked in place. His hatred is such that he was the one who approached Scarecrow to serve as his muscle offering his PMC company to take Gotham.
• Canon Character All Along: The Arkham Knight is revealed to be none other than Jason Todd, the second Robin in the original comics.
• Canon Immigrant: Sort of. The identity of the Arkham Knight was brought over in Detective Comics #1000, but in a combination of Decomposite Character, Gender Flip, and Samus Is a Girl, the comics Knight was revealed to be Jeremiah Arkham's daughter, Astrid, not Jason.
• Chest Insignia: A stylized form of the Arkham Asylum logo.
• Cold Sniper: When he utilizes his custom take-down rifle.
• Combat Pragmatist:
  • Knows how dangerous Bruce is and takes full advantage of the technical resources of his PMC such as robotic tanks and UAV's to take down Batman.
  • When Batman is in one of his lairs on Miagani Island (not the main militia headquarters), the Arkham Knight ambushes Batman and shoots him in the side where his armor's weakest, then lets his men attack him while he's weakened. And when that doesn't work, he tries to finish Batman off with a tank. He even lampshades it.
    Arkham Knight: You're not the only one who brings a tank to a gunfight. You're just the only one afraid to use live rounds.
  • He knows how dangerous the Batmobile is and in the first stage of his final confrontation with Batman, immediately takes it out of play by luring it into a tunnel network and attacking it with an indestructible Tunnel Boring machine.
  • Realizing that he can't take Batman on in a straight fight, the Arkham Knight retreats to vantage points with his high-powered rifle and deploys his men and UAV's to hunt Batman down.
• Combo Rifle: Before his boss fight with Batman, his main handgun transforms into a more segmented shape for him to plug another into it, creating a sniper rifle.
• Composite Character: Combines elements of multiple characters:
  • Being a dark mirror of Batman, wearing a helmet, and out for vengeance on him is similar to Prometheus.
  • His status as an "evil" Batman willing to use guns and kill is similar to the comic character Wrath.
  • His helmet, with its inhuman appearance and radio transmitter "ears", resembles that of another anti-Batman, Killer Moth. Moth also used guns and hired himself out to criminals.
  • His costume, with black and red motifs, full face cowl and lack of cape, resembles the Batman Beyond outfit,
  • Whereas his arrogant, immature personality and tendency to murder C-list villains in cold blood (see the tie-in comic) bring to mind Hush Beyond.
  • His helmet and tactical body armor resembles some of Jason Todd's Red Hood costumes, as well as the Batman costume he used in Battle For The Cowl in some areas. Justified in this case since he is Jason Todd.
  • His skillful leadership of a mercenary army which has the resources to take over Gotham has echoes of The Dark Knight Rises version of Bane.
• Dark and Troubled Past: The Knight was once an idealistic hero, until a tragedy drove him to become what he is now. Specifically, he's Jason Todd and the tragedy was his horrible torture at Joker's hands.
• Determinator: He travels to South America, and, with seemingly no starting resources, builds a mercenary army capable of taking Gotham by storm in just a day. Consider that also he did the whole "go to South America and builds himself a PMC" all the while being troubled to literally insane levels by the memories of his Cold-Blooded Torture.
• The Dragon: To Scarecrow, agreeing to carry out Scarecrow's plan despite heading his own army and having an irrational desire to kill Batman.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Scarecrow is the main villain of the game, but those are the Arkham Knight's troops. He directs them throughout nearly all Predator encounters, and makes sure they don't fall for Batman's tactics more than once. But ultimately subverted since despite the fact that the troops belongs to him, Scarecrow the one who develop all the plans and after the defeat of Arkham Knight, Scarecrow just finds a replacement for him in Deathstroke and continues confrontation with Batman regardless.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Only teamed up with Scarecrow to kill the Batman and frequently quarrels with Scarecrow over how it should be done. Ultimately turns on Scarecrow in the end.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: The Knight may be ruthless but he doesn't discriminate in who he hires. Some chatter between his militia have them openly talk about how they are gay and have husbands.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite the all-consuming hate he feels for Batman, the Arkham Knight is still capable of real affection, showing respect and care for Barbara, angrily demanding that Scarecrow stay away from her, making sure that she's all right, and threatening to kill his men if they harm her. He also asks about Alfred in a wistful tone, clearly missing his surrogate grandfather.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • In his audio tapes, he saves one of Scarecrow's hostages from fear toxin and threatens to kill any Mook who does any harm to that same hostage. Admittedly, likely due to their personal relationship, that is, her being part of the Batfamily. He also evacuates the city of civilians before the plan is put in motion.
  • He never revealed Batman's secret identity to Scarecrow or any of his militia, and is notably careful to never say Bruce's name when they might hear him.
  • Despite knowing of his relationship to Batman and knowing that it would cripple Batman, he never does anything to threaten Alfred at any point in the game. He even asks Barbara how Alfred has been when he has her captive, taking on a wistful tone.
• Evil Counterpart: Is an evil version of Batman. He intentionally makes himself this as a way to allow for a Frame-Up of Batman by killing criminals, and to mock him with a militarized version of his own Batsuit.
• Evil Knockoff: His costume clearly resembles Batman's. This is commented on by multiple people, from random Mooks (who say he has "a bad case of Bat-envy") to his own men ("loser has to tell the boss he'd look better with a cape").
• Evil Sounds Deep: His mask alters his voice, making him sound downright demonic.
• Fallen Hero: The Arkham Knight is fine with gassing an entire city with terror-gas, which is about as far as you can fall, which makes it worse when Batman learns the Knight's past as an idealistic, naive force for justice. It doesn't make Batman mad, just disappointed at the boy.
• A Father to His Men: Bad Boss tendencies aside (see above), while he is strict with the militia, he never really threatens to hurt them directly should they fail, and seems to treat them with respect. A militia member even recounts that the Knight reached out to him in a time of self-doubt, being understanding to his feelings of being betrayed by those he respected, and even after Scarecrow takes control of the Militia they outright state that will only listen to the Knight.
• Fiction 500: Discussed during Batman's infiltration of ACE Chemicals during the early part of the game; his men remark that to in order to have amassed the money and resources to craft such a massive army, the Knight must be richer than Bruce Wayne.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: A deadly adversary who wears a helmet with glowing blue eyes. They're a special HUD which allows him to monitor and control the activities of his organization. Batman shatters it with a headbutt in his confrontation with the Arkham Knight, causing him to detach it and use the red helmet underneath instead.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: A severe case of this, a clear symptom of the Knight's psychosis and result of the agony he suffered. As the game goes on, he becomes increasingly distressed at his failure to murder Batman and sounds as he's almost on the edge of a particularly bad Villainous Breakdown.
  • His mood swings are very obvious during his conversation with his Morality Pet.
    Arkham Knight: [saddened] I can't go back. You don't know what [he] did, Barbara. He hollowed me out, and he filled me back up with hate and...
    Barbara: [softly] Jason, we can fix it...
    Arkham Knight: [enraged] I CAN FIX IT!!! I take all this pain, all this blackness, and I put it all in a bullet, and I put it right between [Batman's] eyes.
• Heel–Face Turn: After Scarecrow finally decides to kill Batman, Jason saves him.
• Ikea Weaponry: He has two pistols that can be combined to form a high-powered rifle.
• Jerkass: Not the most pleasant employer, screaming at his men as Batman picks them off one by one and verbally giving up when one man remains for Batman to take down. His status as a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds and Mood-Swinger offer some explanation for this.
• Karma Houdini: Beyond losing a fight to Batman, he never faces any real comeuppance for helping invade Gotham or helping Scarecrow with his plans to spread fear toxin across the east coast.
• Large Ham: He's very enthusiastic about his desire to kill Batman, coupled with using a lot of hand movements. See his conversation with Batman in ACE Chemicals for a key example.
• Mask of Sanity: He hides it well under a veneer of authority and professionalism, but as the game progresses, it becomes clear that the mask is a particularly sloppy one at that and underneath it is a sick man driven solely by a burning hatred for the Caped Crusader. And as Batman survives his attempts to kill him, the mask disintegrates further and further.
• Missed Him by That Much: As it turns out, Jason was at Arkham Island when Joker took over in Arkham Asylum, being kept and tortured at an abandoned wing for over a year. Bruce didn't know as not only was he too busy fighting the Joker, he believed Jason was already dead at the time.
• Mood-Swinger: An extreme case. He can go from calm and authoritative, to theatrical and cocky, to sad and broken, to foaming-at-the-mouth rage in the span of a few seconds. The changes in his emotions are so swift and extreme that they can happen all in the same scene and sometimes in the same sentence. This makes him all the more terrifying as there seems to be no way of telling what will set him off on a homicidal rage.
  • Shortly after the Knight's identity is revealed, he and Batman have a short conversation, where Knight goes from calm to enraged and back in less than a minute.
    Arkham Knight: [cool, mocking] What's the matter? Lost for words? I expected more. I'm hurt.
    Batman: Joker sent me the film... I saw him kill you.
    Arkham Knight: [furious] Don't you dare lie to me! ... I TRUSTED you! And you just left me to DIE!!!
    Batman: That's not what happened!
    Arkham Knight: [cool, spiteful] You always told me ... focus on what I want to achieve, and it'll happen. Well, want to know what I want now, huh? I want you, dead.
• Morality Pet: Oracle is this for him; even though he personally betrays her identity to Scarecrow and kidnaps her, he goes out of his way to make sure no harm comes to her, reveals his identity to her, and tries to justify why he's doing what he is, hoping she'll understand. He even weakly replies "How's Alfred?" when she tries reaching to him.
• Mythology Gag: Arkham Knight's face mask comes in two layers: the black topmost one that changes his voice, and a red face mask underneath that resembles the face mask of Jason's other alter ego, the Red Hood. Sure enough, when Jason finally abandons the Arkham Knight moniker and becomes Red Hood in the DLC, he retains the red mask.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: In comparison to Scarecrow. The Knight doesn't care what Batman's legacy will be after he's gone or about creating a martyr; he just wants Gotham's savior dead, simple as that. Early on in the game, he tries to gun down Batman in a helicopter, but Scarecrow disables the guns, and he repeatedly chews Scarecrow out over his Bond Villain Stupidity, insisting they should just kill Batman and be done with it. Near the end, he's finally sick of it and outright disregards Scarecrow's orders, coming after Batman with a massive excavating machine with full intent to kill.
• No-Sell: According to information regarding his armor, he can not only dodge the Bat Claw, but his chest plate can actually deflect it, a very uncommon feat in the series. Attempting a Fear Takedown doesn't work on him either; trying it on him just ends with the Knight and Batman gripping each other by the throat.
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: He taunts Batman by calling him "old man" throughout Knight.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You:
  • He's completely obsessed with killing Batman himself and remains frustrated throughout the game that Scarecrow won't just allow him to kill The Bat. This obsession eventually gets the better of him and, despite Scarecrow's attempts to persuade him otherwise, he chooses to fight Batman inside his armored tank which eventually leads to the destruction of it and the Cloudburst.
  • He could easily have told Gotham's criminals Batman's real identity or attacked Wayne Manor, but he is stopped by his desire to kill Batman and Batman only. Drawing too much attention to the Wayne household would cause too much suspicion, explaining why he never attacks it.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Derides the other criminals of Gotham for their reliance on costumes and gimmickry, preferring direct displays of force coupled with long-term strategy. A notable example would be in the prequel comic, where he kills two thugs who had kidnapped a family, but lets said family live — not only because his objective was destroying the Joker's "Die-Ary" detailing his many crimes, but because he intended to frame Batman as the goons' suspected murderer; he needed them alive to tell the story, knowing that if he killed the innocents as well, the blame would never fall on Batman. Besides, despite how far gone he is, the Knight still won't stoop to killing women and children.
  • Insists repeatedly to Scarecrow, both in his audio logs and in-game, that Batman should be killed immediately — not only because he wants to be the one to murder him and claim his revenge, but because he knows leaving Batman with any chance of escape or method of survival means that he'll somehow slip away again.
• Private Military Contractors: Leads his own personal military force, who operated as mercenaries across the world before coming to Gotham. As he tells Scarecrow in the latter's audio-logs he was the one who trained them.
• Promoted to Playable: Sort of; due to his obvious similarities to Red Hood in terms of design and methods, the Arkham Knight's armor was patched in as an alternate skin for Jason, who was already playable through DLC.
• Properly Paranoid: Whenever the militia has some strange equipment failure or notices something unusual going on, they don't think too much of it. The Arkham Knight knows better and warns them that Batman is the cause and they should be more alert because he's coming — naturally, he's always correct in this warning.
• Psycho for Hire: Zig-Zagged. On one hand, he's been contracted by Gotham's super villains to give them sufficient manpower in destroying Batman, and carries out his job with ruthless efficiency. On the other hand, he's not motivated merely just for the sake of wanton destruction and cruelty. Furthermore, Batman believes he can be redeemed once he finds out who the Arkham Knight is and is proven right, when Jason returns to free him from the Scarecrow and rejoins the Batfamily.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Has what amounts to a temper tantrum when things don't go his way, and has shown signs of being pretty petty and immature throughout the game. Justified, in that his repeated mental trauma has more or less arrested him at the age Joker's abuse began, and he's received no therapy whatsoever to help him cope with his feelings of anger and betrayal.
• Redemption Rejection:
  • His boss-battle is full of this, with him ranting and raving during Batman's efforts to talk him down. It culminates in him fleeing rather than hearing anything else from Batman. He later shows up in his Red Hood outfit to free Bruce and allow him to defeat Scarecrow, accepting his redemption.
  • Played straight during one of his audio logs. He rebuffs a prisoner's attempts at trying to convince him to surrender, though right near the end his voice gets weaker, showing he does have some remorse in him. He does miss Alfred after all.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: An antagonist who wears black armor with red highlights. This is further enhanced when he drops the persona and becomes Red Hood in his boss fight, as he ditches the black covering to expose his helmet and his blue armor seems to switch coloring to match.
• Red Herring: His identity as the Arkham Knight ends up as this for Batman; he's sure that the Knight is someone connected to Arkham Asylum or Arkham City in some way, and he spends much of the game focused on that possibility and never picks up the hints it could be someone else. It's unknown if Jason picked the name for this on purpose, though.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: He's the Red Oni to Scarecrow's Blue Oni. He is unhinged and theatrical in his movements, unlike the rather cold and detached Scarecrow.
• Redemption Demotion: Goes from being in charge in a massive militia armed with tank drones capable of taking over a whole city in one night to a lone vigilante, making use of just his skills, small assembly of (demonstrated) gadgets and a pair of handguns. To be there though, they're all he needs.
• The Resenter: Subverted. While furious about Batman "replacing" him, Jason doesn't seem to hold it against the current Robin, Tim Drake, never even directly mentioning him.
• Revenge Before Reason: His desire to see Batman dead interferes with Scarecrow's more well-thought-out plan, especially as he has even gone to the trouble of establishing a large PMC to aid him in destroying the Dark Knight. This is especially apparent in the battle with the Cloudburst. He stays to fight as Batman slowly destroys his escort and damages the Cloudburst itself, despite Scarecrow insisting he withdraw and save it.
• Sanity Slippage: As Batman continues to prevail against his army, his sanity disintegrates further and further. By the time the two finally face off, he's reduced to a hateful, rage-filled wreck of a man constantly shouting angry taunts at Batman in between ranting about his past.
• Secret Identity: He's Jason Todd.
• Secret-Keeper: Played with. The Knight never told Scarecrow his own secret identity nor did he reveal Batman's identity to him. He did however tell Scarecrow Batman's strategies, his key allies, and the people Batman really cared about, all before personally kidnapping Oracle for Scarecrow. In the backstory, Joker's torture broke him to the point that he was going to reveal Bruce's identity but Joker shot him, seemingly, before he revealed it. In the game, he does finally call Batman "Bruce" within earshot of Commissioner Gordon, finally outing Batman's identity to him.
• Smoke Out: Like Batman, the Knight is fond of using smoke bombs to cover his escape, doing so to avoid a direct fight with Batman and to slip away from him repeatedly during their final encounter.
• Smug Snake: Loves to rub his more detailed understanding of Batman in the Caped Crusader's face at any chance he gets. While far from unable to back up his boasts, the Knight never really gets a solid grip on the fact that no matter how good he is, Batman is still better.
• The Spook: Nobody knew anything about him except that he has his own personal army. In turn, his motives for coming to Gotham and facing Batman were unknown when he first appeared. Over the course of the game, Bruce and Alfred try to figure out who he is by running through a list of criminals who were committed to Arkham City and the Asylum but come up short until the Knight personally reveals himself.
• Start My Own: The Knight started his own Private Military Corporation that worked in South America before approaching Scarecrow to serve as muscle for his Evil Plan.
• Stating the Simple Solution: From the very beginning, he advocates simply killing Batman outright, but Scarecrow repeatedly refuses to let him, wanting to crush him mentally and emotionally first. By the end, the Knight is sick of it and blows off Scarecrow's orders before going after Batman directly.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Scarecrow. Both of them want to kill Batman, but their methods on how to do it differ greatly. The Knight wants to take the pragmatic route and just kill him outright, Scarecrow wants to break him down psychologically before killing him.
• That Man Is Dead: When Batman calls him "Robin", the Knight furiously shouts that that isn't who he is.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: In the first stage of his final confrontation with Batman, he utilizes a tunnel boring machine in an attempt to grind the Batmobile to a pulp with Batman still inside it. He destroys the car, but Batman ejects seconds before impact.
• Tragic Villain: In light of The Reveal, it's hard not to sympathize with the Knight.
• The Unfettered: A man with Batman's skills and tech who has no problem using guns or killing.
• Underestimating Badassery: Despite repeatedly claiming to know all about Batman and every move he'll make, he still completely underestimates what Batman is capable of. Given that he's Jason, he has even less excuse to do this. Hallucination!Joker even comments on it
  "What kind of supervillain thinks a bullet to the stomach and a handful of tanks will stop the Batman?"
• Unstoppable Rage: He really has it out for the Bat. It at first manifests as a hair-thin Tranquil Fury that is only held up with string and cardboard, and as the game goes on, this is strained until he is full-on Ax-Crazy.
• Villain Ball
  • Forced on him by Scarecrow: the Knight wants to kill Batman and would have gunned him down in their first confrontation, but Scarecrow wants to break Batman to destroy Gotham's hope and forbids the Knight from killing him until then. The Knight repeatedly grumbles that he'd like to go harder on Batman than he is, but isn't allowed.
  • Played straight with the militia's army of drone tanks; despite claiming to know Batman's methods and that he doesn't kill people, the Knight never employs any manned artillery against him, only drones. If his tanks had human pilots, Batman's options against them would be much more limited since he likely wouldn't use the Batmobile's weapons against them. The Knight gives a Hand Wave that he does this so that Batman will "fight at his full potential", but this doesn't gel with the other times he tries to kill Batman, including ambushing him from above and shooting him in the ribs.
• Villain Respect: Despite his utter loathing of Batman, he does maintain some degree of respect for him, enough that he refuses to tell Scarecrow or his men Batman's Secret Identity. He also compliments him after ambushing him on the Miagani Island base.
  Arkham Knight: You're good, Dark Knight. Even better than I remember. It's gonna make it even more satisfying when I kill you.
• Villainous Breakdown: He's worked his fingers to the bone in trying to stack the deck against Batman. He takes it badly when Bruce manages to match his numerically superior and technologically equal PMC blow for blow. His boss battle takes it up to eleven with constantly outbursts bitter, angry taunts at Batman. By the end, even the men who followed him knew it was over in the war against the Dark Knight.
  Mook: I saw him, I swear, running out of the mall. But he wasn't the Knight anymore, you know, he was a wreck.
• Voice of the Legion: His helmet includes a voice modulator, ensuring Bruce never twigs to his identity.
• Walking Spoiler: Not the character himself, but a lot about the Arkham Knight can't really be discussed without revealing his identity.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Despite contributing to a plot to leave Gotham in ruins, at the end of the day, the Knight suffers from severe emotional trauma and isn't beyond redemption. Batman understands this and during their confrontation, keeps trying to talk him into surrendering peacefully.

The Militia

The Militia

"As they run scared, we emerge. Take over his habitat. Every rooftop, road, and back alley. We draw him out of the shadows and chip away until he has nowhere left to hide, and no one left to hide behind."

The Arkham Knight's own private army.

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• Big Book of War: As most militia members are unfamiliar with the Batman, the Knight apparently provides them with a constant series of briefings and packets regarding the Bat's tactics and gadgets, strategies for how to circumvent them, and information about Gotham and its heroes/villains. This fails in part because some soldiers mentioned they skipped the briefings entirely, confident that they aren't necessary, while those who attend them usually come out unsure if Batman is really as tough as the Knight makes him out to be, and rarely become frightened enough to properly prepare. Another reason is that, being that Jason Todd left Gotham years ago, all of the in-depth information he gives is several years out of date, and it's hard to keep track of an already peak Batman improving his gadgets and strategy as the night goes on, let alone update all his men.
• Canon Foreigner: Much like TYGER before them, this is a force of The Usual Adversaries that does not come from the comics.
• Cape Busters: Again, as with TYGER, they're made specifically to fight the Batman. These guys are better equipped and make better attempts at it than their predecessors, but alas it's not a very successful effort with them, either.
• Chameleon Camouflage: Certain soldiers are equipped with electricity suits that makes it so not only do their skeletons not display in Detective Mode, but they blend into the mode's blue hue.
• Combat Medic: They also fight, and can shoot you.
• Cop Killer: The first pair of them you see blow up a GCPD cruiser killing the men inside. They later launch an all-out assault on GCPD intent on killing every cop and civilian inside. A few express a desire to start sniping cops from the watchtowers, and even make it a competition to see who can kill the most.
• Crazy-Prepared: The Arkham Knight has debriefed them with all he knows of Batman's gadgets and tactics, which is a lot, and given them appropriatee counter-measures to fight back. Given that he was trained by Batman himself, who is famous for this trope, it's fair to say Jason took his mentor's paranoia to heart.
  • The militia have gear to scramble his Detective Mode scanner and detect when he's using it to pinpoint his location, they have medics to revive unconscious allies to get them back in the fight, they'll use incendiary grenades in floor grates to flush Batman out if they suspect he's hiding in them, and they've been trained to work in pairs and cover each other when possible to make it harder for Batman to pick them off one-at-a-time from stealth. This makes them altogether a much more effective and competent force than the Mooks of previous games.
  • When Batman tries to pursue the Arkham Knight in a vehicle by tracking the Arkham Knight's voice, he ends up apprehending a militia thug outfitted with a voice synthesizer to mimic the Knight's voice as a decoy.
  • The Knight frequently warns his men that Batman will upgrade his tech when he recognizes it's inadequate, and then responds by authorizing new tech for them, like the aforementioned Detective Mode scramblers, Medics, etc.
  • Late in the game, during the Arkham Knight HQ infiltration, one soldier voluntarily wears a bomb vest to try and exploit Batman's Thou Shalt Not Kill rule, as it's set to explode if he's knocked unconscious.
• Didn't See That Coming: The new Batmobile. They were not prepared for Batman upgrading his standard car into a vehicle as versatile and deadly as the one in the game and really struggle to adapt their tactics to counter it. Anticipating an improved Batmobile is something they certainly should have seen coming — but a billion-dollar Batmobile that can turn into a tank, however...
• Elite Mooks:
  • Their Combat Experts, who fight similarly to the League of Assassins. The final pair of Brutes you fight at GCPD have all the equipment Brutes have had so far: shields, blades, and electro-gauntlets which they can switch at will. And in several predator encounters, minigunners, who can't be taken down silently. The brutes also don't take any damage from normal punches and counters, with Batman having to resort to a cape stun beatdown or two special takedowns to take them out of the fight.
  • The King Cobra drones also qualify for this trope, as unlike the other drones under the militia's command, Batman has to get behind them with the Batmobile to deliver an aimed shot at their exhaust port to destroy them or use a Level 2 Missile Barrage to take them down.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Homosexuality seems completely acceptable in their ranks.
• #EngineeredHashtag: In-Universe, some militia members talk about #CityOfFear trending on social media and encourage their colleagues to upload even more pictures.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Even the Militia express disgust at Stagg's greed causing him to go behind Crane's back and sell his fear toxin. Additionally, some are horrified to hear that the Scarecrow intentionally invoked a Nightmare Face with the plastic surgery he did to make himself look scarier.
• Informed Ability: Several Militia soldiers claim they're black-belts in Krav Maga. Despite this, all generic Militia soldiers fight identically to thugs.
• Mecha-Mooks: The Militia employs hundreds of wheeled and flying drones in Gotham, which - apart from the Cobras - are not individually strong but can overwhelm the Batmobile by sheer numbers.
• Mirroring Factions: To TYGER from Arkham City. Both of them are private military forces who carry out the orders of a specific person and underwent extensive training to eliminate Batman. The main difference is that the Militia all came to serve the Arkham Knight of their own free will, and have an established sense of camaraderie with one another, whereas TYGER were all brainwashed by Hugo Strange to be mindless soldiers and nothing more.
• Mook Medic: Militia medics in white camo can revive up to 3 knocked out foes.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Some soldiers quote this trope word for word upon the detonation of the Cloudburst.
• N.G.O. Superpower: They have access to such things as unmanned tanks, roadblocks, mines, flying drones, anti-aircraft weaponry, and are big and powerful enough to effortlessly take over all of Gotham City by themselves. Early in the game, some mooks lampshade it, declaring that the Arkham Knight would have to be richer than even Bruce Wayne to be able to amass such a large army. The funding actually came from Gotham's big criminals pooling their money to make Gotham totally empty and defenseless, plus the promise that it would result in Batman being dead by morning.
• Private Military Contractors: They were established as an PMC by the Arkham Knight, having undertaken missions in South America before brought over to Gotham.
• Sociopathic Soldier: At least some of them were soldiers in the U.S. military that were dishonorably discharged, and their actions in game don't make them look too good.
• Straight Gay: As mentioned above, if none of the mercenaries mentioned their husbands, they wouldn't appeared to be gay.
• Theme Naming: Their standard combat units^*Rattler, Diamondback, Mamba, Cobra, Boa, Serpent, Dragon and missile sentries^*Python are all named after various types of snakes.
• Western Terrorists: Many of them are former U.S. military, and they are committing an act of terrorism throughout the game.
• Underestimating Badassery: Many of them are convinced Batman isn't as good as the stories say, and that they can easily defeat him. They're wrong.
  • Special mention goes to the mook that distracts Batman by pretending to be the Arkham Knight in a car chase. After he's caught and Batman catches onto the decoy he starts with the usual 'you'll never stop us' sort of speech when Batman tries interrogating him. Then Batman starts remotely controlling the Batmobile and presses the back tire against the mook's head, making him squeal and beg him not to crush his skull. After that he quickly folds and gives Batman the info he needs to know.

The Joker-Infected

In General

Henry Adams, Albert King, Christina Bell, Johnny Charisma

After the Joker dies, Batman realizes that Joker's blood given to hospitals had been given to several patients through hospital error, despite Batman and the GCPD's best efforts to dispose of it. Prior to Scarecrow's takeover of Gotham, Commissioner Gordon came to visit the abandoned movie theater to find four people captured by Batman - the Joker Infected. Three of the gathered infected were showing signs of their affliction, but the last - Henry Adams - was apparently immune to the effects of Joker's blood, thus being the key to finding a cure. When Gordon realizes that there's an empty cell, Batman assures him that the last of the infected will be coming soon.

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• All for Nothing: Despite the efforts of the Dynamic Duo, much like the real Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, the Joker Infection is incurable. Not that it matters as the victims all end up getting shot in the head. In the end, while it's depicted as a Battle in the Center of the Mind, Batman is cured after taking massive doses of Scarecrow's Fear Toxin.
• Ax-Crazy: Everyone except for Henry. At first, anyway.
• Body Horror: All of them, except for Henry, are turning into Joker in a revoltingly organic fashion. Christina and Johnny have lesions on their face similar to the Joker's Titan poisoning, and along with Albert King, they have paling skin with scabs across their body. Also, their mental degeneration is based on Creutzfeldt–Jakob - just to give you an idea of what's happening inside their heads...
• Canon Foreigner: The group of them, owing to the fact that the Joker is still alive in the comics and has not attempted to spread himself like a disease. The closest there is comes from Joker Junior.
• Clone by Conversion: All of them are being mutated into clones of the Joker by the Joker's blood, except for Henry, who displays no symptoms of the condition.
• Clownification: After some of the Joker's Titan contaminated blood made its way into local blood banks, Henry Adams, Albert King, Christina Bell, and Johnny Charisma got some of the blood transfused into them when they got some routine medical procedures done, and were infected with a prion disease that, with the exception of Henry, made their skin turn a white bleached color, and gave them bright green eyes and hair, as well as a penchant for dark humor and murder. After capturing them, Batman held them so he could try and cure them, especially since Henry seemed resistant to the infection, except that Henry's symptoms took longer to manifest and he also became a Joker clone.
• Color-Coded Eyes: Everyone suffering from the effects of the disease has begun to gain green irises. Henry's begin to glow after a certain point, and it's how he learns Batman is infected as well.
• Decomposite Character: Each of them takes on an exacerbated version of one of Joker's traits, in addition to his sadism: Johnny gains his showmanship, Christina his obsession with Batman, Albert his brutality and Henry his cunning. Batman himself seems to have picked up his ruthlessness.
• Demonic Possession: All of them were normal people until the Joker blood created dementia and breakdown of personality, slowly overwriting their minds.
• Early-Bird Cameo: If you're attentive you'll notice mention of them throughout Gotham, including "Have you seen me?" posters for Henry and Christina in the diner at the opening cutscene, an update screen informing people of Johnny's next show, and an ad for a prizefight featuring Albert King (cancelled).
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: All of them (barring Albert, who's too much of a berserker for witty repartee) can crack some surprisingly nasty jokes, particularly Christina.
• Facial Horror: Both Christina and Johnny have slight lesions on their face, similar to the Joker's Titan poisoning.
• Faux Affably Evil:
  • Johnny Charisma is somewhat friendly in his interactions, although it's clearly just a front for his maniacal behavior, which is particularly evident when Gordon meets him.
  • According to one of her former co-workers in the prologue, Christina Bell didn't immediately go insane after receiving the Joker's blood, but actually became friendlier for a time. Instead of being an aloof boss like normal, she began kindly asking about everyone's weekends and trying to get to know them... in order to see if they had an encounter with Batman so she could kill him.
  • Henry Adams would count as well, as he becomes very hostile once he drops the act.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Albert/Johnny^note Depending who you take down last is killed with a single gunshot, but the focus on the camera at the time is on his killer and the gun used. Henry's suicide has the same treatment.
• Killed Offscreen: Christina and Johnny/Albert by Henry, depending who of the latter two you decide to go after first. The other is technically an example, but fits more into Gory Discretion Shot.
• Laughably Evil: Except for Albert King, all of them have some humorous traits.
• Legacy Character: They are essentially this to the Joker, and everyone has a different reaction to the discover: Batman sees them as the biggest possible threat if they escaped, his Joker hallucination sees them as inferior copies, Harley sees them as the closest thing to having the original Joker back, and the remaining characters are simply just scared of them due to their similarities to the Joker.
• Literal Split Personality: All of those visibly infected have begun to take on different, exacerbated traits of the Joker; Christina gets his obsession with Batman, Johnny his theatrical flourishes, and Albert his brutality. Henry, it's later revealed, got his brilliant scheming. Batman himself seems to have gained his ruthlessness.
• Practically Joker: An in-universe example, each representing different aspects of the Joker's personality.
• Replacement Goldfish: Once Harley learns of their existence, she tries to kidnap them to replace her lost love, Mr. J.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Batman has been searching for a cure for them and had hoped Henry's immunity would be the key in finding one that he kept him imprisoned for months. However, ultimately, Henry was just as infected as the other three, meaning all the effort to find a cure was for naught. The Joker hallucination even lampshades this.
• Sixth Ranger Traitor: The truth is that the last cell is for Batman himself, infected from the Joker's attempts to find a cure to his Titan poisoning almost a year ago. Despite being cured of the Titan side-effects, he still has Joker's blood and his disease. Despite that, he's trying to cure all of them.
• Slasher Smile: Being Joker, of course they'd have his murderous grin. Henry reveals himself as infected by wiping his mouth with blood and giving a hideous grin even.
• Technician Versus Performer: Johnny and Albert get into a spat after Christina is subdued. Johnny invites Batman to an innovative death trap, while Albert threatens to pound in Batman's face the old-fashioned way.
• There Can Be Only One: Henry murders the others, believing them to be inferior and not worthy of the Joker mantle. When he realizes Batman is infected, he kills himself convinced Batman is/will be the superior version of the Joker.
• Token Good Teammate: Henry Adams is the only Joker Infected who isn't murderous. It turns out he's no different and Batman is the true token good teammate.
• Tragic Villain: All of the infected are incredibly dangerous only because they happened to get the wrong blood transfusion. Not only that, but the condition is eating away at their brains: in an interview tape, Batman compares their disease to Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. When discussing about them with Gordon, he describes the disease as a mutated strain of CJD.^note In real life, CJD typically kills within 8-12 months, and yet Batman shows up alive and well in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League which takes place 5 years after Knight.
• Villainous Crush: Christina and Johnny are very interested in Batman.

Henry Adams (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Henry Adams

"Sick? I've never felt better in my whole life."

Voiced by: Garrick Hagon ^{Other voice actors}Gérard Darier (Fr), Gianni Gaude (It)

Highly respected principal of the esteemed McCallum Academy, Henry Adams was exposed to Joker's blood during a routine treatment at Gotham General. Displaying none of the symptoms experienced by the other victims, Henry's infection acts like an immunity that could be the key to developing a cure. Though initially cooperative, Henry's patience is wearing thin, and he's desperate to return home to his family.

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• Arc Villain: Of the infected blood subplot, taking the reins from Harley partway through.
• Beneath the Mask: Henry slyly drops a few hints to his true nature as the game progresses — such as innocently commenting that Batman's security system is easier to get through than he expected, for example — but the most notable moment the mask almost slips is in an audio tape as he spots the other infected patients; acting terrified, he angrily shouts that Batman should kill the rest of them, as "it's the only way to be sure". Batman, disturbed, immediately cuts off the interview.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He acts like the only sane man, but he's really the worst out of all of them.
• The Cracker: Trusted enough by Batman and Robin to be occasionally let out of containment to be tested for a cure, if not leave the room, he hacked the Batcomputer right under their nose.
• Diabolical Mastermind: With some hacking skills, Henry allowed Harley to infiltrate the movie studio and secretly release the other Infected. He even managed to fool Batman, only revealing himself and manifesting his symptoms when the time was right.
• Driven to Suicide: When he sees he has the same green eyes as the other infected, he realizes that Batman makes a better replacement for the Joker and kills himself.
• Evil All Along: Henry tricked Batman, contacted Harley, freed the other infected and helped Batman gather them back up.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: The "jokes" that he tells Harley are a sort of strange mix of the two versions. Not only are they sadistic and horrifying, they aren't even funny lacking even basic wordplay, and a far cry from the Laughably Evil the Joker manages.
• Evil Old Folks: Initially pretends to be a kind old man, but it eventually becomes clear just how deranged he truly is.
• Face–Heel Turn: Originally seeming like an immune individual to the Joker Infection, he only shows his true colors right when he's about to off himself just to screw with everyone involved; even the other infected.
• Hope Spot: Because he is apparently sane, Henry symbolizes Batman's hope to eventually cure all of the Joker-Infected. This hope is cruelly dashed when he reveals himself to be just as insane as the others and kills them in a narcissistic desire to be the one and only Joker. Henry also becomes Harley's hope of getting the Joker back, only for her hope to be shattered as well when he shoots himself after realizing that Batman is infected too and could become a more powerful Joker.
• Mad Love: The tapes show that Henry has this with Harley. However, just like the Joker, he's not above threatening to kill her as a means of negotiation.
• Meaningful Name: When abbreviated, Henry Adams' initials spell out HA, which reflects his status as an infectee of the Joker.
• Nice Guy: He fears his wife must be worried sick, and just wants to go back to his family and school again. Until you realize his true colors...
• Rule of Symbolism: On a deeper, personal level, Henry Adams represents Batman's hope that the Joker could someday be cured of his insanity and how futile this hope really is.
• Sadist Teacher: After ditching the sheep's clothing, Principal Henry, a professor in biology, gives Batman a rough lesson in natural selection by killing the other infected.
• Self-Disposing Villain: Upon noticing Batman's infection, Henry blows his own brains out, convinced that Batman will be a better Joker than all of the Infected.
• The Social Darwinist: Henry believed that only the best of the Joker Infected should live. Initially he believes himself to be the best, seeing as he was the most intelligent of them and the others' quirks didn't make them truly worthy of being Joker. When he discovered that Batman was also infected, Henry concluded that he himself would be an inferior Joker, and offed himself on the spot, making him an incredibly rare example of a Social Darwinist that applies his values to himself exactly the same way he applies it to others.
• Something Only They Would Say: During their first meeting, Henry proves himself as the Joker to Harley Quinn by telling her the same sick, Black Comedy jokes the original Clown Prince of Crime was fond of.
• Token Good Teammate: Is the only Joker Infected to not be homicidal and is cooperative with Batman and Robin. It's horrifically subverted when it turns out he was hiding his symptoms and reveals his true colors.
• Villain Respect: The Joker, or at least Batman's (very accurate) hallucination of Joker, considers the other Joker-Infected to be washed-out inferiors compared to him. Not Henry, though; in fact, once he had revealed himself as the mastermind that hacked the defence systems, killed off the other Infected, and even taking Harley hostage to influence Batman, Joker briefly considers rooting for him instead of Batman as to which one would succeed him. Even then, Henry himself realizes that Batman is also infected, and would make the better successor.
• Walking Spoiler: It's pretty hard to talk about Henry without ruining the surprise...

Christina Bell

Christina Bell

"When he's done with you chumps, me and Bats'll have this place all to ourselves! So get out there and make him show you how much he wants me!"

Voiced by: Jules de Jongh ^{Other voice actors}Sybille Tureau (Fr), Francesca Perilli (It)

After a successful career of finance, Christina Bell joined the board of directors at Queen Industries in Star City. During a blood transfusion following a miscarriage, Christina was exposed to Joker's Titan-infected blood. When she returned to work, Christina took a knife to a board meeting, brutally murdered eleven senior executives, and carved smiles on her victims' faces. She adopted several facets of Joker's personality, notably his obsession with Batman.

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• Bad Boss: She quite clearly inherited this aspect of the Joker's personality. She constantly taunts Harley's men about how screwed they are and tells Batman to beat them bloody. A few of the Mooks comments she's actually worse than the Joker since he at least wanted them to win.
• Benevolent Boss: A bit of chatter from a woman who worked for her before she became infected indicates that she was a decent boss to have.
• Decoy Damsel: Pretends to be one... albeit badly. She's clearly planning to kill Batman and Robin after she's saved.
• Femme Fatalons: Christina has very sharp fingernails, and tries to claw Robin's face off with them.
• I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Christina accidentally shoots one of Harley's goons while she's threatening a line-up of them not to disobey her, not that she's bothered by it. And since she's part-Joker, the rest of the goons just have to take it and obey her anyway. Given that she's basically the Joker it may not have been an accident.
• Large Ham: While not to the same extent as Johnny's theatricality, Jules de Jongh was clearly having a blast recording Christina's lines.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: The mere mention of Robin disgusts her, because she thinks Batman's focus on sidekicks and family distracts him from his most important and loving relationship, his feud with the Joker, and by proxy, herself. It's why when Batman and Robin move to capture her, she goes right for the latter first.
• Psycho Knife Nut: You'd think killing ten people at a Board of Director's meeting would require some sort of firearm, but according to the police report, she somehow managed to kill them with just a sharp object. And if that's not nutty enough, she proceeded to walk out the building with blood on her hands, while giving advise to some co-workers as if she didn't just murder a room full of people!
• Shout-Out: Her name seems to be a reference to Christian Bale, who played Batman himself in The Dark Knight Trilogy.
• The Smurfette Principle: The only one of the Joker-infected to be female.
• Tragic Villain: All of the Joker infected are tragic, but this is especially apparent in Christina's case. While Albert and Henry received Joker's blood via routine medical procedure, and the exact circumstances of Johnny's transfusion are unknown, Christina received her transfusion after a miscarriage. Makes it hard not to feel sorry for the poor girl.
• Unwanted Rescue: She outright tells Harley's goons that she didn't want to be rescued... since it means being taken away from Batman.
• Yandere: Christina practically turns the subtext between the Joker and Batman into text. Lady's eager to be saved by Batman and eager to cut his throat in equal measure.

Johnny Charisma

Jonathan Browne A.K.A. Johnny Charisma

"Johnny C's comeback tour just got bigger, bolder, bloodier!"

Voiced by: Michael Rosenbaum ^{Other voice actors}Jérémy Prévost (Fr), Alessandro Capra (It)

Jonathan Browne, aka Johnny Charisma, made a name for himself on the cabaret circuit before he hit the big time when he was discovered by a national talent show. Charisma was no stranger to controversy with a string of drug offenses and a DUI, but his assault on a groupie was uncharacteristically violent. When he was infected, Charisma displayed signs of megalomania, with his behavior echoing the sadistic showmanship of the Joker.

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• Dreadful Musician: Robin claims that Alfred sings better than Johnny does, in a tone that in no way suggests Alfred is a good singer at all. The player never actually gets to hear how awful he is, since for Batman and therefore the player, Johnny is replaced by a hallucination of Joker singing instead.
• Fan Community Nicknames: In-universe, his fans are referred to as "Charismaniacs", which he brings up in a dialogue prompt. Considering Johnny's ego, it's very likely he created the nickname himself just to garner more publicity.
• Graceful Loser: Surprisingly, yes. Once his bombs are all disarmed, he simply holds his mic up to Batman's face, asking "No encore?" with an awkward smile just before he gets knocked out.
• Informed Flaw: People find his singing voice horrible, but he is advertised on billboards around the city, which would be unlikely if he really was that bad. Remember however, that Joker's Titan poisoning made his voice raspy, so it's possible he suffers from the same problem.
• Large Ham: And how. He's mentioned by Batman to have had an over-the-top personality before (he once even called himself "the messiah of entertainment"), but the infection has pushed his ego and showmanship to new heights.
• Lounge Lizard: He's a professional cabaret singer, and he's got the looks, the fashion sense, the smarmy attitude and (apparently) the pipes to fit.
• Narcissist: Even before his infection, Johnny had a pretty bloated opinion of his talents, deeming himself "the messiah of rock", and after, he shows signs of Joker's megalomania and self-promoting sense of showmanship.
• Villain Song: Implied, as Joker overshadows him.

Albert King

Albert King A.K.A. The Goliath

"You and me, Bats! Toe to toe. Man to man. Freak to freak."

Voiced by: Isaac C. Singleton Jr. ^{Other voice actors}Thierry Murzeau (Fr), Renzo Ferrini (It)

"This is it! The fight of the century! You ready to get schooled, Bats? Where do you wanna start? How about getting your asses kicked 101?"

Albert King, aka the Goliath, was a legendary prizefighter with consecutive knockouts since records began. Days before his testimonial fight, King checked into Gotham General for a routine procedure, only to become infected with Joker's mutated blood. After he hospitalized his entire family in a fit of rage, King took on the more violent and sadistic aspects of Joker's personality.

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• Ax-Crazy: While all the Infected (even Henry) qualify for this, Albert stands out, having ripped people's arms out of their sockets during his breakdown, and showing few aspects of Joker's personality other than his bloodlust.
• Bad Boss: He picks up downed mooks and literally throws them back into the fight.
• The Berserker: All of Joker's sadism and brutality in the body of a hulking boxer. Albert does little other than fight and boast about fighting.
• Blood Knight: Half his lines are about how much he loves to fight, even calling his showdown with Batman "the fight of the century".
• Evil Sounds Deep: Not surprisingly, considering that he has the same voice actor as Incognito, Thanos, and (a reformed) Sagat.
• Jerkass: Unlike the other Infected, Albert doesn't even pretend to like Batman, being as loud-mouthed and cruel as the real Joker, but with none of his humor or affected charm.
• Lightning Bruiser / Made of Iron: Albert's a prize-winning heavyweight boxer, so it's little surprise that his boss battle combines immense strength, endurance, and deceptively quick reflexes for a man his size — his regular punches are so hard that they can't be blocked, only dodged; zapping him with the REC, a gadget that stuns a typical Brute, doesn't even faze him; he can destroy your health bar with only a few hits; and the only way to hurt him, let alone knock him out, is through multiple Dual Team Takedowns. Even with Batman and Robin giving him a beatdown from both sides, he still furiously lunges out at them with wild, flailing hooks, something no other Brute or boss in the game, besides Croc, can do.
• Scary Black Man: Like the Medics, he can bring unconscious goons back into the fight, but he rouses them by hauling them to their feet and yelling in their faces not to quit on him.
• Skeleton Motif: The patch of pale white spreading across Albert's face looks uncannily like a skull, and it's the icon used with the health bar in his boss fight.
• Super-Strength: Explicitly noted to be inhumanly strong, and his breakdown involved ripping people's arms out of their sockets. Why he's so powerful isn't explained in the slightest, but due to his status as a former heavyweight champ, it's probably either a Charles Atlas Superpower, something to do with steroid use, or leftover Titan from Joker's blood.

Other Rogues

Deacon Blackfire

Deacon (Joseph) Blackfire

"I've faced death more times than you can possibly imagine! I'll still be here when you're dead and gone, Batman. Gotham will be mine."

Voiced by: Marc Worden ^{Other voice actors}Jean-Pascal Quilichini (Fr), Vittorio Bestoso (It)

Joseph Blackfire is the insane leader of an underground religious cult within Gotham, whose fanatical devotees help him carry out ritualized, Old Testament-like human sacrifices. Jack Ryder, eager for broadcasting glory, gets too close during his investigative news report on the sect's doings, and Batman must save him from becoming the latest offering on their slab.

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Provides examples of:

• Adaptation Deviation: The comics Blackfire was clean-shaven, had white hair, and didn't sport tattoos. This version sports a beard, gray hair, and tattoos.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: The comics Blackfire has white hair; this Blackfire's hair is grey.
• Adaptational Hairstyle Change: The comics Blackfire has a full head of clean-looking hair and was clean-shaven. The Blackfire of Knight is balding, has a beard, and said beard and what hair he does have on his head is a mess.
• Adaptational Ugliness: While he wasn't exactly a looker in Batman: Cult, Blackfire there was muscular, clean-looking, reasonably well-dressed, clean-shaven, and had a square jaw and a full head of white hair. Here, the deacon is an emaciated, filthy, balding, gray-haired old vagabond with ragged clothes and a ratty beard.
• Adaptational Wimp: In his famous story, he was an intensely charismatic and intelligent leader who managed to amass an army capable of capturing and brainwashing Batman, and completely taking over Gotham. After breaking free from the brainwashing, Batman was left so broken by the experience he seriously considered hanging up the cowl and leaving the city to Blackfire. In this one, he's taken out in a few minutes and comes across more as a raving lunatic than a conniving schemer.
• Beard of Evil: Unlike the comics, where he's clean shaven, this version has a Rasputin the Mad Monk style beard.
• Blood Bath: Repeated ritual sacrifice keeps him young.
• Dark Messiah: Claims his is the only path to salvation from Gotham's coming tribulation.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Mentioned obliquely in Origins as running a homeless mission, but not given a genuine appearance until Knight.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Despite being a Serial Killer cult leader, and much like the other vilains, even he finds Professor Pyg disturbing, asking Pyg from which hellish pit he comes from.
• Faux Affably Evil: Blackfire comports himself as a kindly man of God, with a lot of charisma and a folksy Southern accent, but the reality is that he's a self-righteous cult leader and Serial Killer.
• Long-Lived: Blackfire claims to be, variously, over hundreds or thousands of years old, and there actually exists hard evidence to confirm it — one charge on his police file is dated to the 1920s, though assumed to be a mistake. Miagani tribal legends even speak of a similarly named man who murdered their chief, was shot with arrows, and trapped in a cave to die, but was found by Dutch colonists before he perished.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: There are records of preachers and other holy men calling themselves Blackfire that go back to before Gotham was fully settled. Probably just a coincidence... right?
• Messy Hair: In addition to his Beard of Evil, he has long, dirty hair braided in dreadlocks and tied in a ponytail.
• Rule of Symbolism: In the GCPD holding cell, he leans against the wall with his arms spread in a crucifixion pose.
• Serial Killer: Murdered a lot of people to possibly retain his youth.
• Sinister Minister: Styles himself as merely a thundering, fire-and-brimstone Christian preacher, but the truth is far darker.
• Tattooed Crook: Has some rather ornate markings on his chest.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Borderline example. He leaves his shirt unbuttoned to display his tattooed abdomen.

Man-Bat

Man-Bat (Kirk Langstrom)

Voiced by: Loren Lester ^{Other voice actors}Thierry Kazazian (Fr), Federico Danti (It)

Kirk Langstrom was a dedicated scientist who, along with his wife Francine, attempted to cure hearing loss altogether by splicing together the human genome with that of a vampire bat. The experiment had horrific side-effects, turning Kirk into a grotesque, nearly mindless bat/human hybrid who now stalks the skies over Gotham. After a run-in with the creature during the events of Arkham Knight, Batman investigates the case, hoping for a potential cure.

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Provides examples of:

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In this version of the story, Kirk accidentally killed Francine when he transformed. After returning to normal and finding this out he's reduced to weeping on the floor without solace. However, if you return to his lab, someone has written the words "Forever my love" on the destroyed TV screen, and left a bloody handprint as well. Kirk's wife is known as She-Bat in the comics, and has similar abilities.
• Adaptational Dumbass: Most incarnations of Kirk Langstrom manage to refine their Man-Bat serum to the point where they retain some of their human intelligence in their transformed states. This incarnation of Man-Bat is little more than a feral creature acting on primal instincts, with Langstrom himself completely unaware of what he's done until he's turned to normal.
• Adaptational Late Appearance: He's been part of Bruce's Rogues Gallery since the 70s, and was an outright Starter Villain in the DCAU. Here, he makes his first appearance years into Batman's career — on the very last night of it, in fact.
• Adaptational Ugliness: The comics Man-Bat is a heavily stylized humanoid bat in most adaptations. Here, he's a painfully skinny humanoid monstrosity with only a few bat-like attributes. His exposed teeth and seemingly blind white eyes don't help.
• Bat People: He was a scientist who attempted to splice human and vampire bat DNA together to create a cure for deafness, but instead accidentally turned himself into a monstrous bat/human hybrid with membranous arm-wings and large batlike ears on a distorted human face. His transformation rendered him largely mindless, and he now stalks the skies of Gotham as a feared predator.
• Body Horror: Unlike most incarnations, in which he's essentially a heavily stylized anthropomorphic bat, the Knight version of Man-Bat looks like something out of a David Cronenberg film, with an emaciated look that resembles a human with bat-like features.
• Easter Egg: If you've completed his side-mission, and set your system clock to October 31, 2015, Man-Bat will again give you a Jump Scare, mirroring his introduction. When you return to GCPD, you'll discover he's escaped from his Isolation Chamber, the glass shattered, and has transformed once more.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: That seagull-looking bird you occasionally see flying around in the distance? Zoom in, and you can tell that it's actually Man-Bat from it's legs and membranous wings. This can occur as early as when Batman leaves the Clock Tower the first time.
• Full-Frontal Assault: Unlike other versions, this Man-Bat doesn't have Monster Modesty, which is clear when Batman pulls a naked, back-to-normal Langstrom out of the Batmobile. As Man-Bat, he also doesn't have anything below his waist, either.
• Happily Married: Was implied to have been this with Francine given how cheerful and happy they were in their recording. Unfortunately, it ended tragically when Kirk became the Man-Bat and accidentally killed her. You can return to his lab to find Francine's body gone, with a glass window stained with blood reading "Forever my love" with a bloody handprint.
• Jump Scare: His introduction occurs as Batman grapples onto a random roof or a skinny construction bar somehow, whereupon Man-Bat peeks over the edge and screams in Batman's face before flying off.
• May–December Romance: While it isn't clear how old Kirk and Francine are, with his male pattern baldness and graying hair, he looks at least a decade (or three) older than her.
• Mistaken Identity: A number of thugs and Militia soldiers can be heard conversing on spotting him as Man-Bat, often believing him to be Batman.
  Mook: Thought I saw Batman earlier. Guy's looking a lot hairier these days.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Upon learning he killed his wife as Man-Bat, Langstrom begins to weep helplessly, inconsolable.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Langstrom's work was meant to cure deafness permanently. It had the ghastly side-effect of turning him into a monstrous hybrid of man and bat.
• Nonhumans Lack Attributes: As noted before, this Man-Bat runs around naked and lacks genitalia.
• Non-Malicious Monster: Outside of his initial breakdown when he transformed, he isn't actively malicious. He's little more than a wild animal, flying around and attempting to stay free.
• Offscreen Teleportation: It's possible for him to suddenly appear on skinny construction bars. In real life, he would be easily spotted.
• Professor Guinea Pig: A staple for this character. He experiments on himself to find the cure for his deafness.
• Shrinking Violet: Langstrom was this in the recorded videos, being awkward in front of the camera and struggling to find the right words to announce his work, needing to be prompted and encouraged by his wife to remember not to use jargon.
• Transformation Trauma: Both of his changes into the monstrous Man-Bat and back to normal are extremely painful; in the first, recorded in the video of the experiment, Kirk destroys the laboratory off-screen in a fit of pain and unthinking anger. Only later does he realize he killed Francine in his escape. When he's transformed back, it can be seen that he retains the scars from his transformation.
• Too Dumb to Live: Batman himself lampshades that Kirk's decision to splice vampire bat DNA into his own was never going to end well.

Professor Pyg

Professor Pyg (Lazlo Valentin)

"Pyg coming for you, Bat! Coming to make you perfeeeeeect!"

Voiced by: Dwight Schultz ^{Other voice actors}Serge Thiriet (Fr), Pietro Ubaldi (It)

Lazlo Valentin was a gifted scientist who suffered a schizophrenic break, which caused him to develop a deranged new persona named Professor Pyg. Pyg formed the Circus of Strange, began to tour the country, and left a string of mysterious missing persons cases in the wake. An obsessive perfectionist, Pyg used identity-destroying drugs and invasive surgery on his victims to create a genderless lobotomized human known as Dollotrons.

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• Adaptational Job Change: Here, he's the leader of the Circus of Strange, rather than just a member of it.
• Affably Evil: As psychotic as he is, he thinks he's doing the right thing, and acts accordingly. He's also pretty cordial to Batman when they first meet and even asks for friendship when he's locked up.
• And I Must Scream: The Dollotrons are revealed to be terrified when using detective vision, meaning he subjects those who survive his surgeries to this.
• Animal Motifs: Pigs. In addition to his mask and nom de guerre, Pyg makes disgusting snorting noises while he speaks, his physique and mangled face makes him resemble a pig even without the mask, and he uses butcher's knives as weapons.
• Anti-Villain: As horrifying as he is, Lazlo is under the delusion he is doing the right thing, and at the end of the day is genuinely mentally ill and needs help.
• Ax-Crazy: Let's put it this way: In this world where villains were thrown into Arkham Asylum and left to rot, Pyg is one man who actually belongs there. The guy kidnaps people and surgically alters them to "make them perfect". He kills anyone that doesn't meet his standards, and when defeated, rants about how his "mother" won't be pleased that Batman stopped him. He doesn't seem to even have the basic understanding that he's done something wrong. Alfred and even Joker admit he's likely worse than the rest of Gotham in that regard, and even Two Face seems disgusted by them being locked up in the same cell, outright calling him a freak.
  Batman: You've got problems, Valentin.
• Blasphemous Boast: "Pyg is like clay. Pyg is like God! Pyg is here to fix us all."
• Body Horror: The process to create his "Dollotrons" reeks of this to say the least. He's also a victim, considering that he also experimented on his own face, with the end result of part of it being mangled. Additionally, his Self-Surgery appears to have affected his respiratory system, given his constant snorting and a comment he drops to Batman in prison.
  Pyg: Pyg wants a hug. Pyg wants to feel the nails in his chest!
• Calling Card: He blares opera music near his victims, which is how Batman and the cops find them.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Zigzagged. Batman only ever calls Pyg by his real name, but Pyg exclusively refers to himself as "Pyg".
• Dreadful Musician: Pyg's attempts to sing along to his favorite opera music reach a truly cringeworthy level of off-key.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite his... numerous flaws, Pyg has managed to father a child, Janosz^note Who later takes up the mantle "Son of Pyg" in the comics, whom he dotes on sickeningly, despite seemingly abandoning him in the wake of forming the Circus of the Strange.
• Fat Bastard: Pyg has a heavyset physique, although he's quite strong despite his heft.
• Fate Worse than Death: What he subjects his victims to, becoming mindless dolls for the rest of their lives. Batman even says the trope word-for-word when calling out Lazlo for his actions. Disturbingly enough, Lazlo thinks he’s done them a favor.
• Gollum Made Me Do It: Implies that he hears voices from "Mother" (or "Mother Goat") that urge him to carry out all his sick experiments.
• Hated by All: Not only is he reviled by Batman and the GCPD for obvious reasons, but even the other villains in the game besides Joker and Deathstroke dislike him, making it abundantly clear that even they think he's too crazy.
  Penguin: Get your snout out of my face, pigman!
  Riddler: Please cease with these mindless inanities. It is beneath my brilliance to be cooped up with someone so insane.
  Deacon Blackfire: From what hellish pit did you emerge?
• Horrifying the Horror: The Joker thinks he's more depraved than "[Joker] 'n' Harley's honeymoon tapes".
• Large Ham: Puns aside, he stands out for being over-the-top with his mad operations and interactions with Batman. He even sings along to opera music and snorts like a pig while expressing his passion for his criminal activities.
• Laughably Evil: When all is said and done, this guy is outright hilarious to watch, in no small part due to his hammy demeanor.
• Lost Lenore: One of his audio tapes has him muse over a lost love. Although it's difficult to interpret his ramblings, it sounds disturbingly like she was one of his first victims, a woman that he saw as perfect until his muse and tormentor Mother Goat "found her" and changed her into a hideous thing he had to fix — which involved turning her into a Dollotron while she was pregnant with their child.
• Mad Artist: Like his comic counterpart, outright calling his creations art at one point. His direct methodology, however, is purely that of the Mad Doctor.
• Madonna-Whore Complex: Of the aesthetic kind — as Pyg's obsessive mania grew, anyone who couldn't fit the impossible standard of perfection became a wretched mistake in need of correction, even the past lover he had once considered flawless. Despite his supposed surgical prowess, he will also kill and dispose of any victim that he discovers has physical abnormalities, injuries, distinguishing marks or pre-existing medical conditions, considering them hopeless cases that he can't fix.
  "She was a beauty, Janosz — a masterpiece, perfect in every way. Until Mother Goat found her. Imagine my horror when I emerged from that dreamy soup and discovered what she'd done. Placenta face, gorgon smile, ribbons of ruptured flesh. [...] Day and night I worked, month after month, sculpting her loathsome clay to recapture the beauty that saved me that night. The night of your creation. She clung to me as you grew, as I toiled to make her right again, but NOTHING PLEASED MOTHER GOAT! Nothing. I did all I could to fix her, to make her perfect... but by the time you came along, I couldn't even look upon that spoiled canvas of her face."
• The Mentally Disturbed: Given his many destructive behaviors, he's a rare case of someone actually belonging in Arkham Asylum.
• Mood-Swinger: Oh Good God, this guy can swing from calm, to relaxed, to arrogant, to sad, all in one sentence.
• Obliviously Evil: He doesn't seem to actually realize what he's doing is wrong, only that he will be upsetting "mother" if he stops. He also goes on about making people "perfect" in a rather cheerful manner.
• The Perfectionist: Pyg creates the Dollotrons because he can't stand the imperfections he perceives in people, believing that his horrific surgeries make them "perfect". The victims scattered around Gotham were killed because Pyg considered them too defective to become Dollotrons, essentially due to them not being a perfectly blank slate for him to work with.
• Psychopathic Manchild: If his ranting about "mother" not being pleased with him during his Villainous Breakdown is any indication. ^note Said mother, whom he mentions showing to people before operations and is never seen in-game, is a gigantic wooden frame covered in nails and barbed wire, topped with a blank staring mask in the comics. He also makes mention of a "Mother Goat" who destroys beauty as well, which is possibly Pyg's warped understanding of how the nature of Gotham wears people down.
• Self-Surgery: Did experimentation on his own face, which is a wrinkled mess as if he had too much plastic surgery. He also has stitching near his ears.
• Serial Killer: Killed about six people he considered too defective to work with in Gotham before Batman stopped him, and is implied to have traveled across the country doing much the same. It should be noted Lazlo isn’t looking to kill people, and most of the deaths were a result of not surviving the surgery. However, the six he has hung up throughout Gotham and written dismissive words next to were deliberately killed (according to Batman's scan of the first one, through deliberate overdose of sleeping drugs).
• Shifting Voice of Madness: His insanity shows clearly in how his tone and demeanor can change not only from one sentence to the next, but from one word to the next.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: When Batman calls him insane, Pyg retorts with, "And what are you?" Considering Batman's worsening mental state, he may have a point there.
• Signature Sound Effect: He often makes twisted snorts and squeals similar to those of a pig. It's unclear if this is because of his own preferential behavior or because his body is too mangled to breathe normally.
• Talkative Loon: Most notably in his audio logs, where Pyg can barely form a coherent sentence without resorting to colorful, opaque metaphors.
• Third-Person Person: Almost insistently, along with not using any contractions or proper pronouns in reference to himself.
  Pyg: Bad, bad, bad. Pyg is like clay! Pyg is like GOD! [Daintily] Pyg is here to fix us all.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: During the boss fight with him, he attacks by throwing multiple meat cleavers at Batman. His bio even states he's a skilled knife thrower. Subverted in that, if you hit the reaction command, Batman can grab one of the cleavers and throw it back to clock Pyg with the blunt side, stunning him for a time.
• Tuneless Song of Madness: He warbles a nasal, tone-deaf, mostly improvised duet with an opera record in his operating theater while carving up terrified victims.
• Übermensch: What he's trying to create with his surgeries. For their part, his Dollotrons feel no pain. They also have no genitals.
• Uncanny Valley: Invoked with both his cracked, dingy pig mask and his appearance underneath it — his features have been warped by constant self-administered facelifts and lip injections into a wrinkled, puckered, plastic-looking grimace, his hair is impeccably short and neat, and his bowtie is an incongruously cheerful shade of pink.
• Villainous Breakdown: Suffers a massive one when captured, crying about how Mother won't be pleased, and how he was so close to perfecting the dollotrons when Batman stopped him.
  Pyg: (squeals like a pig when he is shoved into the cell) Pyg...not...good enough... (whimpers) Never good enough! So close...until you stopped me, I can DO BETTER! (frantic snorting and sniffing, before breaking down sobbing) SO...MUCH...BETTERRRR...! It could've been so perfect!
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: From his viewpoint, anyway.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: His severe delusional mania leaves his voice extremely inconsistent, with wild fluctuations in tone, volume and pronunciation.
• Wicked Cultured: Really has a thing for opera, though not very good opera, as Alfred considers the music he leaves behind to be very kitschy.
• Worst Aid: Considers his brutal surgeries to be "healing" or "mercies".
• Would Hurt a Child: While all of his victims shown in the game are adults, one of the Gotham City Stories reveals that he once kidnapped a small boy, apparently for ransom, and still turned him and, presumably, the boy's father, into Dollotrons.

Dollotrons

Dollotrons

Voiced by: N/A

Dollotrons are the unfortunate victims of Professor Pyg, rendered mute and machinelike through days of horrific mutilation and torture.

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Provides examples of:

• And I Must Scream: They don't (and likely can't) speak, but examining them in Detective Mode reveals that they're always terrified. The one Dollotron that does scream has his face covered with bandages and gauze, and is tearfully begging Pyg to stop what he's doing to them.
• Bandaged Face: They all have swathes of gauze completely covering up their faces.
• Body Horror: The surgeries and brainwashing from Professor Pyg have left them with heavy mutilation to make them identical with No Biological Sex or sense of pain.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: They're so broken all they can do is attack on Pyg's command.
• Fate Worse than Death: Pyg mentally destroyed them so much they're basically machines, incapable of expressing emotion, feeling pain, or speaking, uncontrollably twitching and, as Detective Mode reveals, are truly terrified on the inside. After Pyg's defeat, Batman even names their state by this trope.
• Feel No Pain: Which makes them unique from every other generic mook. Batman partially relies on the sheer pain of his attacks to cripple and incapacitate his enemies. The Dollotrons are so psychologically demolished they're incapable of experiencing pain, allowing them to tank through all of Batman's attacks unless he directly knocks them out. In game terms, just beating them up causes them to stand back up; you have to hit them with a finishing move, environmental attack, or beatdown to actually down them.
• No Biological Sex: Pyg made them all, both women and men, mentally and physically identical through surgery and brainwashing.
• Technically-Living Zombie: They're alive, but their minds and bodies have been mutilated so thoroughly that they might as well be walking corpses.
• The Voiceless: As part of the procedure. The victim lying on the table when Batman arrives begs Pyg to stop his agony, but Pyg softly reassures him and exclaims "Here comes the choo-choo!"; afterward, he's seen with a bloody incision on his trachea, implying Pyg severed or cut out their larynx.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The Dollotrons end up being placed in a jail cell after Batman apprehends Pyg, but they're all completely absent in the post-game. Presumably, they were euthanized off-screen to end their suffering.

Nyssa Raatko

Nyssa Raatko

Voiced by: Jennifer Hale

Ra's al Ghul's younger daughter and Talia's sister. She appears in the Shadow War mission in The Season of Infamy DLC, leading a splinter faction against the League of Assassins.

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• Adaptational Heroism: Far nobler and more reasonable than her comics counterpart, who was basically Ra's with all the Noble Demon aspects removed.
• Age Lift: As mentioned above, in the game, she's Talia's younger sister. In the comics, it's the inverse: Nyssa is the older one and a Holocaust survivor, and Talia's mother first met Ra's at Woodstock.
• Antagonistic Offspring: From Ra's's perspective. Nyssa however sees her father as a decayed shell of a man wasted by endless revivals, barely more than a zombie. She feels that the League would be better served under her leadership.
• Chekhov's Gunman: She's first mentioned in Origins after recovering data from a drone's memory card as an associate to Shiva, one of the eight assassins hired by Black Mask and a fellow member of the League of Assassins.
• Face Death with Dignity: In the Cure option, Batman offers to save her with the remaining Lazarus chemicals after Ra's mortally wounds her, but Nyssa refuses to use it, preferring to die rather than stoop to her father's level.
• Fiery Redhead: Her hair has a red tinge and she leads a rebel faction of the League of Assassins.
• I Gave My Word: When Batman asks how he can trust her to take the League out of Gotham, she swears on Talia's grave. Should you help her, she makes good on it.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: She outright refers to Ra's as a "thing."
• Kick the Dog: On the receiving end - saving Ra's will result in getting her killed.
• Ninja: Like the rest of her family she's been trained to fight, and even briefly spars with Batman if he chooses to save Ra's. Not good enough to save her from her father though.
• Only Sane Man: Alfred notes this about her compared to her father and older sister.
• Renegade Splinter Faction: She leads a breakaway group of the League of Assassins against her father's faction. In this case, the "renegade" faction is a good deal more reasonable than the main one.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She looks a fair bit like her elder sister, albeit with shorter hair and harder features.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Nyssa's chin length hair and practical clothes contrast Talia's long hair and form flattering uniform.
• The Unfavorite: A hidden tape reveals that Ra's had considered her weak and intended to leave the League to Talia if Batman refused to join them.
• Villainous Valour: How villainous she is depends on your perspective, but in the Cure option, she refuses Batman's offer to heal her wounds via Lazarus chemicals, saying that she welcomes death if only to prove she's not like her father.
• White Sheep: Alfred describes her as the most reasonable of her family.

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