Literature / Batman: Arkham Knight - The Riddler's Gambit

The Riddler waited.
He watched.
He observed, and recorded, and when he had seen enough, he began to form his observations into plans.
How to transform a joke into a riddle?

Batman: Arkham Knight - The Riddler's Gambit is a prequel novel to Batman: Arkham Knight, written by Alex Irvine in 2015. Picking up in the lead up to the game, the book focuses on The Riddler's attempts to step into the power vacuum the Joker left behind when he died in Batman: Arkham City. With Riddler enlisting most of the Gotham City Rogues Gallery for his dastardly plot, it's up to Batman and Robin to save the city once more.

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This book contains examples of:

• Actually Pretty Funny: When Croc tells Batman that he can still smell the stench of death on him, Batman responds that he'll take that seriously considering the stench Croc is giving off, which makes Croc give a small chuckle before they part ways.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Joker was a remorseless monster who brought death and destruction to both Gotham and Batman personally for decades, and yet Bruce can't help but grieve the loss of his Arch-Enemy. As he points out in his inner monologue, Joker was a part of his life for decades, so while he can't miss him, he still feels a loss.
  He had fought the Joker for years, and come close to death on more occasions than he could count. He should be joyous that it had ended, yet it seemed as if he had lost someone terribly close.
• Attention Whore: The main reason why Riddler is so desperate to step into the Joker's shoes is so that he can gain the attention of the Gotham City public. Even when his plan doesn't quite end the way he wants, he takes solace knowing that everyone in the city is talking about him.
• Bad Boss: Riddler straight-up murders one of his goons just for mentioning the Joker in his presence, and his plan to bomb the bank ends up killing all of his thugs there. He also spends the book trying to trick Batman into getting rid of all of the supervillains he worked with for his plan, such as Killer Croc and Mr. Freeze.
• The Bad Guy Wins: In the end, even though he fails to kill Batman or Robin, Riddler still gets away with murdering dozens of people and successfully declaring his intent to take the Joker's place.
• Batman Gambit: Most of Riddler's plan, especially the beginning stages, relies on Batman and Robin acting in the manner he expects them to based on the clues he leaves behind.
• Berserk Button: Anyone even referencing the Joker is enough to send Riddler into a dangerous rage, up to and including shooting one of his own thugs.
• Bittersweet Ending: On the one hand, Riddler's master plan to force Gordon to kill Robin fails, and Batman takes solace knowing that he's finally moving on from the Joker's death. On the other, dozens if not hundreds are dead, Riddler has proven that he can step into the Joker's shoes, public opinion on Batman is at an all-time low, and the readers already know that Batman is still doomed to deal with the Joker's blood in his veins, Scarecrow's upcoming master plan, and his unmasking and "death".
• Calling Card: Just like in Arkham City, Deadshot initials his bullets with a DS to make it clear he's the one doing the killing.
• The Chessmaster: Ultimately, neither Batman, Robin, nor Gordon do anything that the Riddler doesn't expect, and every single piece of the puzzle comes together exactly the way he wants from the moment his game begins until the moment it's over.
• Chess Motifs: Riddler layers his challenge within the game of chess, both literally and metaphorically. Besides a long interior monologue comparing his game to a chess game (in the sense that the beginning and ending moves are usually predetermined, meaning that it's the middle moves that require the most thought), part of Robin's game involves moving a specific amount of times while pretending to be a piece on a giant chessboard. Even to the end, when he makes Robin the King, it's in the form of a slow-moving but powerful machine that serves as the key to the whole game.
• Conspiracy Theorist: On his show, Jack Ryder outright accuses Batman of orchestrating Deadshot's attempt to assassinate him, saying that it was all a grand plot to get "the most powerful voice in Gotham" on his side.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The book establishes that the robots that Riddler would eventually use in the video game were reprogrammed from the Mechanical Guardians of Wonder City.
  • Riddler's first clue sends Batman to Gotham Merchant's Bank, the place where Batman first formally met the Joker. He notes that it still has the marks of the explosion that went off in the vault that fateful night.
  • Batman notes that one of the reasons the thugs tend to avoid the sewers is that Solomon Grundy now has a taste for human flesh after Penguin used him as a disposal service in Arkham City.
  • Batman realizes that Deadshot is the one killing Riddler's victims because one of the bullets has a DS carved into it, just like the bullet Batman scans in Arkham City.
  • During Batman's conversation with Croc, there are brief references to Harley Quinn's false positive pregnancy test, as well as Croc's easy-to-miss cameo from Arkham City. Harley's false-positive pregnancy comes up again later when she talks about how she and the Joker were going to have a family, as she believes that a baby would have settled him down.
  • RyderReport.com snarks that Jack Ryder would've been able to handle Deadshot without Batman's help; Knight reveals that Ryder indeed wrote an article claiming he took down Lawton rather than Batman.
  • Harley Quinn mentions Vicki Vale willingly entering Arkham City after receiving a tip from the Joker.
• Continuity Snarl: There are small and offhand references or comments that conflict with the game's canon.
  • It's implied that the events of Batman: Arkham Origins only took place a few months prior to the book, while in the game's continuity they would be years apart (Jason Todd's torture and murder in and of itself lasted for about a year, and his successor is already Robin in this book).
  • When the GCPD first receives the USB addressed to Joker, Batman and Gordon speculate whether Joker was able to set plans in motion to go off after his death. The tie-in comics show that Joker actually had several plans set to go off after he died that Batman already had to stop, meaning they shouldn't be questioning his ability to do it.
  • After Riddler gets set up in the steel mill, he has to send his henchmen down to Wonder City to find the Mechanical Guardians for him. However, Harley Quinn's Revenge revealed that Harley had reprogrammed them herself to defend her in the steel mill, meaning they should still be there if not in GCPD custody.
  • When Batman and Robin first call Oracle, Batman's thoughts mention that she hasn't figured out "his" secret identity yet. The grammar is ambiguous as to which of them he's referring to, but in either case, Barbara's known both of their secret identities for years by this point (Arkham Knight would reveal that she discovered Batman's identity before becoming Batgirl, as well as that she and Tim were in the field together).
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Phil Chester, Vicki Vale's cameraman, is found having been cut into several pieces.
• Dirty Cop: Theresa Gray, the police officer in charge of investigating how the mysterious package was placed in the GCPD mail, is revealed to have worked for Riddler, meaning she planted the package in the first place.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • The reporters are never 100% on the money on what's going on with the Riddler's plan and Batman's role in it, but as the audience, we always know where they're on the mark and whenever they're missing it without realizing it.
  • While reminiscing on the members of his Rogues Gallery that have already died, Batman mentions the Scarecrow, who he believes died in the Asylum. Unknown to him but well known to the audience, Scarecrow is not only still alive, but will be the one to "kill" Batman by unmasking him to the world.
• Everyone Has Standards: Batman rather somberly muses that even Riddler's thugs didn't deserve to be blown up in the bank.
• Friendly Enemy: Duane Trask and Vicki Vale are technically rival reporters, but they get along just fine both personally and professionally. He's the first person she calls when she escapes Harley Quinn to give her story live, and he asks her to grab a drink later when he promises not to tell Jack.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Riddler's goal throughout the book is to rise up from just another of Batman's Rogues Gallery to the premier supervillain now that Joker's gone. Along the way, he causes several explosions, enables Mr. Freeze to almost kill thousands of people, gives technology to Mad Hatter (who then turns the casino into his own playground), and traps Robin in a Mechanical Guardian that leaves him powerless as it massacres people.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Batman's reputation has gone down the drain since the events of Arkham City. While he still has some supporters, the Gotham Gazette publishes an article outright telling him to retire, and people boo him on the street when he drives by in the Batmobile.
• Hidden Depths: Harley Quinn of all people gives Robin a genuine history lesson on jesters and their original roles within kingly courts, even telling him what a momento mori is.
• Intrepid Reporter: Vicki Vale's response to receiving a time and place to meet from the Riddler is to journey down into the subways of Arkham City to meet him there. It gets her captured by Harley Quinn, but she remains surprisingly calm even while being threatened with decapitation.
• Mythology Gag: At the bank, Batman takes out three thugs in rapid succession in a manner described similarly to a Fear Takedown.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: For a brief moment, Batman lets himself think that he should've just let Deadshot kill Jack Ryder, since it would've both lessened Deadshot's grudge with him and stopped Ryder from polluting the airwaves. As soon as he thinks it, he realizes that he's thinking like the Joker would, which for him is a sign of his PTSD and for the audience is a sign of his infection.
• Pragmatic Hero: Batman is willing to let Killer Croc walk away from their confrontation if it means he can focus on Riddler.
• Race Against the Clock: Once the game begins, Riddler kills someone every hour, meaning Batman and Robin have to complete the game as fast as possible.
• The Reveal: The seemingly random people Riddler murders every hour are actually various people that he worked with to set up the death rooms.
• Saved by Canon: Thanks to being a prequel, we already know that all of the main characters (Batman, Robin, Alfred, Oracle, Gordon, Vicki, and Riddler) are going to survive the book's events.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Rafael Del Toro, the most anti-Batman reporter we read from, states in his article that he's finally had enough of Gotham City's insanity after seeing missile strikes and says that he's finally moving away.
• Superhero Paradox: The opening news article directly blames Batman for the rise of his Rogues Gallery, pointing out that in the months that Batman hasn't been active, none of the supervillains have come out of the woodwork to fight him, and as soon as he becomes active again people start dying left and right. A recurring theme throughout the various reporter segments is that while about half of Gotham believes Batman makes the city safer, the other half believes he's why it's in danger in the first place.
  "Batman's chasing the Riddler and someone—possibly Deadshot—is blowing the heads off random people in the street. And all for what? If Batman wasn't there, what would the Riddler and Deadshot and Clayface and whoever else do? Who would they fight?"
• Three Lines, Some Waiting: The first steps after Riddler begins his challenge require Batman and Robin to work in parallel investigating different parts of the riddle, so the narrative perspective switches between them every chapter. The third perspective is included in between them - the various reporters in Gotham updating the city on the story as it happens.
• Unfriendly Fire: While Batman is dealing with some thugs in the bank, three of them shoot at him while one of their allies is in the crossfire and he's shot to shreds.
• Villainous Legacy:
  • Despite his death, the Joker's legacy hangs over everything in the novel. Besides the fact that the city itself seems to mourn his loss despite all the death he caused, Batman has to come to terms with his toxin and the end of their relationship, while Riddler dedicates himself to filling the hole Joker left behind with his scheme.
  • Unlike the game the book is a prequel to, there is much focus on the legacy of Ra's al Ghul's actions, in particular the fact that Riddler utilizes his robots to execute his plan.
• Villain Team-Up: Riddler works with a majority of the Gotham Rogues for his plan, including Killer Croc, Mr. Freeze, Mad Hatter, Deadshot, and Harley Quinn.

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It was a new day in Gotham City, a day defined not by a rictus smile but by a question mark. And the question was: what would he do next?