We finally got the Batman game we’ve always wanted, with the superb Arkham Asylum from Rocksteady dropping this week. The reviews are glowing, with some lofty comparisons and even “Game of the Year” buzz surfacing. Going back to last summer with the The Dark Knight movie, we’ve seen two projects take on the Batman license and absolutely nail it. Great! The only hiccup is DC’s completely missing the opportunity for comics sales.
Anyone that picks up and plays Arkham Asylum this week would be completely and hopelessly lost if they were to read any of the flagship Batman books on the shelf of their local comic shop this week. For the love of God, Bruce Wayne’s not even Batman right now*!
Dick Grayson and... Damian Wayne are Batman and Robin
I’m not saying they should retcon all the events of Infinite Crisis just for the sake of Rocksteady’s game, but would it have killed DC Comics to align the current story arc in the ongoing monthly bat-books with something that resembled Arkham Asylum’s continuity? I suppose it’s a bit of the tail wagging the dog, but last time I checked COMICS were facing some serious readership issues, while games have an abundance of players.
Marvel took a lot of flack for a similar issue with the core X-Men books around the release window for the first Bryan Singer X-Men movie in 2000. Only a few characters from the movie were active in the books at that time, and the ones that were looked nothing like their silver screen counterparts. The House of M has since learned their lesson, and got Spidey back in black just in time for Spider-Man 3. They even got the last few occurrences of Free Comic Book Day to coincide with the release date of tentpole summer blockbusters starring a Marvel character.
I can’t wait to see the NPD numbers on Arkham Asylum next month. I’m willing to bet at least the Xbox 360 SKU charts in the top 3. Too bad none of those buyers could sustain their Batman fix with a nice, tidy jumping-on point into monthly Batman comics.
*For all the lapsed comic book nerds reading this, Bruce Wayne is dead. In the comic book sense. As in ‘nobody every really dies in comics**’.
**The REALLY lapsed comic book nerds will recall that this phrase use to read ‘nobody ever really dies in comics except Bucky.’ But he actually came back in 2008. So, really, NOBODY dies in comics now.
Tough issue here as video games, comics and movies all have different development schedules. This is where the hard part of Transmedia comes in. How do you align properties against various media?
On some level, characters like Batman, James Bond or Darth Vader live beyond one linear narrative for consumers. Fanboys aren’t playing Arkham Asylum, they are playing Batman. If you thought the game was awesome, dig into some of the 5,389 comic books that feature the character. Or the movies, or the Adam West TV show.
Very good point. Considering there are multiple linear narratives within the Batman universe, perhaps DC would have been better served by throwing a coupon into Arkham Asylum for a trade paperback that could stand on its own, like The Long Halloween or Hush. That way, you’re still moving players into the comic store and getting them to pick up and read a book.
Any departure of a main character from the comics is temporary. The Batman books did the same thing 15 years ago with the whole “Knightfall” storyline. If a game like this is to become really popular, they have to cater to the widest audience, which means they use the best-known mythology. And Bruce Wayne’s absence will last a year at most; a good video game should have a longer life in the public eye. It doesn’t make sense to use characters from recent storylines, since if the book was selling well, they wouldn’t need to kill off Bruce in the first place.