Batman/Characters/Arkham Series
A character sheet for characters appearing within the Rocksteady Studios-produced Batman games; Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City.
Main Playable Characters
Batman/Bruce Wayne
Voiced by: Kevin Conroy in Arkham Asylum, Arkham City and Arkham Knight, Roger Craig Smith in Arkham Origins
- The Ace: His character bio even makes sure you know that he's in peak human physical and mental condition.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: Arkham City has a number of DLC costumes, including 70s Neal Adams, The Dark Knight Returns, Animated, Batman Beyond,[1] Batman Inc., and Sinestro Corps.
- Anti-Hero: Type II in the first game, Type III in Arkham City.
- Badass: It's the Goddamn Batman, what were you expecting?
- Badass Cape: Which allows him to glide.
- Badass Baritone: Provided by Kevin Conroy in Arkham Asylum, Arkham City and Arkham Knight, while Roger Craig Smith voiced him in Arkham Origins.
- Badass in Distress: Temporarily when captured by the Joker in the beginning of Arkham City, sort of the entirety of the game on a smaller scale, and definitely during his capture by Harley in "Harley Quinn's Revenge".
- Badass Normal: He has no powers, unlike several of his enemies (Poison Ivy. Killer Croc), relying on intense training and a keen mind (and shitloads of money) to see him through his war on Gotham's criminal elements.
- Blue Eyes:
- Broken Ace: Especially noticeable in Arkham City, when Batman wants to save Talia from the Joker, rather than stop Strange's plan to kill, at the very least, thousands.
- Bruce Wayne Held Hostage: How he ends up in Arkham City.
- Building Swing: With his Grappling Hook Gun.
- Cape Wings: How he glides.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Capable of tossing thugs around effortlessly, grabbing heavy items that are tossed at him and hurling them right back, and can go toe-to-toe with Titan-enhanced criminals as well.
- Combat Pragmatist: Batman only has one rule. Everything else is fair game.
- The Cowl: There's a reason he provides the page image.
- Crazy Prepared: He secretly built a Batcave underneath Arkham Asylum just in case something were to happen there. Oracle is particularly surprised, resulting in the situation being Lampshaded:
Oracle: How did you keep this a secret?
Batman: ...It's me, remember?
- In Arkham City, Alfred comments on Batman's constant equipment drop requests, asking if he considered a larger utility belt. Batman says that he did, but that it was too large and slowed him down.
- One of the most impressive feats of Crazy Preparedness in Arkham City comes in "Harley Quinn's Revenge", where, as in the comics, Batman's utility belt, when not on him, releases a 50000 volt electric shock to most people who try to touch it. Robin and Batman himself are the only ones known to be exempt.
- Dating Catwoman: The first thing that he did as soon as he got his Batman gear back was to rescue Catwoman from Two-Face. He also has some of this with Talia.
- Deadpan Snarker: Gains a more sardonic edge to his usual straight-laced demeanor in the second installment, likely due to stress.
Oracle: Are you okay? The tower blew up.
Batman: I noticed.
- The Determinator: "I'll never let you win. Never."
- The Dreaded: Criminals are utterly terrified by him, and will quickly fall to pieces in stealth segments once you start picking them off.
- Genius Bruiser: Comes with the territory when you're not only a brutal masked vigilante, but a skilled detective to boot.
- Genre Savvy: It's Batman, what do you expect?
- Good Is Not Nice: Listen to the things he says to the Riddler's informants (not to mention knocking them out anyways). Let's not forget when he starts playing hardball with Mr. Freeze when he needs information on Freeze's gun. Though he doesn't kill Freeze, he certainly bluffed pretty hard with that life-support liquid.
- Heroic BSOD: The Scarecrow battles are implied to be these. In addition, he is strongly affected by The Joker's death, to the point where after the ending of Batman: Arkham City, he is still reeling from it.
- Heroic Willpower:
- He manages to fight off the effects of Scarecrow's fear toxin, from a dosage that would have been enough to drive ten men insane.
- He manages to hold off the effects of the Titan formula, and stop himself from transforming for a prolonged period of time until he injects himself with the antidote, even with Joker trying to break his concentration, and convince him to give in, the entire time.
- In Arkham City, it's best summed up by a simple sentence he says to Oracle as he's basically on his death bed from Joker's poison.
Oracle: "Seriously Bruce, you need to tell me what you want me to do. What do I get Robin to do? You know, if you don't..." *doesn't want to say he might die*
Batman: "I'll make it".
- He also fights off the Mad Hatter's mind control. It doesn't matter if it's in his head or his blood, Batman will fight it.
- Not to mention in Arkham Origins, he ends up getting poisoned by Copperhead during her boss fight and only has a few minutes to live with the effects already taking a toll on his body. He's still able to soldier through and cure himself while handily taking her down.
- High Altitude Interrogation: Batman can question Riddler's henchmen in this manner, provided the player is close enough to interact with a nearby ledge. Also his preferred method of questioning Quincy Sharp in a cutscene.
- Hurting Hero: He shows signs of this a third of the way into Arkham City, and he gets even worse in "Harley Quinn's Revenge".
- Hyperspace Arsenal: He can even keep inventions he jury-rigs himself on the fly (the REC) or gets from others (the Freeze Blasts and Freeze Clusters) on him, even though his utility belt isn't even built for that.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: He's no stranger to these as this is standard procedure when handling Riddler's informants. He also ends up removing Mr. Freeze's life-support system when Freeze won't tell him how to deactivate his weapons.
- Lantern Jaw of Justice: As the above image shows.
- Master Swordsman: Wields Talia's scimitar against Clayface.
- Mighty Glacier: He's not as fast as Catwoman, Robin or Nightwing, but he's much stronger and has higher maximum upgraded body armor.
- Neck Lift: Whenever you aren't close to a ledge or wall, he'll do this to Riddler informants before knocking them out cold.
- Not So Above It All: Batman's pride is a serious issue: a large section of the problems he faces in Arkham City could have been avoided if he had simply gone with the flow. He stubbornly refuses help from anyone even when it would clearly help, like when Robin offers to help him find Ra's al Ghul. He refuses to take orders from anyone; the entire boss fight with Mr. Freeze could have been avoided if he had simply agreed to get Nora. Finally, he is so dead set on doing what he wants, he was willing to let Arkham City and everyone in it burn in order to get Talia, that Alfred has to cut off access to his Satellites to get him back on track. This happens after getting injected with Joker's blood. See Sanity Slippage below.
- Not quite. As shown in "Harley Quinn's Revenge", he remains about as brutal after that problem is solved due to the deaths of Talia and the Joker.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: As Bruce Wayne.
- Offhand Backhand: Can be pulled off. However, the version most fans are familiar with is saved for a cutscene near the end of the first game.
- Parental Abandonment: HIS PARENTS ARE DEEAAAAAAAD!!!
- Parental Substitute: To Robin, Which Strange analyzes in the Catwoman tapes.
- Perpetual Frowner: Not all the time, but by "Harley Quinn's Revenge", that is his normal mood setting now.
- Rich Idiot With No Day Job: His façade as Bruce Wayne is this.
- Sanity Slippage:
- It's implied that being injected with Joker's blood is taking a toll on Batman's sanity. For starters, when he defeated Mr. Freeze, he hallucinates Joker's laughing head on Freeze's body.
- Goes into full throttle after Joker's death. Throughout the DLC, he is much more gruff, his internal monologue is entirely about the goal at hand and his threats to the informants lose any playfulness. Hell, he even begins to speak much more like a Guttural Growler.
- Shut UP, Hannibal: Don't bother trying a Hannibal Lecture on him. Just don't. He's kind of sick of it by now. Bones will break.
- Smoke Out: As of Arkham City, he can use Smoke bombs if things get hairy during stealth segments. He can also break fire extinguishers and use them as smaller-level smokescreens.
- Technical Pacifist
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: However rough he is on criminals, Batman would never intentionally kill one of them, or let the Joker die while it was within his power to save him.
Batman: (to Ra's al Ghul) I will never kill. Not even you.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Arkham City all the way. At times, even allies get shouted at or angrily dismissed. It's implied in-game that a large percentage of his increase of jerkishness was the result of being injected with Joker's blood, not to mention apprehension over it being sent to hospitals in Gotham. The stress of his imminent death certainly doesn't help matters.
- Ungrateful Bastard:
- Sort of called out on this by Robin after the latter saves his life from asphyxiation in "Harley Quinn's Revenge".
Robin: Ever heard of "thank you"? ...I guess not.
- Robin saves Batman's life again, and Batman still doesn't say thank you, or otherwise acknowledge his assistance. Really, it can only be explained by his rather severe depressive episode (brought about by the game's events, natch).
- With My Hands Tied: At the beginning of Arkham City, as Bruce Wayne, not Batman.
- Would Hit a Girl: Somewhat justified given that the girls in question are actively trying to kill him.
- Wrestler in All of Us: In Arkham City, Batman will occasionally DDT his opponents when performing a noisy Takedown, and one of his double counters is a northern lights suplex.
The Joker
Voiced by: Mark Hamill in Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, Troy Baker in Arkham Origins
- Actually Pretty Funny: Almost spoken word for word to Batman as he kicks the bucket.
- Arch Enemy: Is this to Batman, of course.
- Are We There Yet?:
- Asks this in the prequel comic to the first game, while handcuffed in the Batmobile. Batman's response is simple but effective.
- Yet again in the prequel comic to the second game, as he's being transferred down the hallway while strapped in a wheelchair. The guard takes it in stride. Probably because he and the boys were planning to slice Joker up for all the guards he killed last time...
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Enforced at the end of the first game where he pulls a One-Winged Angel. Otherwise, he's more than capable to beat up a room of guards, including Cash and Gordon. Next to Batman though, he's an Elite Mook with Contractual Boss Immunity, or at least Clayface's portrayal of his fighting ability as such was enough to convince Batman.
- Ax Crazy: While he is hilarious, the Joker is still a psychotic madman who you do not want to get on the wrong side of. Case in point: in Arkham Origins, he's acting fine while giving out more orders to kill Batman to his assassins, and notices Electrocutioner playing Space Invaders on his phone. Things are going well until Electrocutioner gets mad at him. Cue Joker screaming in his face, kicking him into an office chair, and shoving him out the window of the penthouse apartment that they use as headquarters and letting him fall to his death. Joker then goes on to offer his henchmen some fruitcake.
- Backstab Backfire: After losing his chances at immortality, Joker begs for the cure. Batman tells him that he'll most likely start committing crimes again anyways. Joker, interpreting it as a refusal, then stabs Batman in the shoulder, causing Batman to drop the cure vial, which shatters on the floor and ruins any chances of Joker's survival. It gets even worse when Batman says immediately after the vial was broken that he still would have given Joker the cure.
- Bad Boss: Threatens his men with death if they don't succeed at following his orders... and then muses that killing them would probably be fun anyway. Lampshaded, since after these announcements, many of his men can be heard grumbling about how much it sucks working for the Joker.
- Batman Gambit: The events of the first game could've been avoided entirely or drastically changed if someone had put proper handcuffs behind Joker's back, or simply left him in full restraints. Another possibility would be when he yells "boo" at the medic, while four or five guards are pointing rifles. If just one of those guards had overreacted...
- Big Bad: Of the first game and of Arkham Origins due to him impersonating Black Mask for most of it.
- Big Bad Ensemble: With Hugo Strange in Arkham City.
- Body Horror: Big time with this incarnation. In Arkham Asylum, he takes a huge Titan dose and transforms into a huge, hideous Titan monster with his spine poking out of his back, his ribs protruding from his sides, and a huge claw on each finger. And in Arkham City, he's extremely sick, and his face is one large, disgusting rash.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Is an absolutely evil dick and takes a lot of pride in it.
- The Chessmaster: Let's see: he organized the development of a secret Titan project, arranged for the supervillains he needed to be at Arkham during his plan, arranged for Blackgate to be burned down, and planned his own recapture and escape, doing most of this from his own jail cell. After his escape, he manipulated Batman into wandering around Arkham until he was ready for their final confrontation.
- Combat Pragmatist: He's got no problem with fighting dirty, be it poking out eyes, using guns, an extendable boxing glove or anything else.
- Create Your Own Villain: The only consistent thing in all his back stories is Batman.
- Deal with the Devil: Joker's interview tapes with Hugo Strange reveal that he is willing to work with the guy in exchange for making his last days of his life "more comfortable".
- Death by Irony: Although he finds it kinda funny.
- Dude in Distress: The aforementioned run-in with the guard and his crew. He's only rescued at the very last second by an incognito Harley Quinn.
- Electric Joy Buzzer: One of his take downs.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Well, it's closer to "Even Insanity Has Standards", but shortly after he released the Arkham lunatics, he gives various (serious) messages to his inmates to put down the lunatics if they ever encounter them laced into his (otherwise) Trolling messages, and the exchange between Harley and Joker suggests that he only did so as a last resort to stop Batman and not as part of his original plans, which gives the heavy implication that even the Joker, someone who definitely isn't a shining example of sanity, was horrified with the nature of their insanity.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He just couldn't see that Batman would have given him the cure even after all of the horrible things he's done.
- Evil Laugh: What'd you expect?
- Faux Affably Evil: He's so damn entertaining, yet at the same time is completely monstrous.
- Fighting Clown
- Foreshadowing: He pretty much spoils the ending of Arkham City if you choose not to jump out of the church immediately when he activates the bombs.
- For the Evulz: Pretty much why he does the things he does.
- Go Out with a Smile: Pun aside, The Joker's last words were a weak, amused chuckle and claiming that Batman's statement that despite what he continuously does, he still would have saved Joker had he not attempted to knife Batman in the back, was actually pretty very funny.
- Groin Attack: Some of the Joker's finishers invoke this trope.
- Gross Up Close-Up: The first time Joker reveals his mangled face in Arkham City.
- Happily Married: One of the Joker mooks will mention that he heard that Joker and Harley Quinn got married, whereas the other mentioned that he heard that he dumped her several months ago. Given the fact that she's present with the Joker, not to mention that Quinn (might be) pregnant with what is implied to be Joker's child, it's implied that the former part was true, and more or less outright stated in '"Harley Quinn's Revenge" when Quinn calls herself a widow.
- The Hyena: He never misses a chance to laugh manically.
- I Surrender, Suckers: As stated in the Trojan Prisoner section, this is the reason he was able to take over Arkham Asylum in the first game. Also done in the second game, where Clayface Joker seemed to give up easily in three knockdowns and claim that Batman won, only for him to then realize that he meant that Batman should beat him and his goons (including Mr. Hammer and a titan-laced mook).
- Joke Character: Not so much in the combat challenges, but in the predator ones, you're gonna have to bring your a-game between not using gargoyles and having to stand still while using the x-ray glasses.
- Joker Immunity: Averted. Joker dies from his Titan poisoning at the end of the second game.
- Karmic Death: He created the Titan formula that made him sick, and his final attack on Batman destroys the last of the cure.
- Kick the Dog:
Joker: You're making me late for my spa treatment! I mean, it's not like you've got a girl to save anymore, is it?[2] (laughs) Oh, I'm sorry. Too Soon?
- Killed Off for Real: At the end of the second game. Confirmed several times in "Harley Quinn's Revenge" as well.
- Large Ham: A deliberate contrast to Batman.
- Last Day to Live: Thanks to his Titan overdose in Arkham Asylum, by the time Arkham City starts, Joker has contracted a deadly disease, leaving him with only months to live. He's dead by the end of the game.
- Laughing Mad: It's The Joker. What did you expect?
- Lean and Mean: A more typical example in the first game, but once he falls ill, his body absolutely withers away.
- Monster Clown: As well as his normal state, he becomes a literal one at the end of the first game, after shooting himself with the Titan formula. His appearance in the second game also seems to come close to a literal interpretation of the trope, given his disease-induced deformities.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: He is fully capable of beating up (and killing) several guards and security officers at once, all of whom having heavier frames than him, as well as body armor.
- Multiple Choice Past: Just like how he is depicted in the comics, the Joker is implied to have told multiple renditions of his childhood, one of which involved Retirony in regards to his father's cop status. In Batman: Arkham City, he even quotes the comics, saying someone once told him to go for the multiple choice option.
- Not Me This Time:
- Batman accuses Joker of being involved in Protocol 10. Joker, upon hearing it, denies any knowledge of it.
- Also, when Batman first finds Harley bound and gagged, the player might naturally assume that Joker is back to his normal abusive relationship with her. However, nearing the end of the game, it becomes especially apparent that this time, he wasn't responsible for Harley's predicament; rather, Talia was, who also was the one truly responsible for retrieving the cure before Joker had a chance to drink it.
- An unlockable story in Arkham Knight relates an incident where Batman was investigating the deaths of three children. He confronts Joker in his cell at Arkham Asylum, demanding to know how he had escaped. Joker informs him that he had nothing to do with it. He takes great joy in how paranoid he's made Batman.
- One-Winged Angel: At the end of Arkham Asylum.
- Perpetual Smiler: Though this goes away when things don't go his way, most prominently when the last of the Titan cure available is destroyed.
- Playing Sick: Subverted: Batman initially guesses that The Joker was actually faking his illness after Joker ambushed him by seemingly using a Body Double to fake his death, only for the Joker to reveal that he is in fact really sick, even going so far as to reveal his disease-laced sores on his face.
- Reality Ensues:
- Uses this against Talia Al Ghul by simply shooting her In the Back instead of trying to fight someone he couldn't take in a fair fight. For added Irony, Talia tried to do something similar to him with a scimitar earlier, but she stabbed Clayface instead.
- Joker also suffers Reality Ensues himself when it turns out that poisoning oneself with multiple poisons over years does not work out, especially if one injects themselves with a Psycho Serum, in this case, Titan. Joker dies of poisoning at the end of Batman: Arkham City.
- Taking You with Me: Part of a gambit in the second game. He injects Batman with his diseased blood, also claiming he shipped it to hospital across Gotham. Knowing full well Batman will go looking for a cure. Even if he didn't succeed, he would at least take his hated nemesis down with him.
- Too Soon: Invoked. See Kick the Dog above.
- Trojan Prisoner: Batman is convinced the Joker went down too easily, during his capture at the beginning of the first game. Of course, he's right.
- Unholy Matrimony
- Villainous Widow's Peak: Goes beyond "Male-pattern baldness" and into "impossibly exaggerated" territory, especially in Arkham City.
- Wild Card: Strange supplies him with a military arsenal, so that the he'll give Strange a very public reason to wipe him and Arkham City off the face of the earth. However, a Non Standard Game Over reveals that without Batman's intervention the plan fails, the Joker survives Protocol 10 and uses the weaponry to overthrow Gotham.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Joker's hair was dyed green by his dip in the chemical bath.
Catwoman/Selina Kyle
Voiced by: Grey DeLisle
- Absolute Cleavage: In Arkham City, Catwoman's suit is zipped down to the point where her whole cleavage and her stomach can be seen at some angles. Downplayed in Arkham Knight, her suit is still unzipped, but her cleavage is much less visible.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: Can be played as during certain parts in the story if you have her DLC installed.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: Her alternate costumes are Animated and The Long Halloween.
- Anti-Hero: Type III or IV, at least after choosing to save Batman. At first she's an...
- Anti-Villain: Type I.
- Baby Got Back: Given how she wears a skintight catsuit, it's no surprise that her reveal trailer focused on her ample behind for a few seconds. It even has a thong-like design implemented.
- Badass Normal: Is capable of kicking all kinds of ass without all of Batman's fancy gadgets.
- Bait the Dog: She strikes a deal with Ivy to retrieve her orchid in return to clearing a way to Strange's vault (where the orchid is), only to drop the plant on the floor and crushing it.
- Caltrops: Can be used to trip up enemies.
- Ceiling Cling: One of the things that sets her apart from Batman.
- Classy Cat Burglar: As is tradition.
- Combat Stilettos: A part of her costume.
- Dance Battler: Tends to use an almost dance-like martial art when fighting.
- Dark Action Girl: While she's still not evil, her actions show that her morals aren't that up to par yet. She even comments about when she started getting a conscience and actually hesitated whether to let Batman die or not.
- Deadpan Snarker: You thought Alfred was bad? Her whole dialogue oozes sass as well as her thoughts.
- The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: There are secret doors in Wayne Manor that Catwoman can't use.
- Femme Fatale
- Fragile Speedster: Her fighting style has a lot of emphasis on speed, and she can't have her health upgraded to the extent that Batman can.
- Freudian Excuse: In an interesting conversation found on the interview tapes, Hugo Strange comes to the conclusion that Selina might suffer from this more than even she is aware of. From his analysis, she despises men because her father abandoned her, and this is the reason that she can't come to trust Batman. Still, she loves him and seeks his approval, and the way she goes about this is to get his attention by stealing and dressing seductively.
- Goggles Do Something Unusual: Hers give her vision similar to Batman's Detective Mode, albeit not as good as everything is slightly blurry and it can't differentiate between normal enemies and ones who wield guns.
- Green Eyes: The game made them particularly striking.
- Moral Dilemma: While Batman isn't exactly her friend, she does meet this trope twice. The first one, subtly, consisted of helping/saving him when he was confronting the Joker or getting into the vault. It wasn't difficult. The second one was much more grave, and she either had to save Batman from the verge of death or get out of Arkham City with the loot she recently gained. She placed more consideration for this decision.
- Ms. Fanservice: Skintight outfit? Check. Absolute Cleavage? Check. Flirtatious nature? Check.
- Murderous Thighs: She tends to use them during her take-down animations.
- Parental Substitute: To Holly Robinson. In her interview tapes, Hugo Strange draws parallels between her relationship with Holly to Batman's relationship with Robin.
- Pungeon Master: Cat puns a-plenty, "purrrfect" being one of them.
- Sensual Spandex: Wears this kind of costume.
- She Fu: She's quite agile in combat.
- Spanner in the Works: If you choose to leave Arkham City in her third episode, Batman dies, Joker escapes, and Gotham is doomed. Her intervention is what derails the villain's plot.
- The Tease: Mainly towards Batman.
- Third-Person Seductress: Whenever you play as her.
- Vapor Wear: She is obviously not wearing a bra.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: She seems to hide the palm pilot, that she had stolen from Two-Face, from Batman this way.
- Whip It Good: Her whip is her main weapon, which she can also use to swing between buildings.
- Wolverine Claws: Two-Face will no doubt vouch for that.
- Wrestler in All of Us: Most of her moves would fit right in Lucha Libra style matches like her frankensteiner take down.
Robin/Tim Drake
Voiced by: Troy Baker
- Action Genre Hero Guy: He's American, has the token buzzcut, and is a Deadpan Snarker 9 times out of 10, suiting the bill easily for this trope.
- Adaptational Badass: Whilst the comic book Drake is by no means un-badass, his Arkham City appearance definitely seems to be aiming for a grittier approach to the character, with a far more chiseled and muscled appearance, a shaved head, and the idea that he takes part in cage-fighting in his spare time.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: His DLC costumes include Animated and Red Robin.
- Badass Cape: Though less badass and versatile of a cape than Batman's, his still is used in stun maneuvers and gliding.
- Badass Normal: Par for the course if you're a member of the Bat-Family.
- Big Damn Heroes: Saves Batman from Ra's Al Ghul's assassins. Also saves Batman from asphyxiation in "Harley Quinn's Revenge".
- Brought to You by The Letter "S": Robin has a yellow "R" right over his heart, and also draws an R when spraying Explosive Gel.
- Combat Pragmatist: Well, he has been trained by Batman. And he really likes whacking people with that staff of his.
- Composite Character: He is Tim Drake, but his character design is a combination of his original costume and Damian's. He also has a shaved head like Adult!Damian. His coping with Batman's tendencies towards callousness echoes Dick Grayson's own issues prior to making the shift to Nightwing.
- Domino Mask: Much like all Robins, Tim's mask just covers the outlines of his eyes and nothing else.
- Expecting Someone Taller: Inverted. One of the cops he rescues from Harley comments that he expected Robin to be shorter.
- Fingerless Gloves
- Grappling Hook Gun: Unlike when Batman or Nightwing uses it on Mooks, he pulls himself toward them for a kick, not vice versa for a punch.
- In the Hood: Like Damian Wayne in the comics, this version of Tim has a hood as part of his Robin costume.
- Just a Kid: Despite being in his late teens at the youngest. Unlike Batman, Robin is seen as something of a Tagalong Kid by Gotham's criminals and isn't taken seriously until you start picking them off.
Thug: "I'm sorry, I thought you were some kind of joke! Please don't hurt me!"
- The Lancer: More personable and less gruff than Batman, though no less competent in combat.
- Legacy Character: There's one mention of the existence of Jason Todd when Joker mentions in his Challenge that he thought that he already killed him, and his profile mentions that he's a successor of Dick Grayson in the role of Robin.
- Lightning Bruiser: In spades. Playing him in the Challenge maps makes Batman feel like a sluggish tank and Catwoman underpowered.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: His staff has a built-in shield that can block bullets and steam, though the former is not indefinitely.
- Shield-Bash: He can also hit enemies with it.
- Sidekick: As per tradition with Robin, he is this to Batman.
- Simple Staff: Noted because Tim Drake is often touted as the best staff user in DC. It shows in his combat.
- Smoke Out: Much like his mentor, Robin can throw one smoke bomb per stealth section.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Seems to give off that vibe: he tries to act cool and bold around Batman, but every time he sounds very deflated when he doesn't thank him nor doesn't act glad when he thought his sidekick was dead just moments ago.
- You Fight Like a Cow: When fighting Harley in the comic.
Nightwing/Dick Grayson
Voiced by: Quinton Flynn (only grunts in Arkham City), Josh Keaton in Arkham Origins (as Robin)
- Baby Got Back: This being Dick Grayson we're talking about, having a rather ample ass is no surprise.
- Badass Normal
- Blue Eyes:
- Circus Brat: And his history as an acrobat shows in his combat. He generally whips around the battlefield like gravity is just a suggestion. Only Catwoman is more flexible, and he's just as fast.
- Combat Pragmatist:
- But of course. And one of his moves is a boot to the face. He also has a tendency to smash enemies' faces into any nearby furniture or fixtures.
- It also plays into just how fast he is. While his acrobatics and flashy maneuvers move him around the area quickly, he'll also be busy just jabbing his stun batons into anyone and anything that can get hurt. Stabbing, poking, slapping, whatever works. As such, he'll be whipping around those batons ridiculously fast.
- Dance Battler: Not quite as much as Catwoman, but much more so than Batman or Robin.
- Domino Mask: Though his is a bit bigger and more stylized than the usual kind.
- Downloadable Content: In Arkham City, he is a downloadable playable character with his own unique traits (inability to glide, usage of Wrist Darts, etc).
- Dual-Wielding: Escrima sticks.
- Flash Step: An odd quirk in his attack animations coupled with the speed of his combos will have him, when fighting multiple enemies in Free-flow combat, occasionally hit an enemy, then take a single step that transports him across the room (sometimes up to 30 ft or so) to throw a jab at another enemy, and then take another step and zoom right back to hit a different enemy (Batman or Catwoman would distinctly take flying leaps or bounds in the same situation). With enough enemies spaced out, well...
- Grappling Hook Gun: Identically to other members of the Batfamily, he happens to have a Batclaw of his own with no notable difference.
- Lightning Bruiser
- Offhand Backhand: One of his counters involves doing this to two thugs at once by jabbing them both in the gut with his escrima sticks.
- Perpetual Smiler: As a counterpoint to Batman, Nightwing only looks grim in his 3D model.
- Pretty Boy: Especially when compared to Batman and Robin.
- She Fu: Played with: while his acrobatics show off his body only slightly less than Catwoman's, his fighting style is otherwise pretty methodical. He'll do flashy flips and flourishes a lot, but half the time during and every second in between is spent just laying into thugs in the fastest and most effective possible way. Occasionally taking breaks for his many wrestling maneuvers.
- Shock and Awe: His escrima sticks are electrified in this game. And it is ever so satisfying to use them on the mooks.
- Sidekick Graduations Stick: The first Robin, in case you don't remember.
- Smug Smiler: He's kicking the crap out of a lot of bad people, and he's having fun.
- Underestimating Badassery: It's implied by some of the comments that the thugs make that Nightwing is not yet well-known, and therefore they're not taking him seriously. This is a mistake.
Thug #1: Who the hell is Nightwing? Does he work for Batman?
Thug #2: [snorts] What's a 'Nightwing'?
[two minutes and five unconscious thugs later]
Thug #6: [absolutely terrified] Nightwing?! Are you there?! What are you?!
- The Voiceless: Though his body language and facial expressions show that he is pretty cocky and fun loving. While he still doesn't talk a lot in Arkham Origins, he at least now gets some in-game quotes as opposed to simply grunts.
- Wrestler in All of Us: Will occasionally do a head-scissors takedown if near the proper environment. Will perform a release German Suplex as a noisy take down in Predator gameplay.
Arkham Asylum/City Inmates
Harley Quinn/Harleen Quinzel
Voiced by: Arleen Sorkin in Arkham Asylum, Tara Strong in Arkham City, Arkham Origins and Arkham Knight
- 0% Approval Rating: None of the Joker's Mooks are happy that she has taken over. Once Joker dies, they say she has become even crazier than he was.
- Ax Crazy: Following the end of Arkham City, a psychiatrist says, in his professional opinion, that she has "completely lost it" following The Joker's death. Her own mooks agree. Her Stalker Shrine to him kind of proves them right.
- Baby Got Back: Given how she switched to a biker chick outfit in Arkham City complete with tight leather pants, she gets more than a few scenes that go out of their way to focus on her ass.
- Bad Bad Acting: In contrast with her original origin story, in which she did sound professional, her interview tapes have her speaking in the same tone of voice as her Harley Quinn persona, whilst trying to maintain her status as an Arkham psychiatrist.
- Bare Your Midriff: Her outfits in Arkham Asylum and Arkham City bared her belly, while she appears to be a bit more covered up in Arkham Knight. This doesn't come up at all in Arkham Origins due to her still being a psychiatrist.
- Big Bad: Of Batman: Arkham City's "Harley Quinn's Revenge" Downloadable Content.
- Bound and Gagged: Talia managed to find her and take the cure from her before she could get it to Joker. It seems she decided to leave her this way afterwards. If the player finds her, they can have fun gagging and ungagging her and listening to her reactions.
- Critical Psychoanalysis Failure: The tapes of her "curing" the Joker. The first of her tapes though is her applying for the job, where she says she's so fascinated by the powerful villains that end up in Arkham. And Arkham still hired her. Presumably because all competent Doctors recognized the pattern and applied for jobs anywhere else, and because she was probably competent during her time in Blackgate.
- Curb Stomp Battle: Her attempt to fight Batman after all her Mooks were taken out in Arkham Asylum ended with one move on Batman's part, and her first appearance in Arkham City goes much the same way.
- Cutscene Boss: Less so in "Harley Quinn's Revenge" though, where Robin at least has to take some effort in order to take her down, akin to Catwoman fighting Two-Face.
- Dark Action Girl: In the comic, we see her take out Arkham guards with as much skill as the playable characters, and she's able to trade more blows with Robin than her goons could.
- Death Seeker: Became one after Joker's death in an attempt to be with him in the afterlife. Her plot in "Harley Quinn's Revenge" was an attempt to at least attempt Revenge by Proxy to make Batman suffer, at most an attempt to take him with her.
- Determined Widow: A villainous version as of the end of Batman: Arkham City, even calling herself a widow to one of her new mooks in "Harley Quinn's Revenge". Granted, her goal isn't very long-lasting, but she is far more proactive and effective (against Robin, anyway) than she was previously. Now in Arkham Knight, she still seems to have control over Joker's gang.
- The Ditz: Lampshaded by Batman himself in both games: "She never was very bright." in Arkham Asylum and repeated but with "smart" in Arkham City. The Riddler also repeatedly calls her an idiot, as do her own Mooks.
- Domino Mask: First game only.
- The Dragon: To The Joker.
- Dragon Ascendant: Although Joker is still the leader of the gang, she has to run the gang until he recovers. After Joker's death, she becomes the full leader of the gang. It's also implied that the gang under her leadership had actually decreased its popularity, with a lot of them considering defection from the group.
- Dumb Blonde: Though she does have her smart moments, such as being able to successfully kill Doctor Young with a hidden bomb after Batman saves her from Zsasz.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: In the DLC "Harley Quinn's Revenge", she actually becomes a lot more evil than before, and apparently, she either let her natural brunette haircolor out, or she dyed it black. It's back to blond in Arkham Knight though.
- Girlish Pigtails: Her trademark hairstyle.
- Goth: Her new look in the "Harley Quinn's Revenge" DLC for the second game.
- Hand Cannon: Sports an absolutely massive one in "Harley Quinn's Revenge" that seems to operate like a one-handed Grenade Launcher. Batman Taking the Bullet for a cop she's trying to kill with it is how he's knocked out and captured.
- Hot Mom: Except implied to not be by "Harley Quinn's Revenge" and the "false positives" note and confirmed later by Rocksteady.
- I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You: To the point of a Running Gag. She does this in both games and in the "Harley Quinn's Revenge" DLC for the second game. At least in the latter case one of her Mooks has the decency to tell her that she did so.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Usually the result, whether finding it out on her own or being told by a Mook.
- Let's Get Dangerous: You thought she was bad in the second game? Wait until you see her in the upcoming DLC "Harley Quinn's Revenge", as she gets even worse.
- Mad Love: She volunteered to interview The Joker because she was fascinated with him, and fell in love with him during their interviews. If what one of the mooks in Batman: Arkham City stated is true, apparently, the Mad Love evolved into Happily Married. She even says she is a "widow" in "Harley Quinn's Revenge".
- Ms. Fanservice: Par for the course for Harley.
- Multicolored Hair: The tips of her pigtails for her Arkham City design are colored black and red, whilst the rest is her traditional blonde.
- Naughty Nurse Outfit: Her outfit in the first game. Her outfit in Arkham Knight combines this with her biker outfit in Arkham City.
- Of Corsets Sexy: All of her outfits in the series have one, and her character profile in the first game depicts her traditional jester look as having one too.
- Perky Female Minion: Wouldn't be Harley otherwise.
- Promoted to Playable: Is set to receive her own challenge maps in Arkham Knight.
- Psycho Psychologist: She was the therapist for the Joker and ended up falling completely in love with him, quickly becoming his sidekick.
- Revenge: Her motivation towards Batman after Joker's death.
- Someone to Remember Him By: Villainous example. By the end of Arkham City, Joker's dead... and Harley has a positive pregnancy test.
- Subverted in "Harley Quinn's Revenge". There are many objects used for pregnancy tests in a room with Scarface in a crib painted like The Joker. They all show negatives, and a box for one of them says that it is possible to get a false positive on the test.
- Taking You with Me: Her ultimate plan for Batman in her DLC. Barring that, she wants him to know the pain of losing a loved one, in this case Robin.
- Took a Level in Badass: Comes off as a lot more competent in the second game, since she's managing all of Joker's goons while he's inactive. She's also worlds ahead of her portrayal in the TV Series and comics, with the result that overheard conversations between mooks suggest she frightens them almost as much as the Joker: some claim that she's even crazier than he is, and suggest that one of her roles in both Arkham Asylum and Arkham City involves torturing and/or killing the Joker's less efficient minions. Oh, and that's not even getting into her DLC in the second game "Harley Quinn's Revenge". Not to mention her getting her own DLC campaign in Arkham Knight.
- Unholy Matrimony: With the Joker of course!
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: Where she keeps Joker's "party list" in the first game, and the key to Batman's cage in the "Harley Quinn's Revenge" DLC for the second game.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: She doesn't take kindly to people harming "Mistah J", to say the least.
- Woman Scorned: She's back in "Harley Quinn's Revenge", and she's definitely not fooling around this time around.
Killer Croc/Waylon Jones
Voiced by: Steve Blum in Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, Khary Payton in Arkham Origins.
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: His "cell" in Arkham is one of these, located deep underneath the Asylum. Of course, given how big Croc is, it'd have to be. He also lurks in Arkham City's humongous sewer during the time that game takes place.
- Abusive Parents: He's noted to have suffered a lot of abuse under his cruel aunt as a boy.
- Axe Crazy: Due to his condition, his mind becomes more savage and animalistic as the years go by.
- Bald of Evil: Has no hair thanks to his genetic condition.
- Bizarre Human Biology: His backstories place him at suffering from a form of "regressive atavism", meaning he has inherited traits of pre-human species.
- The Brute: Usually tends to be used as brute force by whoever is hiring him.
- Demoted to Extra: In Arkham City, he gets a brief cameo where he can only be seen at a particular time. Unless you do a specific thing in the sewers at a specific point in the game, he won't even show up at all. That is unless you have the Iceberg Lounge challenge map where you can see him enjoying a scotch and cigar at one of the tables.
- The Dreaded: In Arkham Asylum, pretty much everyone from the staff to the Blackgate thugs are completely terrified by him, and he's built up as a serious threat for a good portion of the game. Even in Arkham City where he has much less of a presence, the Arkham City inmates are unnerved by rumors that he's lurking in the sewers...
- Fangs Are Evil: His razor-sharp teeth are quite fearsome, to say the least.
- Freudian Excuse: As much of a monster as the guy is figuratively and literally, a lot of his savage behavior is due to his genetic condition also affecting his brain, causing him to behave quite like a feral animal. Add in the fact that everyone treats him like some sort of abomination, and it's hard not to see why he became the way he is nowadays.
- Guttural Growler: Has a very raspy, monstrous tone of voice that helps sell how much of a literal beast the guy is.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Croc is explicitly mentioned as having eaten people in the past, and during the game, tries to eat Scarecrow and Batman when they encounter one another in his lair. During his patient interview, Dr. Gretchen Whistler doesn't believe him about this particular aspect... he later proves her wrong when he bites off and swallows Cash's hand right in front of her. Although numerous characters believe he doesn't qualify as human.
- Jump Scare: When you try opening the door to his lair in the sewer tunnels before you're supposed to, he suddenly SLAMS right into the door out of nowhere. His brief appearance in Arkham City also involves one.
- Lightning Bruiser: Despite his size, he can move frighteningly quickly.
- Lizard Folk: Sort of.
- Never Smile At a Crocodile: He's Killer Croc, after all.
- The Nose Knows:
- As part of his... "condition", he seems to have heightened senses. The most frequently mentioned being his sense of smell.
- In Arkham City, he can actually tell that Batman's dying from the Joker's disease just from his scent.
- Restraining Bolt: How he is kept under control during his treatment at the Asylum: he has an electric collar attached round his neck which can be remotely used to give him shocks in order to get him to cooperate. This actually becomes crucial to Batman surviving his encounter with Croc in his lair, as hitting the collar with Batarangs (giving Croc an automatic shock) is the only thing that will stop him from getting overpowered and eaten when Croc charges out of the water.
- Scary Black Man: Well... formerly black (and from a certain point of view, formerly a man), but definitely scary.
- Serial Killer: He is responsible for the "disappearance" of hundreds of Gotham vagrants.
- Took a Level in Badass: Chronologically at least. Back when Batman was still a rookie superhero in Arkham Origins, he's able to defeat Croc handily in their first battle back when Croc wasn't quite as monstrous as he is now. Come Arkham Asylum, Batman can only run from him or temporarily stun him by attacking his shock collar because due to Croc's larger size and heavily improved strength, taking him on directly is suicide.
- Villains Out Shopping: He shows up in the VIP section of the Iceberg Lounge challenge map as a Funny Background Event, drinking a glass of brandy and smoking a cigar.
- Warmup Boss: Is this in Arkham Origins as he's the first of Black Mask's assassins who tries to take down Batman.
Victor Zsasz
Voiced by: Danny Jacobs
- Ax Crazy: Dear GOD.
- Bad Liar: Although he hypes himself up as a deliverer of lost souls, there are several times during his phone calls where he expresses regret at not being a better gambler or anger at the Penguin for cheating him out of his money. His breakdown about the mark being "the only thing (he) has left" further proves this.
- Bald of Evil: After shaving his head.
- Blond Guys Are Evil: He's technically this as if he let his hair grow back, it would be blond.
- Covered with Scars: That he made himself.
- Dirty Coward: His behavior during the story of the first game definitely has shades of this, as he absolutely refuses to confront Batman physically on his own, opting to take a hostage during both of their encounters. Given that he seems capable of killing guards with relative ease, though, it's more likely that he's aware of his limitations.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: He starts moaning in anticipation when preparing to kill Dr. Young. He also behaves this way in Arkham City to his captives when you're sneaking around in his hideout.
- Evil Phone: His Sidequest involves a number of them, through which he delivers his sick Motive Rants.
- Freudian Excuse: Averted, as he tries to invoke this during his phone calls with Batman by trying to make him appear pitiable and that he needs to kill due to his insanity. However, a quick visit in his lair proves that the psycho enjoys what he does to people as he's boasting to his captives about how slowly and painfully he's going to kill them, showing that at heart he's a just a monster who kills for fun.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Just like his comics counterpart, he has a collection of tally scorings, that he carved into his own skin, that cover almost his entire body. His design in the game seems to be intended to show this off as much as possible.
- Knife Nut: Expect him to be carrying a knife whenever he shows up.
- Madness Mantra: During his fourth interview tape, Zsasz is apparently huddled in a corner eerily whispering to himself.
- "Cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting..."
- Psychopathic Manchild: Dr. Young's notes state that Zsasz has an I.Q. of 78, and it's implied that the Riddler is providing him technical assistance to carry out his phone murder scheme in Arkham City.
- Serial Killer: Of the "Power/Control" type, according to Dr. Young's notes.
- Shadow Archetype: He claims his life reached a turning point when his wealthy parents died, leaving him with lots of money but lost and alone in the world, and a desire to find some purpose to live for. Just like Bruce Wayne back then, except that Bruce didn't find his purpose in killing people.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: Has a very gentle, whispery sounding voice that only serves to make him creepier than he already is.
- Stalker Without a Crush: Doesn't appear to have a sexual fixation on Dr. Cassidy in his interview tapes, but he ends up revealing that he knows everything about her day to day routine, which understandably terrifies her and causes her to take a vacation.
- Tattooed Crook: A lot more noticeable in the concept art.
- Unusual Euphemism: Piggies, which is what he refers to his victims as.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: He's never seen wearing a shirt.
The Riddler/Edward Nigma
Voiced by: Wally Wingert
- Abusive Parents: He mentions that his dad was an abusive asshole who would beat him regularly.
- Attention Whore: His character bio mentions that he has a compulsive need for attention.
- Bad Boss: In the second game, he replaces Joker as the commentator during the Predator and Combat side missions. He's just as abusive to the Mooks as Joker was in the first game.
- Berserk Button:
- He does not appreciate Batman being called a hero, or anyone besting him intellectually (particularly Batman).
- Also does not like to be called insane, as it infers he has a mental illness or deficiency.
- Being called a cheater. Even when he does actually cheat.
- Break the Haughty: Gets hit by this in all of his appearances, to the point of it being a Running Gag.
- The Cracker: Playing the Alternate Reality Game reveals that he's the one who compromised Arkham's security, paving the way for Joker's takeover, and he hacks into Batman's headset in both games. He slides into Playful Hacker territory when he calls Hugo just to talk.
- Death Trap: In Arkham City, he kidnaps people and puts them in these for Batman to attempt to rescue by solving riddles and puzzles.
- Electronic Speech Impediment: In Arkham City, whenever talking to anyone remotely, his transmissions are constantly distorting and stuttering, in a distinctly SHODAN-like manner.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: His reason for believing that Batman is just like any other criminal? "No one's that selfless". He even firmly believes the only way he could afford all of his gadgets is a theory that Batman robs the criminals he captures and pays off Gordon to look the other way.
- Evil Genius: While he may not be as smart as he thinks he is, he's still a pretty intelligent guy when it comes down to it given his knack for placing trophies in hard to find areas as well as his complicated storage devices for them in Arkham City.
- Fingerless Gloves: To go along with his rougher look in this incarnation.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Is shown to wear a set of shades that wouldn't look out of place as a part of Elton John's ensemble in Arkham City.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Once Batman solves all riddles, the Riddler puts bombs on hostages, which blow up if they stop moving at all, and forces them to walk around the room endlessly. After saving those hostages and subduing the Riddler, Batman puts the bombs on the Riddler and force him to walk around the room instead. Even though Batman and others know that the bombs are deactivated, they just let the Riddler suffer. It's immensely satisfying.
- Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: Most people, in his humble opinion.
- Insufferable Genius: One of his defining characteristics as he never shuts up about how much smarter he is than other people.
- It's All About Me: Calling him egotistical would be putting it lightly.
- Mood Swinger: Dr. Young claims that his "tantrums" have compromised numerous therapy sessions, and based on what we can hear, she's right.
- Narcissist: Very self-absorbed and obsessed with stroking his ego and trying to outsmart Batman whenever he can.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed:
- It's likely unintentional, but in Arkham City, he bears an uncanny resemblance to Stephen Merchant.
- In Arkham Asylum, his artwork makes him heavily resemble Neil Patrick Harris. His voice in all the games also sounds pretty similar to him.
- And in Arkham Knight, many fans have compared his appearance to Charlie Sheen. This seems to be a recurring thing for Riddler.
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: When not outright insulting others, he'll often engage in this as a form of criticism.
- Psychopathic Manchild: He wants to turn Arkham City into his personal playground.
- Smug Smiler: It's almost his default expression.
- Smug Snake: He is so arrogant and self-absorbed, but it makes it so much more satisfying to take him down.
- Social Darwinist: Or so he claims.
- Troll: Riddler loves to troll everybody, including other super villains.
- Villainous Breakdown: In the first game, he gets more and more unhinged as Batman slowly solves all of his riddles. In the second game, it happens as Batman locates and rescues more hostages.
- Voice with an Internet Connection: For the first game; he makes a physical appearance in Arkham City.
The Scarecrow/Jonathan Crane
Voiced by: Dino Andrade in Arkham Asylum, John Noble in Arkham Knight
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Appears as a building-sized version of himself during Batman's hallucinations. Getting seen by him ends badly.
- Badass Baritone: His new voice actor is John Noble, so he sounds suitably badass and gruff.
- Big Bad: Is set to appear as this in Arkham Knight! He's had Gotham City evacuated under fear of having bombs full of fear gas detonated, and seems to have gotten Batman's bigger foes to team up so they can all take him down.
- Body Horror: His encounter with Croc seriously left him worse to wear as the Arkham Knight trailer shows. He's blind in one eye, the skin on his face as well as his lips seem to have been completely torn off, and he seems to be on some sort of life-support system.
- Deadly Doctor: Especially since this doctor loves to drive people insane by exposing them to their biggest fears.
- Evil Genius: He's a psychologist and biochemist turned villain.
- Evil Gloating: Subjects Batman to constant mockery during the latter's fear gas hallucinations.
- Evil Laugh: Gives a rather impressive one during the stealth parts of his segments.
- Giggling Villain: He boasts a rather impressive chortle.
- Hannibal Lecture: His patient interviews constitute a extended one on fear, and how it drives the human condition.
- He's Just Hiding: In-universe: several of the inmates speculate that Scarecrow was killed by Killer Croc during the events of the first game, but there was evidence (such as The Stinger in the first game, as well as his gas mask being found near hay as part of a riddle by the Riddler in the second game) that he actually survived.
- Batman can find a boat in the Arkham City harbor full of fear toxin, documents in Crane's name, and a near-catatonic inmate tied to a chair. Scarecrow definitely set up shop at some point. The numbers stations you can listen to via the cryptographic sequencer also hint at his return.
- And then of course, he does return, to be the main antagonist of the grand finale Batman: Arkham Knight. It's not every day that dear old Jonathan Crane gets such a serious upgrade in badassery.
- In the Hood: Always wears a hood as a part of his wardrobe.
- Know When to Fold'Em: When Batman gets over a large dose of his Toxin, Crane wisely makes a break for it.
- Lean and Mean: He looks borderline anorexic!
- Level in Boss Clothing: In both Arkham Asylum and in Arkham Knight's Nightmare Missions.
- Mad Scientist: How else could he have created his fear toxin?
- Manipulative Bastard: In a rather impressive move, he managed to charm Dr. Young into thinking that he was both sane and innocent, and that he might qualify for a job as a researcher in the Titan Progam.
- Mind Rape: His specialty.
- Playing with Syringes: Wears a glove where each finger is tipped with one.
- Psycho Psychologist
- Scary Scarecrow: His general motif.
- Sinister Scythe: Holds one in his profile. Artwork also shows he could have had one in game as well.
Bane
Voiced by: Fred Tatasciore in Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, J.B. Blanc in Arkham Origins
- Badass: Made clear in Arkham Origins where he isn't quite hopped up on Venom and Titan as he proves to be quite the deadly adversary for Batman.
- Badass Baritone: Both Fred Tatasciore and J.B. Blanc give him a rather deep, impressive sounding voice.
- Badass Spaniard: More like a Badass South American, but it still works.
- Blood Knight: He absolutely loves to fight, and even set up an underground fighting ring within Arkham City where he allows willing combatants to fight each other to the death with the grand prize of facing off against him. And in the climax of Arkham Origins, he's more than happy to go to his death in a fight against Batman if it means making him break his one rule.
- Body Horror: When Batman and Gordon come across him in the first game, Dr. Young had the Venom compound completely drained from his blood, leaving him bone-thin and gasping for breath. Then Joker injects him with an experimental dose of the Titan formula, bulking him up to a far greater degree than his Venom usually allows.
- This first happens in Arkham Origins where he looks like a normal albeit-heavily built man for most of the game, but turns into a hulking monstrosity once pumping himself full of TN-1.
- The Dragon: Seems to serve as this for Joker in Arkham Origins, as he's the final assassin left standing after the night, and directly helps with taking over Blackgate Prison.
- Easy Amnesia: It's pretty convenient that TN-1 induces it on the consumer, causing him to forget Batman's secret identity.
- Enemy Mine: He forms a temporary alliance with Batman to destroy the caches of Titan stashed all over Arkham City. But he really just wants it all for himself.
- Final Boss: Serves as the final boss of Arkham Origins over at Blackgate Prison.
- Genius Bruiser: While there were hints to this in Arkham City, it really comes out in Origins when he's able to deduce Batman's identity and ends up attacking Wayne Manor, almost killing Alfred in the process. Even when he's become a near mindless screaming beast after overdosing on TN-1, he's still smart enough to jam Batman's detective vision as the fight goes on.
- Gratuitous Spanish:
- Refers to Dr. Young as "the bruja" (meaning "witch"), but otherwise speaks (or rather shouts) English in the rest of his dialogue.
- Subverted in the comic, where his only spoken line is in Spanish, but his thoughts are in English.
- Mercy Kill: Bane ends up having to do this to a Joker henchman laced with the Titan formula who had Bane at his mercy because the henchman in question was suffering from a cardiac arrest and experiencing a very painful death.
- One-Winged Angel: He usually looks like an emaciated, scrawny man when not pumped up on Venom, but will hulk out to monstrous proportions once exposed to it, the effects are even worse on Titan. This is played up well during the final boss fight in Arkham Origins.
- Ungrateful Bastard: He gets pissed off after Batman restarts his heart after shutting it off with the Electrocutioner's gauntlets as a way to exploit a loophole in his no-killing rule. Bane hulks out and tries to kill him.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: If the digital graphic novel prequel to Arkham City are anything to go by, Bane might want to destroy the source of Titan by any means necessary. But the end of his sidequest reveals he only wanted the Titan for himself, not to destroy it. Of course, Batman already knew from the start.
Poison Ivy/Pamela Isley
Voiced by: Tasia Valenza
- Bare Your Midriff: Wears a mostly unbuttoned prisoner's shirt which exposes this and a whole lot of cleavage.
- Bi the Way: Hinted at given how she blows a kiss to Harley after being freed from her imprisonment.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Induces this on Arkham Asylum's staff as well as various thugs and TYGER guards in Arkham City as a means to have some protection.
- Climax Boss: Her boss fight happens after Joker's entire plan has been revealed and the island is going down the crapper even further due to her Titan-induced rampage. And she's fittingly difficult to boot.
- Demoted to Extra: While she does have an obvious base of operations in Arkham City, it's not only inaccessible but she keeps to herself and isn't seen in the main game at all. You can only see her during Catwoman's missions if her DLC is installed.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- She tries to kill Catwoman for forgetting to water some plants she was looking after. Though this is Ivy we're talking about here. To her, all plants' lives are as precious, if not more than, a person's. From her perspective, Catwoman allowed some of her children to starve to death. It's natural she'd be a wee bit peeved.
- If you visit her as Catwoman after completing the game, Catwoman blames Strange for the death of the last plant (which she actually killed out of spite). Ivy swears vengeance on all of humanity.
- Does Not Like Shoes: Never seems to wear them, though it's justified given the fact that she wants to be as close to nature as she can.
- Even Evil Has Standards: She didn't support Joker's rebellion, and also initially requested for Batman to stop Joker and his plans because of the negative affects on her plants. This attitude only changed after she got hopped up on Titan courtesy of Joker.
- Evil Redhead: One of her defining features to the point where "Red" is Catwoman's go-to nickname for her.
- Gaia's Vengeance: Seeing as she has plant powers and all.
- Green Eyed Red Head: Her eyes even seem to glow green for this incarnation. Although that's a common effect of being infected with Titan.
- Green Thumb: Has a natural affinity for plants thanks to her powers.
- Heel Face Turn: Attempted one by opening up a flower shop. However, as she continued to see humanity destroying the environment, she couldn't take it anymore and killed a customer who came into her shop to buy flowers for his wife after having cheated on her.
- Mama Bear: She does not appreciate her plants being harmed.
- Misanthrope Supreme: Identifying with plants more than animals, she despises humans.
- Ms. Fanservice: Given that she's a sexy green-skinned, red-headed woman wearing only an unbuttoned shirt exposing her stomach and cleavage, uses leaves that form a set of boyshorts for panties, and has a sexy voice as well as flirtatious mannerisms reminiscent of a succubus, this is to be expected. Justified though as she plays this up as a way to kill humans by seducing them.
- Pet the Dog: While she hates humans for the most part, she is genuinely fond of Harley Quinn and blows her a kiss for breaking her out of her containment area in Arkham Asylum.
- Stripperiffic: Her "patient uniform" consists of nothing but a single red shirt, held together at cleavage level by only two buttons, and panties made of leaves.
- The Vamp: She's basically a succubus with an affinity for plants.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Unfortunately, her intentions in stopping the Joker's plans failed when she realised her plants were growing stronger as a result of the Titan formula.
Scarface
Voiced by: Mark Hamill
- The Cameo: In both games.
- Demonic Dummy: Hinted to be this, though as per usual for Scarface it's kept ambiguous.
Clayface/Basil Karlo
Voiced by: Rick D. Wasserman (as Clayface), Tom Kane (as Commissioner Gordon and Quincy Sharp), Duane R. Shepard Sr. (as Aaron Cash), Mark Hamill (as Joker)
- Ascended Extra: Goes from a cameo in the first game where he doesn't actually have his own model, to the Final Boss of the second.
- Asteroids Monster
- Body Double/The Dragon: To the Joker in the second game.
- Doing It for the Art: In-universe: the reason he's working for the Joker in the second game; apparently, impersonating the Clown Prince of Crime was "The Role of a Lifetime!".
- Elemental Shapeshifter: He's a walking mountain of mud, and can use his powers for shapeshifting or brute strength.
- Final Boss: In the second game.
- Flunky Boss: The second round of the fight against him has him reduced to a puddle and sending parts of himself in humanoid form to attack Batman.
- For the Lulz:
- Given that he didn't seem too disappointed at Batman recognising him in the first game, coupled with the burst of laughter, it's likely that he was playing for cheap laughs.
- Patient notes on Clayface reveal that he has a habit of transforming into Dr. Young during her attempts to interview him, apparently just for the sake of annoying her.
- Godzilla Threshold: Aside from Solomon Grundy, he is the only enemy Batman uses lethal force on. He goes really damn far with Clayface, slicing him into pieces and ripping him apart from the inside out.
- Graceful Loser: If Clayface is found out while he's still disguised as Warden Sharp or Aaron Cash, he politely congratuates Batman. As Commissioner Gordon, he only laughs tauntingly.
- Green Lantern Ring: With shapeshifting, it's a given.
- Humanoid Abomination: When disguised as someone.
- Jiggle Physics: His entire body in general tends to wobble and jiggle a lot, especially noticeable in his game over screens.
- Large Ham: Not only does he ham it up in his boss fight, his game over taunts are quite over-the-top. Justified as he used to be an actor.
- Lightning Bruiser: Despite being the largest character in the series and looking like mobile sludge, he will relentlessly attack and leap across the stage as you attempt to fend off his attacks. Even though the Freeze Blasts come out very quickly, it's difficult to get more than one or two in between his attacks.
- Literally Shattered Lives: It actually does some damage, relative to everything else.
- Nigh Invulnerable: Batman has pretty much one gadget with enough firepower to dent him: Freeze Blasts. Even then, it takes a truly staggering amount to slow him down, and about double that plus a lot of swording him in the face to do any significant harm.
- Rolling Attack: Will use this against Batman in the boss battle, though players can trick Clayface into smashing into some nearby explosives if they wish to.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: And he stays that way throughout the first game. Not so much in the second game.
- Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: He attempts to impersonate Gordon and Cash in the hopes that Batman will let him out of his cell. It doesn't work.
- Shapeshifter Weapon:
- Sizeshifter: While he can convincingly pass for a human, his true form is that of a hulking monster made of mud and clay.
- Slowly Whittle It Down With Ice Grenades and Fiery Explosions
- Spot the Thread: Scanning him with Detective Vision reveals he has no bones, no matter what form he's taken. Also, if you pay very close attention, "Healthy Joker" is slightly less wacky than the real deal. Not to mention that you can scan "Healthy Joker" with Detective Vision during his boss fight.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Over the course of his boss fight, he gets blown up several times, frozen and chopped into small pieces, ripped apart from the inside out, and then finally thrown into the molten Lazarus Pit. It's still unknown if he died or not.
- True Final Boss
- Up to Eleven: The largest humanoid boss in the series, and a candidate for the fastest. Also necessitates the most extensive beatdown.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: His whole gimmick focuses on this.
- Walking Spoiler: Hoo boy. It's almost impossible to go into detail about what he does in Arkham City without completely spoiling Joker's Body Double gambit.
Two-Face/Harvey Dent
Voiced by: Troy Baker
- Advertised Extra: He shows up in the first mission and as the True Final Boss of Catwoman's story. And that's it, so basically he's there only for the very beginning and very end of the plot, mostly because all the other villains are more pressing worries. Mitigated somewhat by the fact that his gang controls larger and larger territory as the game progresses.
- Ascended Extra: He's been shown to be teaming up with Harley Quinn and Penguin in the upcoming Arkham Knight, as most of Batman's enemies are confirmed to be teaming up to take him down which means that he could end up with a bigger role than before.
- Arch Enemy: Serves as this to Catwoman.
- Badass Baritone: Courtesy of Troy Baker.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Although it's a subtle and non-depressing variation. Two-Face was the underdog of the game at the start, but by the end of the story, he's more or less seized control of at least Park Row and the Bowery. He's in hiding after Catwoman's story is finished, but that's better than Penguin and Joker are doing.
- Benevolent Boss: It's hinted that he legitimately cares for his henchmen unlike the Joker and Penguin, as he intended to bolster the morale of his troops after becoming leader. Likewise, when listening to the recruiters at the beginning. Two-Face's way of testing the recruits is simply having them fight each other until only some are left standing. Those who stand are in, those who aren't can come back later and try again. Penguin, meanwhile, threatens his own men harshly over the radio, and Joker has new recruits killed on random days just because. Not only that, but even his henchmen seem to have much better attitudes with him as their boss. At the very beginning of the game, if you listen to the mooks messing with Jack Ryder, they'll mention how lucky he is he ran into them, since Penguin or Joker's thugs would have probably tortured him to death, or worse, brought him before their boss. They just want to break in the new fish, which as far as normal prison behavior goes, and compared to the sadistic behavior of the criminals under the other two super villains employ, isn't all that bad as it's more or less violent hazing.
- Big Bad: Of Catwoman's story, anyway. Even then, he's only relevant for the very first and final chapters.
- Big Bad Wannabe: He is the first villain Batman "fights" (not counting Bruce Wayne's brief run-in with the Penguin) and his gang spends the aftermath on the backfoot against Penguin and Joker's goons. They only rise to prominence because Batman is forced to prioritize the other two villains first, so while Two-Face wins the gang war and becomes the most powerful inmate in Arkham City by the end of the game, it's only because he wasn't that big a threat in the first place. He's also the least challenging to fight, albeit partly because the other two have Mr. Hammer and Sickle as lieutenants along with Solomon Grundy and Clayface throwing some legitimate boss-fights, plus some Titan canisters. He's one of the last prisoners to be incarcerated, so all the best territory, Mooks, and resources have already been taken. Of the three gang leaders, he's the least imaginative and ambitious, so even when he gets a huge amount of power in Arkham City, he doesn't do much to form any area in his own image or clean out Joker and Penguin's remaining forces.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Two-Face (or rather, the good half of him) is reluctant to kill Catwoman immediately, as they are in a courtroom, which is a place of justice. He also appears to be the nicest of the three super-criminal gang bosses and treats his henchmen a lot better (one incident aside) than the other two.
- Guttural Growler: His evil half has a distinctive growling voice.
- Joker Jury: He subjects Catwoman to one at the start of the second game... With her tied up and hanging over a tank of acid. Ironically, he chose this because the good side of the coin went up. If it hadn't, he would have simply shot her point-blank.
- The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: As noted above, his good and evil halves debate whether they should execute Catwoman immediately or hold a trial for her (the evil and good halves supporting the respective actions).
- Numerological Motif: As one would expect, he's obsessed with the concept of duality and the number two.
- Redemption Rejection: Hugo Strange, of all people, offers to do whatever he can to cure Two-Face if he simply refuses to catch his coin when Strange flips it into the air, or tell him where Catwoman is and what she is doing if he does catch it. Two-Face sounds torn over what to do, but ultimately catches the coin. Strange is rather disappointed by the choice.
- Shut Up, Kirk:
Two-Face: OBJECTION! (shoots Batman) Overruled.
- Split Personality: As one would expect from him.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch: "Two guns, bitch!" Really, 50% of his dialogue towards Catwoman invokes this. He really hates her.
- Two-Faced: The Trope Namer himself.
Penguin/Oswald Cobblepot
Voiced by Nolan North
- Asshole Victim: He suffers a lot of violence at the hands of Batman, whether it's having his hand broken and getting punched out right after that, being uppercut off of a balcony, having the tar beaten out of him by Batman at Mach ten, having Mr. Freeze stomp on his broken hand (and keep in mind, Freeze's boot had spikes on it), and end up shoved into one of his display cases. And all of it is completely deserved.
- Bad Boss: He lets some of his goons know that Batman is coming for them... and laughs about it. Shortly after, he has all the bridges detonated to slow Batman down, and doesn't give a crap that this puts several of his men at the mercy of the Joker's crew. In addition, one of the mooks says in the Penguin's debut trailer "You think the Joker's bad? Wait until Penguin deals with him! Penguin's an animal", which carries the implication that he's even worse of a boss than even The Joker, the latter of whom is definitely no saint in terms of being a boss.
- Bald of Evil: Balding of Evil technically, but you get the picture.
- Big Eater: During his appearance in Assault on Arkham, he's chowing down on a plate stacked pretty damn high with raw fish.
- Break the Haughty: Spends a lot of time as smug as can be, but is consistently humiliated and beaten until he's been trapped in one of his museum cases.
- Bullying a Dragon: The first thing he does onscreen in Arkham City is have Bruce Wayne knocked out and dragged over to his headquarters to be executed. Of course given that this is Batman, he gets his hand broken and is also knocked out for his trouble. Even worse for him, he was completely showed up by a guy in handcuffs!
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Penguin freezes a cop's hand and smashed it with a hammer while using a P.A. system to let Batman hear the whole thing. It's heavily implied that he does this with the captive Precinct 13 policemen frequently, as well.
- Collector of the Strange: He's got a lot of strange stuff in that museum of his.
- Demoted to Extra: His appearance in Arkham Origins is a small one, as he simply keeps to himself on his ship hideout and wouldn't have even have had to face Batman if he hadn't been suspected for murder. He does get a role in the "Cold, Cold Heart" DLC... but still plays second fiddle to Boyle and Mr. Freeze.
- The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: Suppose the player decides to not knock out Penguin and leave him at the gate. The game has Penguin shout about how he always knew that Bruce was a coward just for that occasion.
- Dirty Coward: Penguin almost comes off as a classical bully: he acts all high and mighty when he has the high ground, but whenever he loses any advantages he has he's reduced to a pathetic, apologetic wreck of a man. This is apparent any time Batman corners him, him hiding whenever Two-Face takes over his museum, and going from antagonistic to apologetic towards Catwoman in a split second after she threatens him with violent retaliation.
- Evil Brit: Played with. His bio says he grew up in London, but wasn't necessarily born there.
- Eye Scream: That monocle is not a monocle. It's the bottom half of a beer bottle shoved into his eye. According to Penguin, he got it in a bar fight, and aside from him liking it (giving him a "unique look"), he also implies that the doctors told him it was impossible to remove, even if he did try to pay for it.
- Fat Bastard: He claims to have laughed about the death of Bruce's parents for weeks, saying that it couldn't have happened to nicer people. All in all, he's just unpleasant in general.
- Feuding Families: The Cobblepots and the Waynes apparently did not get along very well, and he also seems to blame the Waynes for his family being financially ruined.
- Funny Background Event: When he sends his goons after you in his "initiation" pit, he accidentally(?) whacks one of his lieutenants in the groin with his umbrella.
- Groin Attack: If you look closely when Penguin says to the psychopathic inmates "Come on out, lads! It's initiation time!", you'll notice that while gesturing, he whacks one of his mooks in the family jewels with his umbrella.
- High-Class Glass: Subverted. See Eye Scream above.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: "Enjoy the copsicle!" (referring to one of the cops frozen by the Ice Gun that Penguin stole from Mr. Freeze).
- Jabba Table Manners: In the prequel comic.
- Jerkass: Is this and a whole lot more.
- Kick the Dog: He killed and stuffed Joker's pet hyenas. Also, it is heavily implied in both a story and an interview tape that he used the raving lunatics from the previous game as live targets for his mooks' weapons.
- Known Only By Their Nickname: Inverted: aside from bios and a few mooks, he's referred to by his real name more often than to his nickname.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Penguin has a collection of people, with separate display cases for Batman and Bruce Wayne. When Batman defeated him, Mr. Freeze locked Penguin up in one of his own display stands (more specifically, the Bruce Wayne exhibit), after adding more pain to his broken hand by stepping on it.
- London Gangster: This Penguin is closer to a Ray Winstone-style thug with delusions of grandeur, complete with East-End accent, than his usual depiction.
- Mister Big: See The Napoleon below.
- Mugging the Monster: This is the reason why Penguin's left hand was in a cast as well as broken: Penguin, when meeting up with Bruce Wayne, tells him that Bruce's family destroyed his, and puts on brass knuckles, referring to them as "Good, old fashioned revenge" before trying to punch Bruce... only for Bruce to suddenly grab his hand and twist it behind Penguin's back.
- The Napoleon: Strange even asks him if he's familiar with the term "Napoleon Complex".
- Never My Fault: His interview tapes with Strange reveal that Penguin constantly blames the Waynes and Batman for the failures caused by the poor decisions of his ancestors and himself.
- Sinister Schnoz: Not as much as other incarnations, but it's still there.
- Smug Snake: He is very egotistical.
- Took a Level in Badass: For many Batman fans, this was the game that finally made them take Oswald seriously.
- Wicked Cultured: Subverted, but he'd tell you otherwise.
Solomon Grundy
Voiced by: Fred Tatasciore
- Body Horror
- The Dragon: To the Penguin.
- Frankenstein's Monster: Appears to have traits of this.
- Hulk Speak: When he speaks, it's in very few words.
- Our Zombies Are Different: In this case, he's an immortal, electrically powered revenant who recites a children's rhyme.
- Reviving Enemy: Twice even. Justified, as he's a zombie.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Grundy's body is eventually set on fire and burned by the electric currents powering him during the course of his boss fight. Then, Batman finishes Grundy by punching his heart out.
Talia al Ghul
Voiced by: Stana Katic
- Bare Your Midriff: Hoo boy.
- Combat Pragmatist: Tries this against the Joker. Unfortunately for her, she only stabbed the Body Double.
- Daddy's Little Villain: For Ra's.
- Dating Catwoman: Batman is willing to put off saving a thousand people to rescue this woman.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: She dies in Batman's arms after being shot by Joker.
- Disney Death: Possibly implied, as Talia's corpse is nowhere to be seen after her death. Her personal guard was still in the city, and her corpse wasn't exactly a great distance from the Lazarus Pit.
- Faux Action Girl: In her description, it says she's headstrong and well-trained in swordfighting. However, we rarely get to see that, and she even ends up being a damsel in distress to her father and the Joker. To be fair, she was taken hostage by Ra's because she hardly expected her own father to hold her hostage and threaten to kill her; on top of that, Ra's is good enough to go toe-to-toe with Batman. In the case of the Joker, that was a ruse; it's heavily implied that she allowed herself to be captured and one cannot blame her for being surprised that she would have to deal with Joker and Clayface. Also, like Ra's, although she can fight, she often is more manipulative like her father. It shows in her trying to seduce Batman into breaking his one rule during Arkham City.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: She almost looks like a biker.
- Hot Chick with a Sword
- Ink Suit Actor: She bears a great physical resemblance to her voice actress, Stana Katic, only having darker skin.
- In the Back: She dies after being shot from behind by Joker.
- Male Gaze: While she and Batman walk down the Chamber of the Demon, the camera has a pretty good view of her butt while walking down.
- Misanthrope Supreme: Much like her father.
- Noodle Incident: She mentions a "night in Metropolis" between herself and Batman, and teases him that after that, he "could have just called".
- Reality Ensues: Lethal, beautiful and extremely wealthy, she dies from a simple bullet in the back like anyone else who doesn't wear armor.
- Slap Slap Kiss: Textbook example. First thing she does upon seeing Batman? Slap him. Second thing? Flirt and try and kiss him.
- Spanner in the Works: The last act would have gone down very differently had she not stolen back the cure.
- We Can Rule Together: She adamantly wants Bruce Wayne by her side, but only if he joins the League's crusade against humanity.
- Woman Scorned: She takes Bruce's refusals to join the League personally, as if he does not love her at all. Though this might have more to do with the fact that he lied to her face. She initially doubts his committment to going evil and seems a little taken back by the idea of Bruce actually killing someone. When you realise she was operating from the idea that he was fully invested in turning assassin, her anger makes sense, as does her return when he needs help.
Calendar Man/Julian Gregory Day
Voiced by: Maurice LaMarche
- Bad Boss: One of his henchmen ratted him out to Batman, but he wasn't sure which. So on St. Patrick’s Day, he poisoned them all with green snake venom in their green beer.
- Bald of Evil
- Easter Egg: If you visit Day's cell in Arkham City in certain holidays (or mess with the system clock), he will tell you a story about a crime he committed on that particular day.
- Fat Bastard: Subverted: although he's killed people (including his own parents), he's overall somewhat of a nice guy, as he doesn't antagonize anyone, much less Batman. Until you find out why he's actually in that cell in the first place: before Two Face took over the courthouse, he was deliberately luring people into there on specific holidays and murdering them. The only reason he's remotely civil to Batman is likely because he can't get out.
- Faux Affably Evil: He's very calm and polite when you speak to him. However, hearing about some of his crimes makes you wish you could break his other leg.
- Room Full of Crazy: His cell at Arkham Asylum and Arkham City.
- Self-Made Orphan: It's implied that he killed his parents on their respective holidays.
- Stalker with a Crush: Some of his crimes have this angle.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Inverted, especially in comparison to his comics counterpart: All of his crimes were categorized under murder, murder and murder alone.
Mr. Freeze/Victor Fries
Voiced by: Maurice LaMarche
- An Ice Person: Via a freak lab accident, his body temperature is below zero.
- Anti-Villain: He just wants to be reunited with his wife Nora, like the comics and cartoon. However, also like the comics, this does not stop him from trying to put Batman on ice. Judging by Arkham City alone, he barely qualifies as a villain. Unlike others who go on the rampage, he was kidnapped by Penguin and forced to create a Titan cure by Joker. He even let Batman borrow some of his technology and asks Batman to help his wife. Boss battle aside, which was only instigated because Poor Communication Kills, he never went against Batman in this game.
- Beehive Barrier: Can summon one to protect himself.
- Berserk Button: If you smash one of the sculptures of Nora that are in the room during the boss fight with him, he loses the Creepy Monotone and threatens Batman in an ironically almost Hot-Blooded way.
- Body Horror: He can only survive in subzero temperatures, but at the same time it looks like the cold is taking its toll on his body. For example, his fingers and toes are pitch black from frostbite.
- Creepy Monotone: When angry, Freeze's voice becomes this.
- Final Exam Boss: You have to know how to use Batman's gadgets and fighting techniques well as after you hit him with one; it won't work a second time.
- Freak Lab Accident: Freeze became what he is after an accident in a cryogenics lab.
- Freeze Ray: Though Penguin has it for a portion of Arkham City.
- Genre Savvy: He is reluctant to tell Batman how to deactivate his gun after Penguin steals it, for obvious reasons. During his boss fight, he also adapts to Batman's fighting style, freezing things over after Batman uses them to damage him. He'll even reprogram his gun so the trick he told Batman to use on Penguin won't work a second time on him.
- It Only Works Once: He can adapt to any takedown move that Batman uses on him once.
"I learn from my mistakes, Batman."
- Love Makes You Crazy: His love for Nora is what drives everything he does.
- Mighty Glacier: No pun intended. He's slow, but attacking him head-on is suicide.
- Never My Fault:
- Strange points out in the Hannibal Lecture that while Mr. Freeze has good intentions, his unwillingness to admit his own flaws has made his life more difficult than it should have been.
- During the boss fight with him, he might accidentally destroy the statues of Nora while shooting at Batman. If this happens, he says that Batman made him do it.
- Again, during his origin story boss fight, he blames Boyle and Batman for everything that he did over the course of the game, including but not limiting to freezing dozens of innocent people, causing untold amounts of property damage, and giving cryogenic weaponry to the Penguin.
- Averted after you reunite him with Nora. He says that he's sorry, and Batman advices him to make a Heel Face Turn and focus on Nora's curing, which he does.
- Poor Communication Kills: He has a history of this. He didn't tell his employer about Nora's disease, instead diverting company resources to finding a cure; when his work was discovered, he was accused of industrial espionage, Nora was taken from him, and the Freak Lab Accident occurred. Later, poor communication is what causes his fight with Batman, though that was not entirely his fault.
- Powered Armor: It's what keeps him alive outside of freezing environments.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: His goggles go red when he's going to freeze things (or people).
- Stealth-Based Mission: Oracle tells Batman when the fight begins not to take Freeze head-on, since Freeze can easily overpower him. The achievement for defeating him is even called "Hide and Seek".
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: His obsession with ice and preservation led him to freeze several of his neighbors' pets, an act that landed him in reform school. Although he did plan to revive them later.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: He's a very tragic character, to say the least. So much that in "Cold, Cold Heart", after finding out about his Start of Darkness, Batman immediately changes his target to the one responsible for his condition.
Deadshot/Floyd Lawton
Voiced by: Chris Cox
- Chekhov's Gunman: When playing as Bruce Wayne at the start of the game, Deadshot is seen in the line ahead of you as you enter Arkham City. He even says to Bruce "You're on my list" and mock shoots him with his finger. Unless the player is familiar with Deadshot or has already played the game, through, the player is unlikely to notice that this is Deadshot.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: A staple for the character.
- Evidenced with the third kill in the Deadshot side-quest, where he manages to kill the target by ricocheting the bullet off of a metal shutter before hitting him.
- Mysterious Mercenary Pursuer: After Batman starts investigating his killings, Deadshot starts coming after him instead. Though he was hired to kill Batman. Going by his schedule, he was going to do it right after he killed Bruce Wayne.
- One-Hit Kill: Unlike other gun-toting enemies, he can kill Batman with one attack (if you listen when he fires, it sounds like three or four shots very rapidly).
- Porn Stache
- Professional Killer: He doesn't call himself "the world's best assassin" for nothing.
- Trojan Prisoner: Got into Arkham City disguised as a regular inmate, had his weapons smuggled in separately, and then got to work. See Chekhov's Gunman above.
- We Will Meet Again: After Batman defeats him and traps him in a monorail car.
Deadshot: This isn't over, Batman! I swear!
Black Mask/Roman Sionis
Voiced by: Nolan North
- Asshole Victim: He gets assaulted by a couple of TYGER mercs. Your heart bleeds for him.
- Benevolent Boss: To a degree in Arkham Origins. Unlike Joker, Sionis is noted to be a decent boss to work for granted you don't screw up.
- The Cameo: The only time you see him in-game is in the processing center at the beginning, as he attacks a couple of TYGER guards with a folding chair before getting Tasered and beaten down.
- Chairman of the Brawl: "Put the chair down."
- Contractual Boss Immunity: When you fight him in the Robin DLC, he's immune to all forms of instant knock outs, much like the Joker's boss fight.
- Great Escape: According to the game's backstory, he's the first and only inmate to ever escape from Arkham City until Hush. He stole some explosives from Penguin, waited for a guard shift change, then blew a hole in the perimeter wall and ran off. He was recaptured soon after. Incidentally, his escape is what led to the installation of auto-turrets along the perimeter.
- The Worf Effect: His profile tells of how he's a feared gang leader. TYGER makes swift work of him.
Ra's Al Ghul
Voiced by: Dee Bradley Baker
- Affectionate Nickname: Always refers to Batman as "Detective" as a sign of respect.
- Back from the Dead: Between Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, and at least once beforehand, judging from Batman's comments.
- Bigger Bad: He's the one pulling Strange's strings, to see if he's a worthy successor.
- Death Is Cheap: In Arkham Asylum, Ra's was a corpse, but was quite alive (if in poor condition, at first) in Arkham City. Earlier, Batman stated to Talia that if Ra's was "dead again", he needed her to "wake him up", indicating that this is not Ra's' first time rising from the dead in this continuity. Later, after Ra's is killed, Batman is unconcerned, simply saying that Ra's was going to need another trip to a Lazarus Pit. Sure enough, in the Playable Epilogue, Ra's' body is gone, hinting at another possible resurrection.
- Death Seeker: Wishes for either Hugo Strange or Batman to take his place as the Head of the Demon, and seems almost frightened of the idea of living longer.
- Disney Villain Death: Batman tackles Ra's Al Ghul out of the tower before it explodes. Ra's attempts to kill Batman by stabbing himself when he grabs him, but Batman evades the blade at the last second, letting him continue to fall with the sword still impaled into him.
- Early-Bird Cameo. In Arkham Asylum, you can find his corpse. If you go check again after beating the game, it's gone.
- Engagement Challenge: He actively wants Bruce with his daughter if it would mean he joins the League of Assassins.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Though only after bathing in the Lazarus Pit.
- Green Eyes
- Heir Club for Men
- He Who Fights Monsters
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Hugo Strange, either as a way to redeem himself or to exact revenge on Ghul for executing him, activates Protocol 11, which was the self destruction of the primary tower of Arkham City. Ra's Al Ghul then tries to kill Batman by stabbing himself in the gut, but Batman evades the blade at the last second and lets him fall.
- Knight Templar: He's willing to let people die in order to bring about peace, without caring who will be caught in the crossfire, innocent or guilty.
- Last Day to Live: Due to his usage of the Lazarus Pits for centuries, he is now withering away.
- The Man Behind the Man: Turns out to be the one who was pulling Hugo Strange's strings. It's also implied that he and his League of Assassins were also responsible for funding Sharp's campaign as part of his plot.
- Misanthrope Supreme: He's an insane and immortal eco-terrorist who believes that humanity must be eradicated, or greatly culled, to stop them from ruining the planet.
- Power Glows: His tattoos glow for a brief while after Ra's takes his dip in the Lazarus Pit.
- Power Tattoo: Ra's bears intricate dragon tattoos on both arms.
- Really 700 Years Old: He's much older than he appears to be. At least half a millennium old and still a very formidable opponent.
- Sanity Slippage: It's also implied that he has also near-completely lost his sanity as a result.
- Sinister Scimitar: His Weapon of Choice.
- Skunk Stripe: As always, he has a white stripe in his otherwise black hair.
- You Have Failed Me...: He ends up stabbing Hugo Strange in the back when he failed to defeat Batman.
Hush/Thomas Elliot
Voiced by: Kevin Conroy
- Bandaged Face: He wrapped his head in bandages because he cut off his own face. His victims also have their faces wrapped in bandages; he removed their faces before killing them. He eventually unravels his own bandages to reveal that he's stitched together all of the faces he cut off of other people in order to make himself look like Bruce Wayne.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Similar to Deadshot, you actually run into Hush way before even finding out about his dirty work across the city. When you first go to the church and have the run-in with Harley, after clearing out the mooks, you can talk to the occupants of the building. One of them is attending to a doctor who apparently doped himself up on anesthetic and started cutting his own face off, and is holding onto a box (presumably containing the pieces of face from his victims before entering the city) for dear life.
- Criminal Doppelganger: Got facial reconstruction surgery to more easily get away with impersonating Bruce Wayne.
- Dramatic Unmask: When he peels away the bandages we see that he looks exactly like Bruce Wayne.
- Face Stealer: He murdered six people and took their faces.
- Sequel Hook: He is only seen once at the end of his sidequest, and the Batman makes a mental note to track him down once the matters at Arkham City are resolved.
- Serial Killer: You find his work scattered through the city.
- Vader Breath: His breathing is harsh and gasping when he speaks.
Mad Hatter/Jervis Tetch
Voiced by: Peter MacNicol
- Everyone Loves Blondes: His targeted Alices are, according to him, all blonde.
- The Evil Genius: He provided the mind control tech that allowed Strange to come to power.
- Evil Redhead: Hard to tell due to the condition of his entire body, but his hair is red. Whether or not he can be considered legitimately evil, however...
- Friendless Background: If you return to his hideout after beating him, he wonders why you resisted, since had only wanted a friend.
- Mad Scientist: Uses his hypnosis and chemistry skills mind controlling people into doing his bidding. Aside from being actually mad.
- Mind Control Device: How he controls his minions, and how he attempts to control Batman.
- Nice Hat: To the point he suffers a mental breakdown after Batman steps on it.
- Obliviously Evil: Doesn't remember the Alices he goes through, and doesn't seem to understand how what he does is wrong, just as upset at what he is being "accused" of by Hugo Strange.
- Serial Killer: All of the Alices he's gone through.
- Spot of Tea: It's his "special-tea".
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Strange used him and his Mind Control Device to gain control of Quincy Sharp, and later dumped him in Arkham City.
The Abramovici Twins
Voiced by: Fred Tatasciore (Hammer) and Steve Blum (Sickle)
- The Brutes: They each serve in this position to their respective bosses: Hammer for the Joker, and Sickle for the Penguin.
- Cain and Abel: A unique case, as both are criminials, but under different kinds of bosses.
- Canon Foreigner: Like Quincy Sharp.
- Conjoined Twins: They used to be, but had themselves separated over political differences. The Communist brother went to work for Joker, the Capitalist brother joined up with Penguin.
- Drop the Hammer: The Joker Brother ("Mister Hammer") uses the hammer and the Penguin Brother ("Sickle") uses the sickle.
- Elite Mooks: For Joker and Penguin.
- Evil Laugh: They both let them out while fighting Batman.
- Handicapped Badasses: Despite each having only one arm, they both manage to tear through opponents easily. Lampshaded in one of the comics by one of Penguin's thugs, who was amazed at how easily Hammer beat a squad of Penguin's men.
- Husky Russkies: They're from Russia, as indicated by their accents.
- Tattooed Crooks: Both are covered in tattoos that reflect their respective alignments.
Arkham Asylum/City Staff
Quincy Sharp/The Spirit of Arkham
Voiced by: Tom Kane
- Ax Crazy: He wishes to kill and/or torure all of the inmates at Arkham. And while this may seem understandable, even pragmatic, with the likes of The Joker and Poison Ivy, he also beat a random inmate to death just to vent some frustration.
- Boomerang Bigot: He wants to kill all mentally ill people as a result of his self-loathing over his own insanity.
- Canon Foreigner: Only shows up in the Arkhamverse.
- Doing In the Wizard: In the first game, Sharp is revealed to be the "Spirit of Amadeus Arkham", implying he's either cracked under the strain of his position or was possessed in some way. Come the sequel where it's revealed Hugo Strange was just drugging and hypnotizing him using skills he learned from The Mad Hatter.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: He took credit for stopping Joker's plot in the first game, as well as securing the Asylum, and uses that to become the Mayor of Gotham and build Arkham City.
- He Who Fights Monsters: After he had spent years amongst the Asylum and its inmates, his mind had slowly turned murderous and insane, developing another secret personality: "The Spirit of Arkham". Before the events of the game, he had tried to kill Joker in his cell (failed badly), and had thought of lobotomizing Harley and burning Ivy alive.
- Knight Templar
- Laser-Guided Karma: About two hours from the initiation of Protocol 10, Hugo Strange has Quincy Sharp removed from his position of Mayor, and then thrown into Arkham City to be left at the mercy of the inmates he sent into Arkham City in the first place.
- Military Brat: His family has a long military history.
- Not So Different: Should you find all the spirit of Amadeus Arkham tokens, you'll find that Sharp IS Amadeus Arkham. He also has an elaborate scheme to rid the world of the criminally insane, which is revealed to be Arkham City. He also leaves the last token behind when he disappears from the security room with Batman's Name written in the center of it. This implies that he thinks of Batman as not only his equal, but also his successor. Or is that nemesis?
- Sanity Slippage
- Serial Killer Killer: What he considers himself to be.
- Sleazy Politician: Despite a massive prison takeover and Joker unleashing havoc on Gotham, Warden Sharp's only concern is his upcoming political campaign.
- The Sociopath: According to Batman, Sharp's conscious persona was originally just an attempt to conceal the "blank stale" he truly was, but has since become something more.
- Split Personality: Between Sharp and Amadeus Arkham.
- Unwitting Pawn: Of Hugo Strange.
- Villain with Good Publicity
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: See Laser-Guided Karma above.
Professor Hugo Strange
Voiced by: Corey Burton
- Badass Baritone: It is a Christopher Lee impression.
- Badass Longcoat: Wears a black leather longcoat in the comic when revealed as Sharp's collaborator in creating Arkham City and tells Bruce Wayne how he cannot stop Arkham City from being opened.
- Bad Boss: Sends a Tyger squad up against Batman, knowing full well that they would lose, badly. And interrogates the captain of said squad about the events, using drugs, until the captain eventually expires from said drugs. And it was all just to test Batman's capabilities.
- Bald of Evil: As always, Strange doesn't have a hair on his head.
- Beard of Evil: It's noticeably the only hair he's got.
- Big Bad: Of the second game.
- Big Bad Ensemble: With the Joker in the second game.
- Break the Haughty: Ra's mortally wounds him, and then takes a second to casually dash Strange's dreams and crap on an entire game's worth of boasting, coldly stating that he's once and for all proven himself inferior to Batman.
- The Chessmaster
- Clasp Your Hands If You Deceive: As seen in the above image.
- Complete Monster: You could make a solid case for him being worse than the criminals he so despises.
- Cutscene Boss: Once his mooks are taken care of, he's defeated in a cutscene.
- Evil Genius: Not surprisingly, given that he's a psychologist and of a caliber greater than Penelope Young, Jonathan Crane and the rest of the Arkham staff.
- Evil Gloating: Seems to enjoy doing this.
- Evil Sounds Deep: He's voiced by Corey Burton using his Christopher Lee voice.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Definitely comes off as this, what with getting Catwoman to cooperate by ordering Tyger to shoot Holly Robinson.
- A God Am I: The comic makes it clear that he has a God Complex. At one point in the game, he goes on to rant about how he'll rain fire and brimstone upon all criminals.
- Hannibal Lecture:
- "Have you ever considered that all of this is your fault? Your presence creates these animals..."
- "How does it feel, Wayne? To stand on the very stones that ran with your parents' blood? Do you feel sad? Full of rage? Or does that outfit help bury your feelings, hiding your true self?"
- The Heavy: While Ra's al Ghul is the true power behind it all, Strange is more proactive and drives the plot of Arkham City.
- Hijacked by Ganon: Played With. Though Ra's provided him with the necessary resources, Strange was the one who devised Arkham City and Protocol 10.
- Hypocrite: He sure seems to turn a blind eye toward his own less-than-legal operations while scolding Arkham's inmates for theirs.
- I Just Want to Be You: According to The Riddler, he has a Batman outfit hidden in his office, which he sometimes wears and cries in.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: By Ra's.
- Informed Ability: "Trained to physical perfection", Batman takes him down with unsettling ease.
- Insistent Terminology: In his audio tapes with The Joker, he does not take kindly to being called "Doctor" rather than "Professor". Maybe he doesn't want to get sued by Marvel Comics.
- In the Back: Where Ra's stabs him.
- Kick the Dog: Apparently, he tracked down the alley Bruce's parents were gunned down in, re-drew their chalk outlines, and left a single red rose and a bouquet of white ones to emulate what they had that night, and left a tape to taunt Batman as he mourned over the spot.
- Also, it is heavily implied that he supplied the Penguin with the raving lunatics that he was responsible for creating in the first place for Penguin's gang's use as target practice.
- Strange convinced Mr. Freeze to willingly enter Arkham City by promising to grant Victor the G.C.P.D.'s lab and equipment to work on curing his beloved wife. Mr. Freeze arrived to the Police Station and the lab was exactly as promised, but Strange neglected to return Nora to Mr. Freeze and kept her hostage.
- Killed Off for Real
- Knight Templar: He seriously believes that killing every criminal in Gotham, regardless of how minor their crimes were, is a completely justified act. This is best illustrated when Batman finally confronts him:
Batman: Look at what you've done!
Hugo Strange: It's glorious, isn't it?
- Lack of Empathy: Despite his occupation being a psychologist, the audiotapes with his patients show that he clearly cares more about studying them to satisfy his curiosity than actually curing them. Best summed up in the following exchange:
Mr. Freeze: Do you know what it is to love someone? To really love them?
Hugo Strange: No.
- Mad Doctor: The second trailer shows him torturing a guard to death to get information, for one.
- Man Behind the Man: Implied to have helped Quincy Sharp gain power in order to further his own goals.
- The Man Behind the Monsters: Remember those lunatics Joker released in the first game? The ones that could only utter depraved yells and act animal-like? Well, those guys were the result of Dr. Strange's mind control experiments when he was still working at Arkham Asylum before the events of the first game.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Christopher Lee was probably meant to play him, but they got Corey Burton instead.
- Not So Stoic: You wouldn't know it just from listening to him, but if you use Detective Mode when confronting him in his tower, his heartbeat registers as "Nervous".
- Psycho Psychologist
- Scary Shiny Glasses: He's introduced with Bruce Wayne's reflection in his glasses. You can even see his eyes under them. Bonus points for being similar to the ones Freud wore.
- The Shrink: Albeit an evil version. This is born out in his interviews with Jervis Tetch trying to unearth the secrets of his mind control devices by enabling his obsession and supplying him with a succession of "Alices" to indulge and kill.
- Slasher Smile: "I will enjoy dissecting your brain, Miss Kyle."
- Taking You with Me: Initiates "Protocol 11" after he is stabbed from behind by Ra's Al Ghul, which results in the entire top of the Wonder Tower exploding. It fails, as Batman and Ra's escape before being caught in the blast.
- Villain with Good Publicity: He uses his good reputation with the public as a means to have Arkham City built.
- You Have Failed Me...: Suffered this fate from Ra's Al Ghul, who even says the line.
Aaron Cash
Voiced by: Duane R. Shepard Sr.
- An Arm and a Leg: Of the Type-3 variety. His left hand was bitten off and eaten by Killer Croc.
- Badass in Distress:
- He gets captured by Joker's men twice during the first game. Both times, however, he openly threatens his captors with what will happen once he gets free, and resists any torment he is put through.
- Happens again in the second game: first time by the Joker's gang under Harley's command, and the second time by the Riddler (where he is forced to walk around the main hideout). The latter incident has him threatening the Riddler about what will happen if he gets out.
- Handicapped Badass: He didn't let getting his hand bitten off stop him.
- Hook Hand: Which he used to replace the one that Croc bit off.
- Informed Trait: The game seems to build him up as a Badass sometimes. This is despite the fact that every other time you meet him, he's been kidnapped.
- Shut UP, Hannibal: Cash does not take kindly to intimidation.
- Token Good Teammate: Of the prominent Arkham Staff in the games, Cash is pretty much the only one that isn't corrupt in one way or the other.
Dr. Penelope Young
Voiced by: Cree Summer
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Her notes on the Ratcatcher show that she doesn't believe that Otis Flannegan can control rats: even given her study of patients like Killer Croc, Poison Ivy and Clayface. Hilariously, she sticks to this belief this even while Flannegan's cell is swarming with rats in spite of all her efforts to get rid of them.
- The Atoner
- Hot Scientist: Or at least referred to as such in-universe.
- Human Shield: Zsasz attempts to use her as one when Batman ends up coming for them, threatening to cut her throat if he sees Batman coming in close. A well placed Batarang to Zsasz's cranium puts a stop to that.
- Killed Off for Real
- Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Not only is she a psychiatrist, apparently, she's also a highly qualified biochemist capable of reverse engineering Bane's Venom and then refining it to create TITAN.
- Redemption Equals Death: Right when she's apologizing for all the damage her project has done, she opens up a safe that Joker has rigged to explode.
- The Shrink:
- Dr. Young wavers on the line between Type 1 and Type 2; though her experiments might classify her as a harmful shrink, she's predominantly well-intentioned in other instances. Judging by her patient notes, she's also remarkably ineffectual at treating the inmates, and even worse at performing basic diagnoses: the most Egregious example of this can be found in Scarecrow, who successfully convinced her that he was harmless—to the point that Young even considered giving him a job on the Titan Project. Not as a test subject—as a researcher.
- For that matter, she thought Batman's "multiple disorders" were driven by, as detailed from bonus material in the collector's edition of the first game, genetic predisposition and substance abuse. It doesn't help she's getting her info from the inmates themselves.
- Small Name, Big Ego: She thinks very highly of herself as a psychiatrist, and thinks only she is capable of curing most of the big-name patients at Arkham. For good measure, her notes reveal that she's more than happy to ignore Batman's reports.
- Unwitting Pawn: Joker tricked her into starting work on the Titan formula for him. As soon as she finds out, she stops the project immediately, resulting in Joker taking over the Asylum and finishing the formula himself.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: As soon as Joker has the Titan formula, and the means to manufacture it, he orders to have her killed. The first attempt, has Joker letting Zsasz have her. It fails (due to Batman showing up in time and Zsasz resorting to using her as a shield). The second attempt occurs moments after, by having a bomb hidden in the Warden's safe (seemingly as a back-up in case Zsasz didn't do the job). Unfortunately for her, this one works.
Frank Boles
Voiced by: Danny Jacobs
- The Alcoholic
- Asshole Victim
- Drinking on Duty: He was suspended twice for doing this.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars
- Playing with Fire: It is heavily implied in viral marketing for Arkham Asylum as well as Boles and Joker's exchange relating to the Blackgate fire that he was the one directly responsible for Blackgate being set on fire.
The Joker: The night is still young, Bats. I still have a trick or two up my sleeve. I mean, don't you think its a little bit funny how a fire at Blackgate caused hundreds of my crew to be moved here?
Frank Boles: I thought I told you to stay quiet!
The Joker: Oh, Frankie! You really should learn to keep that fat mouth of yours shut! It'll get you into trouble!
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: It's also You Have Outlived Your Usefulness, but there is an undercurrent of this. Though the Joker would certainly have killed him no matter what he did.
- Small Name, Big Ego: He arrogantly believes that he's the best guard in the asylum and doesn't even realize that most of the other guards hate and distrust him.
- Too Dumb to Live: Whatever made Boles think he could mouth off at The Joker without consequences? Even if he did happen to be the "inside man" at Arkham.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He's killed shortly after helping Harley kidnap Gordon. Upon finding his corpse, Batman mentions that he must've outlived his usefulness.
Allies
Commissioner James Gordon
Voiced by: Tom Kane (Arkham Asylum)/David Kaye (Arkham City)
- Badass in Distress: He's captured with some frequency by Harley Quinn and the Joker.
- The Commissioner Gordon: Obviously.
- Demoted to Extra:
- In the second game. Though considering he was basically a hostage for the entirety of the first game, he probably isn't complaining.
- He gets slightly more involvement in "Harley Quinn's Revenge", though. Just a few lines in a conversation with Batman, some other chatter on the radio and off, and a conversation at the end, but more than in the game proper.
- Gets much larger roles in Arkham Origins and Arkham Knight, which makes sense as both games showcase Batman and Gordon working together, side by side.
- Dude in Distress: He gets kidnapped by Harley, then later the Joker to "referee" the Final Boss Boss Battle of the first game.
Oracle/Barbara Gordon
Voiced by: Kimberly Brooks
- Deadpan Snarker: She could give Alfred a run for his money.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Dripping from her tone pretty much anytime Batman brings up Talia. Though she clearly has a point when she says that Talia has a tendency to affect Bruce's judgement.
- Red Headed Heroine: Formerly, before becoming handicapped.
- The Voice
- Voice with an Internet Connection: She's mainly heard over the communication system.
Alfred Pennyworth
Voiced by: Martin Jarvis
- Deadpan Snarker
- The Jeeves: As always.
- Morality Chain: Once Protocol 10 starts, he flat out refuses to obey Batman until he's saved the prisoners and stopped Strange.
- Secret Keeper: He's one of the few people who knows who Batman is.
- Servile Snarker: He's loyal to Bruce, no doubt about it, but that doesn't stop him from dishing out the snark.
- The Voice: In Arkham City. Like Barbara, he makes a full appearance in Arkham Origins.
- Voice with an Internet Connection: Takes over this role for the first half of the second game, though he does show up occasionally after Oracle shows up again.
Other
Jack Ryder
Voiced by: James Horan
- Kent Brockman News: Undergoes a very public feud of opinions regarding the construction of Arkham City with Vicki Vale in the prequel comic. However, he's just playing it up for kicks.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: He looks a lot like Stephen Colbert.
- Red Shirt Reporter: How he becomes involved in the events of the second game.
- The Voice: In the first game.
Vicki Vale
Voiced by: Kari Wahlgren
- Adaptation Dye Job: The comic-book Vale is traditionally a redhead. This version of her is blond, somewhat like Kim Basinger.
- Damsel in Distress: In one of the side missions, Batman has to rescue her.
- Hot Scoop
- Intrepid Reporter: She's noted in Arkham Knight's stories to be one. She started her career as a journalist by exposing corruption in various civic institutions of the city and played a part in busting Quincy Sharp and sending him to jail.
- Kent Brockman News: She and Jack Ryder undergo a very public feud of opinions regarding the construction of Arkham City in the prequel comic. However, Jack is just playing up the role of the hard-line conservative for his own kicks.
- Also after you save her, she begins a news report on the deplorable conditions in the city.
Azrael/Michael Lane
Voiced by: Khary Payton
- Blade Below the Shoulder: Jean-Paul Valley's trademark katars are on his arms.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Can be seen on a rooftop on the right side as Bruce Wayne is entering Arkham City in the opening.
- Composite Character: Is identified as Michael Lane, but has characteristics familiar with both his comic book counterpart and Jean Paul Valley, with a combined costume and weaponry, a pledge to serve the Order of St. Dumas like JPV, and a slightly mystical bent.
- Flaming Sword: Equipped with one of Jean Paul Valley's katar gauntlets, that he uses to disappear.
- Mysterious Watcher: He's referred to as such for the side mission in Arkham City.
- Smoke Out: Pulls these off with frequency using his trademark katar.
- Vagueness Is Coming: Delivers a warning to Batman about "the Prophecy" that says that Batman will win the day here, but in doing so set up for the future "burning" of Gotham and the Dark Knight himself.