A Beautiful Gory Display: Arkham Asylum
Set in comic book continuity, Arkham Asylum is an adventure game set inside the titular home for the criminally insane. When Joker causes a riot, the lunatics literally take over the asylum. Luckily, Batman was there to transport the Joker to Maximum Security, and it’s up to him to restore order. The game is a combination of problem solving and combat, and it’s heavily swathed in Batman lore.
The graphics are excellent, with fine animation and some really stunning atmospheric work. Batman moves the way you imagine him moving, with a quick step and some real weight behind his punches. The whole game looks like it’s made up of cinematics – it’s full of detail and the characters are both slick and expressive. Batman is so detailed that I was afraid his movement would be choppy, but he absolutely glides. And in a really nice touch, as you progress in the game, Batman’s costume gets more and more torn up. I was so giddy when I saw that Batman’s cape was shredded. It’s a really nice touch.
In terms of gameplay, it’s excellent and intuitive. It doesn’t take much work to master the controls and immerse yourself in the environment. For the most part, it’s not a game about making one-in-a-million jumps, so you don’t have to deal with the frustration of attempting the same task over and over again. The combat system is fairly basic – if you want, you can get through most of the regular enemies using only a single button. There are more than enough options to add plenty of flair, though. Yes, you can just punch most of the enemies into submission, but there’s no reason that you can’t spice it up with an occasional headlock or (my favorite) jumping and driving your knee straight into the crotch of a prone opponent. Of course, the game is more than just Batman smacking around mental patients. One nice feature is Batman’s stealth mode. See, you can easily take on a roomful of unarmed psychos, but once they get guns, they will tear you apart. When you’ve got a roomful of gun-toting guys or there’s a hostage situation, Batman has to outwit them and take them out one at a time. You can sneak up on somebody and choke them, or drop down from the ceiling and hogtie them. And with each one you take out, their remaining cohorts get jumpier and more trigger happy. It is ridiculously fun to take down seven gunmen without any of them ever laying an eye on you, let me tell you.
And just to make things more complicated, the Riddler spends the whole game hassling Batman with his trademark riddles. Sure, you can just ignore them, but you can’t pass up the chance to show that smug bastard a thing or two. So you’re not only trying to get rid of the snipers without making too much noise, but you’re deciphering a clue at the same time. Actually, the “Detective Mode” adds a lot to this game. With a click of the button, Batman goes infrared. You can scan the environment for clues (yes, you actually get to track down one enemy by following the chemical traces of the whiskey on their breath) and locate all the enemies in an area, with a display that even shows their heart rate and emotional state. Also, in this mode, the enemies appear as X-ray images which just makes beating on them that much more fun.
There’s great voice work in this game, with most of the leads being performed by the voice actors 
from Batman: The Animated Series. Kevin Conroy brings his trademark growl to Batman once again, while Mark (Luke Skywalker) Hamill is both manic and terrifying as the Joker. Arleen Sorkin reprises her role as Harley Quinn, and hers is the only voice I can ever associate with the character. Heck, Efrem Zimablist Jr. even steps back into his old role as Alfred. And just to make the reunion complete, head Animated Series writer Paul Dini scripted the game.
from Batman: The Animated Series. Kevin Conroy brings his trademark growl to Batman once again, while Mark (Luke Skywalker) Hamill is both manic and terrifying as the Joker. Arleen Sorkin reprises her role as Harley Quinn, and hers is the only voice I can ever associate with the character. Heck, Efrem Zimablist Jr. even steps back into his old role as Alfred. And just to make the reunion complete, head Animated Series writer Paul Dini scripted the game.It’s worth noting just how well-written the game is, too. Not only do the characters act like themselves, but it’s a solid plot with some great dialogue. Joker’s rants are legitimately funny, except when they’re a little bit terrifying. The various encounters with Scarecrow are pretty stunning. At various points in the game, Scarecrow doses Batman with fear gas. Early on, Batman is confronted by his dead parents, who demand to know why he let them down. Later, a walk down a corridor gradually and subtly turns into the alley where the Waynes were murdered. As Batman hears the sounds of that night all over again, he’s replaced onscreen by the young Bruce Wayne. It’s something you don’t see in video games, and it’s pretty amazing.
There are plenty of Easter Eggs in the game for the longtime Bat-fans. While there’s a nice selection of villains that you actually get to fight within the game, dozens more appear as solutions to riddles. For story purposes, there’s not much use for Ra’s al Ghul or Penguin in the game, but they get their token appearances. From the big names (Two-Face) to the obscure (Calendar Man, The Great White Shark), the game is loaded with villain cameos.
All in all, it’s a fantastic game. The difficulty level is high enough to keep you interested, but not enough to bog you down. And with 240 side riddles to solve, there’s plenty of replay value. Finally, it’s the video game that Batman deserves.
The Middleman: The Doomsday Armageddon Apocalypse (Viper Comics) – While Middleman began as a comic book, this one-shot is not in that continuity. Rather, it’s set in the continuity of 
the ABC Family series from last year, where it serves as a sort of final episode. I reviewed the series here and it made Number 10 on my best of 2008 list.
the ABC Family series from last year, where it serves as a sort of final episode. I reviewed the series here and it made Number 10 on my best of 2008 list. To make a long story short, Middleman is about the secret organization that keeps the world safe from weirdness. The Middleman himself is an All-American boy scout with access to exotic weaponry and the kind of martial arts that let him take on 100 luchadores simultaneously. His new recruit, Wendy Watson, is trying to come to grips with the insanity and still balance her personal life. It was great, so of course, ABC Family had to cancel it.
This finale, written by series creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach (who used to write for Lost), ties up the loose ends of the series and gives our cast some closure. I’m not sure that somebody unfamiliar with either incarnation of Middleman would have any idea what’s going on here, but it’s not that likely that somebody’s going to get into a series at the very end, especially when the finale is presented in a totally different medium.
For fans, this is a great ending to the series. Armando Zanker’s art is appealingly cartoony, while still evoking the TV cast. (Though MM himself looks more like the way Les McClane drew the original comic version, rather than a version of actor Matt Keeslar. But it’s a minor complaint.) We finally see Manservant Neville’s endgame and learn the terrifying secret of Fatboy Industries. We learn the origin of the Middleman, as well as his real name (which I was not expecting), and his history is about a hundred times sadder than you’d expect. Ida the robot finally gets to kick some ass, Roxy Wasserman (the succubus / fashion designer) loses her temper, and we get some much-needed closure on Wendy’s relationship with Tyler, as well as the flirtation between MM and Lacey. And in the end, the Middleman makes the ultimate sacrifice. If you don’t tear up at least a little, you are a bad person. That’s all I have to say about that.
The graphic novel really feels like an episode of the series, with the dialogue tics and running jokes intact. (Yep, they even used the ever-present Wilhem Scream.) While it’s hard to imagine that Neville’s reality bending or the Army of Fallen Middlemen would have made it on an ABC Family budget, it’s not hard to imagine the rest as a lost episode. The endnotes give some teases as to what Season Two would have brought us, as well as an indication that we’ve seen the last of both Middleman continuities. Personally, I would be thrilled to see further comics using the TV version or another series of the original version. But if this is the end, at least the Middleman went out on a high note.
Next time, I might have something to say about Disney’s acquisition of Marvel. That sounds pretty daunting though, so I reserve the right to wuss out and just write about Superman instead.
