You’re making me laugh

In my initial post about Batman Arkham Asylum I looked at my personal history with Batman, how I’m experiencing the game, and why these posts are unfocused experiences whilst playing inspired by academic game analysis (or stealing bits of it) and not reviews.

I want to expand on some of the paratexts I’ve used since writing that original post.

Since those initial ramblings I’ve watched an IGN review of the game. Which was a five minute summary of a written review that they wanted you go and read. But on a whole I’ve avoided reviews. Let’s face I’ve already bought the game. And at the moment I don’t think that a review can add much to my exploration and experience of the game.

I’ve also watched a couple of YouTube videos that cover easter eggs within Arkham Asylum. Which I’m expecting to still hold true with this remake on the Switch.

I’m awaiting an “old” paratext to arrive in the post. I did splash out on a player guide that covers the PlayStation and Xbox release of the game. Will the use of this and having watched the easter egg videos constitute cheating? I might look at that a bit more once I’ve finished reading Cheating: Gaining advantage in videogames.

Having not played the Arkham Origins game I didn’t get how the animated movie Batman: Assault On Arkham (AoA) remotely links the Origins game with Asylum. To me AoA is more a Suicide Squad movie/story than a Batman one. He very much is relegated to a supporting part.

Is this my Batman?

Over the years I’ve known (and enjoyed) several interpretations of Batman.

My initial introduction to the character was the 1960’s Adam West Batman during reruns of the show during the seventies.

The whole tone of the show was a product of the time. It was bright, colourful, camp.

It was a tone that transferred over to the comic books.

This

We then jump forward to the late eighties and the renewal of my relationship with Batman.

The Dark Knight Returns had been published, as had The Killing Joke. Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams had changed the tone of the comics to a more darker one. I seem to remember a quote from the time about them returning Batman to his detective roots.

But there couldn’t have been a bigger contrast than that of the tv show and the comic books I was seeing on the comic shop shelves.

The art, the stories, they were darker, more violent. Batman was

After the death of Jason Todd aka 2nd Robin