Next Batman: Arkham Game Might Feature Hush as Antagonist

WB Games is still working on Batman: Arkham Origins, but that doesn't mean the publisher isn't already looking ahead to what's next. It's been a while since we've heard anything from Rocksteady Studios, and there's some new speculation as to what the studio has been up to since finishing Batman: Arkham City.

While a third sequel in the wildly successful Batman: Arkham series was all but a given, the last entry is barely six months old and has DLC on the way, so it's no surprise we haven't heard much of anything on what's next for the Dark Knight. As you might recall, WB Montreal handled Origins' development, and Rocksteady has been keeping its work in the dark. For more than a year, it's been speculated the original Arkham devs were deep into working on the first next-gen entry in the ongoing series. Now it appears WB Games might be readying a reveal.

According to IGN, the Facebook page for Batman: Hush, a comic book storyline from a decade ago, posted a picture of the titular villain of that story claiming, "things may be about to get interesting next month." Could Hush be in line for the next big bad in an Arkham game? IGN stated the page is run by Warner Bros., the parent company of DC Comics, but we've been unable to find verifiable proof of such ownership. The page has under 5,000 fans, and posts incredibly infrequently. Which, to be fair, is expected for a page created to celebrate a storyline that's ten years old. Still, the timing and likelihood of being real are fairly suspect at this time.

Hush did appear in Arkham City as one of the side-quest villains Batman could track down. The bandaged baddie disappeared before Batman could close his case completely, and last we heard had been impersonating Bruce Wayne around Gotham. This rings true to Hush's comic book origins. Hush was revealed to be Bruce's childhood friend Thomas Elliot, who put Batman through the ringer in the comics because Thomas Wayne saved Elliot's mom's life after a car accident. It's about as dumb a reason for revenge as it sounds. The original 12-part comic series was better remembered for Jim Lee's art than for Jeph Loeb's writing. Hush was actually a pretty lame villain until later when Paul Dini had a chance to give the character some meat in the "Heart of Hush" storyline. He kicked around for a bit in subsequent years, even getting the plastic surgery to look like Bruce in during "Batman: R.I.P.," but never really materialized into a real threat despite his best intentions.

With the Joker dead, and Gotham left in pretty much ruins after the conclusion Arkham City, there's a chance for a clean slate approach for whatever Rocksteady may or may not have in the works. Hush has never been a supremely strong villain, and we don't think he offers enough of a threat to carry an entire game. The whole villain switcheroo thing has been done already (twice), and there are still plenty of legitimate threats to Batman in DC canon, which makes Hush an even stranger choice if this does indeed end up being true. That said, a new Batman: Arkham game on next-gen does sound really great about now. We just hope Rocksteady can recapture the magic from its previous entries as Arkham Origins left us wanting.