Batman's Arkham Knight Is Making The Jump To Comics

There's no doubting that Rocksteady Studios managed to make super hero comic-book games a lucrative business outside of what we usually expect from superhero tie-in games. The Batman: Arkham series is regarded as producing some of the best games ever made, and now DC is looking to rub some of that quality sheen from Rocksteady's games onto its comic books.

Polygon is reporting that DC Comics will be introducing a comic book line based around the character of the Arkham Knight, which is the namesake of Rocksteady's last Batman outing. The title refers to the character of the Arkham Knight, which is a retelling of the story of Jason Todd, a former Robin who studied under Batman, but met a very unfortunate end at the hands of the Joker.

In Rocksteady's universe, Todd was tortured and mentally broken, becoming a vengeful mercenary working with the Scarecrow to put Gotham under martial law. The game centered around Batman attempting to take down the Arkham Knight's mercenaries and eventually stop the Arkham Knight. The trouble Batman had with him is that Todd still retained his training and skills, but became even more dangerous thanks to the addition of adding some deadly firearms to his arsenal.

The story for Arkham Knight wasn't bad within the game, but most gamers figured it out a year before the game came out when hardcore comic book fans began peppering Rocksteady with questions that they couldn't answer. The studio tried to play it off that Arkham Knight was a completely new character (and in some ways that is true) but it was still based on the Jason Todd mythos.

According to Polygon, DC will be giving the Arkham Knight his own story as part of the celebration of Detective Comics #1000. What we don't know is if the Arkham Knight will still follow the Jason Todd story or if it will be re-envisioned as something else.

There's speculation on whether or not he will follow the Red Hood story, which saw Todd being revived through the Lazarus Pit in hopes of getting revenge against both Batman and The Joker.

The article notes that the new comic book line featuring the Arkham Knight will be written by Peter J. Tomasi. If you've been reading DC Comics for a while, you'll probably recognize Tomasi from popular brands such as Batman, Aquaman, and Green Lantern labels to name but a few. He's also written a number of Justice League comic books, too. So he definitely knows his way around DC's established marquee names, and will likely do the Arkham Knight justice in his portrayal.

DC has so far been beating Marvel quite a bit in the comic book and animated film categories, but Marvel has of course been cleaning up when it comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and producing a number of high-profile, well-received, critically-acclaimed movies. But DC also gets to boast that the Batman: Arkham games really helped elevate superhero games to the next level... and I guess Marvel gets to boast that Marvel's Spider-Man raised the bar to the next level. Even still, the effects of the Arkham Knight game will spill over into the world of comics where DC will likely hope to retain its lead over Marvel Comics in sales.

The upcoming Detective Comics #1000 celebration isn't expected to become available until March, 2019.