Will The Next Batman Game Include The Justice League?
 

Last year's Batman Akham City was a success critically, commercially and creatively. The progression from Arkham Asylum to Arkham City was smart and very well done. But it begs the question: where do they go from here? If Variety is right then the next Batman game will feature a heavy dose of the Justice League.

According to their sources, the new game will be a prequel, telling the story of Batman's first encounter with the Joker and feature Batman teaming up with members of the Justice League. So far neither developer Rocksteady, publisher Warner Bros Interactive or DC Comics have commented. The game is tentatively slated for a 2014 release. Currently the focus is on Netherrealm Studios' Injustice, a fighter featuring the DC characters.

All of this is part of a concerted effort by DC Comics and parent Warner Bros to bring the Justice League front and center, an effort let at least in part by the success of that other super hero team, The Avengers. On the big screen you have the final Christopher Nolan Batman movie coming later this month with a Man of Steel movie set for next year. Scripts are being prepped for Flash, Wonder Woman, Shazam and Green Lantern 2. It's possible that WB and DC will try to build to a Justice League movie, which is already being penciled in for a 2015 release. Giving the Justice League a slot in a high profile game like the next offering from Rocksteady will only boost the property in the eyes of the public.

For all of their history and prominence, there haven't been many Justice League video games. You had a couple of side scrollers for the GBA based on the animated series, an action RPG for the PS2/Xbox 1 and the just released Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes.

Source - Variety

But Skywalker ain't doing the Joker's voice anymore and Rocksteady has left clues regarding a sequel to Arkham City.

Ugh. I hope the Joker part of that rumor is false. I love the Joker but give me someone else. Also a Justice League movie by 2015? Warner Brothers is mad.

Mad insane. If they were to somehow get all the Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern 2 movies out the door before then, they should have already been filming. It'll certainly be a challenge for them to pull it off in a couple of years.

Hamill retired as Joker, while the story idea sounds interesting, the Joker's story has been done already. Let's have a different villain!

Just what the Batman games need, more characters. Hamill's retired from Joker a dozen times.

Still, sounds like complete bullshit to me. You don't make a prequel introducing the Joker as a Justice League villain.

They dropped so many sequel hooks into Arkham City I just can't see them going for a prequel instead.

Rumors are that the direction came down as part of a new mandate from Time Warner, so it might not be completely up to the devs where they go for the new game, hints or not.

It is interesting where the focus seems to be as well as the strengths in the two properties. For me at least, Marvel has the movie medium taken care of. DC has video games all set as a medium. DC needs to improve their movie offerings drastically. And Marvel can do better in video games. All in all, it is a good time to be a fan.

Something I think is not often considered in discussing the success of Marvel movies is how much emphasis they put on the Avengers in the last several years in the comics. I know lots of people dislike Bendis, but he made the Avengers one of the premiere comic properties on the line after it had faded somewhat behind Spidey and the X-Men. It makes a lot of sense to me for DC to start building enthusiasm for the Justice League again by putting them in products across lots of mediums. Get 'em visible and familiar to people, especially kids, so they're primed for a breakout in the movies. Obviously, they're also going to have to do a much better job with the non-Batman movies too, but this is a good start.

That said, I agree that I'd like to see something other than a prequel about the Joker for the next game. If you wanna bring him back to life somehow, that's fine, but I'd prefer if he wasn't the focus. Actually, a League of Assassin's based game would be pretty awesome.

They've tried to. Justice League was the book they were pushing hard with New 52, but now all people can seem to talk about is what books are getting cancelled and how it's the small lesser known books that are the cream of the crop. At least coming from someone whose only casually glanced at comics for a few years.

I may be crazy, but I feel pretty confident that putting the Avengers in comic books had little to nothing to do with the phenomenal success of the Avengers movie. There just aren't that many people reading comic books in comparison to the millions that flock to theaters.

I think the success of the Iron Man movie did more to get people excited about a potential Avengers movie than any comic.

I don't disagree with either of you guys, but I think Marvel was a lot more prepared and organized across their properties and mediums than DC has been. Though I liked Bucky Cap, when it was time for a Cap movie, Rogers was back. When Iron Man came out they launched a second book with some of the feel of the movie (rather than the Director of Shield book that had been going at the time). They get Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes out there. And they brought the team to the forefront of their comics line. It was a well done company-wide initiative which DC has been very bad at.

Very much so.
Fair enough. Although, I would say the company-wide push of putting out all of those Avengers movies (particularly Iron Man, as mentioned above) in the leadup to The Avengers proper is 99+% of the success story.

Most ridiculous part is all the best books didn't even need the reboot to work. The actual rebooted bits are mostly terrible.

I'm glad I wasn't the only person thinking this too.
I love hamill, and he IS the joker in my mind but there has to be a couple other good main villains for Rocksteady to explore

I actively dislike the Justice League, and one of the biggest reasons is because it's annoying when Batman gets saddled with them.

I like to pretend as much as I can that the DC and Batman universes are separate.