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Is Azrael Batman’s “Arkham Knight”?

Written by Austin Griffith

Warner Brothers and Rockseady has just announced the final piece of the Arkham trilogy to the world, Batman: Arkham Knight. Seeing the return of Scarecrow, Penguin, Harley Quinn, and more, the adventure is sure to be the greatest. While there are a few mysteries we still haven’t quite cleared up yet, such as Hush’s role in all this, there is also one big piece of the puzzle that we haven’t a clue on yet: The Arkham Knight.

Rocksteady has released pictures of the Arkham Knight, an apparent Batman imposter who they claim wears an A on his chest. Could this be Batman’s anti-villain? Maybe a new ally? While it’s unclear what role the Arkham Knight will play, we can certainly speculate on who the Arkham Knight is.

What we know for sure is that the Arkham Knight wears a metal Batsuit and has a giant A on his chest. For those who have read the Knightfall arc of Batman comics might think this sounds a bit familiar.

Azrael, who we saw in Arkham City, is the secret identity of Jean Paul-Valley, an apprentice of Batman who takes up the Bat-mantle after Bane breaks the Bats back. Could the “Arkham Knight” be a new name for a new Azrael, and an attempt to hide Arkham Knights true identity?

Let’s try and compare what Azrael looks like during the events of Knightfall and what the Arkham Knight look like:
Pic 1
The resemblance isn’t all there, but remember: this is a whole new universe and continuity, and designs change over 30 years.

Last we saw Azrael, he said Gotham would burn because of the Batman. Arkham Knight’s logo:
Pic 2
Need I say more?

While we do not know for sure who this “Arkham Knight” is, my bet is on Azrael completely.

azraelbatman

About the author

Austin Griffith

Austin Griffith owns LevelSave.com

8 Comments

  • People are always assuming it’s Azreal because he’s unstable and wore a similar suit. However, neither the motive nor the personality are there. Azreal might be crazy but there are limits even he wouldn’t cross. If we accept that Knightfall happened in the Arkham universe, then we must also accept his redeption arc afterward. All Jean Paul Valley wants is Bruce to accept him and be proud of him. And even though Azreal is different from Jean and Jean loses control when he puts on the helmut, there are hints that Jean was starting to win back his control from Azreal. Azreal is brutal, violent, and excessive. However even with the helmut on, as Jean starts to gain confidence in himself, Azreal starts changing. In his second fight with Batman, Azreal knocks Batman in an icy river and then turns around and dives in after him to save his life. He beats Bane in his second fight against the man with the Azreal helmut on and does it using his own intelligence instead of brute force. He saves Cassandra Kain from burning to death when Joker sets a christmas tree on fire with a child hung upon it as bait He steps in and takes the fire himself so Cassandra wouldn’t get hurt and even is so sweet as to save the tree angel ornament so he can give it to her later as a christmas present. He does all this and he does it as Azreal. It’s hard for me to accept that THAT Azreal could ever do the kind of things the Arkham Knight is doing. In fact, I KNOW he couldn’t. Hell even at his worst, he was never that bad.

    If we accept that Knightfall didn’t happen (and we kinda have to. Batman didn’t know who he was), then I still think it unlikely. If we assume his personality is the same, then he would neither be smart or well-funded enough to pull off what the Arkham Knight is doing. He’s not exactly a mastermind. With or without the helmut, Jean is kind of a goof. It’s just with the helmut he’s a more violent and vicious goof. He’s never been particularly smart in a strategic sense and tends to bumble about regardless of if he has the helmut on. If this game makes him into some mastermind behind it all, then I’d honestly find myself disappointed as despite the costume he’d be unrecognizable. Can I see him being a potential problem and flying off the handles in a way Freeze did in Arkham City? Yes. He may even make a cool boss fight. But controlling armies and storming Gotham after releasing every rogue on the city? Hell no.

    No it just can’t be Azreal anymore than it can be any other of the Bat clan. But you know something. There is one villian i can think of who’d fit the role perfectly…. Prometheus. He was created to be Batman’s counterpart, a man who devoted his life to destroying everything Batman worked for and destroy every institution of order he could. And he’d be just vicious and smart enough to do what the Arkham knight is doing. If it’s him, oh… I so do richly hope to show the momma’s boy a lesson in how much -pain- the tip of a bullwhip traveling at the speed of sound can cause when cracked against a man’s genitalia. The man could and did take on the whole justice league, but all it took in the end was one pissed off cat with impeccable aim to turn him into a crumbled pile on the floor. It’d be so fucking awesome to have a boss fight with catwoman against him again.

  • When I first saw the Arkham Knight my first two thoughts were Deathstroke and Azrael, depending on what side he on.

  • no offence but thats dumb as shnit. serious…. why does azreal want to kill batman if he is arkham knight

  • Well Rocksteady have said that Arkham Knight is a brand new character that will crossover w/ the comics so I don’t think it’s Azrael per se, but it might be a character introduced to utilize elements of that character. Geoff Johns is working w/ Rocksteady again and similar to what happened w/ Origins & Copperhead, there are apparently plans to introduce the Arkham Knight into the New 52 so maybe Arkham Knight is a “new character” but he might be serving the role Azrael did in Knightfall, at least for the game series. Sefton Hill said that Arkham is a brand now so maybe if Batman dies in Arkham Knight(Fall?) and the Arkham Knight takes over, they can continue the series w/ the Arkham name while also separating the series to allow for other iterations. The latest Game Informer video supports these theories pretty well to me but it’s just a longshot for now.

  • Azrael was also my first guess to who the Arkham Knight is! Glad I’m not the only one who put that together.

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