Batman, mercy and ‘Arkham City’

I am not Batman.

As I play "Batman: Arkham City," this becomes more and more apparent. The world of "Arkham City" is morally vacuous and I can’t help but feel that the Dark Knight’s brand of justice doesn’t go far enough. Batman is the Christ of "Arkham City," yet I find his salvation plan naive.

Arkham City is an old portion of Gotham that has been converted into a massive prison. The game opens with Bruce Wayne being unjustly incarcerated along with political prisoners, iconic villains and psychopaths. The city’s many super villains quickly take over and violent gang wars erupt. Batman alone remains to stymie the anarchy that ensues. However, as Batman explores Arkham, he learns of a plan to kill all its inmates known as Protocol 10. He must decide whether he will be the savior of criminals he once brought to justice.

Video-game characters are often deeply destructive people and their violence is rarely restrained. To be fair, most games present us with worlds ruled by violence and characters poised to return it. In other words, video-game worlds tend to be rare places where lethal violence is justified and solves problems. Batman’s violence, however, stands above the common game character. It’s always restrained. In contrast, the many thugs of "Arkham City" are vile - heartless murderers, psychopathic killers and misogynistic creeps. As I overhear a group of criminals talk about having killed undercover cops and brag about degrading things they plan to do to Catwoman, I cannot help but plot a course of deadly action. If there were ever a game that justified killing, it would be this one. Batman, however, will not let me.

Restraint drives the action of "Arkham City" as Batman only possesses non-lethal means of fighting his enemies. In a medium where player choice is constantly touted, some of the game’s most emotionally resonant moments come when agency is taken away from me. I do all the planning, maneuvering and brawling needed to take assailants down, but ending their lives is something Batman will not allow. Instead, Batman spares the lives of his enemies and when he does they murder his friends, blackmail him and take the lives of innocent people. In these moments, I can’t help but wonder what the world of "Arkham City" would be like if he would unfetter his violent power rather than restrain it.

As an outside observer, I question Batman’s choices. He has taught me to approach battles with villains in a precise, calculated fashion. And yet I doubt whether he has applied such foresight to his refusal to kill. Joker will continue killing and terrorizing the citizens of Gotham using Batman’s own principles to undue him. Batman, however, remains firm in his convictions despite the personal harm they cause him. He doesn’t waiver in his convictions and isn’t afraid to suffer for them. He is a man of sorrows and I did not esteem him.

As I look back on my experience with him in "Arkham City," I realize that if I could have changed Batman, I would have learned little from him. I wanted "Arkham City" to empower me with the false fantasy that deadly violence can bring justice. Superhero though he may be, Batman refused to let me live in that fantasy world. Like Jesus setting his gaze firmly toward Jerusalem, when faced with the opportunity to save the many criminals who have terrorized Gotham and caused his suffering, Batman doesn’t waiver.

In this moment I realize that Batman is not naive. I am not Batman, but I want to be.

(Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment.)

Login to comment

Comments (13)

@d9fbac71d307644d203f78c8bc2d2201:disqus 
You are getting to exactly why I found this game meaningful. What you have articulated is exactly what I was driving at. I want to be like Batman--he is Christ-figure in the game, he is nobler than me and thus I was benefited from my time playing as him.
Thanks Eric! Glad you liked it.
Great read. You captured the essence of many games in this genre: blast away at some invading non-human and clearly deserving of death monsters.  Even the possibility of showing restraint and mercy is not there.

I may enjoy those shoot-em-ups sometimes, but one game I regularly come back to is the original Deus Ex. You can take the popular "shoot everything in sight" tactic or you can choose to use restraint, knocking out enemies or even avoiding them altogether. I play it again and again because I prefer having the choice (and living with it) in any given situation.
Glad you liked it! Yeah I appreciated that about the Deus Ex games as well. The new Deus Ex game is pretty solid in that regard as well--though I was frustrated at how my nonlethal tactics were uprooted by the game's boss fights: http://www.christandpopculture...
Batman has the edge that every man wants to be. Almost like the character of wolverine in X-men but unlike wolverine his hard character pulsates his moral code and to keep justice and never to cross that preverbal line to "be like them". 

I remember in one of the batman movies where Bruce Wayne contemplates the idea of the image to use. He choses the bat... a image that is fear but uses it and turns it upside down...

I always kinda saw the cross in similar manor. The cross was an image of death but through Christ's edge and determination he defeats death and turns it into a symbol of hope. 

Batman holds in tension the hard exterior of manhood that every man desires to execute when the need for a hero arises but holds true to the morals of good making him the very definition of a super hero... This is what I think separates him from the rest.
I am not a fan of most video games because all of the violence and I have desperately tried not to get irritated when people used them to show good vs. evil (I would give an example but I don't want other gamers getting angry with me) so I was curious on how this would be different. I was very surprised and thankful that there is something in this generation that has some moral value and one thing I always found neat about the character of Batman is that he is human trying to give justice as much as he can. Thank you for your honesty and thoughtful insight.
My problem with video games is not even the message (which is usually terrible), its the medium. They are an alternate form of escapist reality, they isolate the player from communication with the real world, they are addictive, they encourage physical inactivity, the systems are expensive. My daughter and son-in-law stayed at my house for 6 months between moves and I rarely saw my young adult son-in-law because he was up in the bedroom in the dark absorbed in a role playing video game. They discourage nuanced thinking, discourage imagination and conspire to keep adolescents locked in illiteracy. Why, in my day, (Socrates said the same thing), we climbed trees, built forts, built go-carts, played baseball in the street, mowed lawns for money, skate boarded, read scores of adventure books that engaged the imagination and built values. And that was in California suburbia, not even the outdoor paradise of Oregon where I live now where you can ski, hike, fish, swim and ride bikes....IF you are not absorbed playing video games. Obesity in children and adolescents was rare.
Thanks for the feedback Danielle! 


Yeah the world of videogames is pretty diverse now. Violence is still quite popular in them but that is changing. I just say that to say that there are may meaningful experiences that can be had in the world of games today if you look beyond the standard fare.
Thanks for sharing Nathan. I think you bring up some great points about Batman. I really appreciated that Arkham City stayed true to Batman's character in that regard.
@26a7e9742dbc2a2a8cc5c7e8434ab074:disqus What you are talking about is people who are addicted to videogames--that can certainly be a problem but it doesn't mean that the medium itself is inherently flawed. Your examples speak more to the human sinful condition with is inherently bent toward addiction than videogames being inherently bad. Afterall Jesus said, "it is not what goes into a person that makes them unclean, but what come out of them" (Mark 7). Sin is an issue that arises in the heart.
So Christians who can't handle videogames in a healthy way should probably keep a safe distance from them or at least ask for some accountability and set some rules from themselves about how they can enjoy them responsibly.

I grew up doing just about everything you listed in your comment--both playing videogames and all the outdoor stuff and you know what I still do just about all that stuff. I think there is value in getting out of the house and there is also value in videogames. They are incredibly creative, they teach us about ourselves, and they provide unique interactive experiences. So as someone who enjoys videogames as a hobby, I don't think you are right at all that they "discourage imagination, nuanced thinking, and conspire to keep adolescents locked in illiteracy."

There are some incredibly creative games out now that I think do the opposite of discourage imagination (at the very least they are doing as well or better than your average adventure novel). Many games today emphasize the power of choice and give you very difficult decisions to make--these games challenge player to be nuanced in their thinking--I would even say that games have a leg up on books and movies in this regard.  And as far as keeping adolescents locked in illiteracy, again I think you need to check out some of the games out there today. Elder Scrolls: Skyrim for instance requires TONS of reading--the amount of in game reading that game offers is astounding and the reading is often very interesting and quite well done.

I enjoy playing videogames but I don't feel slave to them. I typically play for an hour or two at the most each day, I almost never play them while my wife is awake--I never play them as a replacement of time I would otherwise be spending with her or my daughter. 

Do some kids/people get addicted to games? Yes. Does that make all games dangerous and all people incapable of avoiding the trap of game addiction? No of course not. As parents we bear a responsibility to help our children learn to enjoy all of God's good creation without abusing it. 

As far as adults playing games, we should seek to use then in a mature way--in a way that does not pull us away from community, the church, and supporting our families. I am not the perfect father, pastor, or husband but I don't think videogames are keeping me from any of those responsibilities. I have the kind of relationship with my wife that if games were doing that she would tell me ;)

Christian freedom/maturity is a tricky thing--but its important I think that we seek to grow in our understanding of God's world and even more important that we don't make the mistake of labeling things like videogames as evil--doing so would actually hinder our sanctification more than help it.

After playing about 10 minutes of the Batman game.... I became disturbed not with batman and his morals to not kill but rather I had an issue with Cat Woman... Granted she has always been some sort of sexy lady but I do think especially in a T rated game there are certain lines in dress in the characters that should be addressed. 

For those of you who would not buy the game she is wearing her typical skin tight suit that any other superhero or villain would wear but thats not it. It is unzipped down past her chest where the edge of the zippers would fit almost over the middle of each breast to keep it "legal".... It was a lot more than just showing cleavage. Two pix away from being a wardrobe malfuntion. 

This is a kids Icon and to have her as a main character in a kids video game is way over the line in my opinion. 

See the latest in:

Promotion

promo 1 promo 2
promo 3 promo 4

Donate Now