The road to Arkham Asylum

Abstract

This chapter analyzes how Batman: Dark Tomorrow (2003) reflects changes in tie-in videogame production in the early 2000s and also prefigures the transmedia storytelling framework of the Batman: Arkhamverse franchise that began with the videogame Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009). While Batman: Dark Tomorrow anchored itself to the Batman comic books of the time, Batman: Arkham Asylum arrived in a different gaming landscape and consolidated elements from across the history of Batman media, including not just the comics but also the film and television incarnations. Both games express how media franchises have turned to paratexts to maintain awareness in between film releases, with Dark Tomorrow debuting during the transition between Batman and Robin (1997) and Batman Begins (2005) and Batman: Arkham Asylum arriving between The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). The chapter examines how the Batman intellectual property (IP) represents a complex web of multiple—sometimes intersecting, sometimes isolated—franchises. Through a focus on Batman: Dark Tomorrow and Batman: Arkham Asylum, the chapter looks at how the Batman IP’s multifranchisality has presented challenges for implementing transmedia storytelling.