In DK Publishing's new coffee table book, Batman Arkham Universe: The Ultimate Visual Guide, you'll find 200 pages of full-color artwork and renders, along with loads of details about the world in which all four Arkham games exist. The oversized tome, measuring ten inches wide by twelve inches tall, may even teach you a few things about all those Bat-tastic characters.
Here are seven things we learned about the Batman: Arkhamverse from this book, and we're betting even the hardest of hardcore fans will find something here they never knew before.
1. Oracle has an eidetic memory.
This one comes straight out of the comics, but many fans may be surprised to learn it nonetheless. Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl in DC's "New 52" comics and Oracle in the Arkhamverse, has a rare gift: a photographic memory. No wonder she's so good at getting Batman the exact information he needs when he needs it.
2. The story of Arkham Asylum's Batcave.
Batman didn't always have a secondary Batcave located beneath Arkham Asylum. He discovered the caves down there after he saved the life of a suicidal inmate. It quickly occurred to Mr. Plan-For-Every-Possibiliy that having a Batcave under the Asylum could come in very handy.
3. Why Penguin is British.
In the comics, Oswald Cobblepot is part of a proud family that's called Gotham home for multiple generations. So why does the Penguin that appears in Arkham City, Arkham Origins and Arkham Knight have a British accent?
Admittedly, this was a stylistic choice on the part of Rocksteady Studios, to add a little extra color to the character. But in-universe, the story goes that when he was a child, Oswald's parents sent him to live overseas, in London. (Whether this is due to his odd appearance or his parents just being jerks is unknown.) When his parents back in Gotham lost their fortune, Oswald presumably lost whatever they were giving him to live off of as well. So he got involved with the criminal gangs of London, which explains both his Cockney accent and the prickly, Gotham-sized chip on his shoulder.
4. Penguin's unusual monocle.
The Arkhamverse Penguin also foregoes his typical monocle in favor of something much more brutal. Sometime after Arkham Origins, Oswald was involved in a bar brawl. It was there that the bottom of a beer bottle became lodged in his eye socket.
Naturally, he tried to have it removed, but his doctors determined that removing the glass would be fatal. (We have no idea why. Maybe it bumped up against a major artery and couldn't be moved without severing it?) So Oswald opted to keep it, making it part of his signature look.
Never one to let a transgression pass, Penguin later got his revenge on the man who hit him with the beer bottle. After tracking him down, Oswald plucked out both of the man's eyes and left him blind -- in the middle of rush hour traffic on the freeway.
5. Lazarus Pits can't heal tattoos.
The Arkhamverse's version of Ra's al Ghul has arms covered with tattoos. He's lived for over 600 years, so we know that he's gone into his Lazarus Pits many times over the years.
Yet for all of their regenerative properties, the Pits have no effect on Ra's al Ghul's tattoos. You'd think they would "heal" his skin and erase the tattoos. Even the Ultimate Visual Guide book comments on this, noting that "for some reason," his tattoos remain while the rest of his body sheds the effects of aging.
6. Recycled structures.
Arkham City was not the first time Gotham's criminals made repurposed structures their incarcerated home. Arkham Asylum was once, long ago, the Arkham family home. The Arkhams owned the entire island and made their lavish residence there.
You may recall the name Amadeus Arkham from the first game — it was he who converted his ancestral home into an institution for the criminally insane.
7. Arkham City's size.
Gotham City goes through some radical changes throughout the four games. Back in the early days of Batman's career, aka the Arkham Origins time period, there were two main districts, each located on its own island: Old Gotham and New Gotham. By the time it opened for business years later, Arkham City took up half of Gotham.
That deserves reiterating, because it's kind of shocking: Half of the entire city of Gotham was turned into a prison. Specifically, it was the "Old Gotham" district/island, which underwent some catastrophic flooding. Hugo Strange ordered that massive walls be built around Old Gotham and heavy security measures put in place.
Nine months later, Arkham Knight's Gotham City has exploded with growth. The city proper is now located on three new islands — Bleake Island, Miagani Island, and Founders' Island — that together make up a total land mass about five times the size of Arkham City (which has been shut down and abandoned).
Batman Arkham Universe: The Ultimate Visual Guide, written by Matthew K Manning, is available now. For the true Arkham fan, it's a must-own.
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