The ability to end a story is an undervalued skill. Ending a franchise is even more so. To avoid spoilers, let’s just say Batman: Arkham City wrapped up the series well with one doozy of an ending. Sure, there were a couple of plots threads that could do with being wrapped up or side-stories expanded, perhaps as DLC (like Harley’s Revenge) or just media tie-ins. The argument could be made that the Joker’s Spike TV plug for the fictional Arkham World is a possibility given the ridiculous number of Batman villains and crossovers that could be tapped.

Yet while City impressively managed to pull the experience of Arkham Asylum up to a near Gotham-wide playground with a story to match, painful as it is to say, it is unlikely the Arkham series can reach much further, at least upward and outward. Going back into the depths of the Batman mythos and creation is a whole other story.

The Batman origin story isn’t anywhere near as played out as that of his big blue buddy Superman. To veer on a slight tangent, Superman’s origin story and surprisingly easy acceptance by mankind is the only interesting part of him. This is why basically every movie about him is constantly re-telling that story with varying degrees of success. It’s not helped by how shockingly boring his world is.

The biggest difference between Batman and Superman, narrative-wise, is that Batman and his rogues gallery are interesting enough to carry a plotless movie; Superman and his threadbare villains (name one that isn’t Lex Luthor) are nothing without a decent story. No amount of Richard Pryor will change that.

Fire bombing the TV won’t let you unsee it either.

How does that mini-rant connect with video games? You should get the connection when you hear what the newest installment in the Arkhamverse is called: Arkham Origins. A massive problem with Superman’s origin is that he is always Superman. Or Kal-El depending how much you want to get into this. Clark Kent is his alter ego. He never becomes Superman. It would be more accurate to describe Supes’ story as that of an alien learning to hide his true self, essentially an intergalactic tale of passing.

Batman is the complete opposite. He starts off a normal though incredibly wealthy human child and becomes the ultimate vigilante through years of hard work and dedication, not because there’s a bright yellow sun outside. Because he’s such a strong character and there’s so much story and awesome villainy to get to, his evolution from Bruce Wayne, Billionaire Orphan, to the nightmare of bad guys is often skipped over. In fact, he’s usually presented fully formed and the focus is not on Bruce Wayne developing the Batman persona, but on the Batman persona consuming the Bruce Wayne one and his attempts to balance the two.

We could spend half the movie/comic/game contemplating the lonely life of a child left behind following a tragic double murder. Or we could let Puddin’ do his thing. Tough call.

It’s a largely untapped area of story-telling. Sure, there are plenty of comics out there covering that period, and it featured heavily in the first of Christopher Nolan’s trilogy. But Origins could offer this story with more than plotlines. With the right fiddling, Warner Bros Montreal could add a more physical tie to Batman’s development into asskicking awesomeness.

When City opens, the first real objective in the game is to grab the Batsuit from a Batrocket Canister that Batman summons from Batbutler Alfred. All the gear and gizmos from Asylum are there, ready to use. There was no realistic way to depower Batman–after all, he’s got several functional plans to take down a rogue Superman, what a developer do?–so they didn’t even try.

With Origins, developers can be both overt and sneaky with depowering. The overt is that Bats hasn’t got his gizmos; they’ve yet to be developed. Perhaps the events in Origins will explain why they exist in Asylum. The sneakier way lies with Batman’s fighting style.

Pow! Bam! Wallop! Ni!

Arkham’s free flow fighting is verging on perfection in both concept and execution. Seamlessly moving between enemies, switching from offense to defense mid-move, summoning flocks of bats, all things we fully accept from Batman. But that’s 100% Batman. What about when he was still a rookie? Adding a little awkwardness into the free flow, less grace in the flips, and a stronger emphasis on brute strength over tactics would reflect Batman’s relative naivety without words. Of course, it would have to be done right, otherwise it could be easily mistaken for bad mechanics.

While this preview has focused on Origins as a Batman origin story, it’s exciting to think that the origins are also those of the Arkhamverse. Will Gotham be a city on the brink of darkness, tipping over and taking our hero with it? Or are the people Gotham already in that pit, waiting for Batman to save them? Will we see the start of a criminal underbelly that can support maniacs like the Joker and Penguin?

Stayed tuned for the answers. Same Bat-site, same Bat-reviewer (maybe).

Holy Hands On, Batman!

Origins is confirmed to appear at Eurogamer 2013. Expect to hear plenty more from SquareGo after we get our grubby mitts on it.