10 iconic Batman villains who might appear in Gotham Knights

Gotham Knights is dropping four days ahead of its initial release date, bringing with it a slew of criminals and supervillains that seek to threaten the lives of Gotham’s residents. With Batman seemingly out of the picture, it is up to Batgirl, Nightwing, Red Hood, and Robin to restore balance to the city and bring the villains into GCPD custody.

Trailers and gameplay footage have already given us a look at iconic characters such as Harley Quinn, The Penguin, Mr. Freeze, and Clayface, who are set to serve as the antagonists in Gotham Knight. The Court of Owls' secret organization is going to play a huge role in the story, and the League of Shadows has been confirmed to have a presence as well.

Aside from the above, I’m pretty sure that Gotham Knights will feature a couple more villains from Batman’s rogue’s gallery, ones which are being kept under wraps for now. With several villains featured in stories set in Gotham, the list of possible candidates is quite expansive.

10 possible supervillains that might show up in Gotham Knights

1) Two-Face

Harvey Dent is a character that has not yet been showcased in Gotham Knight, which is a good indication that the District Attorney of Gotham might have already made his transformation into Two-Face. His predilection for deciding important events based on the toss of a coin is a physical manifestation of the two personalities that govern his mind.

Oswald Cobblepot, aka the Penguin, is already in power due to the events of Gotham Knights. The Falcone and Maroni crime families are nowhere to be seen. This might imply that Two-Face is also one of the other ruling parties in power, one that occasionally comes into conflict with Penguin as it is in the comics.

Two-Face was once a trusted friend and ally of Batman, albeit one that harbored a darker side to himself. A criminal threw acid on Dent’s face, leaving one side horribly scarred and letting out the darker half as he took on the moniker of Two-Face.

2) Poison Ivy

Harley Quinn was recently confirmed to be one of the main antagonists in Gotham Knights, with her appearing in full costume and taking on Batgirl in a fight. Since Harley is part of the scenes, I feel like it would be a great move to also include her long-time love interest, Poison Ivy, as a character in Gotham Knights as well.

Expand Tweet

Ivy and Harley have had an on-again-off-again relationship since Harley split from the Joker. Ivy has since taken on a more anti-hero role, moving away from her villain status and becoming more concerned with the well-being of plant life instead of humans.

Ivy could serve as a way to show audiences a softer side to Harley, one that many would be familiar with from the Harley Quinn animated show, where Ivy also plays a major role. She has proven to be much more than just a one-note villain, and can be a mature and wise personality.

3) Scarecrow

Jonathan Crane, aka The Scarecrow, could appear in Gotham Knights, although he wouldn’t be my top pick. For one, he already had a big role in the last big Batman game, Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Knight. It would be wasteful to include the character in the game in a major role when there are better candidates.

That being said, he can always feature as a mini-boss, or possibly as part of a side-mission story. With a new design that sets him apart from the Arkham games and a minor role, The Scarecrow could be a great villain to run into as a bonus to the main story.

Crane was an abused child whose father experimented with him to see the effects of fear. This led to Crane’s obsession with controlling fear, which fueled him to create the fear toxin, a compound that can induce strong fearful hallucinogenic reactions in a person when it is inhaled.

4) Deathstroke

While Deathstroke did appear in the Arkham series recently in the final game, it was but a brief cameo and some lines of dialogue. His proper appearance was in Arkham Origins, although even there he was only available for one fight. However, the likelihood of him being a villain in Gotham Knights is high, primarily due to the presence of Nightwing.

In the comics, Deathstroke and Nightwing have a strong enmity towards each other, as the world’s greatest assassin once sought to eliminate the Teen Titans, a team led by Nightwing.

The two have crossed paths and battled each other on several occasions, meaning that if Deathstroke does show up in Gotham Knights, the two will have some history between them.

Deathstroke, or Slade Wilson, also got his origin story in the issues of the Teen Titans comics that featured the storyline, The Judas Contract. Slade is also currently one of the primary antagonists in the Dark Crisis storyline, which is an ongoing event in DC comics.

5) Man-bat

This might be a long shot, but hear me out. Kirk Langstrom is shown to have already been killed at the start of Gotham Knights, as revealed in the opening mission for the game. While this would generally rule him out being a villain going forward, we never see if Langstrom has already undergone his transformation yet or not.

In fact, this could be the perfect setup to later have Man-Bat as a loose threat in Gotham City, with the body of Langstrom disappearing from the morgue or transforming on the way to the hospital. Unlike in Arkham Knight, this time around, we got a more in-depth storyline for the character, possibly one with more horror elements.

Kirk Langstrom was a scientist who was researching a cure for deafness using the DNA of bats. In the comics, his Man-Bat serum was stolen from him and used to infect the population of Gotham. Langstrom decided to create an anti-serum using his own blood, transforming himself in the process but turning the rest of Gotham back to normal.

6) Firefly

This one is another unlikely character, as Firefly is, for one, not a very popular character, as his gimmick is a pyromaniac who enjoys arson. He also appeared in Arkham Knight as the focus for a series of side-missions, in which Batman had to chase him down and put a stop to his antics.

Going by the name of Garfield Lynns, this guy started life as a pyrotechnics expert in the movie industry. He later took to arson as a hobby, which soon spiraled into a full-blown obsession. While he was the protege of Killer Moth (another criminal arsonist), the latter eventually grew wary of Lynns' psychotic personality and abandoned him.

In Gotham Knights, Firefly could be given a bigger role or, similar to Mr. Freeze, act independently by causing a lot of mayhem and requiring to be brought in during the course of a single mission. After all, with four playable characters, there needs to be enough villains for each of them.

7) Killer Croc

Killer Croc or Waylon Jones’ last video game appearance was in Batman: Arkham Knight’s Season of Infamy DLC. However, since he did not appear properly in the main game, an appearance in Gotham Knights could very well be in the cards. With Gotham being a living-breathing city, it wouldn’t be accurate to not have Croc somewhere down in the sewers.

A redesign resembling his looks from the comics would serve to set him apart from his Arkhamverse counterpart. A side mission involving missing people and kidnappings near sewer grates would be an ideal way to introduce the lizard man to Gotham Knights.

Waylon Jones has a tragic backstory though. Born with an incurable genetic defect that made him look like a reptile, he joined the carnival in Haley’s Circus as a wrestler named Killer Croc. However, the cruel treatment of people turned Jones bitter until he finally resorted to a life of crime.

8) Black Mask

Black Mask is another member of modern-day Gotham’s organized crime families. He commands a significantly large criminal empire and also comes from a long line of wealthy aristocrats. His real name is Roman Sionis, and he inherited the family wealth from his parents after killing them both himself.

Black Mask has appeared in Batman: Arkham Origins as the primary antagonist, where he put a bounty on Batman on Christmas night, bringing several famous assassins to Gotham, looking to cash in on the reward. With Gotham Knights focussing on the Court of Owls and thus members of the social elite, Sionis could make an appearance in the game.

Aside from video games, Black Mask was also the main villain in the Birds of Prey movie. Played by the talented Ewan McGregor, this take on the character was of an eccentric billionaire who had a penchant for torture and an obsession with different types of masks.

9) Bane

This popular Batman villain is a great pick to feature in Gotham Knights, as his last video game appearance was in Arkham Origins in 2013. One of the most physically formidable opponents that Batman has ever faced, Bane boasts the claim of ‘breaking the bat’ on more than one occasion.

This super-criminal from the fictional island of Santa Prisca relies on a drug called Venom to give him immense physical strength, endurance, and durability. He is also a master tactician, although he is sometimes relegated to being just the muscle when working under individuals with superior intellect.

If Bane planned to appear in Gotham Knights, his role could either be as an individual party, one working with the Court of Owls, or as a mini-boss for a side mission. This character can play many roles, depending on who is writing him, so I’d expect this malleable nature to guarantee him a spot in the game.

10) The Joker

With Batman presumably dead, it might be that the Clown Prince of Crime has also been somehow taken out of action. It would not be prudent to have the Joker feature in a game where Batman himself is not present, but then there is always the possibility that the Caped Crusader might make a return at some point in the story.

If that is indeed the case, chances are that the Joker will also have a role to play. Rocksteady showed that you can’t have a proper Batman game without featuring his dark mirror, his polar opposite, and his nemesis till the end of time itself.

Having the Joker in Gotham Knights is a risky move, as he will pull attention away from whoever the true antagonist is. However, if the Joker himself is planning to be the secret big bad villian of Gotham Knights, it is something that needs to be handled properly, as it has already been done once before by WB Montreal.