Masked Man

I've been on a bit of a Batman tip the last few weeks, possibly inspired by catching Batman Begins on ITV4. I enjoyed the film (and the sequel) at the cinema, which is a rare excursion for me, despite Christian Bale's silly voice. Since then, I've been spending a lot of my free time on Dark Knight-related occupations.

Bruce Wayne's other mental half was always one of the more appealing characters in the DC songbook, certainly much more than the tedious Superman. Only Green Arrow and the Question have proven more interesting and enjoyable to me. Naturally, my first exposure was the dumb-as-rocks 60s tv show, which my kid brother and I would watch as kids on Saturday morns. I never did work out why the camera angle was slanted whenever we saw inside the villain-of-the-week's hideaway.

But what really grabbed my attention was the fantastic animated series of the early/mid 90s, of which I've picked up a couple of DVDs on the cheap. Brilliantly drawn in a film-noir style and with top notch acting, it capitalised on the success of the Tim Burton films to create a new audience for the character in impressionable kids like me.

It was this show that made me pick up the Playstation 3 game Batman: Arkham Asylum a couple of weeks ago, as the voice of Batman (Kevin Conroy) and the Joker (Mark Hamill) lent their talents to it. I consider both as the 'definitive' actors for both characters, and don't give me any of that Heath Ledger crap.

With the game itself being set entirely in the asylum Batman's enemies get sent to, it led to me wondering aloud with a friend of mine whether any comic/cartoon dealt with the subject of mental illness more. It's one of the few that basically states that a large number of it's characters (including the hero) are more than a little hatstand.

But the game: it won a large number of awards, including some 'Game of the Year' titles. All seem a little over the top to this player. The storyline is engaging, the acting great, but the actual combat system is little more than button mashing and the boss fights verge on the tedious. The side quest of solving the Riddler's puzzles proves to be the trickiest part of the game - requiring knowledge of some of the more obscure characters from the comics.

Both game and recent film franchise have coined in the big dollars, leading to further sequels and product, something the people behind the last Superman film are probably Poison Ivy green with envy over - I'm sure even Batman would have to smile over that one.