The Demon Bat Skin Makes Perfect Sense In Batman: Arkham Knight
Although it's been nine years since Batman: Arkham Knight was released, the modding community is still hard at work. Modders have been adding new fan-favorite suits from the comics, movies, and other media to Rocksteady's celebrated DC title. Sometimes, modders don't even have to look far for inspiration, as they have ported suits from other titles in the Arkhamverse, such as Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Origins, or the main Batsuit from Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
TheArkhamDoctor has taken inspiration from the latter, as they have modded the Dark Knight's look in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League's boss battle. As its name suggests, the most recent Arkhamverse entry saw Amanda Waller's Task Force X sent on a mission to kill some of DC's most iconic heroes, who had fallen under Brainiac's mind control. While there was a sequence early in the game in which a brainwashed Batman used stealth to take out each member of the Suicide Squad, Batman's main boss battle saw him using a modified version of Scarecrow's fear toxin to appear as a towering, monstrous version of himself, described in the mod title as "The Demon Bat."
Despite being based on the design in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, the Demon Bat is incredibly fitting in Batman: Arkham Knight, as Scarecrow was one of the primary antagonists and unleashed his fear toxin across Gotham. The Demon Bat's appearance is even more suited to Arkham Knight's endgame, as after initiating the Knightfall protocol, this fiery, monstrous depiction of Batman appears to torment the criminals of Gotham, despite them believing that the real Batman is dead.
The "Demon Bat" skin likely got its name from a Daily Planet headline, as a paper reading "Demon Bat in Gotham" can be seen when exploring the newsroom in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League's Metropolis. However, it's unclear how the photo of a fiery fear-toxin-induced image of the Dark Knight from the closing moments of Batman: Arkham Knight could be depicted on the front page, considering it's a hallucination, and Batman doesn't actually appear like that unless it's a very accurate artist's interpretation in-universe.
TheArkhamDoctor adds an extra level of depth to roaming the streets of Gotham following this finale, as players can now experience the game with the visual Batman's enemies see following Batman: Arkham Knight's true ending. It's also satisfying to see Batman seemingly transforming himself into this otherworldly being to further strike fear into the hearts of Gotham's criminals and experience this firsthand via gameplay rather than just through a cutscene.
