Arkhamverse’s Deadly Batmobile Makes Its Explosive Debut in Official Continuity

Warning: Spoilers for Green Lantern #15 ahead!Batman is well known for two core tenets: he does not kill, and he always has a gadget or plan for any occasion. Both of these principles are put to the test when the deadliest Batmobile across the entire Batman franchise makes its first appearance in comic continuity.

Green Lantern steals an experimental Batplane to break into Waller’s Hall of Order in Green Lantern #15 by Jeremy Adams, Fernando Pasarin, Oclair Albert, Romulo Fajardo, Jr., and Dave Sharpe. When Hal Jordan discovers that the “Batwolf” plane offers no real offensive ordinance, he instead chooses to breach the facility by launching the plane’s reserve Batmobile straight into the building.

This Batmobile has a very distinct design, featuring a mounted “EMP cannon” turret that immediately calls to mind the highly weaponized Batmobile from the Batman: Arkham Knight video game.

The Arkham Franchise’s Batmobile Returns After Nine Years

And It’s All Thanks to Green Lantern

Released in 2015, Batman: Arkham Knight is the third game in Rocksteady’s highly successful “Arkhamverse” franchise. While making minor appearances in previous games, the Batmobile was heavily promoted as one of Arkham Knight‘s main features, to be used in puzzle solving, combat sequences, and transportation.

However, players soon noticed that the Batmobile’s numerous weaponized features often broke, rather than enhanced, the immersion of playing as Batman – for example, an “electric field” ostensibly prevented enemy NPCs from directly touching the Batmobile, but that didn’t prevent players from effectively running enemies over and “knocking them out.”

​​​​​​

Arkham Knight‘s Batmobile could also be piloted like a tank to take out enemy vehicles (with the hasty explanation that all enemies are unmanned drones). When fully upgraded, this version of the Batmobile boasted anti-tank guns, armor-penetrating cannons, guided missiles, and an EMP projector. Sadly, the Batmobile’s gameplay was relatively slow and clunky compared to the Arkham games’ trademark stealth and action sequences. This, combined with the dissonance between Batman’s supposedly nonlethal methods and the plethora of weapons bristling from this tank-like Batmobile, quickly elevated the game’s main vehicle to meme status.

The Arkhamverse’s Batmobile Is The Perfect Over-The-Top Vehicle

For An Over-The-Top Heist

Just like in the Arkhamverse, Green Lantern #15 is quick to try and claim that the Batmobile is still a “nonlethal” vehicle (and makes a big deal of pointing out the Batwolf-model Batplane has no lethal offensive capabilities). The cannon that emerges, then, is an “EMP cannon,” and the hordes of goons upon which it opens fire are clearly depicted as mechanical drones. This approach is so similar to how the Arkhamverse treats the Batmobile that it is an easy leap to declare this Batmobile model to be the same as its Arkhamverse counterpart.

The Batmobile has taken many forms over the years, from a sleek, elongated racer to the rough-and-ready Tumbler of the Dark Knight film trilogy. Across all incarnations, however, no other version of the Batmobile combines speed, power, and technology to create such a devastating war machine as its Arkhamverse iteration. This Absolute Power tie-in issue marks the Arkhamverse Batmobile’s first foray into comic book canon – but if anything can help break Amanda Waller’s hold over the DCU, it’s Batman’s most over-the-top ride yet.

Green Lantern #15 is available now from DC Comics.