The number of villains Batman will be going up against in Warner Bros. Montreal's upcoming prequel, Batman: Arkham Origins is starting to get pretty high up there in numbers. Among them will be a few familiar faces players have squared off against in previous Arkham titles, but thankfully, WB is offering up a few new ones as well. One of which is Anarky, who, true to his namesake, is all about spreading chaos.
Speaking with the PlayStation Blog, Origins creative director Eric Holmes shared some details on this "anti-villain," who, despite being around since the early 90's, is a character that not too many may be familiar with.
"Ultimately, [Anarky] is an anti-corporate, anti-government... technically an anti-villain as well," said Holmes. "He's a guy who kind of does bad things but believes he's doing the right thing. He doesn't like big corporations trying to control our lives or the government trying to tell us what to do. And he believes those institutions should get kicked out, and wants to take them down."
Anarky was created by Alan Grant, whose other Bat-characters include other Arkham denizens like Mr. Zsasz and institution head, Jeremiah Arkham. As his interests are more centered on taking out government institutions and corporate interests, it's unlikely Anarky is looking for Black Mask's money to take out the Dark Knight. But that doesn't mean they won't cross paths. At this year's E3, Holmes debuted the villain officially, and said Anarky would actually appeal to the caped crusader to form some kind of partnership, which Bats obviously spurns.
As Holmes shares, "He's planted a bunch of bombs in these institutions in Gotham, and Batman's gotta go there and he defuses those bombs. And further on, in the Most Wanted campaign for him, Batman can hunt him down to where he's headquartered and take him on."
The reason for the character's inclusion was the result of not only his being one of Holmes' favorite characters, but due to the contemprary popularity of anarchism. Anarky as a character echoes the various "Occupy" movements seen around the U.S. in the last few years, as well as the "Arab Spring."
Anarky joins the Mad Hatter Jervis Tetch, Copperhead, Deadshot , Black Mask, Deathstroke, The Penguin, The Joker, Bane, and Killer Croc as members of Origins' rogues gallery.
Batman: Arkham Origins is out on PC, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and Xbox 360 this October.
