The Amazon UK Limited Edition of Batman: Arkham Knight includes a statue of the World's Greatest Detective towering protectively (and, one must assume, figuratively) over the dark streets of Gotham. It's a really sexy piece of swag, and a whole lot nicer, in my opinion, than the Batmobile Edition we get here in North America. But It may also include a whopping big spoiler.
Read on at your own risk!
The spoiler—and I'm not kidding around here, this is your last chance—is in the engraving at the foot of the statue: "From a Grateful City in Memory of the Gotham Knight." That, obviously, implies that the Dark Knight is dead, a fate that presumably befalls him at some point over the course of the game.
We all know that superhero deaths carry about as much weight as Half-Life 3 confirmations: They die, they come back, life goes on. Superman did it, Spider-Man did it, Captain America did it; Batman hasn't actually done it yet, as far as I know, although he did bounce back nicely from being folded like a used hotel bed sheet by Bane.
But even though I don't believe for a second that Batman will actually die in the game, this still represents a potential spoiler of a mighty big plot point. It's hardly a far-fetched notion: Something awful happens, Batman disappears, Gotham mourns, and the Arkham Knight rises, Azrael-like, to bust skulls in a more viciously anti-hero fashion—and shoot some dudes, too. Under the circumstances (the Arkham Knight character was created specifically for the game), that may not be the most surprising plot twist ever, but even so I'd think publisher WBIE would want to keep it quiet for as long as possible.
Or maybe it's a red herring! Have a look at the statue (and the rest of the Amazon UK Limited Edition) for yourself and tell us what you think.
