Arkham City Sequel/Prequel

Dear Wal,

I've heard the rumors about a silver age themed prequel, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Let me educate you in the silver age era of Batman comics. It produced things like this:

Yeah. It was bad. Trust me, you don't want to know. I don't think I have to explain all the reasons why a campy Batman game would not go over well, even to casual Batfans (if there is such a thing). It just wouldn't work. Now, elements from the silver age redone and modernized can work. Case in point: Batman R.I.P. By elements of the silver age, I mean Batman vs. aliens or giant bugs and Ace the Bat-Hound or Batman going to a planet where humans get powers like Superman (Batman of Earth X). Basically as weird and bizarre as you can possibly conceive of.
In R.I.P (you've heard me talk about this book before, I'm sure) Grant Morrison (he's a freaking genius) used the Zur-En-Arrh Batman (Batman of Earth X I mentioned earlier) as a sort of back up personality if Bruce was ever pushed over the edge. And boy, was he. Anyway, Zur-En-Arrh is from the silver age. The idea of the other Batman inspired superheroes from around the world in R.I.P.'s prequel the Black Glove is another idea from the silver age. The Black Glove (as a group of villains) itself is very silver age-esc, especially the twist at the end of R.I.P. with Thomas Wayne. I won't spoil it.
Anyway, it depends on whether the prequel is going to be truly set in the silver age, where Batman is campy and horrible, or if it's going to take a storyline from the silver age and then modernize it. Arkam-ize it. I need to get to the point of this post. Here is what I want out of an Arkham City sequel. Enough of this prequel nonsense.
First of all, there were so many awesome leads into possible future plots for a sequel. Hush in the identity theft sidemission, Azreal's prophecy, the Red Hood (since we can be reasonably sure that Jason did die in the Arkham-verse), Black Mask escaping, all kinds of stuff. It could set up for another incredible game, this time in the actual Gotham City.

Free Roam
I know Arkham City was fairly free roam style play, but there were still limits and old Gotham seemed very small. Not that it wasn't awesome. But I've always, in City and Asylum, looked out at actual Gotham in longing. I want to be able to run around in Gotham or drive the batmobile or the batwing. Like Lego Batman 2 but better. Also, I want to be able to go in at least a majority of the buildings, not just one or two like in Arkham City.The ones you can't go in, you should at least be able to see in through the windows

They could do some really great things with this-famous landmarks of Gotham from movies, TV, the comics. It would be cool if you could fight the glow-in-the-dark mob from Batman Forever.

Side Missions

More side missions! I enjoyed being able to do other stuff after the actual storyline was over. It was like reading a one-shot comic after the huge summer-long epic story arc. Only, I wasn’t reading it, I was actually in it. Best part of the Arkham games. Anyway. More side missions and more detective work to go with the size of the city, and more opportunities to stop random crime. Sort of like the quests and things on Skyrim. (That’s the kind of thing I’m thinking of for these two things.) Not on that huge of a scale, since it’s just one city, but still.

Multiplayer

This is my one major complaint from the two Arkham games. They were both one player. Now, I understand Batman is supposed to be a solo act (Which, when you think about it, is really funny because I’m pretty sure he has the biggest group of sidekicks/associates in superhero comics.) but I can’t show off the awesomeness of the Arkham games to people unless they actually play it, and then it’s no fun because then I’m just sitting there watching them. In other words, I want to be able to drag Watson around Gotham City with me. We would have way too much fun.

Riddler Trophies

I love the Riddler trophies/puzzles/riddles. They provide hours of (sometimes extremely frustrating) entertainment after you've finished the story line of the game. The Riddler rooms in City were a great expansion from Asylum. Maybe the same idea could be applied to a third game, where instead of rooms there were mazes or something, and more puzzle solving involved in getting the trophies. 

Tools

My only complaint with these games as far as tools go is that you don't have any exploding batarangs! They were always my favorite took from the animated series and the Justice League show. I think City pretty much covers every tool or category of tool Batman uses in the comics (except for the really wonky one-time-use tools). 

Combat System

I thought the special moves on City would be hard for me to learn, but I actually figured them out fairly quickly. It's a very simple system to learn. The tools are still a bit of a problem for me, though. So maybe there could be an easier way to use them in combat (although, I don't know what else you could do; pretty much every button on the controller is already taken up). 

Plot

 I would just be happy if they tied up the Hush plot at the end of City. I spazzed out from excitement when he showed up as Bruce Wayne’s double. It would also be cool to have the Riddler step as a serious threat, as he did in Hush in the comics, and end up to be the one behind everything all along. That was the best reveal ever.

Maybe the Riddler could be doing his same old thing with his trophies and puzzles and riddles (it would be cool if the Riddler rooms were expanded into, say, Riddler mazes or something) and you think; “Oh, this is just like Arkham City only expanded. I got it.” And then, WHAM, it comes out of nowhere that the Riddler was behind it all along. The Riddler has so much potential for awesome, but he always ends up being depicted as silly and cheesy.

/endrant

P.S. Didn't post yesterday because the internet was being annoying. I could barely get blogger to load, let alone the editor. I was going on such a long streak of posts too.