The PlayStation All-Stars Ultimate Roster Showdown Match 14: Batman vs. Spider-Man

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Round 1: Allan Muir on behalf of Batman from the Batman Arkham series

The Batman series has had much better luck when it comes to video games than Superman, Green Lantern, Aquaman and the rest of the Justice League. During the lifecycle of the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Nintendo GameCube the Batman franchise had very poor outings from Batman: Dark Tomorrow to the mixed reception of the Batman Begins tie-in game. After news broke of a video game adaptation based on arguably one of the best Comic Book films of all time in The Dark Knight being cancelled by Electronic Arts things looked bleak for future games starring the hero of Gotham. But little did we know, things were about to be changed forever.

Ten years ago the definitive Batman game was released in the form of Batman: Arkham Asylum. From developer Rocksteady who before that was best known for Urban Chaos three years prior to the release of Arkham Asylum. But this game had some secrets up its sleeves. Those were the iconic voices of Batman and the Joker in Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill respectively. The third and perhaps biggest ace up its sleeve was iconic writer of both Batman: The Animated Series and Batman Beyond, that person being Paul Dini.

Arkham Asylum was a bonafide hit both financially and critically as the game at least in my mind felt like one of the Batman Animated features from the 1990’s such as Mask of The Phantasm and eventually Mystery of the Batwoman. Two years later the sequel titled: Arkham City would be released and can be considered a take on the No Mans Land story where instead of Gotham being zoned off due to a natural disaster it’s a portion of Gotham zoned off and turned into a prison. The third game in the Rocksteady trilogy: Arkham Knight (which has nothing to do with what is going on right now in the current run of Detective Comics) was showcased for the PlayStation 4 at E3 and it looked amazing and was a legitimate “next gen” game for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. While there are issues to be seen with the game such as the reveal of the Arkham Knight’s true identity, the Riddler challenges, and the heavy emphasis on the Batmobile just to name a few. Regardless of problems with the game the series Batman would make a fantastic addition to the roster to have a beloved character that goes back to the 1930’s and would be great foil for another character I will not name so the surprise isn’t worried.

Round 2: Emmett Watkins Jr on behalf of Spider-Man from Marvel’s Spider-Man

Insomniac Games is responsible for PlayStation’s more recognizable faces, including characters that are already on this All-Stars roster like Spyro and Ratchet and Clank. However, we’ve yet to get any modern representation from them on the roster, so since Sunset Overdrive is an Xbox exclusive, Resistance doesn’t have many iconic characters, and barely anyone remembers Fuse, the obvious choice is Spider-Man.

With the release of Spider-Man on PS4 last year, Insomniac seems to have finally earned the recognition of their studio as being comparable to the quality of the Naughty Dogs and Sony Santa Monicas of the world. So, if were trying to include all of PlayStation’s most iconic characters, then it would be a crime to ignore one of the most popular characters in all of popular fiction.

So, since his inclusion is all but inevitable, what would his moveset be? Well, thanks to the melee heavy mechanics in his game, much of his moveset can be easily transferred into All-Stars. Various punches and kicks could make up his close range abilities while web based grapples and rapid fire web strikes can take up much of his ranged abilities. The addition of gadgets would also add an interesting wrinkle into combat. Web bombs could temporarily hold down opponents so Spider-Man can wail on them or the Spider Drone could do damage and generate AP passively.

His super moves, however, might be a bit harder to conceive, as he’s already such a powerful and diverse character at his base level, but incorporating his suit abilities would solve that. His Rock Out power from his Spider Punk suit would make for a great level one super, as it’s range could be reduced from that seen in Marvel’s Spider-Man. Web blossom would be a great level two, as it’s range and duration would be much longer than his Rock Out power. And finally, in an unconventional move, I’d like to see Peter rock his Undies suit along with his Equalizer power. This ability allows him to take out any enemy in one hit, but also be taken out himself in one hit. To counter this, I think it’s be appropriate to fully extend his range of motion while this super is active, as he’d be much harder to hit if he was allowed to swing around and launch himself through the stage at will.

This is the part where I make one last ditch plea for you to vote in my favor, but I already have the cards stacked in my favor. Spider-Man is the franchise more tightly tied to PlayStation. Spider-Man is the more iconic hero between the two. Hell, Spider-Man has even had a more successful track record in film, especially in the last few years. So, instead of giving you more reasons to vote for him, I instead ask, why wouldn’t you vote for him?

So, who do you put your money on, the Caped Crusader or the friendly neighborhood hero? Vote in the Twitter poll embedded below, and follow @LosHarrowGames for the next match up!