Batman: Arkham Asylum: 9 Scariest Villains In The Game

Arkham Asylum is the home for Gotham’s worst of the worst, from deranged serial killers to ultra-powerful metahumans. The video game Batman: Arkham Asylum showcases the villains on their home turf, with Batman stuck on an island alongside many of his deadly foes.

Across the island is a selection of villains, each redesigned to be scarier and more threatening for the Caped Crusader. With different styles, executions, and unique boss fights, some of the villains ended up being scarier than others.

9 The Riddler

The only slightly eerie part of the Riddler’s involvement in Batman: Arkham Asylum is when he first appears. Batman’s trying to track down Joker only to be surprised by a sinister voice in his comms, “Can you hear me, Batman? I know you can.”

This turns out to be none other than Edward Nygma AKA the Riddler hacking into Batman’s communications. From there, he loses all scariness and becomes the cocky egomaniac that became an overused annoyance across all four games in the Arkham series.

8 Harley Quinn

In Arkham Asylum, Harley is portrayed as much more ruthless and villainous than her debut in Batman: The Animated Series. Even with her first encounter with Batman, she attempts to kill him and an Arkham staff by dropping an elevator.

Harley Quinn is one of many DC characters who are smarter than they appear. Throughout Arkham Asylum, she showcases that by outwitting Batman, slowing him down, and killing Arkham staff remaining a few steps ahead throughout, giving her a slight edge over Riddler but not quite scary.

7 Poison Ivy

With glowing green eyes, vine-like veins in her skin, and thanks to a bit of Titan formula, Poison Ivy covers the island in massive plants and deadly spores. She can also incubate men in pheromone pods thus putting them under her control.

Fitting for her character, Poison Ivy comes across as a sinister enchantress who preys on the carnal weaknesses of men. This combined with her windy voice gives her a slight creepy factor, especially when speaking across the island through her plants.

6 Bane

In stark contrast to most versions of Bane, he is depicted as a massive hulking monster that keeps the player on edge on the first playthrough. There is also an element of body horror as Joker fills him with Titan, forcing the player to watch as Bane’s muscles and bones break and reform into the monster.

However, of all the many different boss fights of the series, Bane is one of the weaker ones. After the initial shock of his first appearance, he’s easy to defeat. This is a shame because Bane is one of the most capable fighters in Batman’s villain roster.

5 Victor Zsasz

Serial killer Victor Zsasz does not have a large role in Arkham Asylum but he does stand out. In general, the entire concept of the character is unnerving since the tally marks on his skin represent a victim he’s killed. Since there are dozens, if not hundreds of marks, the amount of killing makes him inherently scary.

In the actual Arkham Asylum campaign, however, he only makes two appearances. He takes hostages and threatens to kill them with Batman quickly dispatching him. The character is creepier than any of the actions he takes in the story.

4 The Joker

The jovial and iconic performance of Mark Hamill as the Joker can provide many laughs and smiles but he is still an evil mastermind with a sadistic sense of humor. From beginning to end, Joker is constantly taunting and mocking Batman through the intercoms, and for every funny one-liner, he’ll provide a humorous yet sinister one.

From his evil giggles to quiet threats, Mark Hamill goes all out with this more mature version of Joker. Even the design of him is less than comforting with an unnaturally skinny figure, long pointed chin, and other features that make him look almost inhuman.

3 Clayface

Batman cannot fight him, but Clayface does make an appearance in Batman: Arkham Asylum as a disturbing cameo. In the control room, there is a special cell that holds Clayface and at first, he looks like officer Aaron Cash but when Batman saves Warden Quincy Sharp, Sharp takes Cash’s place in the special cell. If Batman turns around, gurgling can be heard, and thus, Sharp is replaced with a duplicate of Jim Gordon.

Gordon will just continue to pace the cell and laugh menacingly. This is obviously Clayface trying to escape, but the fact that the player never sees him morph or see his true face makes it creepy. Plus the visual of many handprints on the cell door similar to tendrils give is another point in fear factor.

2 Killer Croc

Similar to Bane, once the player has experienced the fight against Killer Croc, future playthroughs are not nearly as scary. That does not stop it from being a memorable encounter as Batman traverses the sewer tunnels of Arkham Island to find the spore that can combat Joker’s Titan formula.

At any moment, the then-new and bigger version of Killer Croc could appear out of nowhere with music straight out of a horror movie playing. It forces the player to be quick with Batman’s arsenal of gadgets to get a Batarang to dispatch Croc and escape the sewers.

1 Scarecrow

This should come as no surprise seeing how Scarecrow’s entire gimmick is instilling fear into his victims. The victims in this case being the player as they along with Batman descend into nightmare realms tortured by horrific visuals followed by an encounter with a giant version of Scarecrow himself.

Though none quite match the atmospheric and psychological horror of the first encounter, each encounter does showcase why Scarecrow is one of Batman’s evilest and most iconic foes. On top of all that is the demented redesign with Freddy Krueger-like needle claws, a gas mask/burlap sack hybrid, and a sinister voice.

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