Now I know, the very title of this post is immediately wrong: Batman doesn’t kill; Assassin’s do kill; Therefore Batman is not an assassin. Bear with me then, and think slightly differently. It is a gaming theory, and as such I mean Batman is one of the assassin’s from Assassin’s Creed: one of the descendents of the First Civilization from the Ubisoft series.
For my comparisons I’m going to break ALL the rules, and compare using Batman from the Arkham series as my main focus, with some reference to the comics for some of the out-there stuff, to one of the Assassins.
So, first thing is why the theory? Well, for a start, I love to make theories/stories/comparisons in games at all times. Right now, I’m playing through Assassin’s Creed Unity (late to the game I know) and I keep thinking of things that seem very Batman-y to me. Such as the new murder mysteries, which seem like an attempt to copy the crime scene investigations from Arkham Origins. I then drew a few more parallels. Not enough for a conclusive answer, but enough to make you think – they way all theories should.
The most obvious thing is movement and style, the way that the assassins and batman tend to crouch to sneak around, use full body for attacks, flit from target to target landing punches. Of course, that is to be somewhat expected, as the assassins are all trained by masters, and batman was trained by numerous masters. These movements would be the best mays to move around, so it makes sense that they would learn similarly. The same could go for the prowling on the rooftops – it is the most effective way to get around unseen.
Consider then their eyesight and abilities. All of the assassins (or at least all that we are familiar with) have Eagle Vision, a near magical ability that lets them notice minute details, pick people out of crowds, even detect where people are through walls. A great ability to have. Then we look at Bruce Wayne, who seems to have a very similar skillset again. Granted, in this case it is explained through use of his mask, but what if there’s more to it than that? In the games the assassins eagle vision varies a bit, as do other skills that come with them. It seems to me that the vision gets weaker as they go down the line. By Unity, Arno can only use his vision for a few seconds, and it has a much lower range than previous characters did. What then if Batman’s eagle vision is just reduced to such a small amount than he needs the mask to assist, effectively making it equivalent to a pair of eye-glasses.
What is also seen in Unity is further extension of Arno’s ability, as he seems to be able to sense and scope out areas, this being completely different to what any of the others had. Perhaps every assassin has a unique ability? That could explain batman’s eidetic memory.
A little off the beaten track, but the assassins all seem to be predestined to their fate. Throughout the games we have witnessed many of them from a young age, often witnessing the death of parents, and then all end up being brought into the assassin brotherhood. This is not infallible, as Haytham Kenway became a Templar, but this might greater show the predestination, as his father was, and his son later became an assassin. Might it be then that Batman has felt a similar pull towards the brotherhood, but himself has broken it, deciding on his own creed, to never kill. I know that the League of Assassins in Gotham had Batman trained for a while before he turned his back on them. They may be a splinter cell, or just a different localised name for the brotherhood.
Furthering the predestination, and this is where I steal from the comics, we saw Flash rewrite history in Flashpoint, causing events such as Batman’s origin to be changed. Instead of Bruce witnessing his fathers death, Thomas Wayne saw his son die, and this caused him to become Batman, only this one had no qualms with death or guns, and was happy to just kill those in his way. I know that’s how the assassins play things out in the games whenever they’re caught.
Final point would be the clothing. Not a huge amount to say really, but both assassins and Batman favour similar clothing choices, with the hood and long, draping cloaks. Could it be that Batman has chosen his to honour his assassin heritage?