The latest Gotham Knights character spotlight, premiering at San Diego Comic-Con, shines on Batgirl, one of four playable heroes in the ensemble action-adventure coming this fall from developer WB Games Montreal.
Batgirl gives a brief monologue on the importance of symbols, and then her trailer gets down to business, showing her melee combos, special abilities, and other gadgets and weapons, including a nightstick that transforms into nunchaku. While that might infer that she’s the Michelangelo of Gotham Knights’ quartet of crime fighters, Batgirl’s new trailer makes a compelling argument that she’s Gotham City’s next Batman.
The character drew a small measure of controversy back in the spring. At the time, the game’s official biography suggested that Barbara Gordon, canonically paralyzed by gunshot (in the equally controversial Batman: The Killing Joke from 1988), had overcome her injuries by retraining herself, a trope that many people with disabilities find insensitive.
WB Games Montreal rewrote Gordon’s biography and consulted with gaming advocacy group AbleGamers to rework her character. That explains why players will see back bracing under Gordon’s civilian clothing, and will see her doing rehab exercises in the team’s hideout.
Gotham Knights is scheduled to launch Oct. 25 for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. Proposed PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions were scrapped earlier this year.
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