Batman: Arkham City is without a doubt one of the best Batman games ever made and perhaps even one of the best Batman stories ever conceived. Rocksteady's Batman Arkham trilogy ushered in a new era of superhero video games. A spin-off in Gotham Knights is expected to release in 2022.
The villains in Arkham City are some of the most well-known from Batman's rogue's gallery with several extras found withinside missions. Here is every villain Batman encounters in the game's main story ranked by their intellectual formidability.
Solomon Grundy is a zombie monster housed in the basement of the Iceberg Lounge. In his brief appearance in Arkham City, Batman is thrown into his habitat by Penguin and must use electrical pockets in the floor to incapacitate him.
Grundy is a mindless brute that is caged like an animal and instinctually acts as such when pitted in a boss fight with Batman. His size and strength make him a worthy adversary but being painfully predictable makes him a favorable matchup even for novice players.
Clayface is mutated actor Basil Karlo whom Batman encounters at the Monarch Theater at the climax of Arkham City. His shape-shifting abilities allowed him to pose as Joker throughout the game. Those same traits afford him tremendous strength and endurance.
The question of whether Clayface is intelligent is fairly obvious. He possesses Braun and is a challenge for Batman's fighting skills because of his size and composition. However, he is intellectually inferior as Batman defeats him easily with perfectly timed dodges and gadgetry.
Mad Hatter is an illusionist who likes to embrace fantasy by adopting the persona of the Alice in Wonderland character. His short stint in Arkham City is by player choice and can be ignored. The mission begins with a strange invitation relayed to Batman by Alfred.
Jervis Tetch's parlor tricks are a thorn in Batman's side but he offers little resistance that the Dark Knight can't defeat with mental discipline. Tech is only slightly smarter than Clayface and Grundy because his abilities aren't inherently supernatural.
Victor Zsasz is a serial killer who preys on the innocent in Arkham City. As an antagonist, he dials every payphone in the district, and if Batman answers, warns him to find the next ringing phone or risk his hostage's life.
Zsasz is the worst type of street criminal who kills with impunity. Having previously been a patient at Arkham Asylum hints he was found criminally insane. Being free to roam the alleys of Arkham City makes him dangerous but unwise to poke the bear that is Batman.
Bane is a sympathetic villain, having fallen victim to an experiment that gave him super strength while cursing him as an incubator of Titan. He often is employed as a mercenary in Gotham City or settling personal scores, sometimes with Batman as seen in Arkham City.
Bane is a brute which makes him strong but not overly intelligent. He thinks recruiting Batman to help him destroy Titan canisters across Arkham City will fool him whilst he gathers more supplies for himself. Batman's instincts and ninja training outsmart and outwit Bane's agenda.
Deadshot is an assassin with a hit list that has Batman (and Bruce Wayne) marked for death. He does not realize they are the same person. He also underestimates Batman's detective skills when the crime scenes he leaves behind lead The Dark Knight straight to him.
Deadshot is deadly accurate with his precision shooting, but he cannot best the brainpower of Batman. He mistakes his natural talent for intelligence and thinks drawing Batman into his sights is smart. Batman's stealth abilities and gadgetry prove Deadshot's smarts are limited.
Talia al Ghul is the daughter of Ra's al Ghul, and mother to Damian, her child with Bruce Wayne. She knows Batman's identity but rather than blackmail him, she tries to persuade Batman to finally become her father's successor to the League of Assassins.
Talia is a natural-born leader and skilled warrior. She claims, however, to know Bruce's true motives yet makes the mistake of underestimating his commitment to lawful justice. She compounds this by believing she can outsmart the Joker when he takes her hostage late in the game.
Thomas Elliott, the surgeon, and childhood friend of Bruce Wayne is a serial killer starved for revenge against Wayne. His calling card is graphing tissue from his victims onto his face to pass himself off as Wayne, thereby framing Bruce for his crimes.
Hush's surgical skills highlight his medical training, presumably from an elite school, and being friends with Wayne from an early age, it's conceivable Elliott knows Bruce as well as Alfred. Batman's detective prowess, however, puts his revenge plot on hold until Arkham Knight.
Harley Quinn was once Dr. Harleen Quinzel, a respected psychologist at Arkham Asylum who treated Joker out of fascination. Unfortunately, her fascination morphed into fixation, and she found herself mind warped into becoming Joker's number one lieutenant.
Quinn's credentials make her a very intelligent villain, but she often disregards her education for physical strength making her no match for Batman. Despite being Joker's right hand, she fails to learn how to infiltrate Batman's mind as well as her "Puddin" does.
The Riddler is a supervillain that works mostly in the shadows taunting Batman with queries and puzzles designed to distract and humiliate him in intellectual combat. He maintains a steady supply of prizes to be won and conundrums to solve as the player traverses the story.
Edward Nygma prides himself as the smartest person in the room. Anyone who can intellectually challenge Batman is worthy of being named one of his more intelligent nemeses. What he can't accept is Batman is usually one step ahead of him.
Oswald Cobblepot made a name for himself rising through the ranks of the Falcone crime family until he branched out establishing a home base at Iceberg Lounge. His main source of income is arms sales he disguises underneath a legitimate establishment.
Penguin is a good example of a patient crime lord. He spent years establishing a reputation that made it easier to recruit minions. He redistributes the wealth gained from his underworld dealings, earning their loyalty easier, making him an intelligent opponent for Batman's prying eye.
Two-Face was once Gotham District Attorney Harvey Dent. When a horrific incident, involving acid, creates a dual persona, he continues to preach justice but in a different way. Using a coin, he decides the fate of others with a game of chance.
Dent was an accomplished prosecutor in Gotham City before he became Two-Face. Armed with a law degree, he sought to find loopholes within the law to lock up major criminals. As Two-Face, he embraced a cold logical philosophy that distinguishes him as a smart villain, picky about his crimes.
Dr. Victor Fries is not your typical supervillain. While he engages in criminal activities to further his research, he's doing it to save his wife, Nora, who is cryogenically frozen with a terminal illness. Fries' ultimate objective is to awaken Nora when he develops a cure.
In Arkham City, Joker enlists his help to find a cure for his mysterious ailment. This infuriates Penguin who orders his kidnapping prompting a rescue from Batman. He is justified in leveraging his medical expertise and appearing sympathetic next to Batman's arch enemies.
Hugo Strange's alliance with Mayor Quincy Sharp allowed him to build Arkham City leaving him free to conduct his nefarious psychological experiment. The Titan Tyger force he employs serves as guardians and the first line of defense against Batman. His main objective is to eliminate all of the prison's inhabitants.
Strange's Sherlock-like deductions make him smart enough to ascertain Bruce Wayne is behind the cowl. He is also clever to align with Ra's Al Ghul, an immortal capable of defending his position from Batman and Joker. What he didn't anticipate was Batman's resilience which ultimately foiled his Protocol 10 initiative.
Thanks to Lazarus pits, Ra's is immortal, and head of a global organization devoted to ruling the world by force whilst eliminating crime. He knows Batman's identity but respects his anonymity and skills until he discovers his alliance with Hugo Strange.
Ra's has managed to stay alive for hundreds of years because of the pits. His charisma helped him maintain a healthy fraternity of agents at his command. He and Batman respect each other's goals but disagree strongly with each's methodology making Ra's an intellectual and spiritual equal.
Joker is a walking, talking, manic mystery. His trademark purple suit and clown face makeup strike fear into Gotham City's population. Joker is a mirror of Batman offering an alternative to order with chaos. He invites the ninja assassin to break his no-kill rule frequently.
Little is known of Joker's background, but his stubborn persistence earns him the silver medal. He uses anything and everyone to do his dirty work. His disregard for human life and the taunting of Batman's ethics help maintain his stranglehold on Gotham's criminal underworld.
Catwoman is a career burglar who maintains loose alliances with other Arkham villains. What motivates her is whatever serves her interests. Sometimes that includes working reluctantly with Batman as an informant.
Catwoman is the smartest villain in Arkham City because she pits heroes and villains against each other as a double agent. Their engagements leave her free to conduct her business at her leisure. Her romance with Batman affords her a backchannel no other Arkham villain possesses.
