This is a timeline of all the various media that make up the Arkham universe. It includes the games: Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, Arkham Origins, Arkham Knight, Arkham Origins Blackgate, Arkham Shadow and the comics: Arkham City, the Arkham City Digital Comic, Road to Arkham Asylum and Arkham Knight. The timeline also functions as a "recommended reading order", and as such does not take flashbacks into account, instead placing issues according to their "present day" sections. Please note that this is a work in progress, and may be incorrect in places.
Note that issues 33-39 (or 11 & 12) of Arkham Knight digital-first comic book series are non-canonical, as the events of the comics don't match information in the game. Bane, for example, has an entirely different fate in the comics than is told in the game.
The third issue of the Arkham Knight: Genesis comic miniseries also depicts a different scenario of how Jason Todd was actually captured by Joker, thus contradicting the Gotham City Story The Fall as shown in the game.
There are many mentions of real time years in the Arkham games, but most of these contradict each other so for the sake of clarity the years are stated as "Year One" and so on. Some of the most notorious examples are:
- In the Arkham City inauguration plaque, the year has been scrubbed out, but it seems to start with "19--", placing the game in the 20th century.
- In the "Batman - Arkham Origins Deathstroke V Batman Trailer" the date "24th December 2013" appears in a calendar.
- In Arkham Knight, some pill bottles have 2015 as an expiration date.
- In Arkham Shadow, Otis Flannegan's birthday is listed as 1988.
Year 0
Year 1
- Batman begins his crime-fighting career.
Year 2
December
- Batman: Arkham Origins #1-8 (Comic)[2]
- Batman: Arkham Origins - Deathstroke V Batman Trailer
24th - 25th
- Batman: Arkham Origins[3]
- Batman: Arkham Origins (Mobile)
- Batman: Arkham Origins - TV Spot
31st
Year 3
March
25th
- Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate (Prologue)[5]
April
8th
- Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate (Rest of the Game)[6]
??
- Batman forms an alliance with James Gordon and Harvey Dent to take down Carmine Falcone.
June
- Batman: Arkham Knight - Batgirl Begins #1
July
4th
- Batman: Arkham Shadow starts with the July 4th riots.
5th
- As Irving "Matches" Malone, Bruce Wayne is imprisoned in Blackgate in order to investigate the Rat King.
6th
- As Malone, Bruce eavesdrops on Lyle Bolton and Carmine Falcone only to be ratted out by Takeo Yamashiro.
- As Batman, Bruce interrogates Falcone about the Rat King's identity.
7th
- As Malone, Bruce attends a group therapy session held by Jonathan Crane and Harleen Quinzel.
- As Batman, Bruce interrogates Ratcatcher and infiltrates Bolton's office.
8th
- As Malone, Bruce fights and defeats Bolton in a cage match, which gets him placed in a cell next to Joker in solitary confinement, with Joker somehow recognizing that Malone is really Batman, though he's still unaware that Batman and Bruce Wayne are the same.
10th
- As Malone, Bruce is released from solitary confinement by Falcone.
- As Batman, Bruce rescues Dr. Quinzel and overcomes his "Shadow", brought on by Dr. Crane's hallucinogens.
11th
- As Malone, Bruce is taken to trial, in which Harvey Dent's face is accidentally disfigured in the process.
- As Batman, Bruce discovers that Harvey Dent is the Rat King and stops the Day of Wrath.
13th
- Bruce Wayne visits Harvey Dent in the emergency room at Blackgate.
September
- Arkham Asylum is reinstated.
Year 4
- Dick Grayson becomes Robin.
Year 5
November
Year 6
- Dick Grayson quits being Robin, moves to Blüdhaven.
- Dick Grayson becomes Nightwing.
- Batman Arkham Knight - Batgirl/Harley Quinn #1
- Batman Arkham Knight - Batgirl/Harley Quinn #2
- Jason Todd has his first encounter with Batman where he witnesses a fight between him and Joker after a successful robbery.
Year 7
- Batman Arkham Unhinged Issue 39
- Jason Todd becomes Robin.
- Robin (Jason Todd) goes after the Joker alone and is captured and tied up in an abandoned wing of Arkham Asylum.
Year 8
- Tim Drake reveals to Batman he knows he's Bruce Wayne.
- Tim Drake becomes Robin.
- Batman receives the video of Jason Todd being "killed".
Year 9
February
14th
??
- Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) is crippled by The Joker.
??
??
- Barbara Gordon takes on the persona of Oracle, one that she had used previously during the events of Batman: Arkham Shadow.
Year 10
- Batman: Arkham Unhinged Issue 17
- Poison Ivy releases thousands of poisonous spores into Gotham, killed hundreds of people.
Year 11
- Batman: Arkham Unhinged Issue 38
- Batman: Arkham Unhinged Issue 40
July
- Batman: Arkham Asylum The Road to Arkham #1 [7]
- Batman: Arkham Asylum[8]
- Batman: Arkham City #1, "Ruins"
- Batman: Arkham City - Chapter 1, "Hugo Strange"
- Batman: Arkham City #2, "Breaking Ground"
September
- Batman: Arkham City - Chapter 2, "Cut and Run"
- Batman: Arkham City #3, "Choosing Sides"
- Batman: Arkham City - Chapter 3, "Riddle Me"
- Batman: Arkham City #4, "A Night on the Town"
- Batman: Arkham City - Hugo Strange Trailer
- Batman: Arkham City #5, "Exposure"
- Batman: Arkham City - Chapter 4, "Guardian Angel"
October
- Batman: Arkham City - Chapter 5, "Fall of the Titan"
- Batman: Arkham City - Chapter 6, "Three's a Crowd"
- Batman: Arkham City - Chapter 7, "Moving at a Glacial Pace"
November
- Batman: Arkham Unhinged Issues 1-3
- Batman: Arkham Unhinged Issues 4-6
- Batman: Arkham Unhinged Issues 7-9
- Batman: Arkham Unhinged Issue 10
- Batman: Arkham Unhinged Issues 11-13
- Batman: Arkham Unhinged Issues 14-16
- Batman: Arkham Unhinged Issues 18-19
- Batman: Arkham Unhinged Issues 20-22
- Batman: Arkham Unhinged Issues 26-28
- Batman: Arkham Unhinged Issues 35-37
December
21st
- Batman: Arkham City - Catwoman (Prologue)
- Batman: Arkham City
- Batman: Arkham Unhinged Issues 41-43
- Batman: Arkham City - Catwoman (Ending)
22nd
- Batman: Arkham Knight #1
- Batman: Arkham City - End Game #1
Year 12
January
3rd
- Batman: Arkham City - End Game #2 (1-16)
- Batman: Arkham City - Harley Quinn's Revenge (Flashbacks)
5th
- Batman: Arkham City - Harley Quinn's Revenge (Present Day)
- Batman: Arkham City - End Game #2 (17-23)
- Batman: Arkham City - End Game #3-6
February
- Batman: Arkham Knight #2
March
- Batman: Arkham Knight #3-6
- Batman: Arkham Knight #7 (Safe House)
March–April
September
- Batman: Arkham Knight - Robin Special
- Batman: Arkham Knight #7 (Who Wants To Kill A Billionaire - Part One)
- Batman: Arkham Knight #8-10
October
- Batman: Arkham Knight - Annual
- Batman: Arkham Knight - Harley Quinn Story Pack
- Batman: Arkham Knight #0
30th
31st
November
1st
November/December
- Batman: Arkham Knight - Red Hood Story Pack
- Batman: Arkham Knight - GCPD Lockdown
- Batman: Arkham Knight - A Flip of a Coin
Year 14
- Batman joins the Justice League.
Year 15
- The Justice League confronts the Sinestro Corps by stealing one of their batteries.
Year 17
References
- ↑ This takes place during Bruce Wayne's training in North Korea, shortly before he became Batman.
- ↑ Given that Batman wears exactly the same suit he wears in Arkham Origins, has his first encounter with Enigma, and seems to be an established crime fighter, it can be assumed the comic takes place in the same year as Origins (though obviously before). The precise date is not specified.
- ↑ A development diary states Origins is a "Year 2" story. The game is also repeatedly stated to take place on Christmas Eve, and as Alfred announces midnight during the events of the game, it is therefore shown to finish on the early morning of Christmas Day.
- ↑ Cold, Cold Heart begins with Bruce Wayne's New Years Eve Humanitarian of the Year ceremony.
- ↑ In the game's opening cutscene, Batman says "3 months ago, I took down the deadliest villains [Gotham] had to offer," placing Origins: Blackgate towards the end of March.
- ↑ The Blackgate rivolt take place "Two Weeks" after the prologue as stated by the game itself.
- ↑ The comic is a direct lead-in to Arkham Asylum, and takes place earlier that night.
- ↑ The time of the year the game takes place in is likely July. Based on the math that Joker only lived another 6 months, plus nine months after his cremation was October 31st. In short, not counting Origins, the Arkham series takes place within the time-span of 15 months.
- ↑ Scarecrow's attack on Gotham takes place during Halloween. Firefighters confirm Batman faced Firefly in Gotham Pioneer's Bridge about ten years pior, and Deathstroke comments he fought Batman about ten years pior. Additionally, militia soldiers would comment that Nora Fries has been frozen for about ten years. Considering Arkham Origins is Batman's second year, this makes Arkham Knight the twelfth.