Telltale’s Latest Batman Adventure Redefines the Joker

By Ryan McCaffrey

Clocking in at about 75 minutes, ‘What Ails You’ is Telltale’s shortest-yet episode of Batman: The Enemy Within. It’s also the first in which Bruce Wayne (mine still sporting a missing chunk of ear suffered in the Season 1 finale) leaves Batman’s cape and cowl at home the entire time. It serves the story just fine, however, because the quickened pace helps make the episode feel like the bottom of a ramping, two-episode drive towards whatever episode 5’s climax ends up being. In other words, things start to pay off.

On that note, I appreciated that ‘What Ails You’ avoids the obvious cliffhanger ending that The Enemy Within has previously been guilty of. Instead, the finale puts another twist on the backstory of The Joker (still known here as John Doe), leaving me tantalized and compelled to see what happens next without feeling like I was being hoodwinked to return for the upcoming finale.

That said, some of the dumb things about this season’s setup – in which Bruce has had to infiltrate the multi-supervillain circle known as The Pact in order to destroy it from within, sans cape and cowl – have only gotten dumber by this, the fourth episode. Namely, how on Earth has the entire rogues gallery that Bruce is working with not figured out that he’s Batman? He only fights exactly like the Caped Crusader, right in front of their eyes, pulling off moves that no normal person could ever hope to execute. It made me question their basic competency, which is never good for villains who should be presented as threatening.

‘What Ails You’ is far from The Enemy Within’s deepest episode, what with no Batsuit, no Jim Gordon, and no Catwoman. But what is focused on is interesting; Waller’s motives become clear, resolving any conflict I had about whether or not to stay on her good side. Alfred’s plot thread is also picked up again, and it will be interesting to see if the direction Telltale seems to be going with Tiffany Fox, Lucius’s daughter, goes the way I think it will, or if the series’s writers can upend my expectations yet again.

Meanwhile, certain problems are ongoing: Harley Quinn’s voice actor has not changed my negative opinion of her performance, and I’m not sure how many more people can learn Bruce’s secret in this version of Batman without the suspension of disbelief being strained beyond repair.

But I was quite satisfied as some of The Enemy Within’s character arcs began to resolve toward their conclusions. Provided the finale of Telltale’s second Batman season can finish reasonably strong, the underwhelming second episode may prove to be a forgettable aberration, and Telltale will have once again managed to delight longtime Batman fans who have become accustomed to certain rules being unbreakable.

Batman: The Enemy Within — The Telltale Series

The second season of Batman: The Telltale Series, Batman: The Enemy Within is a five-part, episodic game series that continues Telltale’s unique take on the Caped Crusader.