Comic Characters in the Video Game?

[Slash Man]

Everyone knows about the excellent Batman video game for the NES by Sunsoft. Though it wasn't super accurate to the movie, some fans have pointed out that the game features enemies from the comics. Or does it?

Let me start from the top, the manual is how we know these villain's names: Killer Moth, Electrocutioner, Firebug, Shakedown, Heatwave, K.G. Beast, The Enforcer, Deadshot, Nightslayer, and Maxiezeus.

You'd think that a lot of them are intentional reimaginings of the characters from the comics; Killer Moth and Firebug are close enough. Heatwave is a surprising choice (borrowing from the Flash's rogue gallery), but he has the same functionality. But then you get into the more bizarre; K.G. Beast is literally a ninja character, this interpretation makes no sense as a Soviet operative. Sure, K.G.Beast has used a katana and throwing stars at different points. But there's no getting around the fact that this was just designed as a generic ninja character. Look at the manual artwork and it's even more apparent.

Deadshot is a guy firing a revolver in the game. Doesn't resemble his classic comic appearance with wrist-mounted magnums, but technically his very first appearance was just a guy brandishing revolvers.

Electrocutioner sports a drastically different look with a mohawk and a collapsable spear on one hand and two large nails on the other. The style of electrical attacks is very different, and it seems like "electricity" is the only thing he has in common with his comic counterpart.

"Shakedown" and "Maxiezeus" are your generic running guy enemies without any attacks. But what's odd is that Shakedown is the weaker of the two. When it comes to brute strength, there's no competition between the two in the comics: one is a normal guy, and one can take down buildings. The sprite for "Maxiezeus" even better resembles Shakedown, but that's all up to interpretation with Nintendo.

I'm not even sure who exactly The Enforcer is referencing; the Batman villain is a costumed hero that fights with martial arts, in comparison to the video game character who flies around in a jetpack and fires a gun. Since there's precedent to borrow from other DC properties, he actually has more in common with the Enforcers of Firestorm's rogue gallery, with a more armored appearance, firing projectiles, and the ability of flight. It's much closer, but only in the vaguest of terms.

Nightslayer is another that's similar in name only. He's a slow moving enemy with a giant nail weapon, in contrast to the spry thief in a minimalist costume of the comics. The manual states that he's a skilled martial artist, but that's yet to be seen.

So what do we make of this? While it was developed and published by Sunsoft, localization still plays a part in differentiating games between regions (as any Mega Man player will tell you). Sunsoft of Japan was not involved in the branding of the game in the US, where Sunsoft of Japan was responsible for writing the game's manual. While some character bear a passing resemblance to their comic counterparts, the ones that don't are a testament to the fact that the game was not programmed with these characters in mind.

Yet it's still interesting that someone at Sunsoft knew about these characters that only comic book fans would pick up on. I'd imagine the A-list villains were all off limits, but having Firebug in your game wasn't going to conflict with any future movie plans. Interestingly enough, Maxie Zeug was mentioned as being a resident of Arkham Asylum in the novelization to Batman & Robin. If you twist things enough, that exists in the same continuity as this game.

[DocLathropBrown]

While I certainly think Sunsoft was doing a bit of lazy fan service with the names, there can be no doubt that the boss of the first area is intended to be Killer Moth--he looks way too much like a movie-styled KM for it not to be intentional.