Batman: Arkham Knight The Serious Edition

Grant Morrison and Dave McKean built a madhouse in 1989, and twenty-five years later it came bundled with a Batman game. The Batman: Arkham Knight The Serious Edition for PlayStation 4 pairs the final chapter of Rocksteady's Arkham trilogy with an exclusive 25th anniversary version of the graphic novel Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. That novel isn't filler.

It's one of the most important Batman stories ever published, a psychological descent that redefined what comic book storytelling could be. Having it bound into a collector's gaming package creates a bridge between two different interpretations of Arkham that serious Bat-fans can't ignore. The included in-game skin, Batman's First Appearance look, pulls from the character's 1939 debut and adds a visual time capsule to your playthrough.

Two pieces. That's all this edition contains beyond the base game. But when one of those pieces is a landmark graphic novel in anniversary packaging, the restraint works in its favor.

For PS4 collectors who care about Batman as a cultural artifact and not just a franchise, the Serious Edition sits at the intersection of comics and gaming in a way that no other Arkham release attempted.