Hands On With Batman: Arkham Origins, More Comic book video games might be getting consistently good with three upcoming sequels: Batman: Arkham Origins, Scribblenauts Unmasked, and LEGO Marvel Super Heroes. By Will Greenwald September 23, 2013 01:30pm EST Comic book video games are going through a sort of Rennaisance. While many comic book games have suffered from the same problems as other licensed games (I'm looking at you, Superman), we could be looking at a shining age for enjoyable comic book games thanks to series like Batman: Arkham and LEGO. I tried out three from Warner Bros. Interactive a few weeks ago, and they all showed promise. DC Comics is getting Batman: Arkham Origins and Scribblenauts Unmasked, while Marvel is getting LEGO Marvel Superheroes, all published by WBI. Batman: Arkham Origins is the third chapter in the Batman: Arkham series, serving as a prequel to the stellar Batman: Arkham City and Batman: Arkham Asylum. In it, the crime boss Black Mask has put out a bounty on Batman's head, and Batman has to fight off assassins while trying to get to Black Mask. I toured the Penguin's cruise ship, a mobile base he uses in Gotham City to avoid legal scrutiny, where the Penguin held some important information needed to go after Black Mask. Like in previous Arkham games, Batman can't soak up bullets, so he has to use stealth and tricks to fight armed thugs. The Penguin's goons patrolled large, opened parts of the ship, and forced Batman to jump between different spots near the ceiling to avoid being noticed. He can set traps and knock out enemies, paring down their numbers until there's just one panicked thug left. This section wasn't very different from previous Arkham games, with the same leaping from gargoyle to garoyle, quickly taking down enemies and disappearing when they see Batman mechanics. This is fine, because the stealth segments of the Arkham games have always been among the strongest parts. After that, Batman had to fight off a handful of unarmed Penguin goons, including some particularly strong criminals. The "Freeflow" combat of Arkham Asylum and Arkham City was similarly left alone, with a heavy reliance on counters to deal with multiple enemies. When a prompt appeared over a thug's head, pressing the counter button blocked his attack and often knock him out. The fight was mixed up a little by the strong goons, who could rush at Batman and pick him up easily. They weren't as mindless as the Titan goons from the other Arkham games, actively seeking out Batman with focus instead of running into walls. This meant performing different counter tactics, jumping back, and using different gadgets to weaken them so they can be defeated. This variety will hopefully spice up the game's combat. Freeflow fighting is incredibly satisfying, but past Arkham games have relied on very similar enemy types, with the more difficult mini-boss-style enemies just acting like rampaging bulls. Finally, Batman had to fight Deathstroke the Terminator, an assassin and a regular enemy of the Teen Titans in both comic books and animation (sadly, Ron Perlman does not voice Deathstroke in this game). The boss fights in the Arkham games have generally been the weakest points, so Deathstroke's fight was a refreshing surprise. Instead of using environmental obstacles or gimmicks to fight him, Batman had to use counters and times attacks, just like in Freeflow combat. As an assassin, Deathstroke is just as competent at fighting as Batman is, so he can counter, use tricks, and basically go against Batman head-to-head. Deathstroke could not only counter Batman's attacks, but even counter his counters, forcing a counter-attack war for who would stay standing. The fight occured in phases, with Deathstroke using his staff, his guns, and eventually taking out his sword while Batman wore him down, occasionally jumping out of range to attack from afar and forcing Batman to either dodge gunshots with smoke bombs or to rush in close before he got shot. This boss fight showed some surprising flexibility and variety, with mechanics far closer to the game's mainc ombat system than boss fights in previous Arkham games. We'll have to see how other assassins fight when the game comes out. Besides Batman: Arkham Origins, Warner Brothers Interactive is putting out the latest Scribblenauts game as a DC comics nerd experience. Scribblenauts Unmasked involves going into the DC universe to see which superhero is better, then frantically fixing the problems you made by going into that universe to begin with. It's all a big excuse to run around the DC universe's most famous locations and meet lots of heroes and villains. Besides the magic notepad that lets you create nearly anything (the staple of the Scribblenauts games), you can access the Batcomputer and go through 2,300 DC characters and items. Scribblenauts Unmasked will please comic book nerds just as much as children. The Batcomputer's library is startlingly thorough, and with the magic notebook you can summon nearly anything or anyone from the DC universe to solve your problems. I summoned several members of the Trenchcoat Brigade (John Constantine and Dr. Occult), some of the most obscure Legionnaires, Saint Walker, and even Thomas Wayne (who sadly didn't appear as a zombie or a gravestone, which would have been morbidly hilarious). Even if there weren't puzzles to solve, it would be easy to spend hours just putting together different superheroes and items in a room and having them fight. On the Marvel side, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is also coming, and it looks to be as fun and fan-friendly as the previous LEGO games. You control your choice of Marvel superhero or villain, running through New York and using your powers to collect studs (the game's currency) and solve LEGO-based puzzles. The game has a roster of 150 characters and vehicles, so you can finally have that Squirrel Girl and Doctor Doom team-up you've always wanted. You can also create your own superhero with the parts and powers of your favorite characters, and unlock plenty of options and cheats in Deadpool's comic book shop on the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, which serves as the game's main navigation hub. The demo took me through the Baxter Building, majestic headquarters of the Fantastic Four, which Doctor Octopus had taken over. Mr. Fantastic and Captain America had to fight octopus drones and activate switches to get up to the roof, where they fought the doctor. Mr. Fantastic could stretch and become different shapes to solve problems, while Captain America could throw his shield to hit remote switches. The game will have dozens of superpowers to choose from, so there should be plenty of replayability for completionists. Scribblenauts: Unmasked comes out Sept. 24 on the Nintendo Wii U and 3DS. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes will be available for all game systems on Oct. 22. Batman: Arkham Origins comes out Oct. 25 on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii U.