It’s been exactly one week since Batman: Arkham Origins was announced and Game Informer is continuing its month long coverage by releasing a new interview with WB Games Montreal’s creative director Eric Holmes. We learned about the Batman: Arkham Origins plot last week… mob boss Black Mask offers a fortune for Batman’s head, and top assassins and supervillains come to Gotham to cash in on the kill. Holmes goes into detail as to why he and his team picked Black Mask to be the main antagonist in the game.

We realize that Black Mask is not necessarily as prominent in people’s minds as some other classic Batman villains, so we realize we also need to do work to explain why he’s really cool and make him felt in the game. It’s not something people bring a lot of baggage to when you see the Black Mask, so we have to do the work to make him scary.

Black Mask is new money. He’s rich. He’s very, very powerful. He’s made it. He’s known for being brutal and sadistic. And particularly at this point in the Arkham franchise he has enormous resources. He is the number one gang leader in Gotham. And has easily the most power in the city.

His thing is torture. That is what gets his rocks off, and he’s really good at it.