Hugo Strange

Professor Hugo Strange first gained fame as a psychiatrist who declared he'd fully analyzed the Dark Knight from afar and later lent credence to his own claims by deducing Batman’s true identity as Bruce Wayne. However, his interest in the Batman turned into a deranged obsession, and he’s used his medical expertise to hatch a series of bizarre plots based around genetics and mind control in order to defeat the Batman and possibly take his place.

The Seeds of Planning
Hugo Strange is an unknown and relatively new player to Gotham City's criminal underworld. A licensed psychiatrist, Hugo Strange worked within the dingy halls of Arkham Asylum after it was reopened by political activist and now Warden Quincy Sharp after having previously worked in Blackgate Penitentiary, for years as a reputable psychiatrist on the surface. Strange's responsibility in Arkham was to interview and evaluate new patients in order to gain a better understanding of his or her psychosis and how they can best be treated in the most appropriate manner at the asylum by the staff. However, Strange did well to cover his true face as he was a power-hungry madman with disillusions of godhood who exploited his trusted position, facility, and resources to perform experiments on everyone residing there; patients, nurses, professors, and security personnel in order to capitalize on his longing to unlock the inner workings of the human mind and ultimately control it.

Early on in his career, he became obsessed with Batman after learning that almost every one of his patients at Arkham were either brought in by Batman or were obsessed with him themselves, and dedicated his life to finding out more about Gotham City's greatest protector. The more Strange researched Batman, the more he believed that the Dark Knight was a plague on the city rather than a savior, believing that his very presence is the cause of all the criminal escalation over the years. He began to believe that he himself could be a more worthy mantle to the legend that Batman has acquired over the years and eliminate all the criminals plaguing the city to obtain absolute fame and prestige.

Apparently spending years intensifying his studies on Batman, Strange also became intrigued with Batman's perfect code of justice-no one dies by his hand. His longing to become the Dark Knight became an obsession, desiring to inherit the legend of such a crime-fighter and use it to obtain his own lusts and desires. To this end, Strange, working alone, used a series of complicated psychological profiling techniques to identify the man behind the cowl of Gotham's Dark Knight; billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne.

After successfully deducing the identity of Batman, Strange planned to become both rich and famous from his deduction by selling the secret identity to the highest bidder in the criminal underworld. While word spread throughout the criminal underworld about this "auction", Strange eventually saw a much bigger opportunity awaiting him, one that could promise him ultimate power, control, and immortality itself. Strange then had the auction cancelled and disappeared from the criminal underworld spotlight before anyone could act on his proposition.

Rather than simply using his secret deduction for money and fame, Strange planned to exploit this knowledge by slowly setting the stage in Gotham for the ultimate challenge: To first destroy Batman in a one-on-one chess game with his city as the board along with friend and foe as pawns, then to take over as the Caped Crusader himself and use the identity for his own purposes. The first item on Strange's agenda was to find benefactors for his plans and the person who held all the treasures and luxuries he desired. He would find both in one man; Ra's al Ghul, one of Batman's oldest and greatest enemies who also knew of his identity.

Through extensive research, Strange was able to get in contact with Ra's and set up a meeting with the ancient warlord, where he told him all that he knew of Batman and how he wished to help in his plans and operations to rid the world of those that they saw as undesirable. Ra's, highly impressed with Strange's brilliant mind and fortitude, gives him the chance to prove himself a worthy successor to his mantle, agreeing to fund his operations. If Strange could find the means to eliminate all crime in Gotham and defeat Batman, than Ra's would make him his successor, giving him complete control over the League of Assassins, his wealth, his business empires, and even the powers of immortality itself through unlimited use of the Lazarus Pit.

Strange gleefully agreed and immediately began making his plans to wipe out all crime in Gotham by staging an insidious conspiracy that would not only wipe out all criminals in Gotham, but hundreds and thousands of innocents as well. This conspiracy would later be known as Arkham City, an anarchistic prison to be built in the heart of Gotham to hold all criminals for eventual extermination, which would lay out the foundations of Strange's ultimate desire for power and authority.

One of Strange's most pivotal pawns would eventually be chosen as none other than Warden Quincy Sharp, administrator of Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, where most of Batman's Rogues Gallery were kept. Having access to multiple medical files, Strange learned that Sharp has had a troubled history of being plagued by schizophrenic episodes that were personified in a multiple personality disorder that Sharp had tried hard to keep a secret.

Sharp's intense hatred of the asylum's inmates and his desire to cure them through any means necessary are derived from his own self-loathing due to his mental illness. With this information in his possession, Strange soon found Sharp to be the best kind of puppet: Established, old-fashioned, affluent, completely hollow, a blank easel fit for someone else to manipulate due to his disorder, and, perhaps best of all, was planning on running for mayor of Gotham City, the perfect position that held the political power Strange needs at his disposal to carry out his schemes.

Knowing of these aspirations to become Mayor, Strange approached Sharp and informed him that he had friends in high places who could benefit his mayoral campaign for years on end and ensure of his victory in the elections. After Strange showed proof of his claims, Sharp, blinded by his own political desires, accepted Strange's bribes and allowed the mad professor to carry out inhuman experiments on the patients of Arkham Asylum. While Sharp allowed Strange to do as he pleased, the professor knew that the warden needed to come around to his way of thinking completely to serve as the perfect pawn and, over the next several months, Strange saw to it that he would.

If Strange's plans and operations for power were to succeed, he knew that he needed Quincy Sharp under his complete control to carry out his grand designs through the political arena. While using the resources in behavioral control and looking through all the patient files, Strange became fascinated by Jervis Tetch's, aka Mad Hatter's, mind altering experiments, concluding that Tetch's brilliant mind was the perfect component needed to find the means to control Sharp's feeble mind.

Manipulating security procedures behind Sharp's back, Strange enlisted the help of Jervis through deception and manipulation, preying on Jervis's love of hats, tea, and Alice to have him perform mind altering experiments on the oldest and most forgettable patients of Arkham. Eventually, Jervis succeeded in preparing an amazing mind control drug that made anyone who ingested it much more malleable to suggestion. In order to cover his tracks, Sharp proceeded to have all the victims in the experiments lobotomized, locked away in extreme isolation, and never allowed them to the see the light of day again.

Using the completed formula, Strange mass-produced large quantities of the drug and immediately invited Warden Sharp to his office in the Arkham Mansion for some tea. Unknown to the blissful Sharp, Strange also had Jervis in the office with him and used him and his unique hat to put Sharp in a deep trance when he arrived. Sharp then drank the tea given to him by Strange, which was drugged with his new mind control serums, completing the hypnosis, and was immediately programmed by Strange to be his puppet.

With his part over in Strange's schemes, Jervis was locked back up by Strange and given another "Alice", actually just a female assistant to Strange, who convinced Jervis that she was Alice to keep him quiet. Strange then began "suggesting" to Warden Sharp that he should begin to murder several of the more uncontrollable patients at Arkham for the benefit of Gotham and humanity just as former founder and owner of Arkham Asylum, Amadeus Arkham, did prior to his own institutionalization.

As Strange used Sharp to remove any possible hindrances to his plans, he saw The Joker as a major, potential obstacle in his designs, as his murderous breakouts from Arkham and exploits throughout Gotham may cost Sharp's approval ratings. He then has Sharp attempt to kill the villain in his cell with a knife, but Joker is able to easily gain control of the situation and escape the asylum. The Joker would later reveal his own plans, which included the manipulation of the research staff at the asylum to create a chemical known as Titan, to build a massive and twisted force to destroy Gotham.

To this end, Joker destroyed Blackgate Prison to have hundreds of his crew moved to Arkham Asylum in order to orchestrate a massive riot at the institution that would take the lives of hundreds of security personnel, doctors, and inmates alike as Joker released the most derange criminals and attempted to create his army through the use of Titan. However, thanks to Batman, the Joker's plans were spoiled at the last moment, all inmates and super criminals were recaptured, and the Gotham City Police retook control of the asylum.

With his security systems disabled, his private security force completely routed by the rampaging patients, and chaos spreading across the locked-down Arkham, Sharp's public image was nearly derailed for allowing such an incident to happen. However, quick-witted Strange was soon to exploit such an opportunity, declaring once the riot had been suppressed that the warden was solely responsible for stopping the Joker and thereby giving him enough public support to make his successful bid for mayor. Strange was able to further exploit the situation by having Sharp use the event as evidence that both Arkham and Blackgate are unfit facilities to hold Gotham's criminal element and that a new institution should be built. Most of City Hall agreed, but were still hesitant to put the Arkham City project into effect.

After Arkham
Hugo Strange retreated further into the shadows once the now-Mayor Sharp was introduced to the public spotlight. He stayed in contact with his pawn mainly through the occasional phone counseling session, and directed his every word in public through a radio receiver implanted in Quincy's ear.

Sharp is able to keep a strong resolve with Strange's manipulation guiding him into constructing a new City Hall after the previous one's destruction at Joker's hands six month ago. This was nothing more than another item on Strange's agenda however, in order to serve as part of the final event to get his Arkham City project approved. Having recruited two twin thugs from Two-Face's gang, known collectively as T&T, Strange has them retrieve shipments of the Titan drug that Dent acquired for his own ends from his cellar to make themselves stronger and then slaughter half of Two-Face's gang.

Keeping in contact with the pair through communication devices he surgically implanted into their brains, Strange has the pair commit heinous crimes throughout Gotham until, finally, their ultimate moment would come when Strange has Sharp initiate an official opening to the new City Hall.

While Sharp addresses the people of Gotham at this opening ceremony, Strange has T&T attack the ceremony, wiping out all of Gordon's men. Before they can cause any further damage however, Batman arrives and subdues the pair with tranquilizers, at which point Strange informs T&T that they must resort to their contingency plan. Gladly accepting Strange's orders, the mad professor bids farewell to his pawns as he presses a detonation button that activates explosives placed inside the pair's body.

While Batman is able to escape, the resulting explosion completely destroys the newly rebuilt City Hall, killing more than three hundred citizens, causing billions in damage, and, thereby, setting up the perfect pretext for Strange and Sharp to put Gotham City under martial law and begin running it like their own police state. With Arkham Asylum and the local penitentiary now unfit to house criminals after Joker's brutal attack on both and Gotham's crime rate skyrocketing, a drastic new project is introduced with the broad mayoral powers at a villain's disposal: Arkham City

Hugo Strange, of course, finally comes into the limelight when Mayor Sharp places him at the helm of the new project, delegating to him full authority over both the project and its staff. In addition to repeat-offenders and criminally insane mental patients, hundreds of innocent people are also rounded up and locked into the prison city, even those with only minor records. To prevent Arkham denizens from escaping, a new security force is formed out of professional mercenaries. The team, made up of well-paid former military and police operatives, is codenamed "TYGER" and is subsequently turned into Strange's personal squad of trained assassins.

With unlimited resources and funding from Ra's business empires, countless hours are soon spent on constructing Arkham City, including the perimeter walls, communication systems, surveillance systems, and the import of the latest military grade weaponry for TYGER to use in their patrols. As Arkham City is constructed, walling off Park Row and other decaying suburbs, anyone who opposes Strange's project is instantly outshouted by the paranoid and the fearful.

Alliances and Connections
With years of planning and preparation finally meeting fruition, Arkham City is officially completed and opened for business. Now firmly in complete control of Arkham City and Gotham's political domain through Sharp, Strange next begins to target several high profile prisoners from Arkham to further his plans. To this end, Strange orchestrates a series of events to allow Mr. Freeze, who was previously observed by the City Council as unfit to be held in Arkham City due to his condition, to escape his cell in Arkham Asylum after having his wife, Nora Fries, moved into Arkham City.

In the meantime, Strange would stage any event he could to uphold a good reputation with the people of Gotham, even going as far as arranging for Victor Zsasz to escape and rampage Gotham, leading to the brutal murders of two innocent citizens, for the sole purpose of having his TYGER forces recapture him in order to make TYGER look much more efficient than the Gotham City Police Department.

Strange would also manipulate the mayor in allowing him to send squads of TYGER operatives to shadow the GCPD with the sole intent of hunting down Batman and study his every move in combat in order to effectively train his TYGER guards to take down Batman once and for all. Strange would then viciously interrogate his captains on their attacks on Batman, using various torture and truth serum techniques to learn every little detail of Batman's fighting style, even going as far as killing several of these guards to learn all this information.

Strange eventually makes contact with the Joker, nearing death due to his Titan illness, and forms an alliance with the villain, offering to aid in making his final days more comfortable if Joker cooperates with his interview sessions and allows Strange to study and understand his insanity. Joker agrees and has Strange abduct dozens of medical doctors and brought into Arkham City to aid in his condition, though this was all part of Joker's own elaborate plans that even Strange is unaware of.

In reality, Joker is using all the doctors and nurses that are brought to him to drain large quantities of his poisoned blood and ship it off to emergency rooms all over the city, infecting thousands of people with his lethal illness. He would then torture, mutilate, and murder all of them once they have served their purposes to simply add more numbers to his kill count.

As Joker recounts his origins to him in return for his assistance, Strange concludes that Joker is simply telling a series of fabricated events in order to conceal the truth about his condition. Joker admits to the deception, but also shocks the professor by revealing that he knows everything about his plans and criminal past, threatening to have the information leaked to the public if Strange does not stop trying to uncover his past.

Mr. Freeze finally reaches his breaking point and plans to take down Strange and find Nora, but Strange is already one step ahead of him and has his TYGER guards ambush Freeze and bring him to his office. There, Strange would interview Freeze to learn more of his psychosis, threatening to murder Nora if he refuses to cooperate.

After learning of Freeze's history, Strange taunts Freeze by stating that his life of crime was his fault and his alone, ending with a chilling statement that Nora was on her way to being delivered to the Joker, who planned to use Nora as collateral to blackmail Freeze into developing a cure to his Titan disease. Freeze is horrified and vows to get Nora back and kill Strange, but Strange, unshaken by Freeze's threats, simply has him locked up in one of his holding cells.

Strange later forms an alliance with Oswald Copplepot, aka the Penguin, and hands Freeze over to him to be locked up in his museum as Strange has no further use for him and to also impede Joker's progress on developing a cure to his Titan illness, hoping that this would cement Joker's death and no longer serve as a threat to his position, though Joker would later prove to not be so easily outsmarted.

Strange, remaining in contact with Joker and Penguin, also gives both gang-lords military weapons as part of a much larger plot and even hands over victims of his inhuman experiments to Penguin to use as target practice to further cover up his tracks. As one last string to pull, Strange informs the Penguin that ten inmates that were in his gang were actually inside agents for the GCPD, trusting the Penguin to dispose of them, telling the gang lord that he does not appreciate being spied on by Commissioner Gordon.

As Strange continues with his day to day affairs, he receives a shocking visit from Mr. Edward Nigma, better known as The Riddler, through a broadcast. Riddler, much like the Joker, has learned quite a bit of Strange's criminal activities, and begins to taunt Strange for his own amusement and satisfaction in that he can ridicule the warden of Arkham City himself without any consequences.

However, Strange would eventually turn the tables on Mr. Nigma by revealing to him that he knows who Batman really is, taunting the narcissist that he used no childless puzzles or traps to deduce his identity and simply relied on his own genius intellect. Riddler, incredibly disturbed and humiliated at the fact that Strange figured it out while he still hasn't the slightest clue, never contacts Strange again after the discussion and becomes dead set on humiliating and killing Batman through his deathtraps.

Catwoman is found trying to break into his office. Strange has her brought in for a session as well and interrogates her about her life and what she knows about Batman, threatening to have Holly Robinson killed if she does not cooperate. After learning everything he wanted to from Selina, Strange informs her that Holly is safe for now, that Batman would soon be broken, and reveals to her that Two-Face has placed the SD card with the Arkham City plans on it in his safe in his old campaign office, as part of a fail-safe plan should Dent not cooperate with his designs.

Once Dent is brought back to him, Strange puts one final contingency manipulation into effect and begins to add fuel to Dent's hatred of Bruce Wayne, whom Dent sees as nothing more than a spoiled rich boy, in preparation towards Wayne's inevitable incarceration in his facility.

Strange then legitimately reaches out to Dent and gives him a choice; he will throw his coin in the air and if Dent does not catch it, then Strange would do all that he can in his power to cure him and make him the man he once was. However, if Dent does catch it, then Strange would let him loose in Arkham City and inform him of what Catwoman is doing that very second. After Strange throws the coin in the air, Dent catches it, much to Strange's disappointment and annoyance, but lets Dent know of Catwoman's impending theft of his safe.

Batman: Arkham City
After months and months of frequent challenges with confronting Quincy Sharp on the issue, Bruce Wayne finally enters into the political arena to challenge the necessity of Arkham City and questions its existence. Spending millions of dollars for this campaign, Bruce Wayne is able to rally enough public support to stage a press conference right outside the main gates to Arkham City.

nce there, Wayne would officially voice his plans to start his campaign to shut Arkham City down and make Gotham a safer place again. However, to Hugo Strange, this could not be more perfect as he can finally capture Bruce Wayne once and for all, as capturing him as Batman has proven to be nearly impossible.

During the live press conference, which was attended even by Vicki Vale and Jack Ryder, Hugo Strange orders his TYGER forces to ambush the event and arrest all attendees with Wayne as the primary target, while also using this opportunity to capture Ryder and remove him as a threat. They accomplish their mission, delivering Wayne to Strange who proceeds to taunt and torture the man with electrical shocks. During this, Strange reveals to Bruce Wayne that he knows the truth about his secret identity as Batman and that he would reveal it to the world should Wayne not cooperate with him and his personnel in Arkham City.

With Wayne in his grasp at long last, Strange is mere hours away from enacting Protocol 10 and has Wayne thrown into the prison where he would soon become a target and, theoretically, be quickly killed by the various gangs. Strange personally communicates Penguin and informs him of Wayne's arrest, knowing of Copplepot's hatred of the Wayne family, to ensure that Penguin and his forces are waiting at the main gate for Wayne's arrival.

As Wayne is sent in with Ryder and another political prisoner, Strange watches and announces their new arrival to the citizens of Arkham City, enticing dozens of bloodthirsty killers to attack him. However, Wayne is able to easily outmaneuver all his attackers and attempts to save Ryder, only to be knocked out by Penguin's thugs. Regardless, Wayne defeats all of Penguins thugs, breaking Cobblepot's hand in the process, and escapes into the bowels of Arkham City.

With all his pawns and plans in place throughout the entire prison compound, Strange delightfully begins the cat and mouse game he has been planning for years between him and the Dark Knight. With his TYGER operatives, his immense power and authority over Arkham City, and his countless connections with Batman's most dangerous and violent foes, Strange is confident in his abilities to best Batman and assume his mantle in order to conquer Gotham and pave the way for a glorious future comprised of fame, wealth, power, and immortality.

As Strange watches Bruce escape from the madness of the various gangs, his attention is soon diverted with the news that Catwoman is about to be executed by Two-Face, an event that was also orchestrated by Strange. While Strange sees this as inconsequential and amusing, Bruce is able to acquire his suit and equipment again with the help of Alfred and sets off to stop the assassination as Batman. With Arkham City as the ultimate experiment to test Batman and observe his abilities, Strange orders his TYGER troops to watch Batman's every movement during their patrols from their helicopters and study his moves extensively so that they will be prepared to take him down when the time is right.

In the meantime, Strange hires the help of Deadshot, a contract assassin, in targeting and killing the biggest threats to his position and plans, and has him smuggled into Arkham under the guise as another inmate. Strange gives Deadshot full access to all the equipment he needs as well as a PDA to store his hit list, which includes Jack Ryder, who has found out about Strange's hypnotic techniques, and Bruce Wayne/Batman, both marked as separate individuals, and three other political figures. While Strange doubts that Deadshot could kill Batman, he counts on him to take care of the other political prisoners and serve as a further diversion for the Dark Knight as he perfects his plans for Protocol 10.

As he approaches the commencement of Protocol 10, Strange would allow violent crime to chaotically erupt in the streets of Arkham City, including Penguin blowing up the highways, Riddler abducting the entire police and medical staff from the Gotham Cathedral, and gang warfare consuming the streets. Strange allows as much chaos to occur in order to obtain authorization to enact Protocol 10, the same reason that Strange continues to supply Joker, Penguin, and Two-Face with weapons.

As Batman rescues Freeze, puts Penguin and his gang out of commission, rescues Jack Ryder, and apprehends Deadshot after the contract killer murders three political prisoners, Strange realizes Batman is becoming much more of a risk while in Arkham City than he anticipated and resolves himself to employ psychological mind games against the Dark Knight. With Crime Alley firmly entrenched in Arkham City, Strange has the murder scene of Bruce's parents redrawn and a bouquet of roses placed next to the chalk outlines of their bodies along with a tape reel that contains a monologue by Strange himself taunting the deaths of Batman's parents and insulting his very motivation for becoming a hero.

Meanwhile, Sharp finally begins to break from Strange's hold when he realizes just how far Strange has gone and attempts to find out who are his benefactors by examining all the financial accounts related to Arkham City and tracing them back to its source. However, Strange suspected that Sharp was resisting the hold of his mind control drugs and was becoming a loss canon and had him arrested under the pretense of committing treason.

With all the power and authority over Arkham City and TYGER under his complete control, Strange concludes that Mayor Sharp has finally outlived his usefulness and orders for his incarceration in Arkham City, using the evidence of his crimes in Arkham Asylum as reason to incarcerate him. This makes Strange the de facto leader of Gotham City with the entire security force of Gotham under his complete control to bend to his every whim. After usurping his power and authority, Strange has Sharp dumped into Arkham City where he quickly becomes a target of the various gangs because of his affiliation with Arkham City and the rumors of the abused and murdered inmates of the old Asylum at his hands.

To ensure that Sharp becomes a victim of the lawlessness, Strange announces his location over the announcement system, encouraging the inmates to "give him the welcome he deserves". However, due to the continued bravery of Batman, Sharp's life is spared, who then recounts to the Dark Knight how he and Strange formed their alliance and what his role was in the massive conspiracy. Sharp admits that he agreed to work for Strange and set up Arkham City once Strange informed him back at the asylum of his powerful connections that would fund his mayoral campaign and ensure of his victory.

Two hours later, Strange calls an emergency meeting with the City Council where he informs them of a riot deep within Arkham City that might cause a massive breakout, caused by the military weapons that Strange has been providing to the gangs there over the previous months, and that Protocol 10 is the only option available.

While the City Council members are both shocked and disappointed by Strange's apparent lack of control over the prison, they ultimately give him permission to enact Protocol 10: finally revealed to be the systematic destruction of Arkham City and the assassination of the entire inmate population. Under Strange's commands, TYGER assault helicopters break off from their patrols and start tracking all prisoners that they can find and begin killing them on sight. Missiles are launched deep into the heart of Arkham City, hitting the Iceberg Lounge, Sionis Industries, and the Solomon Wayne Courthouse directly, killing hundreds of people in mere minutes.

Additionally, Strange also sends several TYGER squadrons to infiltrate Wayne Manor and kill all of Batman's allies and claim his equipment from the Batcave to deal one last, crippling blow to the Dark Knight and completely destroy any resolve that he has left. Unfortunately for Strange, he underestimates the abilities of Robin and Nightwing, who were able to brutally and effectively dispose of the TYGER forces until Gordon and his GCPD units arrived at the scene to arrest the operatives. Gordon realizes that Strange's true ambitions are coming to light now and keeps all police forces on guard for an order that he knew he was bound to give in a few short hours; shutting down Arkham City and arresting Strange.

As Strange oversees Protocol 10, Catwoman breaks into the Confiscated Goods Vault in an attempt to retrieve her ill gotten gains. Strange is further pleased by this turn of events and sends in his troops to kill the feline bugler once and for all just as Batman is caught underneath rubble from the various missile attacks on the Steel Mill. Strange orders his men to teach Catwoman one final lesson and to send a squad to retrieve Batman's body once Protocol 10 has concluded.

However, Catwoman is able to defeat her opponents and rescues Batman from underneath the rumble, leaving all her loot behind. While Batman is set to pursue Talia al Ghul, who was stationed in Arkham City to aid in her father's operations, and rescue her from Joker, with whom she formed a pact with, he ultimately decides to go after Strange first at the pleading of both Alfred and Oracle.

While TYGER helicopters are murdering all inmates in the city, Strange sends ground troops to personally massacre all the political prisoners and inmates he has made contact with as well as target Bane and retrieve all the Titan shipments in his possession. However, Batman spoils these attacks and, while fighting his way through the processing center to Wonder Tower, is interrupted by Strange through the Arkham City monitors. Holding a political prisoner hostage and threatening to inject chemicals into his throat through a syringe that would cause an overdose, Strange forces Batman to stop fighting and listen to his words.

As Strange taunts Batman and blames everything on him, TYGER forces surround Batman as Strange reveals that he has been working together with another individual who also served as his private backer. After declaring his victory over Batman and his intentions to conquer the world and rule it with his allies, Strange sends the orders to his TYGER troops to kill the Dark Knight once and for all.

Despite their overwhelming numbers, Batman subdues all the troops and proceeds to the lowest foundations of Wonder Tower. There, Batman finds the results of a bloody massacre between TYGER operatives and new inmates who were killed instead of being processed. In addition, it is discovered through Strange's PA system announcements that his ultimate plans threaten far more than a single city as Arkham City is only the first of a series of prisons planned to be built throughout the world with centers scheduled to be open in both Keystone City and Metropolis by the end of the month alone.

As Batman gets closer to reaching the highest foundations of Wonder Tower, Strange augments security with additional troops in the subway system and orders them to shoot anyone on sight. Nonetheless, Batman is able to reach the Security Center at the apex of Wonder Tower. Batman subdues all of the TYGER guards despite their increased strength and shuts down Protocol 10 down by disabling all the technology in Wonder Tower, rendering all TYGER helicopters and weaponry useless. After receiving several bone shattering hits from the Dark Knight, Strange reveals the truth to Batman that he intends to replace him as the new Gotham hero and savior and gloats how he has become a much better hero than the Dark Knight could've ever been because he has finally eliminated all crime in Gotham City.

Declaring that he will soon have command over forces beyond comprehension, Strange is brutally stabbed and run through by Ra's al Ghul, revealed as the silent benefactor of the project through his empire. It becomes apparent that Strange's ultimate goal was to replace Ra's and assume control over the League of Assassins and obtain the powers of immortality for himself through the Lazarus Pit.

With Batman out of the way, Strange would be able to seize complete control over Gotham and multiple other cities through his prison facilities, believing the entire world would see him as the new hero and savior with TYGER and the League serving as his armies with the ultimate intention of utilizing them in exterminating every individual Strange sees as unfit in society and seizing complete control over the entire world.

Ra's, however reveals that he never had any intentions of giving Strange any position of permanent power and was simply using him as a pawn to eliminate crime in Gotham, telling the dying professor that the only thing that he has proven was that Batman was much better than him. In turn, Strange, who had anticipated a possible betrayal, employs his contingency plan: Protocol 11.

Seconds later, the self-destruct protocols engage and Wonder Tower explodes, sending Batman and Ra's plummeting down to the ruined city hundreds of feet below, while Strange is consumed with his tower and TYGER guards, securing Batman's identity and ending the madness and plans of Hugo Strange once and for all. Batman would be able to safely land on the ground while Ra's Al Ghul is killed by his own hand after a failed suicide attack on Batman that ended with him being impaled by his own sword and violently landing directly on the Arkham City logo.

With the chaos and deception that is Arkham City no longer a mystery and Strange's criminal status now known, Sharp's martial law is overturned and Gordon and the Gotham City Police Department are given back full authority by the City Council. With their full jurisdiction restored, Gordon and the GCPD begin to promptly arrest all TYGER forces and prepare to transfer all the inmates to secure locations, rescue all the falsely imprisoned, claim all illegal weapons, and shut down the site once and for all.