THE BATMAN’s Easter Egg Website Hints at New Faces, Spinoffs

Rosie Knight

March 7, 2022 at 5:13 PM·5 min read

Around three months ago a strange website popped up. rataalada.com harked back to the classic days of early online viral marketing. Once burgeoning internet detectives logged on, there were a number of riddles to answer. But as the release date of The Batman grew closer, things began to change. Now that the movie is out in the world, the site is regularly updating and teasing what some fans think could be clues about the future of The Batman.

The Origins of Rataalada

Paul Dano's full Riddler costume from The Batman. — Warner Bros.

In case you’ve forgotten, the URL of this website actually plays a key part in The Batman. It’s the answer to one of the clues that the Riddler leaves for Batman. It takes the hero to a website where he gets to chat with the villainous riddle lover, which is exactly what this Alternate reality game simulates. In fact in the early days of the site being live players could really get sucked into a battle of wits with the Riddler. And if you jumped over to a different browser to search for answers elsewhere a message would pop up warning “YOU SCOUR THE INTERNET FOR THE TRUTH, BUT YOU STILL NEED TO ANSWER ME.” Chilling stuff. If you were smart enough to reach the end of the riddles, you’d get a cipher which when solved told you to “COME BACK SOON.”

Thomas Wayne, Hush, and the Riddler

Prom art for Batman: Hush from Jim Lee, showing the Dark Knight and Hush side by side. — DC Comics

Closer to March 4, if you answered the riddles you would have the opportunity to receive a password-protected zip file called What Am I? Inside was a video from The Batman. It was part of the Thomas Wayne smear video that features in the film. This obviously got folks talking as the clip shows the word HUSH! The famed Batman villain has long been suspected to be part of The Batman universe.

While if you’ve seen the movie you know this is more of an allusion to the hush money Wayne used, people were understandably excited thinking Hush could appear in a later movie. And to be fair there is another Hush Easter egg in this segment of the movie. This echoes the viral marketing that led up to The Dark Knight, but it’s what’s next that’s really intriguing.

Teasing the Importance of Arkham Asylum

A screen shot from The Batman end credits website shows a series of numbers that we explain in the next section — Warner Bros.

The most recent update saw a new cipher added to the site, which originally needed riddles to be answered but can now be seen by anyone who visits it. As the website loads click on the phrase [CLICK FOR REWARD] and you’ll find the cipher. Thanks to the smart minds who run ARGnet, this has been revealed to translate to “You think I’m finished, but perhaps you don’t know the full truth. Every ending is a new beginning. Something is coming.” The most interesting thing, though, is what we see before the cipher is revealed.

A series of numbers appears to look like code. But enquiring minds on the internet, specifically a Reddit user Vengeance22, has noticed a pattern. Each of the sets of numbers corresponds to the first appearance of a major character in the movie… well, almost all.

27.05.19.39 – Detective Comics #27 (1939) first appearances of Batman and Gordon.
01.03.19.40 – Batman #1 (1940) first appearances of Catwoman and Joker.
58.12.19.41 – Detective Comics #58 (1941) first appearance of the Penguin.
140.10.19.48 – Detective Comics #140 (1948) first appearance of the Riddler.
405.03.19.87 – Batman #405 (1987) first appearance of Carmine Falcone.
16.04.19.43 – Batman #16 (1943) first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth.

The most important number is the one that doesn’t correspond to a character in the movies, Batman #258. The story does include an appearance of Harvey Dent, which made many fans assume this was a Two-Face Easter egg. But it’s actually the first appearance of a famed Gotham institute that we know will be playing into the future of the series: Arkham Asylum.

**A Deeper Read of Batman #258**

The cover for Batman #258 shows Batman and Robin being crushed by a giant Two Face coin — Warner Bros.

The story that the cipher references came out in 1974 and centers on the caped crusaders battling Two-Face. Written by Denny O’Neil with art by Irv Novick and Dick Giordano, this is a surprisingly deep Bronze Age adventure. It’s most notable for introducing Arkham Asylum, which would eventually become one of the most important places in Batman lore. Interestingly, in this comic Arkham is not in Gotham; it’s four hours away in “New England.” One thing that’s the same, though, is it’s a hospital where the criminally insane are housed. It’s a darkly bleak story that features a suicide, a nuclear threat, and an empathetic Batman. Basically, it sounds like Matt Reeves would probably love to explore the themes in this tale.

More concretely, however, this likely points towards two things. We left the Riddler and the Joker in Arkham Asylum where they seemed to be planning a team-up. That would fit with the cipher clue “Every ending is a new beginning. Something is coming.” along with this issue. The other is the recently teased Arkham Asylum TV show. While details are scarce, on The Cyber Nerds podcast the director revealed that it had evolved from the previously announced GCPD series. “We’ve actually now [moved] more into the realm of exactly what would happen in the world of Arkham as it relates coming off of our movie,” Reeves shared. “It’s like a horror movie or a haunted house that is Arkham.” Now that sounds really cool.

Will There be More Rataalada Updates?

A still from the batman easter egg website shows a loading number that says 44% — Warner Bros.

Throughout the lifespan of the site, the loading percentage listed on the main screen seems to have gradually increased. A change is usually connected to new developments, riddles, or Easter eggs. At the time of writing the website stops loading at 44%, which means there’s likely much more to come. A quick look at the page’s source only reveals a joke in the code that reads: console.log (“Nice try. You won’t find anything here.”) However, there was a new email address that recently appeared. We have, of course, emailed it but received nothing back yet.

So make sure to check in as we’ll be updating this piece with any and all new clues…

Featured Image: Warner Bros.

The post THE BATMAN’s Easter Egg Website Hints at New Faces, Spinoffs appeared first on Nerdist.

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