Red Hood joins Batman: Arkham Knight as GameStop-exclusive preorder bonus DLC

GameStop has confirmed that the Red Hood will be offered as exclusive pre-order DLC for the upcoming Batman: Arkham Knight .

. This in itself is not surprising—GameStop teased the announcement yesterday with a pixelated but clearly red-capped image on Twitter—but it might just offer a hint about the true identity of the mysterious Arkham Knight.

The murderous vigilante Red Hood joins Harley Quinn as a playable character in Batman: Arkham Knight, provided you pony up for a preorder at your local GameStop. The retailer's Arkham Knight pagesays the bonus DLC will let gamers "play as the ruthless vigilante in the exclusive story pack," although details about the actual contents of the pack aren't revealed.

The Red Hoodhas been knocking around the Batman universe for years but was significant for most of them only as a vehicle for the creation of the Joker. He came into his own when Jason Toddassumed the mantle and turned him into a vaguely Batman-like vigilante—"vaguely" in the sense that the Red Hood has no problem with killing anyone he thinks needs it.

The addition of the character naturally leads to further speculation about the identity of the Arkham Knight, the new villain created by Rocksteady specifically for the game. Todd is number three on the list of " Six Mad Theories" about the Knight's alter-ego, and it's actually not a terrible fit; perhaps a bit "Inside Baseball" as these things go, since I'm guessing it's unlikely that most players of Arkham Knight will have sufficient knowledge of the character to recognize his significance, but certainly not beyond reason.

Oh, but it could be Hush, too. We'll find out next year.