By Justin W. Sanders

PromaxBDA's Game Marketing Summit is happening!

Our first session, "Redefining the Super Hero Genre: The Campaign that made 'Batman: Arkham City' a Mass Market Hit," brought Warner Bros. SVP of worldwide marketing Russell Arons and core games marketing VP Matthew Geyer to the stage, along with Trailer Park director of video games Brian Setzer. The trio traded off to explain how the marketing push behind the massively successful "Arkham City" cast the iconic super hero in a new light -- literally.

Arons and Geyer had some interesting tidbits about bringing the campaign to the masses, including a hilarious trailer tie-in with Wal-Mart, but it was Setzer's analysis of the creative re-interpretation of the hero that really seemed to really strike a chord.

Setzer's breakdown of Trailer Park's exploration of Batman's 70-year history as they tried to discover a new angle on the character included a reel of cool vintage clips. He brought the crowd into the company's brainstorming room as they went through dozens of ideas on how to convey Batman in a way that would appeal to people beyond the core group of super hero and comic book fans.

Using sophisticated models of Batman, the Trailer Park team started posing the character in different action modes, executing cool punches and kicks. The breakthrough came when they started trying to think of Batman as not just an iconic super hero but an iconic personality, period. Perusing classic black and whites of other iconic American characters such as Madonna and Marlon Brando the team realized that when you pare an image down to its simplest, starkest modes, its true essence shines through. They set out to apply this effect to Batman.

"We bathed the model in light, snapped a picture and new we had something," Setzer said. We and millions of other "Arkham City" fans are inclined to agree: