Summary
The following contains story spoilers forSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leaguesees an unlikely team of villains formed to take down the Justice League, as most of its members have been brainwashed by the supervillain Brainiac and are under his control. As Brainiac moves forward with his plans to take over Metropolis and eventually the whole world, this Suicide Squad is tasked with killing those members of the Justice League that are being used by Brainiac to bring the world under his control. The team eventually succeeds and the Justice League is no more by the end ofSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s story.
While it certainly delivers a story that accurately represents its title,Kill the Justice League’s biggest deaths hardly conjure an emotional response when they should —apart from the death of Batman, perhaps— causing the game’s narrative to miss out on a degree of conflict deeper than that created by Brainiac’s attempted takeover of the world. Despite the story working as intended, this missed potential for a more emotional narrative might have been avoided with a Justice League prequel.
Every fight with the Justice League inSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leaguelargely fails to tug on the heartstrings of those at the helm, and a Justice League prequel might have made their deaths feel a bit more significant. Had players been given more personal time with Rocksteady’s Justice League prior toKill the Justice League, perhaps it might have increased the challenge of each battle by being difficult from both a gameplay perspective and a moral standpoint, as each character would have once been under the control of the player who is now sent to destroy them.
Kill the Justice League’s most emotional deaths are arguably Wonder Woman’s and Batman’s, and even then, they don’t have the effect they could. The impact of Batman’s death is primarily established by fans' familiarity with him fromtheBatman: Arkhamseriesand the unfortunate passing of his voice actor, the late Kevin Conroy. Still, Batman’s role inKill the Justice Leaguefeels very insignificant most of the time, thereby diminishing the impact of his death on Rocksteady’s Arkhamverse.
Every fight with the Justice League inSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leaguelargely fails to tug on the heartstrings of those at the helm, and a Justice League prequel might have made their deaths feel a bit more significant.
Wonder Woman’s death is only vicariously felt through Harley Quinn, as she likely stands as a representative of those who rely onWonder Woman’s statusas a strong female icon in the world of superheroes. Unfortunately, of all the deaths inKill the Justice League, Wonder Woman’s had the most potential for emotional impact, but her persistent disdain for the Suicide Squad throughout the story makes her a sort of anti-hero to the anti-heroes. The deaths of other heroes, like Flash and Green Lantern, are mostly passed over as fleeting thoughts and only seem necessary for story purposes.
Perhaps Rocksteady intended for the deaths of each member of the Justice League inKill the Justice Leagueto have very little emotional impact on the player. After all, in a game that doesn’t allow its players the freedom to choose, it might have been difficult to navigate the conflict created by an emotional attachment to the characters that are designed to be destroyed by the player’s hands. However, a Justice League prequel might have contributed to a more compelling narrative inKill the Justice League, and it would have fit the character arcs foreach member of the Suicide Squadas they entertain the idea of being “good” throughout the story.
Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League
WHERE TO PLAY
Play as the Suicide Squad to take down the World’s Greatest DC Super Heroes, The Justice League. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, is a genre-defying, action-adventure third-person shooter from Rocksteady Studios, creators of the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham series.
