Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League from Rocksteady is not having a good time. It is looking very much like a dead game walking already. There are several reasons. It sounded like a good idea. As the blurb put it:
“From the creators of the Batman: Arkham series, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a genre-defying third-person action shooter where the ultimate band of misfits must do the impossible: Kill the Justice League. Pre-order and get Classic Outfits. An internet connection is required to play Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League solo or via online co-op.
Join the newly “recruited” members of Amanda Waller’s infamous Task Force X (aka the Suicide Squad), Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark, as they set out on an impossible mission to kill the Justice League. Drop into an expansive and dynamic open-world Metropolis ravaged by Brainiac’s invasion and terrorized by the heroes who once protected it.
Experience gameplay that brings together a unique fusion of enhanced traversal, gunplay, and melee combat, combining free-roaming exploration and combat verticality for an unforgettable experience. Experience a brand new original story set in the DC Universe featuring your favorite characters and villains like you’ve never seen them before.”
However, all is not well in the world of the latest Rocksteady product. First of all, the early access version of the live-service multiplayer shooter was yanked offline almost as soon as it landed after a bug was discovered that ruined the story completion scenes.
Then things got even worse. Early reviews started landing and they were pretty woeful. It garnered a 21%, or 2.3 star score, on Google.
*Spoiler Warning*
Alongside complaints about the story and the presentation, a lot of negative comments center on the treatment of popular characters. In particular, there is a scene where the Flash is killed and a villain urinates on his dead body.
What got an even worse reception is the fact that it includes a scene that depicts the death of Batman. He is unceremoniously shot in the head by Harley Quinn, after being lectured. Adding fuel to this fire is the fact that it was Kevin Conroy’s last recorded performance as Batman. Conroy passed away in 2022.
There are still some final, posthumous performances to be released, however this was the last project he recorded. These are Bruce Timm’s Batman: Caped Crusader animated series, and DC animated film Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Three.
This has landed very badly with fans. Conroy, of course, is a legend among fans and has voiced multiple versions of the character all the way back to Batman: The Animated Series in the 1990s.
Comic commentators online have done some digging into the game and attempted to answer the question as to why it can treat beloved characters so badly, and the results are predictable. The writers behind the game were found to be reflective of the current crop of writers currently bringing the entire comics industry to its knees, shuttering titles and threatening the very existence of comics publishing houses. The kind of people who create things like this:
One online sleuth highlighted a Narrative Designer proclaimed as “an advocate for representation and inclusion, currently leading an initiative aimed at supporting, training, and empowering marginalized devs.”
Is Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League another victim of what Mark Millar was talking about when he recently became embroiled in an online spat over the culture war and its impact on the comic industry?
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