This week, Rocksteady Studios dropped the last bit of content for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, turning everything we knew upside down by bringing back a couple of major Justice League heroes in the most laid-back fashion. In episode 8, Task Force X manages to defeat the final Brainiac, only to have Superman and Batman show up out of the blue — alive and kicking, much to everyone’s surprise.
Harley Quinn narrates the grand finale of this saga, revealing that Superman and Batman were actually stuck in Brainiac’s lair the whole time. Now that they’ve been freed from Brainiac’s clutches, these Justice League icons are determined to make amends. They’ll be liberating Metropolis’ inhabitants from their extraterrestrial overlords and restoring the realities that Brainiac has messed with across different universes.
Meanwhile, Task Force X has managed to remove the bombs from their heads and have stepped away to an alternate realm, far from Amanda Waller’s grip, to live their lives to the fullest.
Throughout the 2024 game, players were tasked with eliminating some of DC’s most iconic superheroes, a concept that didn’t sit well with many, especially fans of Batman. They were upset to see Kevin Conroy’s last portrayal of Batman in the gaming world end in such undignified fashion. Yet, the finale cutscene pulls back the curtain on an unexpected twist: the Batman and Superman that got offed by Task Force X? Just Brainiac’s clones all along. Once those purple crystalline cells are shattered, the real Batman and Superman are ready to jump back into Rocksteady’s Arkhamverse stories as if nothing ever went down.
In earlier episodes, players retrieved untainted versions of the Flash and Green Lantern, restoring those heroes’ fates as well. However, Wonder Woman isn’t catching a break, as her character was killed by a nefarious clone Superman and remains dead in Rocksteady’s narrative. The silver lining for Diana is that she’s gearing up for her own adventure, though it’s uncertain if Monolith Productions’ Wonder Woman game will tie into the same storyline universe as Rocksteady’s Arkhamverse.
Over multiple post-launch expansions, Rocksteady has been painstakingly piecing the Justice League back together, minus Wonder Woman. These updates also brought fresh faces to the squad of Task Force X, including a different universe’s take on the Joker who’s nothing like the version fans remember Mark Hamill voicing in the Batman Arkham series.
Given that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is built on a foundation rooted in comic books, it was almost expected that the Justice League members would make a comeback, rendering their original deaths somewhat moot in the grand scheme. Plus, leaks had already hinted at their revival. Even Rocksteady itself subtly teased Batman’s return via a sneaky in-game calendar, despite him supposedly being killed by Harley’s hand.
Yet the capstone to Kill the Justice League arrives in a somewhat lackluster manner, using simple illustrations and narration from a sole character to tidy up the story’s dramatic loose ends. It’s a fitting conclusion for a game series that wrestled with delays, mixed reviews, rampant leaks, and technical glitches. The silver lining? Everyone, save perhaps for Wonder Woman, can finally put this chapter behind them and look ahead to what’s next.
