Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has gamers divided on how it handled Batman’s character in the game.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has been out on early access since January 30, and players who can access it are posting videos about the game on various social media platforms since then. Unfortunately, the videos these players posted have shown things that appear to be displeasing, if not disrespectful, to Batman fans and Kevin Conroy’s last video game appearance as the Dark Knight.
SPOILER ALERT
Videos on various social media platforms revealed that Harley Quinn killed Batman after the Suicide Squad defeated him in a boss fight featuring the Dark Knight’s own Fear toxin. The game depicted Harley Quinn gunning down a mind-controlled Dark Knight while the latter was sitting on a bench after some back and forth between the two.
The scene has Batman fans outraged as the Batman shown in-game is the same one Rocksteady featured in the Arkham games. Fans may recall that the game developer previously confirmed that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is set in the same universe as the Batman: Arkham games. As such, gamers saw Harley Quinn kill the same Batman who took down his entire rogues gallery and shook off liberal dosages of Scarecrow’s Fear toxin in a single night.
Fans called the killing unceremonious as they thought that this version of the Dark Knight deserved a better death after what he went through in the Arkham games. Many also believe that Rocksteady’s other game, Gotham Knights, did and handled Batman’s death better than Suicide Squad.
“Batman is not a character you just have his weakest villain shoot in the face and expect fans to be okay with it,” Twitter user @SynthPotato said.
Some gamers mentioned that the point of Suicide Squad is to kill off members of the Justice League, Batman included, and that the Dark Knight’s death in the game was to be expected. Meanwhile, others say that at least Suicide Squad handled Batman and his death better than the Flash.
Either way, gamers lament the fact that Kevin Conroy’s last performance as Batman in a video game is wasted on Suicide Squad. They believe Rocksteady did a disservice to the Batman of the Arkham games – a character the company set up and developed after four games.
Despite gamers’ disappointment with how Rocksteady and Suicide Squad handled Batman and his death, they are thankful for the Kevin Conroy tribute the game developer placed as a post-credits scene for Suicide Squad.
It is unknown if Batman, Superman, and other members of the Justice League are truly dead despite Suicide Squad’s cutscenes showing them they are. A rumor from @mmmmmmmmiller mentioned that Brainiac “genetically modified” all Justice League members, allowing them to survive their supposed encounters with death. Whether Batman will be shown to be alive in the game’s future seasons is something only time can tell.