Fans have confirmed that an early Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League spoiler was correct after all – and they are not happy.
We reported the rumor in December of last year. The spoiler caused immediate outrage, partly because of the game’s connection to the Batman Arkham game continuity. More offensively, this was perceived as disrespectful towards the recently deceased voice actor for Batman, Kevin Conroy.
Shortly after that, a leaker named Miller Ross claimed that the spoiler, which was audio only, was presented out of context, and was not an accurate depiction of events. Later, the leaker admitted that they did not know the full context of what they leaked.
But we are now days away from the official release of the game. Because some players get Early Access, they have already finished the game, and they played through this part of the game. And so, we now know, as unfortunate as it is, that that spoiler was accurate at describing the situation after all.
Spoilers follow below.
At the end of the boss fight against Batman, the Suicide Squad do carry Bruce and sit him on a bench. Bruce starts to talk but gets interrupted by Harley, who gives her praise and criticisms of the man, just before shooting him once.
This scene was leaked at the earliest on YouTube by Dan Allen Gaming. We’ll share that upload below.
This leak was also shared on Twitter, and that’s where you can see a lot of people expressing their displeasure. A Twitter user with the handle DOA Momiji said:
“This is basically Rocksteady telling Arkham fans to go fuck themselves. I have no problem with this if it was an elseworld story. Since this is supposed to be the Arkhamverse, Rocksteady can seriously fuck off.”
Another Twitter user named Bites The Cassidy said:
“This is so ridiculously mean-spirited. It’d be one thing if this were some one-off Batman but no, they just had to set this in the Arkham-verse and kill off the Batman fans have been playing as and have grown to love since 2009.”
But, we’ll go back to YouTube for a precious insight on how fans are taking this, that we believe WB Games and Rocksteady could not have possibly anticipated. YouTuber Shine Comics said this:
“I’ll be honest, guys. Even if Batman is alive, even if he didn’t die in the game, the game is still dead on arrival. Because I don’t want to play as the Suicide Squad. I want to play as the Justice League.”
Shine Comics also pointed out that the way Batman was taken out was pathetic, and compared it to the groundbreaking Death and Return of Superman comic book storyline. In that story, he argued, Superman’s death was made to feel like it mattered, making it very powerful and compelling.
While this will immediately turn off a large number of DC Comics fans, some of whom may not even have a games platform to play Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League on, it’s also worth noting that the game is designed in such a way that you would need to have played for several hours before you get to this scene with Batman yourself.
Shine Comics’ statement was also strangely interesting because of what Miller Ross himself said. Writing for Exputer, Miller made this specific claim about this and other scenes:
“Make no mistake, the Justice League survives the events of Suicide Squad. From what I’ve been able to uncover through my own data mining and a month of research (and counting), each “death” is presented with several hints to the audience that they’re fakeouts.
By the end of the Brainiac storyline set up during the base campaign, the Justice League are reunited and get their revenge against the multiversal supervillain — and Task Force X. These piecemeal reintroductions also mark perfect opportunities for the Justice League to be playable, however briefly.”
So it’s possible that Rocksteady thought they could have their cake and eat it too. But they may not have planned hard enough, because if many fans think the same way that Shine Comics did, they may not even give this game a chance for them to find this all out.
If it all plays out like this, Rocksteady will only have themselves to blame, because they would not have realized for such an elaborate fakeout to work, they would have needed to win the fans over the first time. And it doesn’t look like they were able to do that.
Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League will be released on February 2, 2024, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. It is also arriving to PC via Epic Game Store on March 5, 2024.
