Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is clear about his intentions from the start. Your mission, which you must accept as a member of Task Force X, is to kill the Justice League. Kill the Flash. Kill Green Lantern. Kill Superman. And yes, kill the Batman.
But despite the clarity of the new Suicide Squad game’s title, it still seems a little hard to believe. Kill Batman? Kill him? Kill the star of Rocksteady’s trilogy of popular and best-selling Batman: Arkham games? This has to be some Batman from an alternate universe, right? Some kind of joke?!
Sorry, but no.
[Warning: The following contains spoilers for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Batman: Arkham Knight.]
The narrative basis of Kill the Justice League is that the alien villain Brainiac has come to Earth to conquer it. Not only does Brainiac turn the population of Metropolis into his soldiers, he also receives great support from (most of) the Justice League after mind-controlling and manipulating them. With Brainiac’s plan working, the government agency ARGUS recruits criminals from Arkham Asylum and Belle Reve Prison to put down the alien uprising. Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Harley Quinn and Killer Shark receive super-powered gadgets and lots of weapons to help them defeat the League.
Second to last on their list is Batman, the same Batman who faked his death at the end of five years earlier Batman: Arkham Knight. There is an entire in-game museum called The Batman Experience Kill the Justice League This explains why Batman gave up the ruse of his death and joined Superman in Metropolis. This museum also offers a brief review of the events of Arkham Asylum And Arkham Citywith exhibits dedicated to each of Batman’s main villains.
Batman has a big presence in Kill the Justice League. You’re tied into his radio communication with Brainiac, so you’ll hear the late, long-time voice actor Kevin Conroy voice an evil, Brainiac-possessed Batman throughout the game. And at one point you watch a long holographic recording of Batman/Bruce Wayne, supposedly given to Robin to explain to anyone who sees it how to defeat the Justice League, including Batman himself.
Rocksteady makes it explicitly clear that in this game, Batman has turned to evil under the spell of Brainiac and the only solution is death. This is something that the only other uncompromising member of the Justice League – Wonder Woman – tries hard to avoid. But the Suicide Squad? They have no qualms about killing Batman.
Just past the halfway point of the game, after Task Force brings Batman’s broken but still breathing body to Lex Luthor, who is studying the Caped Crusader’s altered genetics, they then shoot Old Bats in the head. Harley Quinn does. Of course not see Batman’s brains are graphically blown out, but it’s clear to everyone involved that Batman is dead.
That said, Kill the Justice League is also a game about multiverses or, as DC likes to call them, elseworlds. Just as a new, younger Joker comes to town, there could be another Batman in the game’s multiverse, even if the game doesn’t explicitly hint at it. Of course, we should remember that this is all rooted in comic book storytelling, where no one stays dead forever.
When Rocksteady lets Harley shoot Batman in the head, it feels like a metaphorical milestone for the studio. In 2015, the Batman: Arkham trilogy was completed, and it appears that the franchise has been left behind entirely. For all intents and purposes, we should consider the Batman of Rocksteady’s Arkhamverse dead for now.
To emphasize this point even more clearly, Kill the Justice League even ends with a tribute to Batman’s late voice actor. Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane delivers a postgame eulogy for Batman (but, strangely, none of the League’s other fallen heroes), ending with the message “Thanks, Kevin.” It’s a melancholy ending, but it underscores the finality of Batman’s fate in this universe.
Whether there’s another Batman waiting in the wings, like the secret ending of ” Arkham Knight, remains to be seen. We’ll see where Kill the Justice LeagueFrom here the other worlds continue.
