Guys, I was trying to be sick. Why do you have to take that time to drop something so stupid I’m forced to comment on internet drama? My head is still a bit heavy, but since I’m awake enough to actually comment on what’s going on, here we are.

The new drama comes from Rocksteady’s video game Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, a game that’s what it says on the box: you murder members of the Justice League. Actual DC fans were already upset by the concept, and then the game came out to even more rage. Of course the game has its defenders, with one of the dumbest defenses since the Snyderverse: “They’re villains. How do you expect them to act?” I expect them to act the way they do in the game.

AND THAT’S THE #$^%@#$%@% PROBLEM!

Why yes, I do expect Amanda Waller to take the opportunity to murder the former Superfriends when Brainiac turns them evil. That’s within her character. I also expect that from the likes of Harley Quinn, King Shark, Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, and I don’t care if there are any other members or not. (I know namesake Toyman Hiro, the good guy Japanese kid, shows up during a mission.) They’re the ones I caught after watching bits of the playthrough of the game on YouTube because I couldn’t deal with the whole thing. It’s not fun to watch all the hit point counts blocking the frantic action I can’t follow in the first place, or a story that has you playing as the villains as you tear a path through the evilized protectors of the planet. The problem is that it’s exactly what I expected a game called Kill The Justice League would be about if you don’t want to straight up play the evil ones, and that’s where all the issues lie–with the very defense the champions of this story make, but not in the way they make it–like most of the social media drama that goes on. Allow me to explain if you have an open mind. And if not, just make some weak defense and move on so I can pick apart a comment that will not say anything. Yes, I’m upset, and it’s not the remaining bits of cold talking.

First, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page with what Suicide Squad is. Created by Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru, with John Ostrander credited with the parts that show up in modern takes on the group, the story follows the exploits of Task Force X, dubbed the “Suicide Squad” because not coming back is a common occurrence. The comic is basically DC’s way of cleaning out lesser villains and explain why villains get out to torment the heroes again without yet another jailbreak. The rule is you do a mission for them, usually something seriously sketchy, and your sentence is cut short, allowing you to return to Gotham or Metropolis and go back to stealing and murdering.

You can blame that on the leader of this shadow cabinet, because Task Force X is a government group, run by Amanda Waller, a control freak paranoid in more recent years, who hates superheroes because she can’t control them. She can control the villains because she plants a bomb in their heads, or in earlier versions an exploding collar around their neck, forgetting of course that she only has access to them because of the superheroes. I don’t think Waller has ever been the “good guy” in the DC Universe, and outside of comics she’s worse, although that could be blamed on the New 52. Unless I’m forced to deal with her, I tend to avoid the character and her little playdate in general.

Note, the clips I’m using as of this writing have a lot of swearing in them, and some graphic violence. The game is rated M after all. I am not avoiding spoilers on this folks, especially in the clips I hope to still have available when you read this. So fair warning there.

So what’s the plot of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League? Brainiac has taken over Metropolis and turned members of the Justice League evil: Batman, Superman, and Green Lantern (John Stewart flavor), and later in the game the Barry Allen version of The Flash are all brainwashed by Brainiac into his minions. Only Wonder Woman escapes, but she hopes to restore her friends. Of course Amanda Waller of ARGUS wants them dead because she always wants them eliminated, even when they aren’t under mind control. She recruits King Shark, a black Deadshot who claims the comic accurate white one from previous games was an imposter (going with the movie version instead), Harley Quinn, and Captain Boomerang, who is a total a-hole in every clip and live playthrough I’ve seen, even being responsible for the Flash’s capture because he really wants to kill Flash. You play as one of the four members (the playthrough I watched stuck with King Shark, the less scumbag of the quartet from what I can tell) as you run around Metropolis, get sent to an alternate universe because of course you do in 2024, and kill infected humans and brainwashed superheroes.

This is where the problem starts. Rocksteady’s writers are responsible for the story of the game. They set up the scenario. They arrange it so that there is no other option. They decided to make superheroes evil and send supervillains to kill them…and to make YOU play the supervillains. Remember ThunderCats: The Return? The Wildstorm comic where Lion-O is unknowingly trapped in the Book Of Omens thinking only a day is passing outside but thanks to Mumm-Ra messing with the time dilation spell he ends up trapped for five years? Yes, the one where Cheetara is strapped to a wall to become the mutants’ rape toy while a barely legal Wilykit becomes Mumm-Ra’s concubine (didn’t even think he needed one) and the boys are actually put to useful work as slaves based on their skillset while Snarf goes slowly insane. That story that few if any of the kids who grew up with the champions of Third Earth and New Thundera wanted to see. It was well written, got the character voices accurate to the situation, and had great art…all while creating a story that ruins our childhood memories and puts our characters through something horrific.

This is worse because at least the ThunderCats win in the end. Here, no matter what happens, evil triumphs. The superheroes are dead. Brainiac is still operating in other universes. The villains get to kill the heroes, and I’m including Waller as a villain. In the clip above you see Captain Boomerang get to pee on the Flash’s dead body, which is what he wanted to do in the earlier clip where we’re introduced to him, despite Flash sacrificing himself to save them earlier. Because that’s what fans of the Flash wanted to see: yet another Flash turned into a murderer (just look at the response to Heroes In Crisis, Tom King’s trashing of Wally West) and peed upon by one of his villains.

Some of the problems with the story are being dropped at the feet of the consulting firm Sweet Baby, Inc, a group known for pushing DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), an activist marketing platform that is none of those things. It’s basically a far-left ideology driven organization that cares more about appealing to fellow activists than actual fans. With that info I’m surprised they let John be killed instead of Hal or even Kyle, who is mixed race but one of them is Irish and he looks white. Once again I’m forced to get political and point out that these types of people hate heroes, especially the tried-and-true wholesome ones that the DC universe used to be dominated by. That’s why we get yet another evil Superman, the second at least for video game continuities after the Injustice series and tie-in comics by Tom Taylor (not looking good for Toms writing DC heroes), the black Green Lantern, the “avert the male gaze” Harley Quinn, the lone not-brainwashed white guy being a total ass, the aforementioned Deadshot change, and Wonder Woman being the only hero not turned evil, so you don’t have to kill her in the game. Superman does that instead, because this is still the anti-superhero game.

Of course she’s the only one whose death is considered a sad thing. Every other death is treated as a good thing, especially Batman’s, which is a lot worse once all the context is in place both in and out of universe.

Batman, who we learn earlier also killed Robin in violation of so much of Bat-history, is executed by Harley Quinn after she gives a speech about how he was always hurting people even before he became Brainiac’s slave. Quinn takes great pleasure in his execution and like every not-Wonder Woman hero it’s treated as a victory. Quinn even talks about how they “grew as people by killing people”, which is supposed to be a good thing. This alone would be bad enough.

However, this isn’t just another continuity video game Batman. As alluded to with Deadshot’s calling out a white predecessor like in the comics versus Will Smith in the movies, this takes place in a pre-existing continuity, that of Rocksteady’s other DC franchise of Arkham games. This story is set five years after the last of the series, Arkham Knight, meaning fans of that continuity not only won’t get another one but we essentially have a “Last Of Us” situation, in which one of the missions of the second game is to brutally murder the hero of the first game, only this is worse. Not only is this the character from the other Arkham games starting with Arkham Asylum, but it’s a character with decades of history of beloved fans and stories, currently DC’s biggest cash cow, and thus one way or another or all three, you as the player have to kill a character you’ve come to love even if you only know him from the Arkham series games. References to all three games (including Arkham City) confirm this and the official website also confirms the date If you toss in decades of comics, TV shows, movies, audio dramas, and other games it’s even worse. Yet there you are, watching your beloved hero turn murderer and get executed by Harley Quinn after she gives a speech berating Batman for being so mean to her fellow thieves and murderers.

Making matters worse for many Bat-Fans is this was touted as the last voice acting role for Kevin Conroy after his sudden passing. Conroy is considered THE Batman voice thanks to Batman: The Animated Series and his later appearances. As it turns out it’s his last video game role as he did manage to do the next chapter of the Crisis On Infinite Earths direct-to-video animated adaptation, but passed before he could work on the upcoming animated series Batman: Caped Crusader, Bruce Timm’s second attempt at doing Batman after the DCAU. That has its own concerns after dropping the loaded “modern audiences” description, which is becoming as bad an “activism over story and adaptation” tag as DEI. Either way, this was considered in poor taste and they did have time to alter the story so Bruce got a better ending than being lectured to by the supervillain who shoots him in the head.

In short: SCREW THIS GAME SIDEWAYS!

Dead Batman is nothing new, and neither is evil Batman thanks to the “Dark Knights: Metal” event. The unrelated Gotham Knights TV series and video game both share the same plot despite not being the same story: Batman’s dead and someone else takes over. The show had original characters (so why bother using Batman except for cheap promotion nobody is falling for anymore?) while the game at least used the other members of the Bat-Family. Evil Superman has been a thing for the longest time. DCAU did it three times, four if you count the tie-in comics. The Injustice games and comics are also about evil Superman, though in those Wonder Woman also gets to be evil, except that didn’t require any mind control, just a misunderstanding of the characters. In this case it’s an outright hatred of the characters. Then there’s all the analogs.

Also, this game doesn’t know how Green Lantern rings work. Why didn’t it protect John or alternately why is it still working for him, and how can King Shark use it when there are safeguards against just anyone using a Power Ring? Plus, John is being evil here, so having him speak the oath is also dumb, as is King Shark using the term to a heroic music score. Not that it matters. The brainwashed heroes are so casual with each other you’d think they weren’t still evil until we hear them talk about killing and controlling for Brainiac and fulfilling his plans for Earth. They might as well be the evil Superfiends from that one Superfriends episode when they end up in a mirror universe take on Quard.

Imagine if the game had been a bit totally different. What if you were a hero who had to free the other heroes from Brainiac’s control. Just have it so the heroes will have other duties, or are too wiped from the battle and control to help? You’re still fighting the heroes but at least the goal is to save the Justice League rather than kill them. Heck, that might have been an interesting arc for the villains. They want to kill the heroes and like Captain Boomerang see this as an opportunity to do so, but is forced to show the restraint the heroes do and NOT kill the heroes. The story would be the villains seeing the hero’s point of view. Actually, one critic suggested this was intended to be a Superman game but for some reason they changed it. (Our hero-hating activist consultants perhaps.) What if Superman has to stop the others? Look at the hero roster. Outrace the Flash, outfight Wonder Woman, outenergy blast Green Lantern (or have John set up traps you have to fly around to avoid…just no rings, lest we get Superman 64 flashbacks), and outthink Batman. You have a chance to really play with Superman’s powers and show that, powerful as he is, there’s more to him than his powers. That would be a better game to play.

That is not what we got. Instead we get a game where the villains, the guys you’re supposed to want to see lose, killing the heroes, the guys you’re supposed to want to see win, that you grew up with and in the case of Batman played as before in this continuity. That means you just destroyed/ended a beloved game series and ruined its story retroactively because we know this Batman is going to turn evil and be shot in the head to draw Superman out. Worst of all, you as the player are the ones who make it happen. You play as the hero-killing villain, which disgusts fans of those heroes, then watch cut scenes of the villain you played finish off the hero and celebrate killing your heroes…unless you’re one of those people who hate heroes and cheer on the villains of course. Too many stories seem to focus on the criminals as “misunderstood” or “quirky” and “lovably fun”, while traditional heroes are treated as a joke for being “wholesome” or “the man” (despite the Squad being a government sponsored shadow group) or out of touch because they aren’t activists or playing to someone’s thirst for revenge and killing. This is why people are mad. They set up the situation where the horrible jerks are the heroes of the story while still being horrible jerks. They asked you to play as those jerks and kill your heroes. Granted, I don’t hear the best things about the gameplay either, but this is a story discussion site and I only know the story, not the gameplay. However, from the clips I saw I wouldn’t like playing the game anyway even if they went with my “free the Justice League” story, with too much action on screen, dialog overlapping each other, and just way too noisy audibly and visually. They created their scenario, they made it so you can’t save the heroes and have to kill them, and they set it up to make the bad guys the savior of the planet.

Yes, the Suicide Squad is acting exactly how we think they would. That’s why we hate the game. We’d rather the heroes acted how we think they would. And that we were playing THEM instead.