Warning: This post includes spoilers for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League! Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is now available worldwide after a long delay. DC fans want to know: does the game deliver on the promise of killing the Justice League? How does the game end? Now that the game is out, we’re here to break down the conclusion of Suicide Squad and explore its impact on the Arkham-verse, as well as its potential for future DLC. Because one thing becomes abundantly clear by the time the credits roll – Harley Quinn and her squad still have plenty of killing ahead of them. Suicide Squad: Kill Justice League Review ScreenshotsAre you a Justice League fan? Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League indeed lives up to its name. By the end of the game, the entire Justice League, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern, is no more. The heroes have been manipulated by Brainiac to aid in his quest to conquer Earth, leaving Amanda Waller eager to recruit Task Force X to eliminate them. This may seem like a tall order, but the game establishes a substantial power gap that allows these villains to pull it off. The team is aided by a gallery of other villains in the game, such as Toyman, Lex Luthor, Penguin, and Gizmo, all of whom provide invaluable weaponry or strategies against their superpowered foes. For instance, the squad is equipped with anti-Speed Force technology, allowing them to neutralize the Fastest Man Alive. Later, they employ a Gold Kryptonite-laced weapon to take down Superman. The game also portrays Batman as a vital asset in the battle against the Justice League. The team uncovers a set of Batman’s contingency plans intended to aid them in the event of the League’s downfall. These plans are based on the JLA: Tower of Babel story arc, in which Ra’s al Ghul steals Batman’s emergency protocols and uses them to bring down the hero team. It’s worth noting that Wonder Woman is the sole Justice League member not under Brainiac’s influence in the game. She plays a supporting role in the story, at times appearing to confront her fallen comrades. Wonder Woman ultimately catches Superman and manages to strike him with a shard of Kryptonite, but the Man of Steel kills her in the process. As expected, not all DC fans are pleased with how the League is taken down in the game. Batman’s demise is particularly controversial, given that this is the same iteration of the Dark Knight from Rocksteady’s Arkham games. These deaths also raise questions about how the world will cope in the absence of the Justice League’s protection. Who will step in to fill the void? Whether this will be explored in future installments remains to be seen. Perhaps a group like the Justice Society will rise to the occasion, or a new League will be assembled featuring a diverse roster of heroes. Justice League Detroit, anyone? The Final Showdown With BrainiacTrue to form for a game where villains are forced to become the saviors of the world, Lex Luthor is among the key allies in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Well, two of him actually. Luthor is seemingly killed by the mind-controlled Flash, only to later be revealed as allied with his Earth-2 counterpart. Earth-2 Luthor crosses over to Earth-1 and becomes the team’s most valuable asset in the battle against Brainiac. These revelations will form the foundation for the game’s future moving forward. It is this Luthor who uncovers the dark truth behind Brainiac’s triumph. Brainiac has been in contact with 12 counterparts from different worlds. Their objective is not merely to conquer Earth, but to subjugate all life throughout the multiverse. Luthor constructs a device to extract information from Brainiac’s mind, hoping to find a means to thwart him. As anticipated, the game builds to a final boss battle with Brainiac. Harley and her crew are armed with advanced tech that shields them from Brainiac’s mind-control abilities, and they have brought their most potent weapons to bear against the force that has wreaked havoc on Metropolis. Brainiac evolves his form during the confrontation, allowing him to tap into the Speed Force as Flash and maneuver across the battlefield at incredible speeds. After a protracted, intense struggle, the Suicide Squad prevails over Brainiac. They manage to subdue – but not kill – him, confining him within a small containment vessel. While the Squad comes close to stopping him, it’s ultimately Waller and Luthor who succeed in extracting the information they need from Brainiac’s mind, after which the villain expires and his body is destroyed. This is when the team realizes just how much work still lies ahead of them. The Multiversal BrainiacAs mentioned, Earth-2 Luthor learns that Brainiac has made contact with a dozen counterparts from another universe. The information gleaned from Brainiac’s mind offers them a starting point, but it will only be by hunting down and eliminating the remaining Brainiacs that the Suicide Squad can resolve the crisis confronting their world and the wider multiverse. This is where the game concludes. It’s a more open-ended approach than what we’ve seen in various Arkham games, and that’s by design. While the Arkham Asylum series and its sequels told self-contained stories with definite conclusions, Suicide Squad establishes a framework for ongoing playability with its conclusion. This conclusion serves as the basis for Rocksteady’s DLC roadmap, which will consist of at least four seasons of new content. Each season will introduce a playable character to the mix (the first being the Joker) and multiple iterations of Brainiac to combat. The initial season is set for release in March 2024, with the subsequent seasons following a year later.
The Joker joins Task Force X in the first DLC release for the game. The specifics of the story content for each season have yet to be revealed. However, we do know that the DLC will directly engage the concept of Elseworlds, another term for the DC multiverse. This explains how the Joker can be added to the game despite the character’s demise in 2011’s Arkham City. The new episodes will be set in different worlds and may feature other deceased Justice Leaguers from the main story. The ultimate question is whether all of this buildup is leading to the finale of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. What happens once the 13th and final Brainiac is vanquished? Will there be rewards awaiting players who stick with the game for an entire year? Answers to these questions may have to wait. What are your thoughts on the ending of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League? Do you intend to play all the DLC in hopes of unlocking the true conclusion of the game? Share your thoughts in the comments. And don’t forget to check out IGN’s review of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Get in touch with him and expand your pop culture knowledge by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
