Summary
- Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League's post-launch DLC lacked much in the storytelling department until recent developments.
- Wonder Woman's death in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League added meaningful stakes and emotional weight to the narrative.
- Flash being rescued unceremoniously means that the Justice League is alive and well, though that makes Wonder Woman's death even more ambiguous.
Story spoilers ahead for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s Season 2 Episode 3 DLC.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League hasn’t gotten any less fun in terms of gameplay since launch and the two new characters who’ve been added in post-launch seasonal content so far, an Elseworld Joker and Mrs. Freeze, have been evidence of that with creative traversal options. Unfortunately, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League hadn’t moved the storytelling needle at all until this most recent season, which boasts a new development in the game’s blown-out story that hasn’t seemed to make as big of a splash as it could have if it was revealed or teased earlier: the ‘real’ Justice League members are apparently still alive.
Following the most recent Brainiac’s death, Flash stumbles out of nowhere in an egregiously brief cutscene and is promptly placed in stasis at the Hall of Justice. Here, Flash’s stasis pod is only one of several, each with its own logo representing a Justice League character who will supposedly be rescued and brought there. However, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has an odd caveat to consider: Wonder Woman wasn’t brainwashed. Therefore, the Diana who a false Superman slew is seemingly the real one, meaning she should be the only actual Justice League member who is legitimately dead after all.
Wonder Woman’s Death in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Had Meaningful Conviction
The choice for Wonder Woman to be the only member of the Justice League who wasn’t captured and brainwashed by Brainiac was significant since it meant she’d never have her own boss fight in the story campaign and her death at the hands of a purple-veined Superman held weight. Indeed, even Task Force X goes to the absurd length of expressing sorrow for Wonder Woman as she smolders and disintegrates at their feet.
There was no reason for Task Force X to see her any differently than they perceived other Justice League members and yet she’s honored in a way that is uncharacteristically dramatic of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Plus, the finality of her death seemed fairly irreversible and gave the story much-needed stakes. If the idea is that Justice League members are being rescued and coming back because they weren’t dead to begin with, but simply held captive and replaced by clones—whether this is true or not has not been confirmed—then Wonder Woman would’ve actually survived if she had only been captured and brainwashed herself.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Shouldn’t Waste the Only Choice It Made That Wan’t Toothless
Because Wonder Woman has a stasis pod waiting in the Hall of Justice it seems as if Rocksteady has planned a way for her to be revived. Otherwise, Rocksteady retconning the only death that withheld emotional resonance in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s narrative would be highly frowned upon.
Kevin Conroy’s passing gave Batman’s death a ton of real-world resonance, much to the ire of Rocksteady’s community; as it pertained to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s story, though, the false Caped Crusader’s death meant little more than Flash’s, Green Lantern’s, or Superman’s, and it’ll be interesting to see if he’ll be rescued as well.
If Rocksteady tries to say that Brainiac managed to clone Wonder Woman without actually possessing and brainwashing her, especially if that happened off-screen where Rocksteady could make up any context or lore without having to thoroughly support or explain it, it would be incredibly disappointing. Her being alive would be neat if there could be future plans for a Rocksteady-developed Wonder Woman game, for example, but it would be terribly unlikely with Monolith already developing its own Wonder Woman game.
Wonder Woman could always be kept around to eventually join a Justice League game, too. That said, a decision like this would demonstrate that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s story has no teeth and could fail to have any interesting or high-stakes beats ahead of it.
-
OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 59 /100 Critics Rec: 20%
- Released
- February 2, 2024
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Rocksteady Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Warner Bros. Games
WHERE TO PLAY
Play as the Suicide Squad to take down the World’s Greatest DC Super Heroes, The Justice League. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, is a genre-defying, action-adventure third-person shooter from Rocksteady Studios, creators of the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham series.
- Franchise
- Suicide Squad
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- Genre(s)
- Action, Adventure, Open-World
- How Long To Beat
- 10 Hours
