The Suicide Squad game undoes its superhero deaths in the cheapest way

The final piece of content for Rocksteady Studios’ Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League landed this week, and it effectively and unceremoniously undoes the dramatic deaths of two more of its Justice Leaguers. In episode 8 of Kill the Justice League, Task Force X successfully kills the last remaining Brainiac, then — Look up in the sky! It’s a spoiler! — Superman and Batman show up, totally alive and seemingly unharmed.

The finale of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, as narrated by Harley Quinn, explains that Superman and Batman were apparently trapped inside Brainiac’s lair this whole time. Now that the surviving Justice League is freed from Brainiac’s control, they’ll atone, freeing Metropolis’ citizens from their alien oppressors and visiting various alternate realities affected by other Brainiacs to set them right.

As for Task Force X, they’ve hacked the bombs out of their heads and have peaced out to an Elseworld to live their best lives, free from Amanda Waller’s control.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League had players kill DC’s most famous superheroes over the course of the 2024 game — much to the dismay of Batman fans who weren’t pleased that actor Kevin Conroy’s final video game role as the Caped Crusader saw him disposed of in such an ignominious way. But the ending cutscene of Kill the Justice League’s final story episode explains that the Batman and Superman that were previously killed by Task Force X were clones created by Brainiac. Freed from their purple crystal prisons, Bats and Supes are apparently free to rejoin the canon of Rocksteady’s Arkhamverse, almost as if nothing ever happened.

In previous story episodes, players recovered uncorrupted versions of the Flash and Green Lantern, undoing those heroes’ deaths as well. But Wonder Woman, who was killed by an evil (clone) Superman during Kill the Justice League’s story, will apparently remain dead in Rocksteady’s game. The good news for Diana is that she has her own game in the works, though it’s unclear if Monolith Productions’ Wonder Woman will exist in the same continuity as Rocksteady’s Arkhamverse.

The revival of the Justice League, sans Wonder Woman, has taken place over the course of multiple post-release expansions to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which have also introduced new playable characters. One of those new additions to Task Force X is an alternate-universe Joker, who is very different from the one voiced by Mark Hamill in the Batman Arkham games.

Given that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is based on a comic book property, it’s unsurprising that the Justice League would return alive, and that their deaths would be meaningless in the long run. It’s also unsurprising due to a flood of leaks that indicated their return. Even Rocksteady hinted at one point in an in-game calendar that Batman would be back, despite being shot in the head by Harley.

But the final chapter of Kill the Justice League is still presented in the cheapest way possible, with a handful of illustrations and voiceover from a single character explaining how the game’s once-shocking story would be wrapped up. It’s an appropriate ending for the saga of Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad game, which was beset with delays, poor reception, rampant leaks, and technical problems. The good news is that everyone, except for maybe Wonder Woman, can move on.