Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leaguehas torn significant rifts into the overarching lore of the Arkhamverse and stretched it outward to finally include a wider breadth of DC mythology than ever before. How Rocksteady handled that in its storytelling is debatable due to how little exposition was involved in the main campaign’s narrative, but futureArkhamor Arkhamverse games taking place after it, if there are any, will now need to abide by the lore that’s been established inSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, even if it may be preferable to sweep it under the rug and move onward.
Suicide Squadrevealing that its Brainiac-controlled Justice League members were clones of some sort and not the real heroes themselves leaves a door open for them to potentially be reprised in a future game, and though Batman’s return hasn’t been confirmed yet it’s been all but explicitly teased that the Arkhamverse is going to live on with him as its lead protagonist once again. If so, Batman can’t be let off the hook and must hold himself accountable for all the bloodshed his clone caused in his absence—namelythe death of Tim Drake’s Robin.
Thanks toSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, evenif the Arkhamverse closes the book on multiverse storiesit will be nearly impossible to dismiss the larger implications it’s made with each beat impacting a different corner of the franchise. A Justice League being revealed with such profound public adoration in Metropolis will now always make Batman’s exploits in Gotham City seem trivial in comparison, and if futureArkhamgames take place afterKill the Justice Leagueand characters such as the Flash don’t lend their aid to Batman it will seem unrealistic given his newfound affiliation.
Plus, the only viable reason for Batman to head back to Gotham is if the Justice League was to disband and, besides the fact that they all became cloned as murderous meta-beings, Brainiac’s invasion is as salient of a reason as any that the Justice League should remain intact to hopefully prevent anything like that happening again. This may be a plight Batman believes in if he’s indeed recoveredbeforeSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leagueends its post-launch support, but there’s no possible future for Bruce where he shouldn’t have to wrestle with the turmoil of one of his closest companions being slain.
Batman Will Never Be the Same if the Arkhamverse Presses Onward in the Present Day
Whether it was him being brainwashed or a whole clone of him, Bruce Wayne was ultimately unprepared for Brainiac’s invasion and it resulted in countless deaths. It is neat to see the Arkhamverse’s Batman as a wholly unleashed killer—something of a full-circle momentfollowing the events ofBatman: Arkham Knight—and even if those weren’t Bruce’s actions after all it should nonetheless weigh insurmountably on him if he is recovered.
The most egregious and bold action Rocksteady commits to is that this Batman kills Tim Drake inSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, disgracing Bruce’s most recent Boy Wonder and validating every fear he had about being unable to protect his Bat Family.
A faint silver lining is that Tim’s murderer is supposedly a clone of Bruce and not Bruce himself, but Bruce wouldn’t relieve himself of guilt so nonchalantly. Tim would have died believing he was attacked and killed by Bruce—the same man he knew he’d be unable to stop if Joker’s blood turned him into a homicidal green-eyed foe. What Bruce and Tim worried would come to fruition occurred after all, only via Brainiac instead of Joker, and all of Bruce’s farsighted shortcomings concerning Tim evidently led to an unbelievably tragic and ironic death in the family anyhow.
How Bruce reconciles with Tim’s death would be a rich throughline to follow in a future Arkhamverse game. If the Arkhamverse ever managed to reacha long-desiredBatman Beyondadaptationit would be spectacular to see Tim’s death play a significant role in Bruce’s apprehension toward Terry McGuinness becoming Batman.
