Highlights

  • Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League continues the Arkhamverse, possibly leading to future DLC expansions and a sequel, per WB's service model emphasis.
  • Rocksteady may pivot to more single-player DC experiences, possibly with a League of Assassins game, cueing from Arkham Knight's hints.
  • Talia al Ghul's potential revival could open doors for a League of Assassins game, adding depth to Rocksteady's post-Suicide Squad ambitions.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League perpetuates the Arkhamverse continuity for better or worse and it’s exciting to see how Rocksteady will broaden further with upcoming DLC expansions. With Rocksteady being dedicated to its live-service components it doesn’t seem likely that a single-player title is going to follow it anytime soon and to make it even more worthwhile it may already have plans for a Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League sequel thereafter, especially with WB coming out and stating how it wants to emphasize the service model.

Of course, if Rocksteady and WB understood how to read a room and knew what would actually be the most fruitful for them, they would obviously invest in more single-player DC experiences, even if Batman didn’t return at their helm. Indeed, it may not be what the studio meant to allude to, and it would certainly be another jarring pivot for the Arkhamverse, but one intriguing Easter egg in a DLC side quest for Batman: Arkham Knight could still result in Rocksteady’s next single-player endeavor: a League of Assassins game with a revived Talia al Ghul as its protagonist.

p-15
Related
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Made Its Bed and Has to Sleep in It

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League cracks the Arkhamverse wide open and can't be shy about pursuing its bold live-service direction hereafter.

Batman: Arkham Knight Shut the Door on Ra’s al Ghul, But Not His Daughter

Rocksteady Should Make an Unprecedented Pivot After Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

Arkham Knight’s Shadow War DLC closes the book on Ra’s al Ghul with one of two conclusions players get to choose from—one being more definitive than the other as Batman essentially gets to put Ra’s on his deathbed for the last time. Batman and Nyssa destroy what’s alleged to be the final Lazarus site beneath Gotham City, which would leave Ra’s and the League without any means to revive and continue in their crusade.

This worked perfectly as a way for the Arkham games to bookend Ra’s’ arc beginning in Arkham City and even gives him an empathetic end on his deathbed while respectfully and honorably incarcerated at GCPD. However, a future Arkhamverse entry stating that another Lazarus source was left intact wouldn’t be remotely close to the most remarkable or egregious retcon Rocksteady’s already made in the continuity, and the stinger of Talia’s corpse’s unknown whereabouts leaves a door open for her return if Rocksteady wanted.

A League of Assassins Game Could Follow an Unanswered Tease from Arkham Knight

20240110200832_1

The tease in question is an easily missable clue suggesting that Talia has been revived. At Elliot Memorial Hospital, where a lot of the Shadow War DLC side quest takes place, players can investigate the morgue to discover multiple familiar faces and names of deceased characters such as the waitress and concerned patron from the beginning of Arkham Knight in Pauli’s Diner.

But one morgue cabinet labeled with Tali’s name is left open and vacated, inferring that her body was removed with Talia potentially revived via a Lazarus pit elsewhere. Even without breaking canon, Talia could’ve been revived long before the DLC’s events took place and hid away in secrecy—the League has proven to be awful at obscuring its breadcrumbs either way.

Talia al Ghul was murdered by Joker at the end of Arkham City , though considering her familial association with the Lazarus pits it was never assured that she’d stay dead permanently.

Rocksteady clearly wanted this outcome to be left on the table. A Talia-led League of Assassins game would be out of the blue, yet it’s arguable that a live-service shooter was too before Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was revealed.

There’s no telling now what Rocksteady’s ambitions may be beyond Suicide Squad, but this is a thread that could unravel with a ton of potential for Talia and the League. Of course, WB Games Montreal’s Gotham Knights sort of had its own take on this narrative but with Talia and the League as its main antagonists, so perhaps Rocksteady indulging in that as well would be a superfluous oversaturation when it likely has far more zany ideas in tow.