Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League returned from a delay notice to share a new clip at The Game Awards. This clip confirmed that Kevin Conroy’s Batman would be appearing once more in Rocksteady’s Arkhamverse and further established the game’s narrative tone with dry humor and thrilling suspense. This was a surprise reveal though many fans certainly had high hopes that he would in fact return, and it seems to answer one question that an earlier Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League story trailer had offered for fans to mull over.
That question concerned two quick shots that featured an armored hand taking a pistol and aiming it at Harley Quinn. The details in it were obfuscated due to there being no external context to feed into it, and the result of that lack of context led to fans guessing whose hand that may be. Knowing only that they retrieve a pistol to presumably use on Harley and that their hand wears a gauntlet, there was only one dependable guess fans had—Jason Todd’s Red Hood seemed to be returning in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League with a grudge held toward Harley Quinn.
Fans Believe Red Hood May Appear in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Before Batman was revealed in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, a fan theory predicted that Red Hood may appear as the character who picks up a pistol from the floor and aims it at Harley Quinn while she is lying on her back. This theory made a lot of sense when considering what Jason Todd’s character development was like in Batman: Arkham Knight, as well as how his character brutally reconciles with his own trauma and becomes even more violent as Red Hood.
The character is known to use pistols in his own acts of crime-fighting and having him in the franchise would be fantastic to see. Now, the likelihood that Red Hood is the character aiming a pistol at Harley may be completely diminished after seeing Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s Batman reveal from The Game Awards.
Batman is Likely the Figure Seen in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s Previous Trailer
There seems to be almost no doubt now that the individual is Batman, and that this scene takes place soon after the Kevin Conroy tribute clip. This is likely Batman’s introduction in the game, seeing how Harley greets him. What gives it away most seems to be how both clips include a room bathed in red light.
Batman’s disruptor could be employed in a number of ways here, whether he is cutting the room’s lights entirely or detonating environmental hazards around Task Force X to discombobulate them. It would appear as though this sequence has Batman picking up the police officer’s pistol, approaching Harley on the floor, and aiming it at her. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s Batman is murderous, and wielding the pistol against her would not be a questionable action on his part while mind-controlled by Brainiac.
This would also not be the first time fans have seen Rocksteady’s iconic Batman wielding a gun, though that was a hallucinogenic side effect of his tainted blood as orchestrated by the Joker’s lingering psyche. It will be interesting to see how Batman fares with Brainiac’s own mind-warping abilities, and if that control is reversed it will be exciting to see what Batman is like in Rocksteady’s present Arkhamverse.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League launches on May 26, 2023 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X.
