Some fans may not have expected Rocksteady’s next DC game after the Batman: Arkham series to be Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, but the hints were there dating back to Batman: Arkham Asylum. Although entirely focused on Batman, Easter eggs and references in the first Batman: Arkham title confirmed the existence of a wider DC Universe – which later came to be known as the Arkhamverse – and this trend continued in every game following. WB Games Montréal’s underrated prequel, the Christmas-set Batman: Arkham Origins, also dedicated significant screentime to the early beginnings of Task Force X, with reports years ago claiming that the studio was going to do a Suicide Squad game before Rocksteady went near the property.
[Warning: major spoilers for the Batman: Arkham series follow.]
The Arkhamverse itself spans multiple games and comic books, although the canonicity of the latter has sometimes been in doubt. The earliest game in the Batman: Arkham timeline is Arkham Origins, which takes place eight years before the events of Arkham Asylum and focuses on a younger version of Batman as he faces his first-ever supervillains. The series concluded with Batman: Arkham Knight in 2015, which saw Bruce Wayne exposed as the Dark Knight and seemingly fake his own demise. Suicide Squad: KTJL takes place after Arkham Knight, although its exact place on the timeline has yet to be confirmed by Rocksteady.
The Batman: Arkham Series has taken multiple winding paths to get to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, including multiple rumored canceled titles and even WB Games Montréal leaving the series behind to pursue Gotham Knights, which takes place in an entirely different continuity. Either way, the lore that both Rocksteady and Montréal have established throughout the games has been impressive, with both studios combining various interpretations of Batman to create their own unique world. Those wider DCU elements may never have been in the foreground, but if players look closely, they’ll find that the world of Batman: Arkham stretches far beyond Gotham.
Batman: Arkham Asylum Confirmed The Justice League’s Existence
Batman: Arkham Asylum introduced players to a brand new interpretation of the Batman mythos, focusing on a more seasoned version of the character at the peak of his career. Because of that, there was much of the universe’s history that had to be fleshed out, which the game largely accomplished through patient interview tapes, character bios, and the Riddler’s riddles. All of these went some way in developing Rocksteady’s interpretation of not just Batman’s world, but the wider DC Universe.
The main focus of Batman: Arkham Asylum was on the Dark Knight and his supporting cast of allies and enemies. However, it did find some time to sprinkle in references to related DC properties – in particular the Justice League, which was confirmed to exist by proxy thanks to a newspaper clipping in Harley Quinn’s office that mentioned the Injustice Gang by name. Since there can’t be an Injustice Gang without a Justice League to match them, this was the first indication that there was more to Batman: Arkham than just Gotham’s villains, and that this version of the Caped Crusader may have encountered the likes of Superman and Wonder Woman prior to Arkham Asylum.
Batman: Arkham City Had Superman & Justice League Easter Eggs
Batman: Arkham City took the action away from Arkham Island and to Old Gotham, a walled-off section of the city that had been turned into a super prison by Mayor Quincy Sharp with the backing of Hugo Strange and Ra’s al Ghul’s League of Assassins. Although it wasn’t a full recreation of Gotham City, Rocksteady crammed lots of detail into the open world of Arkham City, which included tons of references to numerous Batman characters and those in the wider DC Universe. The sequel included references to Justice League members Superman and Flash – courtesy of dialogue shared by Hugo Strange – as well as Black Canary. Many of these references would be expanded upon further in Batman: Arkham Knight, which opened up an even bigger portion of Gotham for players to explore.
During Batman: Arkham City‘s middle portion, Hugo Strange will gloat to Batman that he has new super-prison projects being developed for Keystone and Metropolis. The former was the home of the first and third Flashes respectively, Jay Garrick and Wally West, while the latter is of course the home of the Man of Steel himself, Superman. Superman is also acknowledged elsewhere in Arkham City‘s environment, in particular during the Harley Quinn’s Revenge DLC, where thugs reference the Toyman, one of Supes’ key adversaries. Cadmus Labs – a scientific research organization infamous for its cloning projects in DC Comics – is also referenced with a poster in the Steel Mill. A solo Superman video game from Rocksteady never followed, but the abundance of references to the character in Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, and later Arkham Knight may intimate that the Man of Steel was always on the studio’s to-do list.
Batman: Arkham Origins Showed The Suicide Squad’s Origin
The next entry in the Batman: Arkham series after Arkham City was Batman: Arkham Origins, a prequel set during the formative years of the Dark Knight’s career. The plot of Arkham Origins involved Batman’s first encounter with the Joker, who – posing as Black Mask – hired eight assassins to target him. Dressed in a less advanced version of the Batsuit, Bruce Wayne faces the likes of Deathstroke, Copperhead, and Bane in Batman: Arkham Origins, which also depicts Old Gotham before its transformation into Arkham City, as well as New Gotham – a portion of the city dominated by skyscrapers and new developments.
With the change of scenery, and with a Suicide Squad game purportedly in development by Montréal during this time, Batman: Arkham Origins cranked up references to the wider DC Universe up a whole other notch. The game’s environment includes references to Queen Industries (the corporation of Oliver Queen, aka Green Arrow), as well as to Ferris Aircraft, a business owned by Carol Ferris in the comics, who later became the Green Lantern villain-cum-hero Star Sapphire. Arkham Origins also beefed up references to Superman, with Metropolis again being mentioned, only this time along with LexCorp. Even Wonder Woman - a non-evil hero in Suicide Squad: KTJL - gets acknowledged courtesy of a billboard for Cale Anderson, a business the Amazon warrior clashed with in the comics.
Batman: Arkham Origins‘ main focus on worldbuilding was the Suicide Squad, however. A cutscene at the end of the game sees Deathstroke being recruited by Amanda Waller for Task Force X, and Harleen Quinzel’s character trophy has her holding a clipboard that mentions Task Force X. Thug dialogue also mentions Captain Boomerang, a playable character in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, while the handheld spinoff title, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, ends with Deadshot and Bronze Tiger being recruited to the program. It’s likely that these references were meant to set up a Suicide Squad game developed by WB Games Montréal and not Rocksteady, but that project never came to pass, and the same felt reportedly befell its Damian Wayne game before Gotham Knights entered development. Either way, these references helped establish a wider DCU for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League to eventually exploit, as did the next Batman: Arkham title, Batman: Arkham Knight.
Suicide Squad & Justice League Easter Eggs In Arkham Knight
Although references to the Suicide Squad weren’t as frequent in Batman: Arkham Knight, Rocksteady’s final installment in its Batman: Arkham trilogy paid particular attention to the heroes the previous games had already hinted at. LexCorp boasts a more considerable presence in this spot of Gotham, and voicemails on Bruce Wayne’s answering machine confirm that Lex Luthor is looking to acquire Wayne Enterprises’ applied sciences division, with Lex calling Bruce up himself to try and broker a deal. An office for Queen Industries is also present, while dialogue from thugs and other characters hints at Queen’s Green Arrow persona. There’s also a reference to Belle Reve, which is the super-prison where Waller traditionally recruits from for the Suicide Squad. Going one step further than any of those, though, is Batman: Arkham Knight‘s Batgirl DLC, which showcased Justice League villain Starro suspended eerily in some kind of tube.
The Batman: Arkham series may not have focused on other heroes or villains outside of Batman’s comics, but they had a significant presence in each title’s game world from Arkham City onward. Rocksteady and WB Games Montréal laid the groundwork for a superhero story set in the Arkhamverse that could feature either the Justice League or Suicide Squad. It’s possible it wasn’t originally intended to lead to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, but the signs the two teams could one day intersect were there almost from the beginning.
About The Author
