We didn’t get the memo beforehand, but today is apparently DC news day as Warner Bros. has dropped a barrage of announcements regarding new projects based on DC Comics properties. We’ll get to all of them, but let’s kick off with one that should make a lot of fans happy (and probably a whole bunch a little angry too): An animated feature film adaptation of hugely popular DC Comics fighting game Injustice: Gods Among Us is in development.
Developed by Mortal Kombat’s NetherRealm Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Injustice was released in 2013 to massive acclaim, including several Fighting Game of the Year awards. Besides its deep fighting system and visuals, what made Injustice so good was a surprisingly solid story, especially for a title in this genre.
The game’s plot is set in alternate universe within the DC Multiverse in which the Joker manages to trick Superman into killing a pregnant Lois Lane and accidentally setting off a nuclear bomb that destroys Metropolis. This act finally pushes the idealistic Man of Steel over the edge and Superman kills Joker in retaliation. His anger doesn’t end there though as Superman reckons that all of this devastation could have been avoided if heroes just killed these villains the first time. And so he does just that, becoming increasingly more misguided and corrupt as he goes on a killing spree of anybody who he deems is standing in his way until eventually Superman appoints himself as the ruthless dictator of all of Earth.
To combat his former ally’s Regime, Batman establishes the Insurgency, sparking a war between the two sides that leaves the Justice League in tatters and carries on for over five years. Desperate for help, this Regime universe Batman reaches out through the multiverse to the Prime DC Universe and teleports a number of heroes, including Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Arrow, and Green Lantern. Also sucked through is Joker who Batman had been in the process of stopping from destroying Metropolis with a nuke when his Regime universe counterpart enacted his plan. Meeting with the Insurgency Batman, the heroes are provided with nanotech by this universe’s Lex Luthor (who had been Superman’s closest friend) that boosts their physical abilities so that even a normal human like Batman can go toe to toe with basically a walking alien sun god.
I won’t spoil the rest of the story for those who haven’t played the games, but it gets rather gripping in places. This world was then further fleshed out by a prequel DC Comics comic book series written by Tom Taylor which Darryn had been begging me for years to read, and which I guess I should finally get around to now. A video game sequel, the imaginatively named Injustice 2, was released in 2017 and continued on from the events of the first title.
As for the newly announced animated movie, we don’t know too much about it as WB has actually not officially announced it yet. Instead the project’s existence was revealed via a mention in a press release for the upcoming Batman: The Long Halloween – Part Two which will apparently contain a sneak peak at the film as part of its Blu-ray set bonus features. As the term “Injustice” started trending on Twitter, NetherRealm boss and Injustice co-creator Ed Boon simply tweeted out a screenshot of the trending term with no further comment to tease his followers.
As somebody who loved the Injustice games, I’m really excited about this movie. But remember those angry people I mentioned up top? For anybody who read what Zack Snyder had planned for his follow-up Justice League movies following the mammoth four-hour long Zack Snyder’s Justice League released earlier this year, you can’t help but notice a similarity in plots. Justice League 2 would also have seen a pregnant Lois Lane getting killed which pushes Superman over the edge leading to him submitting to Darkseid’s Anti-Life Equation and devastating the Earth as a superpowered despot.
With calls for #RestoreTheSnyderVerse not abating one bit in the face of WB refusing to allow Snyder to make further big-budget live-action sequels, you have to wonder why they didn’t just greenlight an animated follow-up. Instead, we’re getting an animated adaptation of a different version of a similar story (one which I admittedly love), which pretty much puts the nail in that coffin as well.
Last Updated: May 20, 2021
Pixelated Gambit
May 20, 2021 at 03:59
Intrigued to see how this pans out
Dee ham
May 20, 2021 at 06:30
what a lot of people dont realise that a comic series was released alongside the game. as far as I know, it is still ongoing (citation needed). it also fills in a lot of missing details, like why Dick Grayson is conspicuously missing from Injustice 2.