DC invites us to go completely batty

Marvel dominates the superhero genre; these heroes (and villains) have work to do

Long gone are the days when Warner Bros could bat away (pun unintended but very welcome) competition for ‘best superhero game’. With 2021 coming to a close we’ve had two critically acclaimed Spider-Man games (with another on the way), a surprise Guardians Of The Galaxy adventure, and a fanbase going hyper over the mere mention of a Wolverine game.

In short, Marvel is gobbling up all the videogame headlines, purchases, and chatter. DC Fandome, DC’s major online event, was this year used as a not-so-secret weapon for it and Warner in the war for attention. There was plenty of non-gaming news (including a movie trailer in which Robert Pattinson’s Batman says “When that light hits the sky…” and we expected him to continue “…like a big pizza pie”), but it was also used to get as many eyes as possible on new trailers for Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League and Gotham Knights.

While we still don’t have any gameplay footage for Suicide Squad, the new trailer nonetheless gives us a good idea what to expect. Like the reveal trailer it seems determined to lay the groundwork for a game with its own identity. While Harley Quinn, Deadshot, King Shark, and Captain Boomerang are all instantly recognisable, none of the character designs seem to be lifted directly from the movies or comics. More tellingly, perhaps, although the game’s Captain Boomerang is the original incarnation (George Harkness), he has the speed burst ability that was only given to the character in the comics when his son, Owen Mercer, took up the mantle.

OK BOOMERANG