Alleged leaks for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League have revealed its plot, along with planned live service elements being scrapped.
The origin of the supposed leaks is from message board 4Chan. Combined with the anonymous poster not providing even a claim of having or being an inside source (let alone evidence), this would usually dismiss the claims outright. While the alleged scenes do match with more than a few snippets seen in the “Ticking” story trailer– some for fractions of a second- the trailers predate the 4Chan posts.
Nonetheless, the leaks have been widely discussed on Reddit along with snippets on Twitter. Fans have a rough consensus that, despite some loathing it, the alleged plot is at least plausible. A leak of an alleged in-game screenshot has also sent fans into a frenzy, and lent some credibility.
The first of these notable posts came on January 12th. It starts with the claim “Aquaman is in the game he’s in the tutorial and is killed off comedically [sic] by King Shark with quips about how lame.he is,” followed by the assurance “Yes you do kill the justice league members except for Diana and Barry.”
“Collectibles in the game are literally just bloodies [sic] costume pieces or weapons of other DC heroes and villians [sic] who are dead or fighting somewhere else.”
On that subject, the poster claims “One collectible is a riddler trophy very early on im [sic] the game (like straight out lf [sic] the tutorial mission) that plays a pre-recorded messages making you think that your [sic] going to have to collect riddler trophies again only for the message to have Riddlers hideout attacked by braniac drones and his screams of pain and finally death.”
The latter would certainly fit, as Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is set in the Arkham game universe, also developed by Rocksteady Games. Players could collect a large number of Riddler trophies, and Rocksteady poking fun at themselves- while emphasizing Suicide Squad’s differences to Arkham– would fit Suicide Squad’s tone based on trailers we’ve seen thus far.
“You fight Superman twice,” the post continues, “once I’m [sic] the beginning of the game where he wipes the floor with you and another with you having to distract him while Diana lands the hard hits.”
“One mission has you find a Kyrptonite bullet in a lexcorp building (full of survivors that basically are all lex d–kriders) and you have to shut down defenses and lead braniac drones to the building slaughtering the survivors while you grab the bullet in the chaos. You find the bodies of Lex and Bloodsport with Bloodsport having the bullet.”
The Suicide Squad utilizing chaotic and non-heroic tactics would fit with past canon of comics and more. Players later “find out that Earth is doomed regardless and Diana tells the Squad about the ‘Flashpoint Protocol’ (which is self explanatinitory [sic]) so now yoh [sic] need to capture Barry.”
Along with the DC Universe having been “reset” many times over by the actions of the Flash, Flashpoint is the name of several comics, episodes, and animated movies, all detailing adventures in alternate realities, or creating new timelines or continuities.
Superman not obliterating the Suicide Squad is also explained, as “Diana f–ks off trying to distract Clark while the Squad completes there [sic] mission.”
“Eventually you find and fight Barry and knock him out but are ambushed and knocked out by Batman (whose [sic] trying to fight the mindcontrol) and he takes Barry. Squad doesn’t know what to do however they get a tip from Diana that Jimmy Olson knows.”
Allegedly, the “Squad goes to the Daily Planet which is filled with survivors (no Lois and Perry they are MIA). Jimmy tells them that his sources tell him the Penguin has been finding and stealing equipment caches from batman all over Gotham and selling it on the black market.” The Penguin has been seen in a prior Suicide Squad trailer, along with Wonder Woman.
Olson’s appearance is short lived however, as “Jimmy then just f–king dies Superman crashes into the building superfast and all that’s left is his lower torso. Diana comes in and takes the fight outside with the Squad following.”
“Diana holds Clark and Deadshot is ready to shoot the kryptonite bullet at Clark bit [sic] Diana deflects it with her bracelets not wanting her friend to die and thinking she can save him. [The] Rest of the fight is basically tiring out Superman while Diana punches and talks to him.”
“Eventually the fight ends up back at the Daily Planet and copies the scene from MoS [Man of Steel] with Diana snapping Clark’s neck before he can laser beam some innocents.” That very scene may have been shown in a prior trailer, though it looks more like Superman is about to shoot Wonder Woman. Someone’s hands are around his neck in a way ready to break it.
Wonder Woman’s prominent role in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League — immunity to Brainiac’s mind control aside — may be a way Warner Bros. Games is testing her reception and establishing her character in advance of her own game, announced in late 2021.
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“Anyways skip to Gotham you find Penguin and fight Ivy.” The poster explains that she “survived the events of Arkham Knight by giving herself to the green and growing a new body.” The Green is an elemental force of nature connected to plant life within the DC Universe. Poison Ivy “says she’s defending Penguin because he has a rare plant she needs inorder [sic] to create a safe haven from Braniac.”
The alleged plot summery continues, “Penguin says that he’s put trackers in all of the Bat equipment he’s found and that Bruce under mindcontrol [sic] has been using these caches.”
“Since he’s not himself (or purposely choosing to) not debug this equipment and it’s at the Belfray [sic] in Gotham. Collectibels [sic] imply the batman family is dead.”
Players supposedly “find Barry in some sort stasis chamber and fight Batman. [At the] end of fight he takes barry and holds a batarang to his Throat knowing they need him alive.”
Captain Boomerang “not giving a s–t throws a boomerang decaptitating [sic] Barry and the Boomerang stuck in Bruce’s Throat. “Everyone’s pissrd [sic] at Boomer while Boomer is just celebrating finally killing flash.”
“Bruce with his dying words and free of braniacs control tells them there’s a lazurus pit in Metropolis and to throw Barry in there.” While the Lazarus Pits have been shown to warp a person’s mind with continual revival in nigh-all continuities, the situation is desperate.
“Yadda Yadda you find the pit by fighting Green Lantern whose been taking samples of it for Braniac. You throw Barry in but before anything happens Braniac takes thr [sic] Squad into space and caves in the lazurus pit Barry assumed dead. There [sic] going to die anyways since earth is gonna he [sic] destroyed and there outta range of the explosives so there gonna auto detonate,” the leaker claims.
The final boss allegedly takes on a more cinematic approach, much like the one in Batman: Arkham Knight. The “Final Boss is just a survival wave with the members going done one by one. You get a special cutscene if you survive for 5 minutes of whatever PC [player character] you are flipping braniac off before there [sic] head explodes.”
While the Amanda Waller planted bombs are designed as a deterrent, it’s curious they have a five minute delay, rather than being instant. It may be the players are slowing rising into the atmosphere on a ship, rather than anything fast or a teleporter. “Game ends with Diana rescuing Barry and telling him it’s time for the Flashpoint Protocol.”
The alleged leaks then make a surprising claim. “Barry goes back intime [sic] and basically reboots the Arkham Universe. Anything past Arkham Asylum is no longer canon (Origins and Blackgate is left in the air).”
“Joker is cured” — presumably of his Titan-induced sickness at the end of Batman: Arkham Asylum — “by Luthor who is now.president and wants to start a legion of doom to control things from behind the scenes.” This reboot may also suggest future Arkham games, or at least games set in that new universe where the Justice League isn’t dead.
“Harley breaks up with Joker after the events of Asylum and tries to find Ivy who is now missing after the events of Asylum.” This and another point regarding Captain Boomerang may suggest the Suicide Squad are able to remember the events of the game, and the prior universe.
“Bruce gets a voice call from a small child who calls him father implying Damian now exists. White Deadshot never existed so now Black Deadshot never had to deal with an imposter he’s seen in a hospital holding a baby girl.” The first Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League trailer revealed the developers and/or publisher had retconned the race of Deadshot.
Finally, “Kkng Shark [sic] is in Hawaii eating tourists” and “Boomer is in jail.” The latter would be humorous given the arrogant traits shown by Captain Boomerang, especially if he knows he died, is back, but is in prison again. This is pure speculation however.
The alleged Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice leaks continued the next day. Due to 4Chan posts being anonymous, we cannot be sure if this is the same poster. This leaker noted, “Okay so just want to clarify some things from yesterday’s leak and add some more but otherwise this one’s just gonna mostly focus on Easter eggs and references.”
“[Amanda] Waller is extremely underused mostly used to bark you orders and if you try to leave the map boundaries she’ll give you a warning before killing you.” The poster reveals that supposedly “Gizmo is your main merchant selling you new guns at safe houses littered throughout Metropolis. Gizmo is a huge Lex Fanboy.”
The next major claim made is that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice was originally intended to be a live-service title, but was changed.
“Now the reason you haven’t seen gameplay or any updates is because this game was originally made as a Games as a Service type thing. However after Avengers and basically any GaaS That wasn’t Destiny tanked they decided to strip those elements away for a co-op story 3rd Person shooter.”
Square Enix admitted Marvel’s Avengers “produced a disappointing outcome,” and the game was recently announced to have no new content after the 3.0 update, just three years after launch. The sweeping claim that no live-service title other than the Destiny games “tanked” is surprising, given the popularity of Fortnite, Overwatch 2, Genshin Impact, and other major titles with a Battle Pass or premium seasonal content.
Allegedly removing the live-service elements “changed some fundamentals of the story (ie why they decided to go full edge because now Flashpoint is a thing). Waller originally had a bigger role too with post game content being about trying to clean up the mess after braniac while trying to figure out how to deactivate the collars and basically being undercover agents for the League.”
“The stripping of the GaaS notably changed a couple of things too,” the poster listed, “like: post game is removed[.] once you beat the game that’s it. some post game content would have been new characters. characters like Bloodsport and Peacemaker were almost to already done (Bloodsports model was used in the game to get the kryptonite bullet).”
“Other characters were harder to consider, because the game is very Loot Heavy.” The poster claims “they” — presumably Warner Bros. Games executives or Rocksteady themselves — “wanted every playable character to use guns so while characters like Bloodsport and Peacemaker are obvious choices some like enchantress would differ too much.”
“Characters in the concept phase Ratcatcher II (daughter of the original), Manhunter (no not the Alien) and Deathstroke. Green Arrow was also considered to be a playable character for an expansion.” The poster clarifies “however the team didn’t want Ollie to use a gun nor did they want to design and balance an entirely new set of weapons (bows) that would only fit for one character.”
The alleged plan then meant “Ollie was then just relegated as a supporting character for post release expansion involving Waller sending the team to Star City to find out why it hadn’t been hit as hard by the invasion as other places. This though was also scrapped so Ollie was relegated to just two references in the final product.”
“The entire Flashpoint stuff is last minute addition added when the game was removing the GaaS features.” Despite being described as “last minute,” this must have occurred before Conroy’s death on November 10th, 2022, as Batman supposedly has lines sending the Suicide Squad to a Lazarus Pit. However, Marvel’s Avengers problems were apparent even in 2020, as it made a $48 million loss for Square Enix.
“Aside from the Justice League and Poison Ivy boss fight there’s only one side boss, more were planned as post game content.” The poster claims “this boss is a parasite controlled by braniac. The fight takes place in an electrical plant. You would have to give parasite energy making him stronger but the implants controlling him would overload and eventually explode killing him.”
“He would get stronger and stronger the closer you are to killing him eventually being able to one shot underleved characters.” There may be a chance cut or under-developed content may return as DLC or a post-launch update, depending on the game’s success. The poster also claims “Harley Quinns OG costume is going to be a pre-order bonus.”
The poster then shared a list of their favorite alleged Easter Eggs, confirming the fates of various characters within Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. These include a dented Helmet of Fate (Dr. Fate), a crashed Blue Beetle ship, Green Lantern rings belonging to Kilowog, Guy Gardner, and Kyle Rayner, Constantine’s skeleton, and Stargirl or Starman’s Cosmic Staff.
The remains of Mr. Freeze and Nora are also found, though they would have died shortly after the events of Arkham City. Those who could use magic, such as Zatanna, had allegedly taken survivors to the Tower of Fate (despite Dr. Fate’s apparent death). Players can also find a letter to Captain Boomerang, banning him from The Rogues.
Within the Hall of Justice — a location curiously not mentioned as a major location in the alleged plot, but possibly shown in the Ticking trailer — players can also find a Braniac Drone eating Starro or it’s spawn, and a distress signal showing the status of various Justice League members.
This includes Martain Manhunter being dead, Hawkman and Hawkgirl being on another planet, and Hal Jordan being missing (along with news reports of Coast City being wiped out). As per the dropped plot elements, “you can hear is a message to the leagues hq that he’s [Green Arrow] leading a resistance against braniacs forces in Star City and found something that’s effective against there [sic] tech.”
The final alleged leak shared is a single image from Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, posted on January 17th. It appears to show a main menu for the game, with Captain Boomerang, Harley Quinn, King Shark, and Deadshot standing prominently. Each have numbers above their name, possibly dictating a rank or level.
Players can select the story chapter they want to play, along with whether their allies are bots or other players, if they have a private “squad,” the difficulty (seemingly with quirky names like “Best Pay Attention”), matchmaking, and selecting other game modes.
What’s interesting however is what the UI shows. Along with changing your squad, their “looks” and loadout, adjusting or unlocking their talents, social features, the codex, and options; there is a Battle Pass, and a Store.
This does match with the claim such features had been cut. However, the developer build screenshot notes in the top right both a client and UTC time of “2023.01.16” — January 16th, 2023. Another date and time listed are July 6th 2015 (client time), and December 6th 2015 (UTC Time).
Why the live-service elements such as a Battle Pass and Store would remain with such a recent build is surprising. However, it may be possible the UI elements have yet to be altered.