YMMV / Injustice 2

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The Game

• Accidental Innuendo:
  • Robin's "I can beat you one-handed."
  • Superman's grunts and groans when he plugs himself into Brainiac's computer are a tad...suggestive.
  • In one intro between Swamp Thing and Poison Ivy, she asks him for kisses. Swamp Thing's response is "I also have fists".
• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Wonder Woman's fear gas hallucination of Superman attacking her while accusing her of manipulating him into being the Regime's tyrant leader. Scarecrow interprets this as Wonder Woman fearing that this is what she did to him. However, one could also interpret the hallucination that she fears the perception that she did this to him, or the fear that Superman specifically might accuse her of such and thus reject her counsel and romantic advances (which preceded said outburst from Hallucination Superman).
  • Batman. Iron Woobie that all Iron Woobies should aspire to be or self-righteous, unsympathetic jerk who cannot accept alternatives to his way of doing things? In-universe his supporters tend to see him as the former, while his opponents tend to see him as the latter. Batman himself admits in his ending that he's unhappy with the people Superman and himself have become during their feud with one another.
  • Darkseid. In his ending, did he truly care about his son enough to avenge his death, or was it a case of Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking (in Darkseid's case, listing Superman's refusal to submit to his will and denying him his conquest of Earth as serious infractions, while the death of Kalibak added as something minor or petty)?
• Author's Saving Throw:
  • Many were disappointed by Injustice: Gods Among Us being a crossover story involving the Injustice Universe and another Alternate Universe (which serves mainly as a hybrid of the New 52 and the DC Animated Universe), the general idea being that it completely took all the risks out of the story and made it less interesting than what was advertised. Here, NRS confirmed that Injustice 2 will only involve the Injustice Universe, which has made the prospect of the story mode much more interesting to those who were bummed by the original's. Then again, this did not exactly please fans who preferred the Lighter and Softer mainstream DC universe.
  • Damian's accidental murder of Dick Grayson was one of the most controversial moments of the original prequel comic, partly because of its unintentional hilarity and mostly because Batman pushes him to the Regime's side by disowning him even though Damian didn't mean to kill Dick. While Dick's death is still acknowledged in the second game, a flashback changed the circumstances behind Damian's Face–Heel Turn, by having him kill Mr. Zsasz instead and willingly turn on Batman due to his no-kill rule adherence (and implicitly, his general emotional unavailability and failures as a father), to make the latter less Unintentionally Unsympathetic. It also indirectly exonerates Harley Quinn from starting the riot in Arkham Asylum, which lead to the same event as above, by having Superman and his allies showing up to execute all Arkham inmates with only Batman and Robin showing up to stop them.
  • Captain Cold's inclusion in the game might be an answer to those who thought not having him in the original was a missed opportunity. The first trailer for Gods Among Us showed Flash dodging ice... so naturally it was Killer Frost, the enemy of Firestorm (who was absent in that game), rather than his most famous nemesis. Having Captain Cold here along with an updated look and a sympathetic backstory could've been an attempt to fix that.
  • The general hard armoured aesthetic that the majority of character designs the previous game sported was jarring to some. Here, the basic character designs all look overall smoother and the few who do have armour have it used more appropriately.
  • All of the returning characters from the previous game get new costumes and designs, some of which being much better received than the first instalment. Bane for example was derided by certain fans in the first Injustice because of his hulking posture and odd interpretation of his traditional look that reminded people of Batman & Robin (his Regime and alternate skins were hit with this moreso). Bane's design in this game has been revamped significantly, with much more realistic proportions and a less extreme take on the character's common design elements.
  • Those that were disappointed by Mortal Kombat 9 using the remake version of Freddy Krueger instead of the original were happy to not only have Robert Englund as Scarecrow, but also hear him do more than just laughs and grunts.
• Awesome Ego:
  • Brainiac sees himself as the superior being and his curb stomping of Earth's heroes for most of the game more than backs it up.
  • Darkseid, with his usual claims to godhood accompanied by no shortage of Badass Boasts.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Atrocitus' appearance in Green Lantern's chapter comes completely out of nowhere, does absolutely nothing to advance the plot, and is never referenced again. It seems the only reasons he was even there was to justify having Atrocitus on the roster to begin with, and to fulfill the "four fights" requirement that each chapter has.
• Broken Base:
  • That the sole Superman playable in the game is the Regime one. Superman fans already tired of the done-to-death Evil Superman trope aren't very happy with that while some players find the more aggressive Kal-El an interesting character.
  • As with the first game, there are a sizable number of Batman-related characters, with nine (ten with the Mr. Freeze premier skin) characters revealed in the base game originating from Batman stories (the next highest franchise roster being Superman at six, counting premier skins). There are those hoping for Batman-related characters who haven't been revealed (the highly requested Red Hood DLC increasing it to 11), detractors thinking "Oh, No... Not Again!", and moderates who accept the reveals but hope for more diversity.
  • There is a clear divide in the fandom between those who enjoy the game’s handling of its lead characters, and those who don’t. The source of disagreement largely stems from the depictions of both Batman and Superman and their factions. Some like the idea of a story built on rebuilding hope in the Crapsack World, others take issue with the story’s successful redemptive arcs (i.e. The Flash, Green Lantern, Harley Quinn and Catwoman) not being extended to Superman as well. On the other hand, other parts of the fandom have expressed dissatisfaction either with the lack of a redemption arc for Superman, or NRS' characterisation of Batman. On the latter point, fans cite a lack of major flaws in the character, as well as his framing by the game as a purely heroic figure in opposition to Clark.
  • The Guest Fighters (Sub-Zero, Raiden, Hellboy, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) are as controversial here as they were in Mortal Kombat X, if not moreso: fans of these characters obviously tend to be excited about seeing their favorite characters join the fray, while detractors criticize them for being unfitting in the game's universe, or, in the case of Hellboy and the TMNT, art style. This affects the Fighter Pack 2 the most, due to it having not one but two guests.
• Catharsis Factor: After everything he's said and done throughout the story, seeing Grodd be humiliated and die a slow and painful death at the hands of Aquaman is thoroughly satisfying.
• Common Knowledge: Thanks to a combination of WB Games again only providing a list of voice actors, along with the SAG-AFTRA Voice Actors Strike at the time of release preventing identification, the voice actors for several DLC characters went unidentified for a long period and were attributed to other actors until officially confirmed.
  • Hellboy was assumed to be played by Michael Leon Wooley instead of Bruce Barker.
  • Black Manta and Black Lightning were believed to be voiced by Ogie Banks, but are voiced by Kane Jungbluth-Murry.
  • Raphael and Michelangelo were thought to have been voiced by Leonardo and Donatello's voice actors, Corey Krueger and Joe Brogie, respectively. Ben Rausch was confirmed to voice Raphael while Michelangelo's voice is unknown after Brogie personally denied voicing him.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
  • Much like the first Injustice, the very-abusable keep-away game of fighters such as Green Arrow, Deadshot, Black Adam, Doctor Fate, and Darkseid, combined with the very large stages, can make some fights more akin to a game of tag, with players struggling to avoid being chipped to death by projectile spam while trying to close the gap between characters.
  • The "dad-child" Batman AI setting (10 Combo, 20 Rush, 30 Counter), first popularized when a Reddit forum user accidentally created a "monster" that won 288 AI matches in a row on Endless. Similarly, the 30 Combo and 30 Counter setting is considered to be overpowered on nearly all characters.
• Complete Monster: Brainiac is The Collector of worlds who threatens the universe. Shown in a flashback to have stolen Argo City and Kandor before destroying Krypton, Brainiac arrives on Earth after learning that Superman was defeated. Intrigued, Brainiac sends his Betas to round up, scan, and vaporize civilians, as well as brainwashing several heroes. Stealing numerous cities, Brainiac smiles as he takes Metropolis, after which he seemingly kills Superman. He declares that unless the heroes give him Supergirl to study how yellow sun radiation affects Kryptonian cells, he will order his Betas to self-destruct, igniting Earth's atmosphere and wiping out all its life; in doing so, he betrays Gorilla Grodd and the Society that were working with him. When Supergirl and Batman infiltrate his Skull Ship, they find at least dozens of shrunken cities from different worlds giving a small glimpse of the scale of Brainiac's atrocities. They are captured, Brainiac intending to vivisect Supergirl while dismissively leaving Batman to be killed. Personally murdering Doctor Fate, Brainiac is confronted by Superman, to which Brainiac boasts that he has killed billions of Kryptonians. With countless crimes of theft and genocide, the cold, ruthless Brainiac justifies himself with this line: "I value knowledge. And like your metal trinkets, knowledge is more valuable when it is rare."
• Contested Sequel: The story is highly divisive among fans. Brainiac was well received as a Big Bad, and some appreciated the redemption arcs of The Flash, Green Lantern, Catwoman and Harley Quinn, as well as Supergirl, and the focus solely on the Injustice Universe is seen as a step in the right direction. Others however disliked the Retcon introduced in the comics continuity and the negative demonization of Injustice Superman and Injustice Wonder Woman, who don't get any hints of remorse (which he did many times in the comics) and for many the positive portrayal of Batman and Supergirl is very much Wolverine Publicity since both of them have popular movies and TV shows based on them at the time the game came out (Wonder Woman came out months later and fans coming to the game after that film disliked it for its negative portrayal of Diana).
• Crack Pairing: Starfire and Sub-Zero, due to her teasing him in one of their intros made some fans decide to ship them.
• Crazy Is Cool: The Bizarro Premier Skin, which is the exact opposite from Superman, speaks in a crazy manner and uses his abilities for... bad.
• Creepy Awesome: Injustice 2 opted to make Scarecrow playable as one of his toxin-induced hallucinations, and it works to great effect. Thanks to his mind-screwy visuals, cutting dialogue, and a stellar performance from Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund, this version of Scarecrow is quite the mortifying presence whenever he's "fighting".
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Dex-Starr got a lot of love when he appeared, even if he's only a support for Atrocitus.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • The game's version of Brainiac, thanks to excellent voice-work is one of the scariest takes on the character. The fact that it's a perfect fusion of his original Silver Age appearance and shtick (complete with impenetrable shields and a shrink ray) and the DCAU (the "collect all knowledge and destroy the prototype" plan) makes it a perfect Adaptation Distillation (though this has been the case in the comics for about 10 years- the Brainiac in this game is a more or less direct adaptation of the post-Superman: Brainiac version).
  • Thanks to the reasons under Creepy Awesome, this Scarecrow gets a large amount of this from fans for being essentially Freddy Krueger in the DC Universe. It helps that he is played by Robert Englund.
  • Par the course for the character, Darkseid also got this treatment specially for his awesome booming voice and Super Move.
• Fandom Rivalry: With Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, another superhero fighting game released just a few months after Injustice 2, with gamers debating among themselves which title is the better one. Considering the long-standing Marvel vs DC rivalry, this trope is a given; however, some fans took to a new level, snarking about how DC managed to get characters from rival companies like Hellboy and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in their game, while Marvel won't put the X-Men into theirs due to their movie rights being tied to Fox, though to be fair, the game was released before Marvel regained the rights when Disney bought out Fox. In particular, after the Turtles were announced as guest fighters, the prevailing joke was that this game had four mutants while the other has none.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Poison Ivy and the entire roster. Mainly due to her Kiss of Death move and constant flirtations during cutscenes and clashes.
• Fountain of Memes:
  • On account of the dialogue system recycling certain lines across multiple exchanges, every character has a pool of memetic quotes to draw upon. Batman has a particularly large pool: "Prove it to me." "I need you to take this seriously." "Think I haven't planned for this?"
  • A better description comes from everything that Bizarro said. "Superman say you hate puppies." "Why am you so polite!?"
  • Doctor Fate's dialogue in general. Everything he says is absurdly profound and he spends most of the match saying "Piercing light of Amun-Ra".
• Game-Breaker: In the multiverse you can sic A.I. fighters on almost all challenges. Build it right, most characters work well with a 30 counter 25 rushdown 5 zoning a.i. distribution, and you can make sure that any multiverse challenge is mopped up while you munch on a sandwich and hit the continue button after a match. The only real penalty is your score getting a reduction for using A.I. which only gives you up to a gold mother box.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • One of Batman's possible lines during a clash with certain villains is "I'm not dead yet!" Fast forward to 2022, and his voice actor, Kevin Conroy, passed away.
  • Also from Batman, his intro against Doctor Fate. This, too, becomes less funny following his voice actor's death:
  Doctor Fate: The end is near, Bruce Wayne.
  Batman: I thought I'd die an old man.
  Doctor Fate: That future is beyond you.
  • The clash between Brainiac and Batman also becomes harsher upon realization that the game would be one of Kevin Conroy's "final chapters" before his passing.
  Brainiac: Your story ends here.
  Batman: I've got a few chapters left.
  • The bad ending depicts Superman using Brainiac's technology to mind control Batman. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League would show just how horrifying a Brainiac-controlled Justice League would be, with Batman in particular placed in control of Brainiac's army.
• High-Tier Scrappy: At launch, Deadshot is considered the best zoner (and possibly best character hands down) in the game, with gunshots that shoot and recover very quickly, making it almost impossible to approach without the very tedious "walk forward and crouch" technique. Don't even think of jumping because his ground bounce shot easily knocks opponents off the air. Once opponents get close, Deadshot still has easy and damaging combos that can knock opponents far away from him, resetting the zoning game. In addition, Deadshot is derided for making the game boring to watch, as his zoning consists of only gunshots; enough that Deadshot detractors actually support other more flashy and "fun" zoners like Captain Cold. (Remember how Deathstroke used to be in the previous game? Here We Go Again!.)
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The Joker mocking Harley for "Cosplaying a superhero" becomes rather humorous considering that, in the following year in Batman: The Enemy Within, the Joker can become a vigilante with a costume and gadgets inspired by Batman.
  • In Catwoman's arcade ending, she states that the relationship with Batman fell flat because she preferred it when it was forbidden. One month later in Batman (Tom King), Batman proposes to Catwoman. Then she later accepts it. Also crosses over with Harsher in Hindsight, since ultimately Catwoman calls off their wedding as part of yet another attempt by Bane to "break the Bat".
  • In one of Atom's intros with Vixen, he compares them to Jacqui Briggs and Takeda Takahashi, only for the reference to soar right over the latter's head. Vixen's voice actress, Megalyn Echikunwoke, would later voice Jacqui herself in Mortal Kombat 11 while Atom's VA, Matthew Yang King, lent his voice to Liu Kang in the same game.
  • The "we live in a society" memes become funnier when you realize Joker was in a game involving a group called the Society.
  • Batman telling Michelangelo that he needs a new catchphrase as Cowabunga was getting old. Cue years later when Batman himself said it to distract Shredder.
    Alfred: I still cannot believe that Master Bruce said "Cowabunga".
  • In an intro between the Joker and Green Arrow, Green Arrow tells the Joker that "Apparently, God has a sick sense of humor", to which the Joker confirms that "Yes, She does, doesn't she?" Notice how the Joker referred to God as a "She", and not a "He". According to the Joker, God is a woman.
• Ho Yay: This one interaction between Green Arrow and Jay Garrick:
  Jay: I fight for a freer, more just society!
  Green Arrow: I think I have a crush on you.
  Jay: Well then, partners it is!
• Inferred Holocaust: Right before the final chapter, Batman states that some of Brainiac's collected cities have been wiped from the ship's memory. Specifics on which cities or how many isn't stated, but it's apparent that thousands died in the deletion.
• Iron Woobie: Throughout the Story Mode, Harley Quinn is betrayed by her best friend Poison Ivy - and is later brainwashed and almost killed by her - forced to endure a hallucination of her abusive ex-boyfriend, the Joker, and is mortally stabbed by Wonder Woman. Despite all this, she never loses her cheery disposition.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Superman, of course. Unlike in the first game, he realizes that his actions have made him irredeemable and destroyed his friendship with Batman, and acknowledges that Being Evil Sucks. At the same time, however, he's still unrepentant and of the belief that his way is the right way, and gives up the chance of turning good again in the end.
  • Captain Cold is a bad guy, who has lost all standards he held and allies himself with Grodd, and in-turn, Brainiac, in order to Take Over the World. At the same time, you can't help but feel at least a shred of pity for him considering that Superman executed all of his fellow Rogues, including his sister — while the public cheered him on. It becomes no wonder he became disillusioned with the innocents he once swore not to harm.
  • The Reverse Flash, of all people, gets a moment in Chapter 4. He traveled back to the past just to hurt Barry Allen, but he found out that the Regime killed one of his ancestors, trapping him in a paradox. While he does try to take solace in the fact that he gets to hurt Barry, he's clearly torn up by the fact that he can never go home again.
  • Despite being a Robotic Psychopath, Grid qualifies due to desperately wanting to feel any kind of emotion.
  • Black Manta may be an Ax-Crazy, Fantastic Racist, Card-Carrying Villain, but it's hard not to shed a few tears for him when you see him mourning his father's grave.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Come on. Did you really think they'd kill off Superman?
• Les Yay: And Starfire and Black Canary.
  Black Canary: Another girl's always a good thing.
  Starfire: On this, we could not agree more!
  Black Canary: That said, I still gotta kick your ass.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "DAMMIT DAMIAN!"^ExplanationThis line was said by Batman near the end of chapter one, as an impassioned response to Damian killing Victor Zsasz. The sheer bluntness of the line coming from Batman of all people and Damian's ever so wonderful reputation made it very popular among people familiar with the game.
  • "Dude, I could be gaming."^ExplanationOne of Michelangelo's dialogue lines became infamous for how odd and unfitting of a response it is, yet how perfectly fitting it is for Mikey. It became especially popular with players of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl after Mikey's inclusion in that game, to the point that it was included as one of his voice lines.
  • "BE GONE THOT/Doctor Fate's Three Words" ^Explanation Doctor Fate's winpose edited to say those three words in time to his hand movements◊; this would later be added upon by TikTok users with other words and music playing in the background.
• Misaimed Marketing: During the release of Wonder Woman (2017), a limited edition tie-in was released allowing players to use the likeness of Gal Gadot as a skin. Many viewers have pointed out how jarring it is to see them advertising what is currently the most critically successful film in the DC Extended Universe in a game that features the most hated portrayal of the character since Flashpoint.
  • In June 2021, the Mobile Version of the game had an in-game event intended to celebrate Pride Month. The event was focused around Poison Ivy, one of the most prominent queer characters in DC Comics. The issue? The event was to beat up Poison Ivy. After posting a tweet about how Poison Ivy had been "taken down" 175,000 times, the Injustice Twitter account met with immediate backlash, leading to them apologizing for the event.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Brainiac crossed it long ago when he destroyed Krypton and countless other planets.
  • Poison Ivy turning her back on her longtime friend Harley and joining the Society was bad enough, but when she uses her pheromones to take control of Harley and fight Catwoman and Cyborg, then nearly poisons her with said pheromones is when she really crosses it.
  • Superman does this in his ending, when he brainwashes Batman and turns him into his cyborg minion. He's also willing to roboticize Supergirl if she refuses to become The Dragon to his restored Regime.
  • Gorilla Grodd does it by allying with Brainiac and selling out Earth, not caring even for Gorilla City possibly getting destroyed.
• Most Wonderful Sound: The clinking of Scarecrow's chains when he brandishes his hook in the intros.
• Narm:
  • Some of the Gear names can get pretty silly, like "Mighty Batman's Anti Crime Belt," "Lethal Ma's Favorite Insignia," "Destructive Cape of Tomorrow," and "Mighty Kryptonian Boots of Might."
  • Superman's Big "NO!" in the story mode ends up being laugh-worthy rather than dramatic.
  • This game doesn't provide clash quotes for specific story scenes, resulting in some awkward dialogue in context of the story. For example, having the Wonder Woman and Batman exchange of "Damian despises you." "You can have him." before Damian defects to Superman.
  • One recorded instance of Darkseid's arcade ending has him pronouncing "Superman" very weirdly, and ended up sounding like "Soupman", in the middle of a chilling, horrific Downer Ending.
  • One of Superman's mid-fight victory poses has him standing on the floor with his hands on his hips. What's special about this one is that it's uniquely accompanied by Fanfare. It can get really silly when such triumphant trumpeting is accompanying statements like "Atlantis was better off lost" or "I'm not going back to jail."
  • Anytime Green Lantern refers to himself as Green Lantern, whilst wearing a shader that puts him in the color scheme of another Corps.
  • The game often recycles voice clips for pre-fight intros and clashes, and sometimes the resulting conversations can get questionably disjointed and amusingly confusing.

    Green Arrow: Ah! When's the last time you brushed?
    Aquaman: Only Mera knows.

    • The problem got even worse with newer characters and premier skins following the 2016-17 SAG-AFTRA strike that prevented most of the game's voice actors from returning to their roles. While the DLC characters and premiere skins have more unique interactions between each other, they could only interact with older ones through recycled and repurposed lines of dialogue. This means a lot of lines, like Batman's "we'll see" and Superman's "is that so?", get reused a lot, and when juxtaposed against the DLC or premier skins with more specific lines, it's obvious their interactions were written to work with the base game's dialogue, making the exchanges sound like Mad Libs at best and clunky and nonsensical at worst.
      Batman: I want answers!
      Hellboy: Right back at ya, bud.
      Batman: We'll see!

      Superman: That power ring packs a punch.
      John Stewart: There are many like it, but this one's mine.
      Superman: Is that so?
    • A combination of this and just a weird line choice is with Sub-Zero, and one of his most common responses to enemies in clashes is "Of that, I am painfully aware." He uses it a lot, and in a completely serious, non-sarcastic tone that often makes it sound like he has low self-esteem:
      Batman: I never lose!
      Sub-Zero: Of that, I am painfully aware.
      
      Doctor Fate: Fate is unbreakable!
      Sub-Zero: Of that, I am painfully aware.
  • Leonardo's voice in the Latin American Dub. Like what happened with DEVILMAN crybaby, Emilio Treviño sounds like a little boy compared to his younger brothers. While you can justify that they are teenagers, Leonardo is the older one, the leader of the group and supposed to be the wise one, you can't really get him seriously with that voice.
  • Due to the more dynamic ways the game handles the transitions between Story Mode cutscenes and gameplay, both Flash and Reverse-Flash's almost upbeat idle animations come across as some real Mood Whiplash when they start adopting them for their fights. It's particularly bad with Reverse-Flash; while you can argue it's in-character for Barry, it's extremely hard to take Thawne seriously when he goes from talking about how all he can do now is hurt Barry or taunting Wonder Woman about her death in his timeline to goofily bounding in-place.
• Narm Charm:
  • During Bizarro's mid-fight victory, where certain Fanfare might be accompanied with him saying quotes such as "Underconfidence be your overdoing" or "Me am hero Earth not deserve."
  • The game gives Batman a playable Bruce Wayne skin that features Bruce unmasked in a business suit. A business suit with visible, functional glider wings built-in underneath the sleeves. Whilst some feel that it does look ridiculous, others feel that Bruce probably would be crazy enough to design a business suit like that just in case and that the image is too endearing not to enjoy.
• Nightmare Retardant: Darkseid's standard pose has him impotently standing with his arms behind the back, perfectly representing his authority as a Galactic Conqueror and his disdain for his opponent. However, the fact he refrains from taking his arms off his back even as he is attacking leads to many poses where he seems to be struggling to move or retain his balance, making him look clumsy and goofy instead.
• No Yay:
  • Brainiac's pursuit of Supergirl is bad enough, but he states also he plans to vivisect her.
  • Also from Brainiac, one of his intro lines against Catwoman has him saying she's beautiful. Coming from him, it's very disturbing.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Mr. Freeze initially not wearing a helmet surprised a lot of fans, but he's been helmetless before in the 60s' show and Gotham.
  • Some thought it was ridiculous how Wonder Woman could beat Eobard Thawne in her chapter when logically she wouldn't even be able to touch him. Wonder Woman has beaten his successor and equal Hunter Zolomon in the comics, which is precisely due to her having amazing reaction speed in combat.
• Play the Game, Skip the Story: The Story Mode is highly contested among fans for its perceived favoritism of Batman and lack of any moral grayness, but everyone agrees that in terms of gameplay it's one of the most solid fighting games in recent years:
  • A lot of praise has been directed towards the variety of modes (story, Multiverse, Battle Simulator) in the game, giving options to players who don't want to play ranked matches, and the leap to Next-Gen shows a higher standard of graphics improved to impressive standards; the facial animations in particular have garnered a lot of praise.
  • There is much more single-player content available outside of the main story with the Multiverse fight selection and there are much more interactions between characters in their fight intros. The new loot system to upgrade characters RPG style has been well received for providing a plethora of cosmetic options, with game-changing stats not being mandatory for competitive play.
• Questionable Casting"
  • Though Scott Porter gives a fine performances as Damian Wayne, he sounds absolutely nothing like Neal McDonough, the character's previous voice actor. This leads to an especially jarring transition between the two games.
  • Going by the above's logic, Steve Blum as Hal Jordan. On his own merits, he does just fine as the Green Lantern - but he sounds nothing like Adam Baldwin, Hal's voice actor from the first game. This leads to a similarly jarring transition.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Damian Wayne was reviled back in the first game chiefly because he reduced fan-favorite Dick Grayson/Nightwing into an Advertised Extra, used his moveset, took his place in the Nightwing Arcade mode, and was an obnoxious jerk that killed him. Time and the prequel comic did wonders to heal the wound, and now that he's returning as Robin with his own style (and a katana), his reception is far more positive, to the extent that he's a Base-Breaking Character at worst. It also helps that due to some Unintentionally Unsympathetic moments by Batman, Damian's regret on killing Dick being highlighted more and Damian having a genuinely more heartwarming ending in his Arcade, having some sort of Heel Realization and becoming The Atoner, all of that helps to better his stance. Those who were still bitter at him might also feel a little better about him when it turned out that whenever trailers of new characters are involved, he mostly takes the spot of the punching bag for the new character.
  • When Scarecrow was leaked, most fans called him a waste of a slot, and wondered why Netherrealm would use a character who's known for being more of a psychological threat in their fighting game. Cue the trailer showing off his demonic form, amazing moveset, and terrifying voice acting from Robert Englund, and fans were left begging for more. If anything he became an Ensemble Dark Horse for his darkly hilarious savage comebacks.
  • Enchantress didn't exactly have people thrilled when announced. She's a character who can only generously be considered C-list in the overall DCU, nor was she ever really an Ensemble Dark Horse^note she's best known for being the relative Token Evil Teammate of the Suicide Squad in the comics, but unlike characters like Deadshot she never really broke into mainstream from the series. In fact, her portrayal in Suicide Squad was heavily panned (much like the movie itself). That and it's pretty widely agreed that she was only there due to the hype of said movie (which was already well out of public consciousness by the time of her announcement). That being said, her unique playstyle involving magic and manipulation, a cool Super Move, as well as a much better portrayal compared to the movie, have had people welcoming her in open arms when her gameplay was shown. She's also appreciated for being a more adventurous pick than playing it safe with a top-tier character.
• Rooting for the Empire:
  • Quite a few fans found the "heroes" so obnoxious and the Injustice world so depressing that they were rooting for Brainiac to simply torch it and add it to his collection. Helping the fact is that Brainiac has a cool visual design and excellent voice work and noting that the petty infighting between Superman and Batman's factions prevents Earth from properly reaching its potential. He is also acknowledged in-universe by the Lords of Order as their agent that will restore balance to the world after the Regime's overthrow, which seems further confirmation of their views.
  • Given how hated she is, many players found themselves rooting for Wonder Woman's opponents during her chapter.
    • On the flipside, much like with the example below for Batman, there were many cheering on Wonder Woman when she attempted to kill Quinn out dislike for Harley's Wolverine Publicity and how some view her as Unintentionally Unsympathetic character giving the lack of consequences she faced for aiding Joker in Lois' death and Metropolis' destruction.
  • Those who dislike Injustice Batman from the comics (where he was openly called out for being a General Failure and overly self-righteous even by his allies), and his overexposed Wolverine Publicity, root for Injustice Superman even in the bad ending out of pure dislike for the game making the conflict too lopsided in his favor.
• Shocking Moments:
  • The Fighter Pack 2 reveal trailer. We see Raiden and Black Manta face down in a typical face-off from previous reveal trailers, Raiden dodging Black Manta's missiles. One flies into a column. The other... The Right Hand Of Doom itself! Dark Horse Comics' resident Big Evil is in the house!
  • This is then topped with the reveal of Fighter Pack 3. The Atom and Enchantress are about to face...until a Sai comes out and a figure with a jacket comes out... the figure takes off their jacket and it's... RAPHAEL AND THE ENTIRE TMNT!
• Special Effect Failure:
  • Gorilla Grodd's talk-first intro involves him crushing a skull in one hand. At times you can see bits of the skull poking through his palm and the back of his hand.
  • One of Sub-Zero's pre-battle introductions has him scrape his swords together, but most of the time they don't even touch despite making audible scraping sounds and sparks. It's ultimately pretty minor considering the rest of the game's polish, but the fact it's one of his intros makes it pretty glaring.
  • More of an audio failure, but one of Wonder Woman's round victory animations involves her tapping her sword on her shield, which plays clanking sounds that are out of sync with the animation.
  • Some of Catwoman's gear covers her face, but not her jaw. Normally not a problem, until intro dialogue and clashes, where her jaw doesn't move when she speaks.
  • Darkseid's physical animations (such as jumping or kicking) look incredibly poor due to lacking any build up in the frames or effects that make it look like he is putting effort into attacking or jumping. While some characters have this issue, his sticks out the most because he doesn't use his hands, which means one can easily see how unnatural, stiff, and just cheap his attacks look. A youtuber who discusses animations in games discusses this in a video by demonstrating the awkwardness of it.
• Squick: Deadshot's arcade ending, accompanying the narration about how the explosives are being removed from his brain, actually shows the surgery being done.
• Strawman Has a Point:
  • Superman and Wonder Woman are framed as being in the wrong for not trusting and trying to kill/supporting that for Harley Quinn, yet Fridge Logic makes it hard to agree with that assessment. Harley was party to the events of Superman's Start of Darkness by helping the Joker destroy Metropolis and ruin Superman's life, which was treated as a Moral Event Horizon moment for the Joker but not for her, was never punished appropriately for her actions, is a major Designated Hero for much of the first game and its prequel comic's plots and has been incredibly Easily Forgiven by Batman, Green Arrow, Black Canary and Catwoman given her part in causing the events of the series — none of which is actually addressed in this game and only brought up by villains in this game's prequel comic. The game instead attempts to brush all this under the table by making it about them both being Knight Templars to expose their true colours to Supergirl, even though Superman would have been perfectly justified in seeking revenge on her and her ongoing presence with Batman's team makes Bats and all his allies out to be massive hypocrites given how they treat Green Lantern and Flash. Then her Ladder Ending takes it a step further by having her inducted into the Justice League, even though near as anyone can tell she still hasn't answered for her actions, which given the Historical Villain Upgrade they imposed on the members of the Regime to make her look good can be particularly infuriating for some given she's been brought in to replace them.
  • It happens again during the ending. Superman contends that Brainiac is Too Powerful to Live and they should kill him to end the threat he poses for good. Batman opposes this because apart from his belief in Thou Shalt Not Kill, he also argues they need to keep Brainiac alive and imprisoned to have a chance at restoring the cities he collected... except Earth's track record of handling supervillain imprisonment speaks against him, as does his inability to name a facility that could actually pull it off. The developers obviously realised the case for Superman's argument is far stronger, as they decided to litter the Absolute Power path with Superman showing signs of Revenge Before Reason, Evil Cannot Comprehend Good and Never My Fault to gloss over Batman and his followers' lack of plausible responses to his central argument — the Absolute Justice ending path and every single Ladder Ending for Batman's team except Firestorm's, Flash's and Green Lantern's completely dodge the question of how exactly they plan to handle Brainiac (not helping which is that Firestorm not only gets Brainiac killed anyway, but also brings disaster by accidentally destroying the collection and everyone in it, Flash's involves taking Brainiac into the Speed Force and dropping him off at the end of history, which is basically what Superman is arguing for with a heaping helping of Loophole Abuse, and Lantern brings Brainiac to stand trial before the Guardians, but then finds out Sinestro has somehow broken out of his cell, proving that Oa isn't exactly a plausible alternative) — and make Superman turn even more villainous after killing Brainiac and taking control of his ship, as if to insinuate that killing Brainiac would somehow make whoever did it turn super-ultra-mega evil despite multiple Ladder Endings that show that isn't true.^note Notably Raiden, who kills Brainiac but is otherwise still a hero, and Red Hood, who also kills Brainiac but doesn't become Superman or Batman's toady and instead strikes out on his own, as well as Cyborg, who takes Brainiac's 12th level intellect before killing him and uses it to return everything Brainiac stole from the universe. Some of Batman's intros with Brainiac imply he wants to throw him into the Phantom Zone, but with no mention of it in Story Mode it becomes a moot point.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Injustice Damian Wayne is quite controversial. Many of the characters criticize or mock him, especially for betraying Batman.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • From particular fans of them, there have been complaints of Netherrealm's Retcons altering events either shown or hinted at in both the original game and the highly well-received comic series. The most common complaints are that they either make Superman and/or the Regime look worse than they used to, or seem like an attempt to make Batman and associates less Unintentionally Unsympathetic without them really earning it.
  • The changes to The Joker and Harley Quinn tend to draw a lot of criticism. One note usually made is that their current appearances seem to be inspired by the then-recent but poorly-received Suicide Squad (2016), with accusations of NRS being "edgy" to capitalize with the film's portrayals and the DC Extended Universe at large, which are already themselves base-breaking. Also, within the Injustice series itself, Harley's more Margot Robbie-inspired personality has also been met with some disdain, because of the characterization itself being more ditzy and air-headed and because story-wise it's a regression that undoes some of her development in the first game.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Grid only shows up once in Story Mode, despite getting an Adaptation Origin Connection with Brainiac. That he only exists for one fight and is swept under the rug afterwards makes his inclusion almost feel like a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment.
  • Similarly, Eobard/Reverse-Flash is every bit an equal to the Flash, and could be a Big Bad in his own right with how dangerous he is. Here, he's treated as a low-level thug made to get beat several times and then never show up again.
  • In fact, most of the cast could fall under this trope. Atrocitus, Swamp Thing and Doctor Fate all get minimal roles and are generally disconnected from the plot, despite being very important to DC as a whole. Firestorm and Blue Beetle are barely mentioned at all after their chapter and only serve as brainwashed villains in the later chapters. The Society is disbanded without any real explanation, and there's no explanation about what happened to them. The emotional potential Captain Cold could have given the story was simply ignored. Damien and Batman don't even talk after Chapter 1.
  • Despite how much she's played up as The Hero of the story, Supergirl's chapter is spent entirely on her realizing the Regime were the bad guys and subsequently fighting every member except Cyborg. As a result, she has very little to physically do for the rest of the story outside of the failed attempt to bring down Brainiac's ship and losing to Superman before his final battle with Batman. She doesn't even get to directly fight her Arch-Enemy Brainiac, instead just being captured and freed after Batman and Superman defeat him.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The story actually sets up all the ingredients for a pretty good counter-argument to the persistent Misaimed Fandom that tries to argue that the Regime is in the right and that the extrajudicial killing of supervillains is the correct thing to do to avoid the consequences of them potentially doing further harm down the road: that killing them off also has potentially unforeseen consequences. Both Captain Cold and Reverse Flash only get involved in Brainiac and Grodd's plot because the Regime killed their relatives, turning Captain Cold into a much more dangerous and vicious criminal in the process. In fact, Earth is only able to fight off Brainiac's invasion because the Insurgency didn't embrace the Regime's logic and kill off Cyborg and Superman when they had the chance! But while it is brought up in the final battle, where Batman points out that without Brainiac they have no guarantee they could restore the cities and people he's consumed since Superman just accidentally deleted two entire cities in the process of trying without him, none of the heroes ever manage to bring up that argument in the seemingly endless circular debates about whether or not superheroes should kill.
  • Bruce Wayne secretly creating Brother Eye. In the comics, Brother Eye was a Big Brother style surveillance system, and was one of the contributing factors that lead up to the Infinite Crisis storyline in the mainstream comics. While it was only depicted as an early threat response system in Injustice 2, neither the fact that Bruce built it in secret nor the potential consequences of Brainiac hijacking it early in the game are explored.
  • Given how dedicated Eobard Thawne is to hurting Barry Allen any way he can, he could have easily taunted him maliciously and relentlessly about joining the Regime and not having the courage to stand up and fight back against Superman until he killed Shazam. But instead, he's more frustrated about how the Regime killed one of his ancestors, trapping him in a Time Paradox so that he can't go back to his timeline - an idea taken from The Flash's TV show, as in the comics Eobard never cared about returning to the future and just wanted to torment Barry. Regardless of whether either motive is preferable to the player, he only brings it up once and he never appears again after Wonder Woman defeats him.
  • Superman's fight intro shows him effortlessly breaking out of hand cuffs that have kryptonite in them. And the Cliffhanger from the last game and a scene in this game proper show him almost emitting his heat vision in his red sun prison. Nothing comes of either of these. And he still loses his powers to Gold Kryptonite in Batman's ending.
  • The thought-to-be-dead Joker is a playable character. And he only appears in a nightmare sequence for Harley to fight, which pretty much validates the fans' complaints about him being a wasted slot.
  • During Wonder Woman's chapter in story mode, the story hinted that she was remorseful for and feared that she really was just manipulating Superman into becoming a monster after Scarecrow gassed her. After the fight it's never followed on or referenced past one insult Batman throws at Wonder Woman.
  • Atrocitus and Superman never interact during the story despite being perfect Foils with massive amounts of similarity. There was ample opportunity to write about Superman seeing how his extremism and/or desire for revenge could destroy him, or at least for Atrocitus to voice his solidarity to Superman given their very similar backstories. Instead, Atrocitus shows up as a Giant Space Flea Out Of Nowhere in a single chapter, tries to corrupt Hal Jordan into a villainous lantern and is never seen or heard from again afterwards, save one last rage spasm for Hal in Superman's ending.
  • Due to getting captured by Brainiac early into the story, Green Arrow and Black Canary only get to interact with Harley and Batman for a decent amount of time. The Enemy Mine with the Regime could have had more tension since Superman killed this world's Green Arrow and was believed to have killed Canary. To say nothing of both of them being friends with Hal and Barry (Hal's case is particularly egregious when their intro dialogue indicates that Dinah still has serious issues with him over her Ollie's death, which is never stated in story mode). But outside a few mentions the couple disappear from the story for seven chapters and return as Grodd's mind controlled puppets only to then vanish again and play no part in the endgame once freed.
  • A variation with Hal Jordan and Sub-Zero. Given that they're both voiced by Steve Blum and sound similar as a result, one of their intros could've had a gag about how they sound weird to each other. But there is no such gag, and Hal and Sub-Zero sounding similar is never addressed.
  • Some people were irritated that Batman and Damian didn't have any special reactions with the Ninja Turtles, especially considering the crossover they had.
• Unexpected Character:
  • The Arcade Mode reveals that the playable Brainiac is actually Brainiac 5 of the Legion of Super Heroes.
  • Scarecrow's a scrawny man and can only sometimes trade blows with the likes of Batman. Compared to the rest of Batman's Rogues Gallery, he's an unusual choice for a full-fledged Fighting Game, what with him being a psychiatrist and not a physical fighter. In fact, when the roster was leaked, Scarecrow's presence was used as proof against the leak being real, because him being in the game just seemed that absurd. From a story standpoint, he's also unexpected because he died in the prequel comic - in fact, he was the first to be killed in the Injustice storyline.
  • Due to the fact he's not as widespread a character as most of the cast, and is mainly associated with the Darker and Edgier Vertigo imprint outside the mainstream DCU, Swamp Thing's presence in the game is rather surprising.
  • Grid debuted a few months after the first game came out and has had no exposure outside the comics, making his inclusion a bit of a surprise.
  • Bizarro was first seen in Starfire's debut trailer and he came completely out of left field.
  • Hellboy appearing in the 2nd DLC pack caught a lot of people off guard. While he was on the poll, he was not the winner and the rumors had been leaning towards Spawn being the guest character. Him appearing at Gamescom was a big surprise.
  • Black Lightning appearing in the middle of Raiden's debut trailer was also this due to no DLC Guest character beforehand having a premier skin.
  • The Atom's reveal was very surprising by the fact that 3rd DLC pack wasn't even announced by the time of his trailer. Furthermore, rather than Ray Palmer (the original and the one currently in a TV show), this version is the much lesser-used and lesser-known Ryan Choi, which definitely caught some off-guard on that front.
  • Enchantress, though to a lesser extent. She's not exactly a very well known character (in fact, Marvel's Enchantress is probably the better known between them) and has mainly appeared as an associate of the Suicide Squad (where she was, relatively speaking, the Token Evil Teammate of the group) or the foe of Justice League Dark. However, she was on the cards after 2016's Suicide Squad where she got more exposure to general audiences. That said, she wasn't exactly popular as the Big Bad in that movie, either.
  • The guest character in Fighter Pack 3? All four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! While Hellboy was at least mentioned as a potential character, nobody saw them coming.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic:
  • The prologue retcons the controversial events of Arkham Asylum from the first prequel comic, where the Regime had the stronger argument despite being supposed to be wrong, by changing their plans for the prisoners from wanting to lock them up in a properly secure prison to outright killing them. They are clearly meant to still be in the wrong, but even moreso, yet despite the extremity of their methods it can be hard not to side with them. Arkham Asylum is an infamous, openly-acknowledged Cardboard Prison and Gotham's criminal element are infamous for being bad even by the standards of DCU villainy. Their utter failure to contain the Joker led to the events of Metropolis, which led directly to the rise of the Regime in the first place, and all the criminals within have had more than their fair share of second chances. Victor Zsasz alone has a body count in the hundreds, Joker in the millions. Batman says they shouldn't do it because they'll just keep going and become not very different than the criminals they're killing and considering they went on to Take Over the World we're clearly supposed to see their actions as just as bad, but taken on its own without that context their actions make a lot of sense, and Batman couldn't have seen that coming for sure without clairvoyance gifts he doesn't have.
    • Even Wonder Woman has the good point that after Metropolis they can't afford to be complacent regarding supervillain incarceration and reformation, both of which Joker's actions have demonstrated Arkham is incompetent at. Also not helping is that Damian, not yet a follower of Superman, makes several Jerkass Has a Point observations ripping Batman's arguments apart that Batman himself is unable to refute.
  • Superman and Wonder Woman's attitude towards Harley Quinn is also this in spades. The fact she has "changed career paths" is clearly meant to be cause to see their dislike of her as an intolerant grudge, but those who see the fates of Lois and Metropolis as being just as much a Moral Event Horizon-grade act for her as it is for the Joker, or at least think she was too Easily Forgiven considering the things she was party to, tend to side with them. Likewise, Cyborg and Wonder Woman both try to kill her and are both stopped, and we're clearly supposed to side against them, but many people think they don't owe her any mercy.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • A response from some to the final moments of the game, where Batman is adamant in stopping Superman from executing Brainiac. While he does reason that Brainiac could be made to undo what he had done, this is the same Brainiac that had just digitized a number of Earth's major cities including Metropolis, Gotham City and Coast City, and many more across multiple planets, including Krypton. It's hard to argue with Superman's contention that Brainiac can't be reliably contained. What makes this especially egregious on Bruce's part is that Clark risks his own life to restore Gotham while Metropolis and Coast City remain digitized, while his response to Superman asking him how many have to die before he accepts he's wrong is simply to slash him with a Gold Kryptonite dagger, completely dodging the question.
  • The Insurgency/Justice League in general can come off as this. A prime example is how they treat Green Lantern in comparison to Harley Quinn and Catwoman. The issues with Harley Quinn are already mentioned above, but there is only one time where Catwoman is actually called out by them for being a former member of the Regime^note By Batman in a pre-match dialogue. Any other time she is called out is for her criminal past in general or being a mole in the Society. compared to Green Lantern. Even Black Canary's contention that she doesn't have to forgive Superman or Green Lantern for what happened to her Green Arrow rings hollow because she's good friends with the woman who murdered Lois Lane, Superman's dead wife, but never owns up to or admits that this is the case.
• Vanilla Protagonist: Injustice Batman in the first game, while heroic, had some dark moments such as when he fell into a Despair Event Horizon and had to be snapped out of it via Mirror Match with Prime Batman. In the sequel, he's morally pure, even more so thanks to a Retcon that makes his conflict with Injustice Supes less gray than the comics, makes no difficult choices and more or less starts and ends the story mode in the same manner, having none of the shades of Supergirl, Barry Allen, and Hal Jordan.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Netherrealm Studios did a fantastic job with regards to the facial animations, male and female alike. Given the criticisms of faces in previous NRS games, this game more or less qualifies as Animator's Saving Throw.
• Wangst: Much of Robin's expressed anger is derided as this, both in and out of universe.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: As with the first game, it is a fighting game featuring the beloved superheroes that kids look up to, but it was clearly not made for kids in mind. There's brutal violence, several Family Unfriendly Deaths, references to murder and rape, sexual themes and innuendos, surprisingly prominent swearing, complex morality issues, and to top it all off it takes place in the Darker and Edgier Injustice Universe, which means the upstanding good guy counterparts are nowhere in sight. In terms of tone, think less DC Animated Universe and more DC Universe Animated Original Movies.
• Win Back the Crowd:
  • NRS has confirmed that there will be no microtransactions for purchasing gear, assuaging some fears about the gear system. Later, microtransactions were confirmed, but only for cosmetic enhancements.
  • Mr. Freeze's costume design was criticized for lacking the helmet iconic to the character, especially since most incarnations require it to survive. The helmet was patched in afterwards in response.
  • The patch released alongside Black Manta allows for the Grid premier skin to be unlocked through gameplay, instead of being forced to download and connect to the mobile game.
  • Almost everyone who derided Raiden for being a second Mortal Kombat Guest Fighter after Sub-Zero did a 180 with the reveal of the much-demanded Black Lightning being a Premier Skin for him, assuaging most complaints of him being a wasted character slot. Even Raiden himself won some fans over after his gameplay was seen in action, including an absolutely awesome super move.
• Woolseyism:
  • One intro dialogue between Green Arrow and Joker has the former make a joke against the latter with "Always go for the juggler." In the Latin American Spanish translation, the same dialogue gets altered to be a different joke entirely:
  Green Arrow: ¿Sabes como ganarle a un malabarista? (Do you know how to beat a juggler?)
  Joker: Dime Green Arrow. (Do tell, Green Arrow.)
  Green Arrow: Apúntale a las pelotas. (Aim for his balls.)
  • During the story mode when Harley calls Diana "Wonder Bread", this is changed in the Brazilian dub to "Mara Maravilha", a controversial real-life Brazilian TV host.
• WTH, Costuming Department?:
  • Between Gear customization and various colour palettes, one can inevitably get some frankly bizarre combinations that can be off-putting to the beholder.
  • The design of the Mr. Freeze Premier Skin for Captain Cold has not been positively received to say the least. Specifically because he doesn't have his helmet, which he needs to survive. He ended up being given a helmet in a later patch in response to complaints.
  • A minor example, but some have complained about Green Arrow not having any gear that gives him a hood. Though he's gone hoodless plenty of times in the canon, and the game's version of him is clearly intended to be closer to the older, more light hearted version (who decidedly didn't wear a hood), many just find it jarring to see him now without one, largely thanks to Arrow popularising the design of him with one. Like with Mr. Freeze, Netherrealm announced that they would be introducing hoods into his gear pieces in an update.
  • Batman’s Bruce Wayne Premier skin has been mocked for having a business suit with a cape attached below his sleeves.
  • The odd little half-cowl Superman sports in his default gear set, seen in the main game images and Story Mode once Batman frees him from prison. It covers his cheeks and chin, the back of his head, but leaves his ears exposed and ends at his temples. Aside from being an odd design in and of itself, it's totally unfitting for Superman. . . which may be part of the point. Though it's easy to find head gear for Superman that lacks this addon.
• The Woobie
  • Supergirl, hands down, no argument. In this continuity, Supergirl is Forced to Watch as Brainiac destroys her planet, and then as she is being put in a spaceship, she watches her mother die right in front of her. She then is told to protect Superman, but when she arrives her cousin has gone completely off the deep end. When she learns just how evil he is, she joins reluctantly to stop Brainiac. When Superman is presumed dead, she tells Batman that she was supposed to save him. In the finale, Superman betrays her, and Kara loses absolutely everything in the ending. In Batman's ending, Kara sides with Batman and tells Batman that he should not be sorry for anything. When Superman tells Kara they were family, she is forced to acknowledge that she has lost her only relative. In Superman's ending, she gets imprisoned and is either killed or turned into a mechanical monster by her cousin.
    • Darkseid's Ladder Ending makes it even worse. On top of what she goes through in Story Mode, her beloved cousin is Killed Off for Real right in front of her and Darkseid takes her to Apokolips, where she is tortured into becoming evil and made one of his Female Furies.
  • Kent Nelson aka Doctor Fate. The Earth is under attack by Brainiac, he wants to help against him, but Nabu refuses to allow him, seeing as how the Lords of Order believe Brainiac to be the one who will bring order to balance the chaos caused by Batman and Superman. Even after he's freed from the Helmet of Fate by Batman and Superman, he doesn't get enough time to enjoy it as he's killed by Brainiac.
  • Starfire becomes this in her Arcade ending; her friends and the man she loves are either dead, or have turned evil, leaving her all alone.
  • June Moone, the Enchantress' host, who finds herself forced to be the puppet of a being of pure evil and watch as her body is used as a tool to commit atrocity after atrocity. It's gotten so bad that she has been reduced to begging anti-heroes to kill her in some intros. In intros with some of the more depraved villains, like Brainiac and Joker, she practically begs for Enchantress to come out, sounding completely terrified, which hammers in the fact that she's just an innocent woman dragged into the midst of a war. And in her Arcade ending, just when it seems that she's got rid of Enchantress and is free to live a normal life, Enchantress comes back to her more powerful than ever.

The Comic

• Ass Pull: The revelation that Aqualad is a traitor to Batman's team makes sense when you consider that all metahumans that have willingly sided with Ra's al Ghul are tied with the environment, with Aqualad being an Atlantean and they previously butted heads with those who threatened the seas. However, there was never any indication in the story that there was a mole among Batman's allies, making said reveal completely unexpected.
• Author's Saving Throw:
  • The Teen Titans' fate as well as Starfire's presence in the main game (which fans have noted has gone on without explanation) are finally addressed in the comic when Catwoman reveals Superman had them locked up in the Phantom Zone, with Batman and his Justice League breaking into the Fortress of Solitude to release them. It also disregards the in-game's retcon from Chapter 1 where Cyborg states that all the Titans died in Metropolis.
  • The Wonder Woman of the game was widely despised and criticized by many for her drastic Adaptational Villainy in comparison to characters like Superman. The Annual Issue attempts to explain why she acts so different from her mainstream counterpart by giving her a Freudian Excuse: It turns out the Steve Trevor of this universe was a Nazi in secret who manipulated her, which lead to her being more brutal and cynical than her alternate self.
  • Many fans took umbrage with the fact that no one in the games or previous comics called out Harley Quinn for her role in Lois' death and Superman's Start of Darkness. In Issue #7, Ra's al Ghul lectures her about what she did, and in Issue #36, Martha Kent refuses to let her into the Fortress of Solitude, no doubt for helping drive her adopted son to evil.
• Broken Base:
  • There is a split between the fanbase regarding Damian's decision to exhume Alfred's corpse to revive him with the Lazarus Pit in Issue 13. Some argue that he is trying to do a good thing for once by bringing back a loved one, while others think he was making a terrible mistake due to the negative consequences regarding the Pit's use - which were later proven right when come Issue 15, Alfred is brought back as a shell of his former self, although in the following chapters, Ra's assured him that he would eventually recover, which he does in Issue 22.
  • Blue Beetle's actions in #23, where he becomes a complete Unwitting Instigator of Doom, created a nasty divide in the fandom. The fact that he was Locked Out of the Loop and didn't realise what he was getting into was enough for some people to forgive him, and to insist that the whole thing was somehow all Ra's' fault; others were not so forgiving due to the sheer weight of the consequences of his recklessness — namely, he ruined the chance for a peace settlement between Batman and Ra's by accidentally killing the pregnant thylacine, and ended up doing the same to El Diablo, making things even worse by provoking a explosion that killed several endangered animals, the last of their species, leading to several species being made extinct by his actions.
  • Wonder Woman's altered origin established in the Annual. Some were happy to see the creators finally make an attempt at trying to explain why this incarnation of Diana was so drastically different despite having less of a motivation for her Adaptational Villainy than Superman. Others however criticized the turning of Steve Trevor into a Nazi spy and her killing him for lying to her as poorly setup and a shallow case of He Who Fights Monsters. That is also came out in 2017, saw some view it was a cheap attempt to ride of the popularity of the Wonder Woman (2017) movie.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: Many fans saw the reveal that the fake Batman is Jason Todd a mile away.
• Catharsis Factor: Ra's al Ghul getting his arm bitten off by Croc in Issue #70 is this, specially after so many issues getting away relatively unscathed with so many atrocities.
• Crazy Is Cool: Lobo, as usual. The best example being Issue 63, where he uses a Green Lantern ring to summon a starship-sized penis and smash it into the enemy forces.
• I Knew It!: Many fans correctly guessed that the fake Batman of the prequel comic is Jason Todd.
• Jerkass Woobie: Wonder Woman, thanks to her new backstory. Even knowing what she would become, it's heartbreaking to see her cry after learning what the man she loved really was.
• Memetic Mutation: AMAZO Wins! FATALITY!^note In his short time on-panel AMAZO has still shown a strong propensity for inflicting creative yet Cruel and Unusual Deaths on his victims, including twisting General Zod's neck so hard it spun around full circle and came off, that wouldn't be out of place in a Mortal Kombat game. And considering the developers of Injustice 2 are also the developers of MK...
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Ra's Al Ghul crosses this in issue 10 when he kidnaps several business executives (among them, Ted Kord, the second Blue Beetle) who are allegedly in charge of "the most environmentally destructive businesses on Earth", and decides to Make an Example of Them by ordering the Suicide Squad to blow up entire buildings full of innocents all over the world which belong to the executives, then feeding his captives to Orca and Killer Croc. His grandson Damian is distinctly shook up at the thought of it. If he didn't cross it in the first instance, then in Issue 34 where he unleashes AMAZO to kill its entire population in the town of Williams in Arizona just to test its power definitely qualifies.
  • In Issue #24, Aqualad reveals himself to be a villain when he summons a huge tidal wave in Washington and killing the President of the United States and countless other innocents in the process including other former Presidents.
  • Athanasia in Issue #52. Killing a innocent puppy because it wouldn't stop barking won't endear herself to any fans.
  • General Zod crosses it in Issue #37 when he kills Tim Drake in cold blood.
• Narm Charm: Batman saying "I will f*** you up" to General Zod would have sounded utterly corny and out-of-character in any other context. However in here, its used to show how serious he intends to punish Zod by intoxicating him with Kryptonite-laced fear gas for murdering Red Robin.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Crorca, for the Unholy Matrimony of Killer Croc and Orca.
• The Scrappy:
  • Athanasia al Ghul received a lukewarm reception for a number of reasons: being a Canon Foreigner that sticks out like a real sore thumb, being even more brutal and ruthless than Damian while being a Flat Character lacking depth due to being relegated to the background, and trying too hard to look cool but coming across as edgy and narmful. However, she didn't really truly amass a hatedom until Issue #51 when she threatens both Alfred and Ace (respectively, a defenseless Scatterbrained Senior and a puppy). She solidified her position as The Scrappy in the next issue when she kills Ace and goes on a Wangst-filed Motive Rant against Batman.
  • Lucy, Joker and Harley Quinn's daughter, isn't particularly liked by the fandom, with many considering her a cheap plot device to make readers sympathize with Harley rather than an actual character.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Athanasia al Ghul has great potential as a Shadow Archetype to Damian and a symbol of what he could have been if he had stayed with the League, particularly with The Reveal that she is his sister, but has so far been a background character for most of the time since her debut, often with barely an acknowledgement given. Talia has been even more wasted, with even less lines and characterization than her daughter, which is a bit odd given the implications that she has somehow died by the time of the game.
  • General Zod. He only appeared in three issues, one of which was merely him killing Tim Drake and emerging from the Phantom Zone at the end for the Wham Shot of Issue #36, and got barely any use in that time except to fridge Tim, give Batman a punching bag and get decapitated by AMAZO. Then in Issue #40 his corpse is used as an organ-donor for Superboy, and that's probably the last we'll see of him. In all his appearances he displays barely any of his usual grandiose, eloquent and cunning personality, leading some bitter Zod fans to grumble they were better off just not using him in the comic.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Harley gets hits hard with this in Issue #7 when Ra's al Ghul of all people rightfully points out her role in Metropolis' destruction helped create the dystopian world that Injustice Earth has become. She headbutts him in response, utterly failing to dismiss his entirely valid criticism. She then tries to justify her actions by claiming she was expecting Superman to save the day in the end, essentially blaming him for failing and creating the mess she and the Joker made in the first place. For similar reasons, her reunion and interactions with her daughter in Issue #33, clearly meant to humanise her and warm skeptical readers up to her, fall completely flat for those unwilling to let it drop that she deprived Superman and Lois of the opportunity to do the same.
  • Ra's al Ghul is supposed to elicit sympathy from the reader for him when his sanctuary with endangered animals is destroyed with their species practically extinguished, as well as his intention to save the Earth's ecosystem. It can be difficult to feel sorry for him due to him having indirectly caused it by kidnapping several superheroes' kids, threatening to harm them so their parents wouldn't interrupt his plans, and Blue Beetle was there mainly because Ra's had his mentor Ted Kord killed. Not to mention that the narration and scenes of his despair are inter-cut with his planned assassination of the US President, which also got many innocent citizens killed in the process.
  • The senate hearer who chews out Batman in Issue #28 for his failures names his inability to keep criminals locked up inside Arkham Asylum, as some believe that is not his job as a superhero, merely to capture them and let the justice system punish supervillains accordingly. While Superman and Animal Man have both called out Batman for not doing what is necessary to stop supervillains permanently, having both decided to do so themselves, it's extremely hypocritical for a government officer to do this since its essentially their own fault for repeatedly putting them in places like Arkham which is a infamous Cardboard Prison that needed to be shut down ages ago, or not just straight up giving the rope to the Joker already. While some of the things she said to Batman were true, including the comparisons to Superman and how not tipping the government off about the help they were to receive protecting the president or that Ra's al Ghul was at large didn't help matters any, this particular point is one the government shares blame for and it's completely unfair of her to dump all the blame on Batman as if they have no role in the handling of supervillains as well.
  • Vixen and Animal Man in Issue #48, when they regret siding with Ra's after deployed AMAZO on Delhi, mass-murdering at least 100,000 people. Considering the logic end of Ra's goals and that they were fully supportive of it for the sake of the environment or the fact that they didn't seem to react when Ra's killed Ted Kord (their own friend, no less) or when he had Aqualad drown the US President alongside hundreds of innocents (including former Presidents), their regret isn't considered very genuine by some fans.
• The Woobie: Pa and Ma Kents are forced to live in the Fortress of Solitude because their farm was burned down by a mob for the crime of being Superman's parents. They are in complete exile and guilt for having failed to save their son from himself and their only company are the Eradicator robots that resemble Clark post-Regime too closely.

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