One day, the Joker is feeling bored, so he breaks out of Arkham Asylum again and decides to head to Metropolis and kill several million people, including Superman's pregnant wife. Superman very understandably concludes that putting the insane and irredeemable criminal who just murdered millions of people back into the same institution that he has effortlessly broken out of several dozen times before, is maybe not a very effective strategy, and kills him instead. This upsets Batman, as Superman has basically just permanently removed 70% of his regular workload without asking, overstepping his boundaries as a coworker, and Batman reacts by neglecting to comfort his best friend, whose pregnant wife was just murdered, and instead immediately sets about planning on the most efficient way to beat the shit out of him.
Because Batman is never allowed to be wrong about anything, Superman immediately jumps off of the most slippery slope imaginable and quickly turns the Justice League into George Orwell's 1985. Batman writes him off as a lost cause, along with his own son, Damian, who kills someone by a freak accident, thus making him irredeemable. Meanwhile, Harley Quinn, who murdered several million people on purpose, is welcomed into the #Resistance because she has realised that murder is actually bad, therefore becoming extremely redeemable, which is rather convenient for DC because she happens to be very popular and marketable right now.
The entire rest of the Justice League either stay neutral or side with Superman, because nothing is more important than ensuring that they don't measure up to Batman's moral superiority. Superman even comes up with an evil plan to make a pill that gives people super strength and durability. Batman foils this evil plan by stealing the pill and giving it to people that he likes instead, which is better. Also, because the writers were worried that you might still sympathize with the clearly-grieving man who avenged the deaths of several million people, Superman kills a child for talking back to him, just to emphasize how correct Batman is how far he's fallen.
...
In case you couldn't tell, I really don't like Injustice. And what makes it so much more annoying than several stories told in worse comics and games is that it's absolutely brimming with the potential to be amazing. Superman and Batman having a lover's tiff because Superman kills a truly reprehensible villain is a fantastic set-up in which both sides have valid points; despite my strawmanning of Team Batman, there are plenty of reasons why taking the Joker alive would have been better, it's just that these reasons aren't actually brought up at all in the story. It's just assumed that the audience is smart enough to realise that Batman is infallible and always right about everything, and Superman becomes a fascist almost overnight. It's like they got an AI to rewrite Batman: Under the Red Hood, and not one of the good AIs like Cortana or Skynet.
Which is all understandable, because this story was not written to be a story. It was written to accompany a fighting game, joining the dots between set pieces where Deathstroke fights Wonder Woman or Harley Quinn beats the crap out of Doomsday. It's just a shame that in order to do that, they accidentally stumbled upon an incredible idea for a story, and then constantly had to compromise that story either to make the punch punch happen, or because some advertising executive at DC insisted that Batman is the Justice League member who most people relate to - makes sense, since he's the primary Badass Normal of the group - and therefore he must receive the most focus and also be the most heroic, which mandates that every other hero in the game needs to be incompetent, spineless, or secretly a fan of fascism as well. It's hard to put into exact words, but it feels like this story was written either for Syndrome. Or possibly by Syndrome.
The comic does a better job of expanding on the story of the game, but since it also can't deviate too much from the game then it's restricted into the same pitfalls. Weirdly enough, despite having a whole litany of other flaws (The Flash dies like five minutes in?!?) the animated film version arguably has the best story, especially the conclusion, where Superman is not beaten into submission by alternate-universe Superman, but talked down by alternate-universe Lois Lane, and he sees the error of his ways and willingly surrenders. The film also has enough respect for its audience to keep Harley Quinn as a villain throughout, rather than trying to reform her into a hero right after she murdered millions of people, which I appreciate.
Ultimately though, Injustice is just a frustrating waste of a good idea. Characters are underdeveloped, many of them sacrificed - metaphorically or literally - on the altar of making Batman look better, and despite the interesting premise, nothing is ever actually explored. For a genuinely interesting story that covers some similar ground, Kingdom Come is right there, but it will always be disappointing that Injustice stumbled into a potential goldmine, and then filled it up with the results of marketability surveys conducted by board members, and poorly-written excuses for superheroes to punch each other.
Maybe the real 'Injustice' was the fantastic story we could've gotten, but didn't. Or maybe it was the friends we made along the way.
ComicBook Frustrating Wasted Potential
One day, the Joker is feeling bored, so he breaks out of Arkham Asylum again and decides to head to Metropolis and kill several million people, including Superman's pregnant wife. Superman very understandably concludes that putting the insane and irredeemable criminal who just murdered millions of people back into the same institution that he has effortlessly broken out of several dozen times before, is maybe not a very effective strategy, and kills him instead. This upsets Batman, as Superman has basically just permanently removed 70% of his regular workload without asking, overstepping his boundaries as a coworker, and Batman reacts by neglecting to comfort his best friend, whose pregnant wife was just murdered, and instead immediately sets about planning on the most efficient way to beat the shit out of him.
Because Batman is never allowed to be wrong about anything, Superman immediately jumps off of the most slippery slope imaginable and quickly turns the Justice League into George Orwell's 1985. Batman writes him off as a lost cause, along with his own son, Damian, who kills someone by a freak accident, thus making him irredeemable. Meanwhile, Harley Quinn, who murdered several million people on purpose, is welcomed into the #Resistance because she has realised that murder is actually bad, therefore becoming extremely redeemable, which is rather convenient for DC because she happens to be very popular and marketable right now.
The entire rest of the Justice League either stay neutral or side with Superman, because nothing is more important than ensuring that they don't measure up to Batman's moral superiority. Superman even comes up with an evil plan to make a pill that gives people super strength and durability. Batman foils this evil plan by stealing the pill and giving it to people that he likes instead, which is better. Also, because the writers were worried that you might still sympathize with the clearly-grieving man who avenged the deaths of several million people, Superman kills a child for talking back to him, just to emphasize
how correct Batman ishow far he's fallen....
In case you couldn't tell, I really don't like Injustice. And what makes it so much more annoying than several stories told in worse comics and games is that it's absolutely brimming with the potential to be amazing. Superman and Batman having a lover's tiff because Superman kills a truly reprehensible villain is a fantastic set-up in which both sides have valid points; despite my strawmanning of Team Batman, there are plenty of reasons why taking the Joker alive would have been better, it's just that these reasons aren't actually brought up at all in the story. It's just assumed that the audience is smart enough to realise that Batman is infallible and always right about everything, and Superman becomes a fascist almost overnight. It's like they got an AI to rewrite Batman: Under the Red Hood, and not one of the good AIs like Cortana or Skynet.
Which is all understandable, because this story was not written to be a story. It was written to accompany a fighting game, joining the dots between set pieces where Deathstroke fights Wonder Woman or Harley Quinn beats the crap out of Doomsday. It's just a shame that in order to do that, they accidentally stumbled upon an incredible idea for a story, and then constantly had to compromise that story either to make the punch punch happen, or because some advertising executive at DC insisted that Batman is the Justice League member who most people relate to - makes sense, since he's the primary Badass Normal of the group - and therefore he must receive the most focus and also be the most heroic, which mandates that every other hero in the game needs to be incompetent, spineless, or secretly a fan of fascism as well. It's hard to put into exact words, but it feels like this story was written either for Syndrome. Or possibly by Syndrome.
The comic does a better job of expanding on the story of the game, but since it also can't deviate too much from the game then it's restricted into the same pitfalls. Weirdly enough, despite having a whole litany of other flaws (The Flash dies like five minutes in?!?) the animated film version arguably has the best story, especially the conclusion, where Superman is not beaten into submission by alternate-universe Superman, but talked down by alternate-universe Lois Lane, and he sees the error of his ways and willingly surrenders. The film also has enough respect for its audience to keep Harley Quinn as a villain throughout, rather than trying to reform her into a hero right after she murdered millions of people, which I appreciate.
Ultimately though, Injustice is just a frustrating waste of a good idea. Characters are underdeveloped, many of them sacrificed - metaphorically or literally - on the altar of making Batman look better, and despite the interesting premise, nothing is ever actually explored. For a genuinely interesting story that covers some similar ground, Kingdom Come is right there, but it will always be disappointing that Injustice stumbled into a potential goldmine, and then filled it up with the results of marketability surveys conducted by board members, and poorly-written excuses for superheroes to punch each other.
Maybe the real 'Injustice' was the fantastic story we could've gotten, but didn't. Or maybe it was the friends we made along the way.