Joker
Rocksteady had what appears to be the last Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League deep dive before launch next week, one focused on what is happening in the live service portion of the game after the main campaign ends. They revealed a roadmap for the entire year, but most pressingly, showed off what was coming immediately after launch in March.
That would be The Joker. No, not the infamous, now-dead Arkham Joker, but a different Joker. It’s complicated.
The idea that Rocksteady is running with here is multiversal. As in, they can pull in alternate dimension versions of characters for use in Kill the Justice League. So, in that case, this is a Joker that is not some huge supervillain just yet and was part of the Suicide Squad in his own dimension. But Braniac warped him over here, and now he’s joining the team.
This is a much different version than the more classic Mark Hamill Joker we saw across the Arkham games, as he is not being resurrected and he is not voiced by Hamill. This is a more “vaudeville” version of the character, Rocksteady says, with a new look and new voice.
This has been taken to be yet another point of evidence that Rocksteady is really reaching for this game, trying to bring back a knock-off version of Joker for their live service game, but after actually watching the presentation I…sort of love him?
The new take on Joker is kind of refreshing, actually, and if Rocksteady can make one really iconic Joker, why can’t they do two?
Past that, his gameplay looks really fun. Probably more so than the original four squad members. He travels around using a rocket propelled umbrella, which not only lets him float, but also he flips it over to grind on buildings and surfaces Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater style. It sounds goofy, and it is goofy, but it actually looks very fun?
I get why the immediate reaction to “fake Joker” here would be negative, but I think if you take a look at him in more than just a single screenshot, the concept does actually seem to be pretty neat. For the other heroes, we do not know anything official yet, but they are said to be a blend of alt-reality multiverse characters and ones from the original Arkham universe, so we’ll see.
It remains to be seen how this game is going to do, given the constant criticism it has gotten at every stage. We should know in a week now, once its early release goes live.
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