Hello and welcome to Wasted Plotential, where we discuss the wasted potential of our favourite
plotlines.
I've already discussed the Injustice 2 plot in-depth in the big critique, so be sure to
watch that video before watching this one. Now that we're all caught up, let's get into
it. Unlike last time, I won't be completely rewriting the entire scenario, since this
game's story was pretty good for the most part. Instead, I'll be making tweaks to the
existing story to make it work a little better. I'll start with the big ones, then move on
to some smaller fixes.
The game opens with a very well-done scene of Kara Zor-El evading Brainiac's troops on
Kypton mere minutes before he destroys the entire planet. After a brief interlude, we
follow Batman and Robin trying to stop Superman from killing the inmates of Arkham Asylum
around five years before the first game. I got more into this in the critique, but during
this chapter, Damian asks how Bruce would have reacted differently from Clark, had it
been Gotham that was destroyed instead of Metropolis, and then questions his no killing
rule after he savagely beats an innocent Arkham guard unconscious. Both times, Bruce has no
answer, which is a problem when Bruce acts as our lead hero and central moral pillar.
The chapter culminates in Damian joining Clark's side after killing Victor Zsasz.
But, let's talk about how these scenes, despite any good things about them, are a really bad
way to start this story. Typically, the opening scene will establish major characters and
plot threads for the story to come. From this perspective, these opening scenes tell us
that Kara will be integral in taking down Brainiac, and that Bruce and Damian's relationship
will receive major focus. Neither of these is the case.
Damian only says one thing to Bruce after this and that's it. There's no exploration
of their relationship, no indication of regret from either of the two. If not for the intro,
you'd be forgiven for not knowing these two had ever even met, which is a problem considering
they're father and son!
As for Kara, she saves Harley Quinn (who is only wounded as a plot device make Kara turn
against the Regime) and then has to fight three characters in the Fortress of Solitude
as she tries to escape, accomplishing nothing of note in her own chapter. Then, she joins
Bruce in boarding Brainiac's ship, only to be immediately captured and held captive until
Brainiac is defeated by Clark. She heat beams Brainiac once before his fight with Batman
and that's her only contribution to fighting him. She takes part in the finale, where she
sides with Bruce and gets knocked out by Clark. She then watches Clark get sent to the Phantom
Zone and joins Batman's new Justice League, or is captured by Clark and threatened with
brainwashing if she doesn't join him.
For being one of the characters given major focus in pre-release material, being one of
the initial batch of announced characters, appearing in all the cinematic trailers, being
on the cover of one of the three editions of the game, and being the focus of the opening
scene, she really does nothing of note in the story. Yes, she explains who Brainiac
is, but Clark already knows some of it from the Fortress' archive, so she could be cut
from the story and nothing would really change.
So, let's fix that.
In my take, Kara doesn't get Chapter 9. That chapter goes to Damian instead. I'd also let
his Robin form share Chapter 1 with Bruce, but that's not important. Damian spends some
time with both Bruce and Clark while battling some mind-controlled Society members. He's
forced to question whether Clark's policies were justified or too extreme. While working
with Bruce, he finally gets answers to his questions after the two have had their clash.
Bruce acknowledges that he probably would have done the same as Clark, but that doesn't
make it right, and stopping Bruce would be the right thing to do in that situation. I,
personally, don't have an answer to the hypocrisy of Bruce crippling but not killing, so I wouldn't
bring it up. But, if you do, you have to follow through. Maybe Bruce doesn't have an answer,
and finally has to acknowledge that he is a flawed human being, like Superman. Neither
one is truly more righteous than the other. But Bruce's way at least offers a chance for
redemption, which the former League of Assassins member can relate to. Something like that.
If he comes around to Bruce's side, he could return to being Robin. But regardless, and
I cannot stress this enough, the story NEEDS to provide answers
Now, as for Kara, Clark doesn't know who she is at first, rather than having learned about
her in the archive. Removing that database allows her to provide information the heroes
wouldn't otherwise have, making her feel more important to the plot. Her big moment comes
in the game's climax.
Chapter 11 plays out mostly the same: Kara is captured, Bruce and Clark team up to fight
their way through Brainiac's ship, and they confront him on the bridge. Rather than Clark
beating him, and then having Batman finish him off when he recovers, Brainiac has one
final obstacle for the duo. On the way here, the two had to battle both Firestorm and Swamp-Thing,
whom Brainiac had brainwashed. If he is capable of controlling a symbiotic entity and a literal
force of nature, then why can't he do the same with a simple kryptonian? Kara enters,
controlled by Brainiac as his last line of defence, knowing Clark won't want to hurt
his cousin. There's no other choice, however, so Bruce does his best to hold off Brainiac,
while Clark tries to get through to Kara. It takes some work, but he is eventually able
to, though not before suffering a serious blow from Kara. Around the time she's snapped
out of it, Bruce is knocked out by Brainiac, leaving only Kara and a wounded Clark to oppose
him. Kara then steps in to fight, defeating Brainiac, avenging Krypton and earning her
place on the box.
Then, in Chapter 12, one option is for Clark to choose whether or not to reignite the conflict,
either learning his lesson and seeking redemption by defeating his former allies, or needing
to be taken down again. Alternatively, it plays out the same way, but the player doesn't
just choose who wins for a reason as arbitrary as who stands on the left side in the final
fight; instead, the player chooses who Kara sides with for her chapter. Does she side
with her family and help the Regime to defeat Batman, or does she stick to her morals and
try to get through to her cousin and help him see his wrongdoings? This also helps to
cut down on the repetition of the story, which gave Superman one dedicated chapter and one
shared, and Batman one shared chapter and two dedicated ones.
All together, this gives us less repetition, the Boxart Trinity all get to be relevant,
and the opening sequences actually lead to something as they're supposed to. But, Kara
isn't the only character who is underutilised, sadly.
Scarecrow, for instance is shockingly under-utilised, considering they cast Robert Fucking Englund
in the role. In the game, he douses Harley Quinn with fear toxin so he appears as a monster
she has no reason to fear, and then makes her see The Joker, but she banishes him almost
immediately. He then douses Wonder Woman to taunt her with a vision of Superman accusing
her of taking advantage of him, as if Scarecrow has any control over the nightmares. She then
strikes his hand and we never see him again.
Here's my take: Crane's fear toxin demon form is his actual body. Either augmented by Brainiac,
or something done to him to save him from Joker's toxins in the comic. Scarecrow now
produces fear toxin naturally and fully controls what his victims see, which almost seems like
how it works in the game anyway. In addition to fighting Harley and Diana, he also fights
Hal Jordan. Hal was a member of the Sinestro Corps when Sinestro murdered John Stewart.
Since John was one of the four launch premier skins, he should be utilised as what Hal sees
when doused with the toxin, accusing Hal of betraying the Green Lanterns and getting him
killed. Hal has to fight off his guilty conscience as one of his major steps towards redemption.
Speaking of Lanterns, Atrocitus shows up for exactly one scene, gets his arse kicked and
has no bearing on the plot, making his fight feel like something you'd insert into the
story as DLC after the fact. Hal's problem with rage begins before Atrocitus shows up
and continues after he's gone, really making Atrocitus feel like an afterthought. I've
got two changes in mind:
For one, Atrocitus is an alien. From space. Like Brainiac. Just say that Brainiac recruited
the remnants of the Reds to his cause. This allows Atrocitus to appear more often and
lets us sprinkle in some Lanterns among Brainiac's boring footsoldiers to spice things up a bit.
Second, imagine if we didn't have the chapter limitations. Atrocitus could beat Hal in Atlantis
and briefly turn him, forcing Hal to deal with his actions as both Yellow and Red until
the endgame, where he displays his willpower and finally defeats Atrocitus. Again, every
Netherrealm story is hampered by this awful chapter system.
In a similar vein, The Joker is also underutilised. Clearly, the team decided such an iconic character
had to make the roster, even if his death is the catalyst for the entire storyline.
He only exists as a hallucination, but you could very easily do more. Some intros suggest
he's from the Prime Earth.
Bruce: "You're the other Earth's Joker."
Joker: "This Earth's better."
So, I don't know why they couldn't just use that idea. After all, the Ground Zero comic
is ultimately revealed as Regime Harley explaining her story to Prime Harley while visiting the
Prime Earth. There's no reason Prime Joker couldn't have smuggled his way back with her.
Or, Earth-3 Joker could have done the same when Dr. Fate brought Ollie and Dinah over.
Joker was really wasted in the first game too, never coming into contact with Superman.
Imagine what you could do with him here - setting off Superman's rage, trying to convince Harley
of her villainy like the hallucination does, taunting Wonder Woman with her manipulation
of Superman and, of course, whoever brought him over would realise they did and try to
fix it. But no, existing exclusively inside Harley's head is totally fine, even if she's
seeing him in a totally new outfit he never wore before. Nah, makes sense, what are you
talking about?
As I suggested in the critique, I would also have the Society members stick around after
learning Brainiac's goal and being controlled by him to keep the heroes busy during the
finale because, if they're not going to actually help save the world, they may as well be useful
to the gameplay. Additionally, did anyone else notice you only fight Deadshot once?
Was that third Bane fight supposed to be against Lawton originally, but they fucked up and
used Bane instead?
And one last one is that I'd give Ollie and Dinah more to do. In the game, they work for
Bruce in Chapters 2 and 3, get captured, and show up in chapter 10 under Grodd's mind control.
Considering they were brought back from Earth-3, and that this isn't the Oliver of this universe,
you'd think they'd get to do more to make their inclusion feel like it meant something.
Naturally, if we had Joker be from one of the other Earths, they could be working with
Harley to stop Joker's wildcard rampage. Also, Oliver's feelings of inadequacy when he has
to live up to the example of his counterpart, who died trying to stop Superman, should be
explored with his wife and friends helping him to deal with it. It's baffling that they
dipped into the comic continuity, which they usually ignore, to explain his presence on
the roster, but then did nothing of note with him. What they gave him was... okay, I guess,
but Oliver really deserved
Oliver: "Something else."
I'm sure a lot of this is the fault of the character chapters. People still defend this
horrendous limiter Netherrealm insists on placing on their story modes, no matter how
many times it squanders the potential of their storylines. Injustice 2 is easily Netherrealm's
best story, and a few tweaks like this could have made it really good - not just for a
Netherrealm story, but really good in a vacuum. Just a shame they followed it up with the
absolute worst story they've ever put out. I sure can't wait to see how Injustice 3 invalidates
itself like Sonic '06 did.
If you liked this video, why not subscribe and support me on Patreon like these fine
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Today's recommended playlist is Nando V Movies' rewrite of Justice League. It's a far better
story idea than what Zack and friends came up with and makes the Justice League actually
be about fighting crime. Seriously, think about it: where is the justice in fighting
evil aliens? The Avengers at least got to avenge something.