Injustice 2 (2017) ⚡🦸‍♂️🌍

Superman lost the world in the first game… now Batman has to somehow hold a trial by Mortal Kombat!

Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers shall we?

And honestly? The trailers for Injustice 2 were SO good at building hype because they immediately sold the idea that this wasn’t just: “Hey remember the first game?”

No.

This felt bigger. Darker. More desperate.

The first Injustice was about Superman falling.

This game is about the aftermath of that fall.

The world is damaged. Heroes are divided. Trust is shattered. Batman is trying to rebuild something out of the ashes while everyone around him either hates him, fears him, or blames him for not stopping Superman sooner.

And then on top of ALL of that? Brainiac arrives.

Which immediately raises the stakes from: “DC civil war.”

To: “Oh wonderful now the planet itself might die.”

The trailers also did a great job showing how fractured the DC universe had become. Batman’s team looks exhausted. Superman is imprisoned but still terrifying. Supergirl enters the story completely unaware of what happened to her cousin. And Brainiac shows up sounding like the world’s angriest supercomputer librarian 😭

Everything about the marketing screamed: “This universe is broken.”

And honestly? That’s exactly why the game works so well.

🦸 Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

Injustice 2 picks up after the events of the first game, where Superman’s regime has fallen and Batman is now trying to rebuild Earth after years of fear, violence, and authoritarian rule.

The problem is… repairing the DC universe is apparently impossible because EVERYBODY has trauma now 😭

Batman is trying to restore society while former regime members are imprisoned or being hunted down. Some heroes want peace. Others still secretly support Superman. Some villains are helping Batman. Others are using the chaos for their own gain.

Then Brainiac arrives to collect Earth like it’s another Pokémon card for his space shelf.

And honestly? Brainiac was a fantastic choice for this sequel because the first game already destroyed the DC universe emotionally. So instead of repeating: “Batman vs Superman again.”

The sequel asks: “What happens when the heroes are still emotionally broken AND now the apocalypse shows up?”

That gives the story bigger scale while still keeping the emotional damage from the first game.

Supergirl also becomes a really important part of the story because she arrives seeing Superman as the symbol of hope he USED to be, while Batman and everyone else see him as a terrifying dictator who nearly destroyed the planet.

That conflict works REALLY well emotionally.

And honestly? The game somehow balances:

giant superhero spectacle

emotional fallout

ridiculous comic-book insanity

alternate universe trauma

and giant alien robot skull ships


…without collapsing under its own weight.

That’s impressive 😭

👥 Character Rundown

Batman, voiced once again by Kevin Conroy, honestly feels emotionally exhausted in this game and that’s exactly how he SHOULD feel.

This version of Bruce has spent years fighting Superman, watching friendships collapse, losing allies, and trying to hold civilization together with duct tape and stubbornness.

And yet he still refuses to give up.

That’s why Batman works so well in Injustice. He’s physically outmatched by half the roster, but morally he refuses to surrender.

Superman is fascinating here because the game doesn’t suddenly pretend he’s innocent now. He’s imprisoned, but he still genuinely believes much of what he did was necessary.

That’s what makes him scary.

This isn’t: “Oops I became evil.”

This is: “I was right.”

And every scene with him has tension because even imprisoned Superman still feels dangerous.

Supergirl is one of the BEST additions to the story.

She enters the universe still believing in the symbol of Superman while slowly learning what her cousin became. Watching her emotionally struggle between Batman’s warnings and Superman’s perspective gives the story real emotional weight.

Brainiac is GREAT in this game.

He feels intelligent, cold, emotionally detached, and massively threatening. Brainiac isn’t screaming about revenge constantly. He views civilizations like data to catalogue. Humanity barely matters to him individually.

That makes him feel gigantic as a threat.

Harley Quinn continues being surprisingly compelling in the Injustice universe because she’s still Harley, still chaotic, still ridiculous, but she’s also trying to become something more after Joker’s death.

And honestly? Some of her scenes genuinely work emotionally.

Blue Beetle was a fun addition because Jaime Reyes brings youthful energy into a universe filled with traumatized adults making terrible decisions 😭

Green Arrow returning was awesome, especially after the emotional weight his death carried in the first game.

Black Canary also works really well here because she carries grief and anger into the story naturally.

Doctor Fate is fantastic. Swamp Thing is cool. Atrocitus is terrifying. Gorilla Grodd somehow starts a villain society because comic books are beautiful disasters 😭

And honestly? The roster in this game is STACKED.

Also side note because I know somebody will bring this up eventually: No, Mr. Freeze is not actually a fully playable character in the roster.

What the game DOES have is an unlockable Mr. Freeze premiere skin for Captain Cold. Since Captain Cold already uses freeze technology and cold-based weapons, the game basically lets you cosmetically turn him into Mr. Freeze.

And honestly? That was actually pretty cool.

⏱️ Pacing / Story Flow

The pacing is honestly excellent.

The story constantly escalates while still giving characters room to breathe emotionally.

That’s important because this universe is HEAVY. Everybody has baggage now. Every conversation feels layered because these characters have years of trauma behind them.

And unlike some fighting game stories where fights happen just because: “Video game time.”

Most fights here actually feel motivated emotionally.

Batman and Superman’s interactions still carry the entire weight of the first game. Supergirl’s confusion feels believable. Harley’s attempts at redemption feel messy but genuine. The Brainiac invasion constantly increases urgency.

And the game smartly balances smaller emotional scenes with giant comic-book insanity.

One minute Batman and Superman are arguing about morality.

The next minute Brainiac’s giant skull ship is attacking Earth while Gorilla Grodd recruits villains like he’s assembling the worst LinkedIn network in history 😭

✅ Pros

The story is fantastic.

This game could’ve easily just repeated the first one, but instead it evolves naturally from the fallout of Superman’s regime.

Batman and Superman remain emotionally compelling.

Supergirl is an excellent addition.

Brainiac is one of the best villains in either game.

The roster is incredible and full of variety.

The visuals massively improved from the first game.

The gear system, while ridiculous at times, does add a lot of customization fun.

The cinematics feel huge and polished.

And honestly? This might be one of the BEST cinematic superhero fighting games ever made.

❌ Cons

The gear system can become grindy sometimes.

Some character designs are a little over-armored and overly detailed.

Certain characters don’t get enough emotional focus because the roster is so massive.

And yes… some fights still happen because this is ultimately a fighting game and somebody needs to punch somebody every few minutes 😭

But honestly? Those flaws barely hurt the overall experience for me.

🧨 Final Thoughts

Injustice 2 is everything a superhero sequel should be.

It expands the scale. It evolves the characters. It respects the consequences of the first story. And it somehow manages to balance emotional tragedy with giant comic-book insanity.

This universe is DARK. Like genuinely dark.

But what makes it work is that underneath all the destruction and violence, the story still asks hopeful questions: Can broken heroes rebuild? Can people change? Can the world recover after trauma?

And honestly? That gives the game emotional depth a lot of superhero games never reach.

Batman trying desperately to hold civilization together while Superman still believes he was right creates one of the best DC conflicts ever adapted into gaming.

And Brainiac arriving on top of all that just turns the entire thing into glorious DC chaos 😭

I love this game.

⭐ Rating

10/10

One of the best DC games ever made and one of the strongest superhero fighting game stories ever.

⚠️ Spoiler Warning

Alright y’all.

From this point onward we are diving FULL spoiler territory for Injustice 2.

And yes… we gotta talk about Superman still being terrifying even while locked up 😭

🩸 Spoilers

One of the smartest things this game does immediately is show that defeating Superman in the first game did NOT magically fix everything.

The world is still broken.

Batman may have stopped the regime, but years of authoritarian control left scars everywhere. Some people still support Superman. Some heroes are traumatized. Some villains filled the power vacuum.

And honestly? That feels realistic for this universe.

Then Brainiac arrives and immediately changes everything because suddenly Earth’s heroes can’t just focus on their personal drama anymore.

But the game wisely keeps Superman emotionally central anyway.

The prison scenes with Superman are fantastic because even trapped behind red sun energy, he still commands the room psychologically. Superman genuinely believes his methods saved lives.

That’s what makes him compelling. He’s not cartoonishly evil. He’s convinced he was necessary.

And honestly? There are moments where you almost understand how terrifyingly seductive his logic could become.

Then Supergirl enters the story and her arc is one of the best parts of the entire game.

Kara arrives believing Superman is Earth’s greatest hero because that’s who he SHOULD be.

Watching her slowly realize: “Oh no… my cousin became a dictator.”

…is genuinely sad.

Especially because Superman still treats her with love and sincerity in many scenes. He’s not evil toward HER.

That makes her conflict way more emotionally painful because she sees pieces of the Superman she admired while also seeing the monster he became.

Brainiac meanwhile is fantastic.

The scene revealing Kandor bottled inside Brainiac’s ship is such classic comic-book insanity and I LOVE it 😭

Brainiac reducing entire civilizations into collectibles perfectly fits the character because he views knowledge and preservation as more important than actual living people.

And honestly? His design in this game rules.

Then there’s Batman constantly trying to hold everybody together while internally looking ten seconds away from emotional collapse.

Bruce in this game genuinely feels tired.

Not physically. Spiritually.

He’s spent YEARS fighting friends, losing allies, rebuilding society, and trying to stop the world from falling apart again.

Harley Quinn surprisingly gets some really solid emotional material too.

The game doesn’t magically pretend Harley’s past didn’t happen. She still carries Joker’s legacy around like emotional radioactive waste. But her trying to become something better actually works here.

Then there’s Green Arrow’s return.

And honestly? That reveal hit emotionally.

Especially because Oliver’s death in the first game symbolized Superman crossing another moral line. Bringing another version of him back helps remind the audience what the DC universe USED to feel like before everything became broken.

The Flash also continues being one of the more tragic regime characters because Barry basically spent years enabling something he knew was wrong.

And honestly? That feels painfully human.

One of the most shocking moments though is absolutely Superman killing Green Arrow in front of Black Canary in the alternate timeline flashback.

That scene is BRUTAL.

Because Superman doesn’t just defeat Oliver. He annihilates him instantly.

And Canary’s scream afterward honestly sells the horror of the moment perfectly.

Then there’s the ending choice.

Batman’s ending feels more hopeful. Superman is defeated again and Bruce focuses on rebuilding responsibly.

But Superman’s ending?

OH BOY 😭

Superman basically decides:

> “Clearly I wasn’t controlling people HARD enough before.”



And turns Brainiac’s technology into the ultimate authoritarian nightmare.

That ending is terrifying because it fully confirms Superman has learned absolutely nothing.

And honestly? That possibility hanging over the universe is what makes Injustice so compelling.

This is not a world where one victory fixes everything.

The damage remains.

The trauma remains.

The fear remains.

And Superman remains one bad moment away from becoming Earth’s greatest nightmare again.