Rocksteady helped redefine the Superhero genre in gaming with its series of Batman Arkham games. With the next Arkham game in development at WB Games Montreal, the role of Rocksteady as the next generation of consoles comes around the corner remains unclear. The studio has confirmed, however, that Superman will be in its next game, Suicide Squad.
Many gamers will have been excited to learn that Superman will feature in Suicide Squad. However, after years of debate among fans as to how a playable Superman could be executed in a video game, they may find that Rocksteady’s current plans for The Man of Steel aren’t quite what they had expected.
There had been longstanding rumors that Rocksteady had been working on a Superman game, or, at the very least, a game which could feature Superman. Some gamers were even so desperate to take the Son of Krypton for a spin that they modded Superman into Red Dead Redemption 2 as a playable character.
However, while there were plenty of reasons fans wanted a Superman game, it was revealed that the game Rocksteady had been working on would in fact be a Suicide Squad title. The game will be fully unveiled during DC FanDome this Saturday, Aug 22, but the evidence so far suggests that Superman will be appearing as the antagonist if not outright villain.
There are a few reasons that fans could find this development a little underwhelming. First, there had been hopes of a standalone Superman game for a long time and it was widely believed, after Rocksteady nailed the Batman feel and formula with its series of Arkham games, that the developer was the one to pull it off.
Antagonistic versions of Superman have been highlighted more prominently in mainstream culture over the last ten years than the traditional portrayal of Superman. Henry Cavill broke Zod’s neck as Superman in 2013’s Man of Steel, while the universe of Injustice: Gods Among Us cast Superman as a tyrant, for example. As such, while it’s not the superhero fans wanted, it’s a version of Superman they may be familiar with.
The trouble is that this subversive take on the character is not only more played out than the optimistic original at this point, but it also demonstrates an increasing blur between the mission statements of Superman and Batman. While the Batman franchise fits perfectly into the winding metropolises and sneak combat of Rocksteady’s Arkham games, a Superman game would need a very different tone and style of combat to feel like it was as true to its source material.
Similarly, the tone of recent Superman stories and particularly his appearances in video games has become more and more aligned with the darker tone primarily used for Batman. Superman’s appearance in the Suicide Squad game seems to finalize that transition, with Superman now at once appearing as the villain while Batman’s villains appear as the anti-heroes, though this will be fully confirmed or not at DC FanDome 2020.
Perhaps one day fans of the franchise will be able to play a video game that captures the truly optimistic tone of Superman during particularly cynical times. It’s a similar problem the new Star Trek writers have faced when adapting the optimism of their source material, but its one Rocksteady will have to conquer if it is going to remain the king of superhero video game adaptations and not merely the studio that continually adapts other heroes to the Batman format and setting.
Suicide Squad is currently in development.
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