The Game Awards gave us a new Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League trailer and it’s hard not to be a little moved.
No, developer Rocksteady Studios hasn’t suddenly changed tack – this supervillain action game is set to be as over the top as ever. But this Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League trailer features a first look at the late Kevin Conroy’s Batman. And it concludes with a heart-rending “Thank you Kevin”.
Conroy voiced Batman in Rocksteady’s Arkham games but that’s just the tip of the batberg. An awful lot of people, us included, grew up watching Batman: The Animated Series and, voicing the titular character, he was Batman. His performance, alongside Mark Hamill, made the series.
No matter how many live-action actors don the cape, he’ll always be Batman to us, and it’s his voice we hear whenever we read a Batman comic. There’s a fantastic story about how Conroy was volunteering as a cook on 9/11. When word got around about who he was, pretty much the entire canteen ended up telling him how much his Batman meant to them. He’s since voiced the character in many animated movies and games, the Injustice series included.
Conroy passed away last month at the age of 66 and it’s pretty sobering to realise that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is going to be his last turn as the Caped Crusader. And this time around, he’ll be playing an evil Brainiac-controlled Batman. Or will he?
Sure, the trailer implies he’s evil, but that could just be Rocksteady messing with us. Conroy saw Batman as more than just a job, he had a great deal of affection for the character. Could he really be an Evil Batman?
He’s explored Batman’s dark side in the CW’s Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover and also, briefly, in the animated series. But having him play a full-on, homicidal Dark Knight? We’ll believe it when we see it.
Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait more than half a year to find out and to witness Kevin Conroy’s last Batman. Despite several tantalising trailers, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is very much still in the works. Barring another delay, it’ll arrive on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC next May 26th.
