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Every Victory. Every Defeat. Every Battle Defines You.
"Curious, how lines once cleanly defined become blurred. Perhaps it is time for them to be... redrawn."
Brainiac

Injustice 2 is the 2017 DC Comics Fighting Game sequel to Injustice: Gods Among Us, developed by NetherRealm Studios for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Android and iOS. The game is slated to have the largest playable roster of DC characters in any video game adaptation thus far and have several others added through DLC following the initial release. Premiere Skins are also included as alternates to existing characters.

The game picks up in the Dystopian Alternate Universe from Injustice, with Batman and his allies trying to put society back together while still fighting against those who put their faith in the fallen Superman's former tyrannical regime. But when a new enemy emerges in the midst of the chaos, their three-way war threatens to put Earth’s very existence at risk.

Playable Characters Include: note 

Non-playable Supporting Characters Include:

Previews: Announce Trailer, Gameplay Reveal, SDCC 2016 Trailer, "The Lines Are Redrawn" Story Trailer, Shattered Alliances Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

As with the previous game, a comic series was released by DC to provide an in-depth Back Story to the events of the game.

Injustice 2 provides examples of the following tropes:

  • Actor Allusion:
    • Supergirl asks Aquaman "No crown for the king?" in their introductory dialogue. Aquaman's played by Jason Momoa in the DCEU films, who played Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones; Drogo said a similar line ("A crown for the king!") to Viserys Targaryen right before offing him.
    • Harley asks Mr. Freeze in one of their intro dialogues if he can make her a pony. He responds by stating it would make the twilight sparkle, much to her delight. Fittingly, her pet hyenas, Bud & Lou sport pink and green mohawks.
    • Joker asks Black Adam during a Clash if he's met "that other lightning guy". Adam confirms that he has.
    • During an intro, Scarecrow asks Mr. Freeze to "imagine burning alive." Scarecrow is voiced by Robert Englund, best known for playing Freddy Krueger, who was burned alive. Furthering the link is some of Scarecrow's head equipment (one of which has "hypnophobic" in its name, hypnophobia being the fear of falling asleep) giving him a fedora, not unlike Freddy's. After depleting an enemy's first energy bar, he also quips Now I'm playing with power! To say nothing of the fact that both characters are famous for weaponizing fear. Taking it one step further, one possible multiverse event is about a version of Scarecrow making a deal with Trigon to gain the power to kill people in their dreams.
      • Speaking of Freddy Krueger references, if you do a Scarecrow vs. Scarecrow fight in the game, this is one of the intro dialogues you get:
      Scarecrow 1: I’ve had this dream...
      Scarecrow 2: Yeah, it’s a real nightmare!
    • Jeffrey Combs is playing an alien scientist who often asks 'for what exact purpose' again. And as in said show, he eventually opposes a character for which he shares some respect voiced by David Sobolov.
    • Mr. Freeze is depicted with a German-esque accent in this game and makes a few ice puns, not unlike his portrayal by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Batman & Robin.
    • For Latin-American Spanish, this isn't first time Gerardo Garcia's voiced a Hot-Blooded, arrogant teenager with attitude problems who's associated with the color red.
  • Adaptational Heroism:
    • In the comics, Brother Eye initiated a protocol to wipe out every metahuman on Earth. Here, while he does spend a good chunk of the game being hacked by Brainiac, he nonetheless stays aligned to Batman and his allies.
    • Green Arrow's ending sees a version of the Justice Incarnate from The Multiversity where President Superman works alongside the Batman from Superman: Red Son (a terrorist) and the Wonder Woman of Flashpoint (a misandristic despot).
  • Adaptational Late Appearance: Supergirl, Blue Beetle, Firestorm, and Brainiac, who are only just now showing up. Granted, the former three never entered the stage of superheroics until the likes of the Justice League had been active for some time, but here they debut many years after Superman fell from grace.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Both Superman and Damian Wayne (Robin) are retconned into being more ruthless and willing to kill with Superman going for the Final Solution just a few weeks after the tragedy of Metropolis and Damian unapologetically betraying Batman to support Superman unlike the original game and the comic. With Damian, it also shows a huge contrast with his main comics counterpart who not only adopted his father's no kill rule, but he became a vegan because Damian applies that rule to all life, not just humans.
  • After-Action Villain Analysis: After Superman was defeated in the previous game, Batman reflects on his Start of Darkness in the opening, noting how the Joker, who is usually his Arch-Enemy, tricked the Man of Steel into killing his own wife Lois Lane and nuking Metropolis For the Evulz. Batman may be sympathetic to Superman's plight, but doesn't feel it excuses any crimes he committed in Lois's sake.
  • Ambidextrous Sprite: The only time Hellboy has ever had a left hand of doom.
  • An Ice Person:
    • Captain Cold, who fittingly has Mr. Freeze as an alternate costume.
    • Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat is a DLC character.
  • Arc Words:
  • Armor-Piercing Question: Both the Insurgency and the Regime hurl these at each other.
    • Batman and his allies question whether killing will solve everything and how it leads to Jumping Off the Slippery Slope, something they don't have to look far in Superman and Wonder Woman.
    • On the other end, Superman's followers ridicule the Insurgency's adherence to Thou Shalt Not Kill and how their misplaced leniency allows monsters like Brainiac or the Joker to escape punishment despite their crimes.
  • Art Evolution: Characters, new and old alike, appear to have much more simplified, streamlined outfits, as opposed to the fairly complex fare from the first game. The color palette is also much less muted, with Superman and Supergirl wearing much more vibrant outfits.
  • Artistic License – Geography: Barry circled the globe and marked "major cities" being targeted by Brainiac's assault, except that the map marks points in arctic islands like Franz Josef Land, Svalbard and Greenland (apparently Savissivik to be precise; population: 66).
  • Ascended Meme: One of Harley's intro quotes against Bane has her saying that she always gets the "big guys".
  • Attacking Through Yourself: In a prefight cutscene, Deadshot stabs a combat knife through his own shoulder to wound Flash, who is holding him from behind. Neither wound affects them in the ensuing fight.
  • Atlantis: The underwater city is a location in this game, as with the last game.
  • The Atoner: Barry (The Flash) and Hal (Green Lantern) work to make up for serving Superman's Regime in the previous game. Hal in particular was put through intense Training from Hell by the Guardians to earn his redemption. They both tell as much to Superman that they will not fall again.
  • Back from the Dead: Scarecrow died in the prequel comics, but has managed to return. Subverted with Green Arrow and the Joker, whose Injustice versions are still dead - the versions seen here are an alternate universe counterpart and a fear toxin-induced hallucination respectively.
  • Badass Boast: The Green Lantern Oath is always this. And especially so when resisting a red ring of rage taking its place by force.
    • Similarily, the Red Lantern Oath is recited while Atrocitus pummels the living daylights out of some poor chump.
  • Bar Brawl: The "Ace o' Clubs" bar is one of the battle stages in Metropolis. As with other Netherrealm games, everyone ignores the carnage raging across the room, even as patrons get thrown as projectiles.
  • Batman Can Breathe in Space:
    • Supergirl's supermove lifts her opponent into space, circling the sun before blasting them back to Earth. Despite damage from heat vision and space rock impacts, no character—be they human, alien, and otherwise—seems to have trouble with the whole "leaving the atmosphere" thing. At least it's justified with the Lanterns, whose rings allow them to survive in space, and fellow Kryptonians.
      • Darkseid's supermove does a similar thing, where the Omega Effect sends the opponent flying into the atmosphere, careening them into some space junk and satellites, and into his gigantic palm. Using a Mother Box, he then tosses them away like garbage. But despite the injuries, nobody seems to have trouble with the whole thing.
    • One of the stage transitions on Brainiac's ship involves the transitioning character being ejected from the ship and drifting in space before one of the ship's tentacles catches them and pulls them back inside. None of the characters seem to suffer any ill effects from this (aside from the standard transition damage) despite most of them not possessing any powers or abilities that would allow them to survive several seconds of unprotected exposure to the vacuum of space.
  • Be All My Sins Remembered: Despite defecting and being pardoned by Batman, Barry Allen has this after serving Superman's Regime in the first game. It also doesn't help that the people around him don't trust him just yet. Hal Jordan has this also from his time as Yellow Lantern.
  • Big Bad: The two supervillain factions that the heroes fight in the game's first three chapters, the Regime and the Society, both turn out to be the end results of an alien conqueror known as Brainiac. He caused the Regime by ensuring its founder, Superman, would come to Earth with no one to guide him on the right path and formed the Society to soften up Earth's defenses before he looted and destroyed the planet. Once the Society turns out to be working for him, Brainiac takes center stage as the main villain.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: Brainiac and Superman. While the former is the biggest active threat, the latter has every intention of restoring the Regime and becoming a Multiversal Conqueror when all is said and done. Once Brainiac is defeated, Superman becomes the Final Boss for Batman to defeat.
  • Big "NO!": Before Green Lantern lands the final blow of his super move every character does this.
    • Superman does one when he sees Brainiac has digitized Metropolis, leaving only a giant crater behind.
  • Bitch Slap: Darkseid has a fighting style consisting primarily of one handed slaps, demonstrating how terrifyingly powerful he is. Darkseid is so confident in his abilities that he's literally fighting the likes of Superman with one hand behind his back.
  • Black Eyes of Evil: The "Demon" shaders gives every character with exposed eyes these.
  • Bling of War: The game features a loot system, which lets characters customize their appearances as well as their stats/abilities.
  • Bloodless Carnage: Zig-Zagged. The game does have blood, but only on non-lethal injuries. The deaths of Gorilla Grodd and Doctor Fate both involve the victims being Impaled with Extreme Prejudice, yet the weapons used to kill them remain completely clean.
  • Bookends: Depending on the ending chosen, Batman is the playable character of both the opening and closing chapters of the Story Mode.
  • Borrowing from the Sister Series: Brings in the Dialogue Tree feature, the character selection screen (with the addition of the characters hitting each other after being selected), and the Tower Konquest battles, rechristened here as the Multiverse/Brother Eye, from Netherrealm Studios sister game Mortal Kombat X. In addition, its Character Customization feature expands upon X's "three playstyles per character" system, with even more possibilities.
  • Both Sides Have a Point: When Brainiac is defeated in story mode, there are still several cities that are trapped and both Batman's and Superman's sides begin to squabble about what to do about them and Brainiac himself. Considering how much of a threat he is to the universe, Superman is in favor of killing him and taking control of his ship to find a way to reverse to process so no one should suffer from his evil again. Batman argues that they are not sure if they even can reverse what's been done without Brainiac, and that acting too hastily could cause them to lose more cities... which is exactly what happens in some endings.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Happens to several superheroes over the course of the story by different villains. Firestorm and Swamp Thing by Brainiac; Black Canary, Green Arrow, and Blue Beetle by Gorilla Grodd, Harley Quinn by Poison Ivy, and in the "Absolute Power" ending, Batman is turned into a slave by Superman.
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Among the fond memories Poison Ivy has with Catwoman and Arkham Asylum are bewitching guards, late night poker... and mandatory shock therapy.
  • Breaking the Fellowship: Thanks to the Joker's machinations in the Injustice-verse, the once-mighty Justice League has fallen apart. Batman and Superman uncovering the old but cracked round table in the Watchtower shows the strained relationship between the two post-Metropolis. Nothing Is the Same Anymore, as while both want to be on the same side again, their varying ideals on fighting crime make it clear it’s too late for that. If the Monster Clown were to be alive today, he would have been cackling in glee.
    • Zig-Zagged. Many Justice Leaguers from both sides of the split are working together again, some in a simple Enemy Mine, some for a shot at redemption. Bruce and Clark desperately want to be on the same side again, and a significant chunk of the game's story is devoted to their relationship, and how much they still love each other despite their different paths. Alas, their differences prove irreconcilable short of fisticuffs. But Batman welcomes Supergirl into a new version of the Justice League, and she vows to once more make the Shield of the House Of El stand for hope, not terror.
  • Broad Strokes: The game seems to treat the Injustice comic this way. The very first chapter of the story directly contradicts the comic by showing Damian Wayne killing Zsasz right after Superman started rounding up criminals. In the comic, this didn't happen until Year Five, under vastly different circumstances. However, events from the comic are still referenced in the game such as Black Canary being nearly killed and deposited in an alternate Earth to live with a widowed Green Arrow.
    • Interactions from the Mortal Kombat characters in the game suggest that the events of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe are in some way canon to the Injustice universe despite the fact that the Injustice series is an Alternate Timeline that features several deviations from traditional mainstream DC canon. Notably, the former game featured a typically villainous Lex Luthor, whereas his counterpart from the Injustice universe was completely heroic, was best friends with Superman, and never once dabbled in super villainy.
  • Broken Pedestal: Kara becomes disillusioned with the Regime after she witnesses Wonder Woman brutally stab Harley Quinn, and learning of Superman's true nature.
  • Butt-Monkey: The equivalent of the vanilla arcade mode in this game is the Battle Simulator, but the Battle Simulator is actually Earth-1154, whose inhabitants are stuck in a time loop and now have to deal with interdimensional invaders trying to beat the stuffing out of them, mostly because that time loop just sets everything back to 0 regardless of what happens.
  • Cain and Abel: Despite being cousins instead of siblings, Superman and Supergirl develop this dynamic in pre-fight dialogue. They also have this dynamic near the end of story mode.
  • Camera Abuse: In the Gotham stage, the stage transition between the indoor and street stages has the transitioning character bounce off the camera before they fall to the street below.
  • Can't Default to Murder: When the murderers in the Regime are forced to ally with Batman's team to fight the bigger threat, Brainiac, they are forced to operate under Batman's no-kill rule. This ends up causing problems later when Wonder Woman attempts to kill Cheetah and Harley Quinn attempts to stop her citing the no-killing rule.
  • Cast Herd: Most characters fall under three different factions:
    • Regime: Superman, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Black Adam, Robin.
    • Insurgency: Batman, Blue Beetle, The Flash, Black Canary, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Harley Quinn, Firestorm.
    • Society: Gorilla Grodd, Captain Cold, Cheetah, Deadshot, Scarecrow, Bane, Catwoman, Poison Ivy.
  • Casting Gag:
  • Cats Are Mean: Atrocitus' partner Dex-Starr, although in fairness anyone would be foul-tempered after seeing someone they love get killed and being unable to do anything about it.
  • Central Theme: Thou Shalt Not Kill vs. Pay Evil unto Evil. Is killing villains in the name of justice and saving people morally okay? Where do we draw the line? This and the first game explore the pros and cons of both sides, especially with regards to irredeemable monsters like the Joker, Victor Zsasz, Gorilla Grodd and Brainiac.
  • Cerebus Retcon: The first game's prequel comic showed that the Guardians of the Universe allowed Krypton to be destroyed, which is bad enough. But this game reveals that it was not the Kryptonians destroying their own planet through carelessness, but a deliberate effort by Brainiac, making their behavior and hypocrisy a thousand times worse.
  • Character Customization: One of the main features in the game. You can customize characters equipment to alter their looks, as well as customize their special attacks and stats to change how they handle in matches.
  • Composite Character: The Firestorm seen in the game is Jason Rusch, with Ronnie Raymond's attitude.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: The AI will cheat a lot regardless of their difficulty setting. For instance, they can counter off every single attack you try to deliver to them, especially in the higher difficulties, and at random times, the AI will pull off combos and attacks that are completely unavoidable, unstoppable and unblockable and totally without warning, get some unfair advantages against the player out of nowhere, and even tend to repeat the same attacks over and over again. Here are some examples:
    • Wonder Woman is particularly egregious in this regard, as the AI will have her bring out her lasso to pull the player into her and then throwing them away with her sword, dealing massive amounts of damage to the point of being excruciating. And yes, she will do this countless times.
    • Another notorious example is Brainiac whenever he's not the boss, as he will summon tentacle attacks completely out of the blue to wreak havoc on the player.
    • Also, there's Bane, who will charge at you randomly without warning and especially when you let your guard down, taking out over 10% of your health bar. Also, he will love to span out the Venom to increase the damage of his attacks, making him a serious hazard.
    • Superman is also quite infamous for this, even more so than in the first game, since he will shoot out laser beams from his eyes numerous times without any warning whatsoever as well as countering some of the player's attacks, and also will like to spam his Special randomly to boost his attacks.
    • Damian Wayne/Robin also tends to do this, charging with his sword towards the player in the most unexpected times, though thankfully, this attack can be mostly blocked successfully.
    • Many times, the Rubber-Band A.I. will adjust automatically to your own gear setup to gain an advantage coming out of nowhere.
  • Conflict Killer: Brainiac serves as this for the whole plot: his plan to harvest Earth of valuable contents for his collection and destroy what's left of the planet puts him not only against the good guys, but everyone else in the story including the Regime and the Society.
  • Continuity Snarl: In a unique twist, this game cements a snarl that occurs in the opening cutscene of the first Injustice - in the first game, Batman and Superman are already wearing their respective Insurgency/Regime outfits immediately after Joker nukes Metropolisnote . Here, at least a few days later, Batman and Superman are both wearing suits that are more evocative of their default suits in the first game, which brings the designs closer to the tie-in comic and makes much more sense within the timeline.
  • Convenient Replacement Character: Sinestro has two in this game - Atrocitus as an antagonistic ring wielder, and Scarecrow as a villain whose main motif is fear.
    • Additionally, Deadshot replaces Deathstroke as the gun-toting mercenary of the cast and Captain Cold fills Killer Frost's position as the ice-themed villain.
  • Darker and Edgier: For starters, the characters from the prime universe are no-shows in the story mode.
  • Death is Cheap: Lampshaded, as Green Arrow and Black Canary will be called out on having been killed, with the duo replying something along the lines of "Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated."
  • Decon-Recon Switch: Of the Thou Shall Not Kill rule. While Superman and the Regime are correct that sparing villains such as The Joker are too dangerous to be taken alive, and that they always find a way to escape prison, repeated killings have made the Regime look no different from the villains they just eliminated. Also, even though refusing to take a life left many consequences, not killing avoids Jumping Off the Slippery Slope.
  • Demoted to Extra:
    • Zatanna makes an appearance in Doctor Fate's ending after being playable in the first game. Although admittedly, she was DLC in the first game, therefore having no bearing to the in-game story, so she's still an extra in a different way.
    • Several characters such as Shazam, Sinestro, and Raven only make nominal appearancesnote  as Assist Characters during certain Multiverse events.
  • Designated Girl Fight: In the TV spot for the game, the only women present are Wonder Woman and Supergirl, who only fight each other.
    • One chapter in Story Mode follows Cyborg and Catwoman, and like all such chapters, you can choose which one to bring into each of the fights. The first fight is against Brainwashed and Crazy Harley Quinn, and if you choose Catwoman, Harley will lampshade the trope with "Hissss. Cat Fight!" Funnily, Harley was brainwashed by Poison Ivy, and the character you don't choose fights her offscreen, so the trope is enforced either way (Catwoman and Harley onscreen, or Catwoman and Poison Ivy offscreen).
  • Developer's Foresight: In the mobile game, most characters only have one suit from the console port, so cutscenes are modified so that what characters are wearing match what they wear in gameplay. For example, in the first chapter, Batman wears a suit based on the prime universe batsuit from the first game; this specific suit doesn’t exist in the mobile game, so cutscenes are changed to have Batman wear his default suit.
  • Dialogue Tree:
    • Similar to Mortal Kombat X, the dialogues prior to a fight are unique for each matchup and the characters talk back and forth to each other, as the quotes page shows. They always follow the same structure: quip-retort-rejoinder. Unlike MKX, however, the first one to appear on screen talks second.
    • Interestingly, the player select/stage select screen also follows this, to some degree. 2nd player's character would do something to 1st player's character, and they do a counterplay attack, making the exchange slow down as the second character reacts from 1P's attack.
    • The Clash system, as in the last game, has the defender make a quip before the attacker retorts, with a unique dialogue for every character match-up.
  • Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: You can have the married couple of Black Canary and Green Arrow fight each other like any other character, and while neither character pulls any punches, Black Canary's pre-fight dialogue is more threatening and open to violence than the Arrow's, which tends to be about household disagreements or some type of quip at his own expense, but never has Arrow directly acknowledge he's about to attack his wife.
    Black Canary: Call it a lover's quarrel.
    Green Arrow: Does that mean less bruising?
  • Downer Beginning: If you thought the beginning of the first Injustice was a downer, hoo boy... This game opens with the destruction of Krypton at the hands of Brainiac's forces, and Kara Zor-El not only having to watch her mother die before her eyes, but being separated from her infant cousin Kal-El as they make their escape. And to make things worse, this is the Injustice-verse where Superman goes evil, so poor Kara is not going to have a good time.
  • The Dreaded: Subverted. Batman is well-known for being feared among criminals, but no one's afraid of him anymore. Criminals may be a superstitious and cowardly lot, but knowing that he's really Bruce Wayne, a flesh and blood mortal, has made it impossible to fear him.
  • Dub Name Change: Peña Duro is translated as Peña Dura in the Mexican dub.
  • Enemy Mine: Brainiac's attempt to destroy the Earth forces Batman to slowly accept the help of the fallen heroes who tried to kill all the planet's criminals. First he accepts the recently reformed Green Lantern, then the isolationist Aquaman, and once there's no one else left, Superman, the Regime's leader and the one who turned Batman's son into a murderer.
    • Averted when Batman and Superman form an alliance to stop Brainiac, but that doesn't mean they've reconciled.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Nobody really likes the Joker. Even vile persons like Brainiac, Darkseid, several members of the Society, Enchantress, Atrocitus, and Black Manta (and his former moll Harley) can't stand the memory of him, let alone meeting him in person, viewing him as a disease that deserves to die (again) due to their distaste for exactly how he caused Superman's Face–Heel Turn, despite disapproving of his actions post-Metropolis, aside from general principle. More to the point, while the other bad guys stick to their agendas, they don't like being compared to the Monster Clown that had no other reason to perform terror, spread wanton chaos and to prove people are bad deep down. When anybody finds it silly to torment innocents to death or mock at their misery, they obviously have problems. Even his lone redeeming quality — attempts at Black Comedy — are still used to point out the scumbag he truly is. The game also plays his role as The Corrupter to Harley to explain her Heel–Face Turn.
  • Evil Power Vacuum: Without the Regime to keep order in the world through fear and several superheroes dead or missing for refusing to join it, there's very little keeping supervillains from wrecking havoc upon the world in check, enabling the rise of Grodd's Society. Even more than that, without Superman keeping the planet in check, Brainiac declares that Earth's defenses have been "irrevocably compromised" and invades the planet without any effort. And both the Parliament of Trees and the Lords of Order are happy to let Brainiac conquer Earth if it means protecting the Green and preventing chaos from upsetting the balance of the universe, combined with the fact that Nabu has warned Dr. Fate that attempting to intervene risks creating an even worse future.
  • Evil Versus Oblivion: Superman and the Regime put aside their attempts to stop violence by doing violence unto the violent so they can help Batman and his heroes stop Brainiac from destroying Earth like he did to Superman's home planet.
    • The Society (But not Gorilla Grodd) breaks with Brainiac because they want to conquer Earth rather than destroy it
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink: This is a comic book video game after all, so it's to be expected. The roster includes multiple species of aliens, magic practitioners, demigods, telepathic gorillas, metahumans, science heroes, and the main character is the Goddamn Batman.
    Brainiac: I wish to study Earth's so-called "magic."
  • Fighting Across Time and Space: The Flash's super move has him dragging his enemy through the past, first crashing them into an Egyptian sphinx, then a T. rex, then their past self from a moment prior.
  • Final Solution: The flashback on Chapter One has Batman going to Arkham Asylum to fight off Superman and the rest of the Regime, who have gone inside and are rounding up the prisoners to kill them.
  • Fire/Water Juxtaposition: Discussed between Firestorm and Captain Cold. Firestorm thinks Fire vs. Ice is clichéd, but Cold has a soft spot for the classics.
  • First-Person Dying Perspective: Sub-Zero's Victory Pose has him walking through the camera, picking the cameraman (supposedly his opponent), freezing their neck and ripping it, in a family-friendly recreation of his "Spine Rip" fatality from his home series.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Batman takes Firestorm aside to criticize him for recklessness and tells him to make up for it by completing his next mission more discretely. It's so discrete we don't see Firestorm complete the mission on-screen; he alchemized Gold Kryptonite and provided it to Batman, which the player only learns after the fact.
    • In Aquaman's chapter, he kills Grodd with little to no hesitation in the name of justice. This comes up again in the final chapter, where he opposes Batman despite not siding with the Superman's regime any longer; he viewed Brainiac's crimes against Atlantis in the same light, and so opposes sparing Brainiac on principle.
  • Forgot About His Powers: After Brainiac is defeated both Superman and Batman argue whether or not to kill Brainiac. Superman wants to kill Brainiac because he is too dangerous and he believes he can restore the captured cities himself with Cyborg's help. Batman wants Brainiac alive because he thinks killing him will risk the destruction of more cities, although he neglects to mention how to contain Brainiac. Neither of them mention the possibility of using Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth to force Brainiac to tell them how to take control of the ship and safely release the cities.
  • The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: The majority of the victory outros seem to take this form, the various characters performing some kind of aggressive action in the direction of the camera.
  • Framing Device: In Versus mode, the battles are presented as Batman watching live feeds of superheroes clashing from the Batcave... even, somehow, when Batman himself is one of the fighters.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: According to one of the creators on the Watchtower stream, if you watch the first chapter, they deliberately framed and performed the first dialogue scenes so Batman never looks directly at Robin and they never make eye contact, to indicate that their relationship has frayed.
  • Genre Savvy: Green Arrow has a good moment of awareness in the story mode when he and Black Canary subdue and handcuff Grodd.
    Gorilla Grodd: (Starts chuckling ominously)
    Green Arrow: It's never good when you slap the cuffs on and then they start chuckling.
  • Giant Spider: During the Long Halloween event, an enormous spider will randomly latch onto the screen with a loud screech, obstructing the player's view (and also terrifying them).
  • Glassy Prison: The former dictator, Superman, is kept in a circular glass prison where Batman can observe and interrogate him while giving Superman nowhere to hide from view. It also means that whenever the player selects the Red Sun Prison stage, Superman will be watching the battle in plain sight from the safety of his glass cell. note 
  • Godzilla Threshold: After Brainiac begins his invasion of Earth, both the Regime's and Batman's first thought is to get Superman, though Bruce initially tries to go it alone, because... he's still Bruce.
  • Gold and White Are Divine: The "Gods" shader makes a character's armor golden and white and gives them glowing white eyes.
  • Good Is Impotent: Batman and his allies barely manage to do anything over the course of Story Mode. They may beat up bad guys when it's their turn to be playable, but otherwise tend to get themselves almost killed, become Mind Controlled by villains (everyone except Batman gets a turn at this) and/or get themselves hurt picking a fight with a member of the Regime unless they're playable at the time. Particularly during the two ending paths, where regardless of which side you pick, Batman is inexplicably able to beat two powerful Regime members and another who was Superman's reluctant ally once, but Green Lantern, Flash and Supergirl all go up against Superman and all they do is slow him down — the latter the most justified case because he is Superman, after all. The Regime, meanwhile, do most of the heavy plot-lifting, including killing Scarecrow (maybe) and Gorilla Grodd, Black Adam using the Rock of Eternity to disrupt the shields on Brainiac's Skullship, Cyborg removing Brother Eye from Brainiac's control and Superman having a climactic showdown with Brainiac that he ultimately wins. Most of the Regime's endings also feature them killing Brainiac and making a contribution to fixing the world's problems as well, while Batman and his allies have endings that either heavily gloss over how Brainiac was dealt with, involve an attempt to beat him that goes completely wrong or just leave the door wide open for him to return without really explaining how they're going to prevent it.
  • The Good, the Bad, and the Evil: Batman as the Good, Superman and the Regime as the Bad, and Grodd's group and Brainiac serving differing shades of the Evil (genocidal world conqueror and Omnicidal Maniac, respectively).
  • Greater-Scope Villain:
    • The Lords of Order support Brainiac's invasion because balance was compromised by the Regime's defeat and they have forbidden Dr. Fate from intervening, lest an even worse catastrophe is on the horizon. While it might seem like they are Above Good and Evil, Raiden's arcade ending implies that they are actively engineering such a catastrophe in order to correct the Multiverse, which threatens not only the Injustice-verse Earth, but Earthrealm (Mortal Kombat's Earth) and all other worlds too.
    • Brainiac served as this to Superman and the Regime in the first game. While the Joker was the one that pushed Superman to darkness, the latter would never be on the planet in the first place if the Coluan didn't blow up Krypton. In addition, he separated his cousin Kara, who was supposed to guard and protect Supes, which would have turned him out in a much different path than he took. The prequel comics also imply he is this for Ra's al Ghul and the League of Assassins, since it's revealed that Coluan technology was used to create AMAZO in their plan to destroy humanity.
  • Grievous Harm with a Body:
    • Some of the interactables at the Ace o' Clubs bar in Metropolis are patrons sitting at the bar. Playable characters can pick up and throw the guy at the opponent.
    • Also the transition from outside the prison to inside involves the victim being slamming into cages hanging from the ceiling which have inmates inside.
    • The Flash's Super hits an opponent with their own body via time travel.
    • In a slightly darker take, the Arkham Asylum stage has a bagged body on a gurney which the player can throw at their opponent.
  • Guest Fighter: Four of the DLC characters come from different franchises. Mortal Kombat is represented with Sub-Zero and Raidennote , while Dark Horse Comics has Hellboy and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arrive from their current residence in the I.D.W comics brand.
  • Hate Sink:
    • In-Universe, if there's a person who's universally loathed and disliked by all the villains, heroes, and neutrally-aligned characters, it's the Joker — the Regime, the Insurgency, several members of the Society, Atrocitus, Brainiac, and even Darkseid voice their open contempt of him. Harley for her part is absolutely done with him and refuses to partake in his madness any longer. Of course, given that it was his nuking of Metropolis just to see if Superman would break, which propelled his Start of Darkness and the formation of the Regime, and which resulted in five years of misery for heroes and villains alike, their hatred is hardly unjustified. In the comics, even Ra's al Ghul voices his contempt for the Joker.
    • Wonder Woman's actions as a member of the Regime have caused her to be hated by everyone other than Superman's followers. This includes the Amazons, who disowned her before the events of the game; Supergirl, who is appalled by Diana coldly deciding to let innocents die and voicing her desire kill Batman even as he's fighting by their side; Blue Beetle, who disheartedly admits he no longer admires her; and Batman, who blames her for preying on Superman's insecurities and enabling him to become a dictator.
  • Have You Seen My God?: The Greek gods, specifically. In the tie-in comics the Regime's actions drove the Greek pantheon from Earth leaving the Amazons without their patron deities. It's referenced a few times in-game and contributes to why Wonder Woman is disgraced and exiled.
  • Heal It With Fire: Supergirl uses her heat vision to cauterize one of Harley's wounds.
  • Heel–Face Door-Slam: Doctor Fate is killed by Brainiac right after Superman crushes his helmet and frees him from Nabu's control.
  • Heel–Face Turn: After serving the Regime in the previous game, Barry Allen (The Flash), Arthur Curry (Aquaman), and Hal Jordan (Green Lantern) have returned to protecting people instead of ruling them through fear. In Barry's case, he already became The Atoner and is now doing more in a post-Regime world. In Arthur's case, he's retreated back to his domain of the oceans in order to protect it, since his reputation has been shattered on the surface. In Hal's case, this is represented by his Good Costume Switch since the first game, as he served as a Yellow Lantern under the Regime and has now returned to the Green Lantern Corps.
    • One of Blue Beetle's bits of pre-fight banter with Hal Jordan says he's not a fan after Hal's "heel turn".note 
  • Here We Go Again!:
    • Prior to the events of the first game, Sinestro convinced Hal Jordan to become a member of his corps. Now Atrocitus wants to make him a Red Lantern.
    • After defeating Brainiac together, the Regime and Insurgency return to being enemies for one last time to usurp the other on Brainiac and Earth's fates.
    • In Green Lantern's Arcade ending, Hal has to go undercover with the Yellows when Sinestro escaped. Meaning he's once again a Yellow Lantern.
  • Hijacked by Ganon: The final few fights of the Story Mode are caused by the Regime trying to kill Brainiac for good after he's been defeated because they see him as too evil to keep around, and Batman trying to stop it because not only do they have no idea whether or not he's still necessary to restore the rest of the cities (the ones Supes managed to restore took a lot of effort and may not be replicated) but because giving the Regime access to that kind of power is too risky (and sure enough, the ending where the Regime wins has Superman escalating to a full-blown tyrannical God-Emperor by fusing with Brainiac's tech).
  • Hit Points: Unconventionally, Injustice 2 gives an actual numerical value to a character's total health in addition to the standard life bar. In most fighting games this information is simply stored behind the scenes with the player, at most, being given numerical damage numbers for combos without a complete total to compare it to.
  • Hope Bringer: In the "Absolute Justice" ending, Kara (Supergirl) aspires to redeem the symbol Superman had tainted by being the new hero to bring hope to the world and redeem her family name. She joins forces with Batman to rebuild a new Justice League.
  • How the Mighty Have Fallen:
    • Since being deposed, those who remained loyal to the Regime in the first game have gone from ruling the world almost uncontested to hiding out in Black Adam's country of Kahndaq or imprisoned for life, with Superman trapped in a Tailor-Made Prison surrounded by red-sun energy generators.
    • The Justice League itself has fallen apart; with Superman and his allies in prison or on the run, and Batman finding himself dangerously short of allies, there is no such thing as the world's greatest heroes anymore. At one stage in Story Mode, Batman and Superman uncover the old round table in the Watchtower, which has been defaced and sliced up, punctuating this further.
  • Implied Death Threat: In the Absolute Power ending, Superman threatens to have Supergirl undergo Unwilling Roboticization if she refuses to become The Dragon to his newly restored Regime, bringing up Batman, who has been Reforged into a Minion. Being that she is in a Tailor-Made Prison surrounded by red-sun energy generators, Supes knows she'll be in his fold one way or another. And in his arcade ending, who's to say Superman turned his cousin into a brainwashed robotic monster even when she reluctantly joined the Regime?
  • Kneel Before Zod:
    • Grodd wants some of the people he fights to do this.
    • Darkseid makes demands of a similar caliber.
    • Bane does the same but simpler and with only one word.
    Darkseid: On your knees, fool!
  • Killed Off for Real: Gorilla Grodd and Doctor Fate meet their ends at the hands of Aquaman and Brainiac, respectively, while Brainiac himself is Killed Offscreen in the 'Absolute Power' ending. Scarecrow is also heavily implied to be killed by Wonder Woman.
  • Killed Offscreen:
    • Grodd killed King Solovar and took his place as ruler of Gorilla City prior to the events of the game.
    • It's never outright confirmed, but if Wonder Woman indeed killed Scarecrow then this trope applies.
    • The fate of Brainiac if Superman wins in the final chapter of Story Mode.
  • Kraken and Leviathan: Aquaman has gained the ability to summon Kraken tentacles as part of his standard moveset now. The background of the Atlantis stage also shows that The Trench Queen, one of Aquaman's more massive, Leviathan-esque foes, has been captured.
  • Lampshade Hanging: After Batman and Robin (Damian Wayne) have an argument about killing villains, they take down some bad guys. Damian asks why Batman won't kill people, but he will beat criminals until they have traumatic brain injuries. Batman doesn't respond.
  • Legion of Doom: Gorilla Grodd has formed one, fittingly named the Society, comprised of multiple other villains, in an attempt to fill the vacuum of power the Regime's fall has left.
  • Let's You and Him Fight: The Story Mode has three encounters where allied superheroes misunderstand each other and fight, often for the sake of making sure each chapter has four playable battles.
    • In Chapter 2, Swamp Thing attacks Harley, Green Arrow, and Black Canary because they endangered his plant life by blowing up a few of Scarecrow's boats. Only after Harley defeats him does she let him know that the guys in the boats were smuggling in dangerous chemicals that would ruin the swamp. Upon hearing this, Swamp Thing is more than happy to clean up the last of the smugglers with the three.
    • In Chapter 4, the Flash sees the sudden return of Hal Jordan, a former hero who was imprisoned by the Green Lanterns after the Regime's downfall. Hal tries to show his newfound Green Lantern ring as proof that he's reformed, but Barry is more willing to believe that the Lanterns made a massive mistake than to believe his traitor of a friend reformed, so the two fight. The fighting only stops when Barry realizes he's winning too easily, meaning Hal must be holding back and showing a sign of his reformation. Remembering that he too once served the Regime, Barry agrees to rekindle his friendship with Hal.
    • In Chapter 5, Green Lantern goes to Atlantis to convince Aquaman to help save the planet from Brainiac's invasion. Not wanting to get involved in matters outside Atlantis after nearly backing the Regime years earlier, Aquaman refuses even though Green Lantern insists that isolating Atlantis will only buy it time before Brainiac sets his sights on it. Tired of the discussion, Aquaman orders Green Lantern to leave, only for Green Lantern, with his eyes flashing red as voices around him whisper "Rage!", to remain and attack Aquaman. Once Green Lantern wins, Brainiac's minions arrive in Atlantis and force the two to cooperate.
  • Living Lie Detector: Gorilla Grodd and Supergirl showcase this in some of their intros, justified by their respective powersets.
    Batman: Is that supposed to scare me?
    Gorilla Grodd: Bravado can't hide your fear!

    Superman: You can't stop me!
    Supergirl: Your heartbeat says you're lying.
  • Made of Iron: It makes sense that non-humans like Superman or magical characters like Doctor Fate can be thrown through buildings, shot with Darkseid's laser beams, or get thrown into space by Supergirl, but the non-powered, human charactersi.e.  have no right to survive getting thrown into The Sphinx's nose while going fast enough to travel through time and then keep fighting like their spine wasn't smashed into paste.i.e. 
  • Meat-Sack Robot: Brainiac has at his disposal robots known as "Betas". Several cutscenes in story mode show that they have some exposed bone and flesh, of which are presumably of some of the numerous billions of humanoid species he has forcefully assimilated for use in his robotic army.
  • Mêlée à Trois: Initially Batman and his allies, Superman and his allies, and Grodd and his allies are having a throwdown. Then Brainiac arrives on the scene and Earth is united against him. Further complicating things is all the heroes and villains of unknown or unclear allegiance running around pursuing their own agendas (such as Atrocitus and Reverse-Flash), to say nothing of those who may end up switching sides (like Supergirl).
  • Meaningful Echo: In the first level, Batman tells Wonder Woman that he is at Arkham Asylum to keep her and Superman from making a terrible mistake, as they are planning to kill all of the prisoners. In Chapter 9, Supergirl witnesses Diana stab Harley in the gut, and when asked why she is saving Harley's life, Kara declares "Stopping you before you make a mistake.".
  • Militaries Are Useless: Invoked in the story as a Justified Trope. Green Arrow and Black Canary ask why the military isn't sent to apprehend Grodd and the Society. Batman explains that the Regime was the military - hence dismantling it means there's effectively no military to send in lieu of heroes now.
  • Mirrors Reflect Everything: Captain Cold shoots at Wonder Woman with his "cold gun," which reduces anything its hits to 0° Celsius, only for her to raise her well-polished shield and bounce his "cold ray" at his ally (Reverse-Flash) right next to him, freezing him in his place so Captain Cold has to fight Wonder Woman alone. Which is good, since the game only supports one-on-one fights. Granted, this is hardly the first time Wonder Woman was able to block an attack from one of the Flash's enemies in blatant defiance of the laws of physics.
  • Morton's Fork: The invasion of Brainiac forces the Insurgency into a hard choice, either release Superman from prison and work with the Regime to stop him and ultimately deal with him later, or futilely try to fight Brainiac with severely diminishing resources. Batman eventually settles on the former.
  • Moveset Clone: Premier Skins replace a character with a new identity, but their gameplay remains exactly the same. Some Premier Skins replace the identity with another who has taken the superhero name (like Jay Garrick Flash) or replace them with another character with a pretty close theme (like Mr. Freeze replacing Captain Cold or Black Lightning over Raiden).
    • Inverted with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They're all one character ("TMNT") for selection purposes, but because you can equip different gear on a character, including weapons and loadout sets, which weapon you equip a TMNT loadout with determines which of the four Turtles it is. Each Turtle has different dialogues, combos, and special moves, and are announced by name. So instead of multiple characters filed under the same moveset, its four separate movesets filed under one character.
  • Multiple Endings: The story mode in Injustice 2 offers two branching paths towards the end when Brainiac is defeated with the Insurgency and the Regime clashing over whether or not to spare him, depending on which side the player chooses:
    • "Absolute Justice" is a Bittersweet Ending. Batman defeats Superman and his allies with Supergirl's help and this time, he sends Clark to the Phantom Zone after he has been permanently depowered by Gold Kryptonite. However, the cities that Brainiac captured (Metropolis and Coast City) are still lost and his ultimate fate goes unmentioned. Kara is welcomed into the Justice League, but her last still-living relative is gone and worse, he left a legacy of fear and hate that will be hard for her to overcome as a representative of the House of El.
    • "Absolute Power" is a Downer Ending: Superman defeats Batman and captures Supergirl after she turns on him. He then kills Brainiac off-screen, fuses with his technology and becomes a Coluan-Kryptonian hybrid cyborg planning to restore his Regime by recruiting several of the aliens that Brainiac has captured and offers Supergirl a Sadistic Choice: either join him willingly and become The Dragon to his restored Regime, or be converted into his brainwashed minion — just like what he did with Batman. This ending is picked up with the comic miniseries Injustice vs. Masters of the Universe.
  • The Multiverse: Present both in the story and as a game feature.
    • The Green Arrow present in the game is explicitly from another universe; if the comics are any indication, Black Canary is from the original Injustice universe but was taken to Green Arrow's by an intervening Doctor Fate, and has now returned to her home universe.
    • The game itself features The Multiverse mode, where Brother Eye is observing alternate realities for potential threats. In a similar vein to Mortal Kombat X's Tower Konquest mode, where new challenges and modifiers are present and ever changing on an hourly, daily, and weekly basis.
  • My Greatest Failure: The events surrounding the destruction of Metropolis are this for both Superman and Batman, but for different reasons.
    • For Superman, it's his reason for his past actions and those in the present. He believes that his old habit of holding back is what caused the deaths of his wife, their unborn child and the population of his adopted home city, to the extent that it made him cross the Despair Event Horizon and become convinced that when superheroes hold back, their loved ones die. If what he tells Supergirl about it is any indication, a part of his motives is to ensure that no one else is hurt in a war or disaster that he could have prevented.
    • For Batman, it's a major source of regret and part of why he believes he's responsible for Superman. They used to be very good friends, but the Joker destroyed everything he held dear and drove him to abandon the One Rule. Because Batman was unable to stop his Arch-Enemy from enacting the events that set Superman's Start of Darkness in motion, and unable to get through to his old friend at a time when he was emotionally vulnerable and in need of support, he feels responsible for what came after as well. Supergirl also feels this way, as unlike Batman she could have saved Lois and prevented Superman from becoming a tyrant thanks to having Superman's powers herself.
    • For different reasons, Supergirl feels this way about Superman in particular. She was entrusted with carrying on the legacy of the House of El as well as being Kal-El's teacher and protector. Once she realizes how far her cousin has fallen and how the El symbol has become associated with a brutal totalitarian regime, she's clearly heartbroken, feeling she failed both her cousin and her family.
    • Flash and Green Lantern both feel this way about their time in the Regime, with both of their chapters involving them confronting the consequence of siding with Superman.
  • Neglectful Precursors: Both the Parliament of Trees and the Lords of Order are happy to let Brainiac conquer Earth if it means protecting the Green and preventing chaos from upsetting the balance of the universe.
  • Never the Selves Shall Meet: Averted with the Flash's time traveling Super. The last thing Flash does to the opponent after crashing them around the time periods is to bodyslam them into their own past self in the split second before past Flash begins crashing them around the time periods!
  • Never Trust a Trailer:
    • The trailer for the game shows the character's armor forming around them like an expanded form of Collapsible Helmet, however the armor can only be equipped outside of a fight, never during.
    • Bryan Cranston narrated the first trailer, yet he doesn't voice a character in the game itself.
    • "Shattered Alliances- Part 5" featured the debut of Brainiac in gameplay; however, he has a different voice compared to the one from the "Lines Are Redrawn" cinematic trailer, who sounded a lot like Dee Bradley Baker and had Brainiac explicitly narrating the trailer (confirmed by his bio's quote).
    • Damian Wayne wears his Robin outfit in all of the trailers, implying that he's going to go back to being Robin. In the game, however, he's only seen wearing the outfit during a flashback.
    • Doctor Fate and Swamp Thing's reveal trailers imply that they'll be Batman's allies, or at least the Regime's enemies. They aren't.
    • On that note, Doctor Fate's character bio on the official website mentions that even though "the Helm compels Kent to preserve this grim fate for the sake of Order", his humanity "compels him to intervene on behalf of his heroic friends — and risk the unforeseeable consequences". The first part is true, but the second part? Not so much.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: Cyborg voices his disgust for Bane because he's a criminal, but Bane retorts that Cyborg's also a criminal (for supporting Superman's Regime), making them one and the same. Cyborg's response shows he doesn't mind the comparison that much.
    Cyborg: The difference between us? I'm still standing.
  • Obliviously Evil: Kara's protective nature of her Kryptonian cousin (Superman) and good heart is used and manipulated by the Regime. Kara really doesn't know of the Regime's (and by extension Superman's) true nature and motives until later. By the time she does however, she immediately defects over to Batman's side.
  • One-Steve Limit: Cyborg and Mr. Freeze (Victor Stone and Victor Fries, respectively), as well as Firestorm andRed Hood (Jason Rusch and Jason Todd, respectively). Also Supergirl and Power Girl (Kara Zor-El and Kara Zor-L), although in order to avoid confusion, Supergirl goes by "Kara Danvers" while Power Girl goes by "Karen Starr". Jay Garrick downplays this for the Jasons as while his real name is Jason Garrick, he prefers to be called Jay. Zigzagged Superman and Doctor Fate (Clark Kent and Kent Nelson).
  • Only a Flesh Wound: Within the course of two cutscenes, the Flash gets shot in the leg by Deadshot, tumbles along the ground at super speed, has his bullet wound frozen by Captain Cold's ice gun, and then Deadshot stabs him through the shoulder. Not only does he quickly shrug off each injury after receiving it, but he beats up Cold and Deadshot in the middle of all of it and is in good enough shape to cross state lines to another city while fighting Reverse Flash.
  • Order Is Not Good: The Lords of Order want to restore order on Earth... By letting Brainiac blow it up. Apparently, the Regime's defeat disrupted the balance and Earth's destruction is required so that a potentially worse catastrophe is avoided. Raiden's arcade ending shows that the Lords are engineering an armaggedon to correct the multiverse, making them Greater Scope Villains of this game.
  • Our Worm Holes Are Different: Darkseid's Boom Tubes. He uses them in his fight intro and in his Limit Break. He doesn't get bigger when his hand goes through one to crush his opponent, he returns to his normal size.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: The Insurgency tries to go up against Brainiac and the Society, but being Badass Normals and low-level metas apart from Firestorm (powered by nuclear energy and can become a living atom bomb) and Blue Beetle (has an alien war machine giving him the capability to destroy cities or even planets), both of whom are incredibly powerful but dreadfully inexperienced and so kept on the sidelines, they realize this alone isn't enough to stop Brainiac. They're forced to form an Enemy Mine with Superman and the Regime remnants to stop the Coluan from destroying Earth.
  • Play Everyday: In plenty of ways. There are daily missions for you to complete, the stages in the Multiverse rotate after certain periods of time, you can earn loot boxes daily by playing AI Battles, and then some.
  • Post-Final Boss: In the story mode, while Brainiac is the Final Boss for gameplay purposes, he's not the last opponent to be fought. After he's defeated, the player is prompted to side with either Batman or Superman and defeat the other and his allies, all of whom are treated as regular opponents.
  • Power Creep, Power Seep: Superman is practically a living god, but his combat abilities are balanced so that other characters like Batman can fight him on equal footing. In the story campaign, there are some justifications for characters of greatly varying levels of power being a match for one another, such as in the first chapter when Batman uses a red solar grenade to dampen Superman's powers. Other times, it's not justified. Such as when Supergirl fights Nightwing, someone who's a Badass Normal but is leagues behind Supergirl in power, yet it's treated like he actually stood a chance.
  • Precision F-Strike:
    • During Chapter 3 of the story mode, when Brainiac's invasion begins, Black Canary noticeably lets out a "Holy shit" in response.
    • At the end of Chapter 6, when Firestorm starts to go nuclear, Blue Beetle's reaction is "Jesucristo, Jason!"
    • In addition, Captain Cold drops an F-bomb (albeit bleeped) in his Arcade ending.
  • Principles Zealot: Exaggerated for both Batman and Superman.
    • As seen many times, Batman constantly clings to his Thou Shall Not Kill rule and other bootless compunctions, even if Murder Is the Best Solution. This includes wanting to spare Brainiac of all people.
    • Superman, on the other hand, clings on to Pay Evil unto Evil, especially in regards to villains like the Joker and Brainiac. One flashback to the beginning of his reign has him turning Arkham Asylum into his own personal copy-cat Auschwitz to deal with all convicted criminals in Gotham (he still reacted to Robin's summary execution of Victor Zsasz with shock, but it was probably the abruptness of it). Both the "Power" ending and his Ladder ending have him decide that just taking over Earth is not enough to quench his desire to bring order, and he starts down the path of becoming a galactic (and even multiversal) conqueror.
    • Deconstructed in conclusion. The conflict between the two won't end because neither side will ever back down and to come out on top, one will have to take down the other permanently without resorting to murder because if that happens, the murderer can make his victim the martyr who will further escalate the war.
  • Production Foreshadowing: The Mortal Kombat guest characters repeatedly mention in their intros merging timelines and an unknown threat encroaching upon the realms, both of which foreshadow the plot of Mortal Kombat 11.
  • Promoted to Playable: After only being cameos in the first game, Deadshot, Gorilla Grodd, Atrocitus, and Darkseid are now fully playable characters. Black Manta, who is a background character in the second game becomes playable in the second Fighter Pack DLC.
  • Put on a Bus:
    • Injustice 2 takes place entirely within the Injustice universe, meaning the characters from the main universe don't appear in the story proper. Though many of the Mirror Match quotes imply that one of the fighters is from the main universe. Also, the main universe's Barry Allen appears alongside Jay Garrick, Jesse Quick, and Wally West in The Flash's Arcade ending, and Aquaman's ending shows him going to the main universe so that they may once more assist in taking down Superman.
    • The absence of Sinestro, one of the first game's characters, is explained by his imprisonment elsewhere in the Universe. Since the playable story is exclusively set around Earth, there's no need for him to appear.
    • Hawkgirl, Raven, Killer Frost and Solomon Grundy, despite being Regime characters, are nowhere to be found in the main story, even after Supergirl, Wonder Woman and Black Adam break Superman's other associates out of their cells.
    • Zatanna only appears in Doctor Fate's Arcade ending.
    • Deathstroke, Ares, Doomsday, Lobo, Martian Manhunter, Zod, and Barbara Gordon are simply dropped and don't even get a mention.
    • Scorpion is sometimes mentioned by Raiden and Sub-Zero, and is still present as part of the NetherRealm Studios logo, but otherwise does not appear in the game.
  • Rainbow Pimp Gear: Averted. By playing the game, you're able to earn customization items for each character with stat boosters and effects, though they all compliment each other quite well instead of making said character look like a Rummage Sale Reject. Bonus effects and boosts are given when characters are equipped with a matching combination of rare items.
    • Gear also matches whichever color palette you currently have selected for that character's costume, and while some of the individual shaders are quite clashing, it's by design in the case of that particular color set. All the gear changes to match the palette equally.
  • Recursive Canon: In a pre-battle interaction with Vixen, The Atom will comment how they're like Jacqui and Takeda, and tells her to play more fighting games when she doesn't get it. This gets amusing when Sub-Zero and Raiden are Guest Fighters, with their plots that brought them to the Injustice universe picking up directly after the end of Mortal Kombat X.
  • Retcon:
    • The first chapter of the Story Mode is a flashback that revisits the Arkham incident from Year One in the original prequel comic, the events take a different turn regarding Robin's Face–Heel Turn: whereas in the original events, he accidentally kills Nightwing during a fight and gets abandoned by a grief-stricken Batman with only Superman left to accept him, here Robin executes Mr. Zsasz in cold blood (when the latter would only die a couple of years later in the Injustice timeline) and willingly joins Superman's side. With that said, Nightwing's death is still acknowledged to have happened by Damian's hands in this timeline.
      • The overall events at Arkham are also changed, namely Superman's intentions for the prisoners and his motives for doing so. Here, Superman is portrayed as having gone off the deep end and wants to execute the prisoners of Arkham to prevent them committing any more crimes. In the comic, Superman wasn't nearly as extreme as he's portrayed here and just wanted to clear Arkham out for being a worthless Cardboard Prison that should have been shut down long ago and its prisoners moved to a properly secure containment facility. The incident also clears Harley Quinn of her part in Dick's death (by starting the prison riot that led to Damian lashing out at Dick in anger) and shows Batman beating up Cyborg, Wonder Woman, Superman and Robin in an attempt to stop them when in the comic, his actions weren't nearly as badass or morally straight (he used a virus he uploaded to Cyborg's neural network against him).
      • Batman and Superman also wear different outfits than they did in the opening cutscene of the first game.
    • In the same chapter, Cyborg mentions Starfire perished in Metropolis which directly contradicts with the events of Year 3 Annual, where Starfire was not only alive and well, but was present in the funeral ceremony with all surviving Titans (including Cyborg) and was last seen being taken to the Phantom Zone by Superman and her teammates when they tried to fight him.
  • Reimagining the Artifact: In the comics, Brainiac collected cities by shrinking and putting them in glass bottles. Something that, given the number of size altering technology and magic, should be easily reversible. Here, the cities are digitized and stored in bizarre, computer spheres that can only be accessed via his ship's systems and can be accidentally deleted if the user isn't careful.
  • Running Gag: Much of Supergirl and Atrocitus's banter revolves around the former making fun of the latter, including comparing his plasma-spewing to a baby spitting up.
  • Sadistic Choice: Near the end of the game, you’ll have to pick two endings: Absolute Power or Absolute Justice, which has their intelligent, yet incredibly flawed leaders of the Regime and Insurgency fighting over what they’ll do to Brainiac.
    • If the Absolute Power Ending is picked, The Regime rises again and renamed themselves as the Legion of Superheroes, brainwashes many of its oppositions, free the trapped cities on Brainiac’s collection, begins oppressing humanity once more, and plans to bring order to other universes. On the bright side though, Brainiac and Gorilla Grodd are dead, the Earth is safer due to the Regime’s bolstered army of Alien Races, and their Repressive, but Efficient rule can bring great peace once more.
      • Within the Absolute Power Ending, Superman, who has bonded with Brainiac's ship, and brainwashed his enemies, orders Supergirl to become The Dragon to him, but threatens to forcibly cyborgize her if she doesn't.
    • If the Absolute Justice is picked, The Insurgents will continue sticking to their ineffective Thou Shalt Not Kill rule, which allows criminals to escape Cardboard Prisons, take a long time trying to restore the trapped cities in Brainiac’s collection, and the world will have a huge gap to fill due to the fall of the Regime. On the bright side though, the cities will eventually be restored, the Justice League will be reborn, the Regime’s members have been imprisoned on different, far more secure, prisons, and Batman will begin assisting the President in helping the victims of Brainiac’s invasion.
  • Self-Serving Memory: Plenty of it to go around. Superman and his supporters see themselves as tragic heroes who were betrayed by Flash and Batman and those they killed as mere casualties of war. Batman isn't totally innocent either, though; he and his friends keep rubbing the Insurgency's victory in Superman and his supporters' faces, but seem to have forgotten that he only won after a grueling 5-year campaign he spent most of the time losing and after he called in help from another dimension, or that he was on the verge of giving up and needed a still-heroic version of Superman to defeat his own.
  • Sequel Escalation:
    • The dev team really tried to up the ante with the super moves of returning characters. Examples include Batman going from ramming the Batmobile at his opponent to having the Batwing open fire on them, and Aquaman going from underwater shark attack to a prehistoric monster in the middle of a raging whirlpool.
    • Plot-wise, the Regime is making a comeback, the Society has arisen to rule the world... and Brainiac is staking his claim on Earth as well, forcing Superman and Batman to join forces and stop him.
      • Gods Among Us was, at its core, 'Batman vs. Superman'. Injustice 2 has gone for ''Batman vs. Superman vs. Grodd, and then Everyone vs. Brainiac'.
  • Sequel Hook:
    • Reverse-Flash says that the existence of the Regime was an anomaly in the timestream that makes his own existence a paradox, implying that Superman's downfall wasn't a natural occurrence and that there are greater forces at work yet to be revealed.
    • In the "Absolute Justice" ending, Superman vows to return in spite of his depowering and banishment to the Phantom Zone, and it's suggested Batman and Supergirl are going to build a new Justice League.
    • Some of the arcade endings imply that a multiversal conflict is on the verge of happening, and that heroes of multiple worlds have to band together to stop it.
    • Dr. Fate hints at a future threat likely even worse than Brainiac when justifying why he's refused to stop the alien tyrant.
      Dr. Fate: The universe demands order, if not through Brainiac then...
    • Some of the pre-fight dialogues hint that the prophecy of the Blackest Night is still to come to pass.
  • Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers!: This is one part of the conflict in the Injustice-verse: the Joker causes Superman's Start of Darkness, and Supes is so blind by his grief that he decides to ditch heroics altogether and Take Over the World alongside other superheroes that have been driven to similar levels of cynicism by various misfortunes (some of which are Supes' fault). The heroes that fight against them are all banded together under the banner that shit happening to you doesn't means that you should vent it out on others, and in the majority of the Multiple Endings, they go on to become the symbols of hope that the world desperately needs, not to mention that in a few crossover appearances of the Injustice-verse in comics the heroes of the tale (and even a few villains not aligned with the Regime) have essentially called the Regime a bunch of super-powered emos.
  • Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: The other part of the conflict in in the Injustice-verse: After his Face–Heel Turn, Superman calls out Batman numerous times for not locking the Joker up in a more secure facility instead of Arkham, which everybody in the DCU knows is a notorious, ineffective Cardboard Prison. The Regime in general, is grounded in the belief that traditional superheroics is too archaic to support, the criminals they haul into prison never face any consequences for their actions, refuse to reform no matter how hard you try, and the Insurgency insistence on Thou Shall Not Kill makes them look like Honor Before Reason, Holier Than Thou naïve hypocrites who values their moral comfort over the safety of others. Batman's own estranged son Damian, who became disillusioned with his father's ways and subsequently defected to the Regime, even bluntly asks him if he would've taken the same route if the Joker had killed him and nuked Gotham instead of Metropolis, something which Batman isn't able to respond back. The tie-in comics even lampshade this: a U.S. senator gives Batman a "Reason You Suck" Speech, stating that while Superman may have been a tyrant, his methods at least ''worked''.
  • Shout-Out: See here.
  • Siding with the Suffering: Supergirl originally joins the Regime because she trusts her cousin. However, when she sees Wonder Woman brutally attempt to murder Harley Quinn after the latter tries to stop WW from murdering Cheetah, Supergirl realizes that the Regime is not the heroic organization that Superman portrayed it as and switches over to the Resistance.
  • Spell My Name With An S: Eobard Thawne - in the console story he is referred to as "Reverse-Flash", in gameplay "Reverse Flash", in the mobile version "The Reverse Flash".
  • Spotlight-Stealing Crossover: Like the first game, there are a lot of Batman characters in the roster, with the franchise having nearly double the representation that the Superman portion of the roster gets—and that's tied with the amount of representation the Justice League characters get in the game. Overall, eight of the game's 32 characters released so far are native to the Batman franchise, not including the Mr. Freeze skin for Captain Cold.
  • Stable Time Loop: The "Battle Simulator" in the Multiverse is stated to be a parallel Earth that is caught in an stable time loop. Since any changes to this Earth are impermanent, it's an ideal location for training, thus setting the stage for the game's ladder mode.
  • Steel Ear Drums: Played With. When Black Canary uses her cry, there's a high-pitched ringing to indicate you can't hear after being hit with it, but it dissipates within three seconds. Obviously, Dinah has these as a Required Secondary Power to avoid being deafened by her own scream.
  • Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The mobile port categorizes the heroes into 5 different classes: Might, Agility, Tech, Metahuman and Arcane. Heroes deal more damage to the class they are strong against, but do slightly less damage to the class they are weak to. Might beats Agility, Agility beats Metahuman, Metahuman beats Tech, and Tech beats Might. Arcane sits outside the circle with no strengths or weaknesses.
  • Tailor-Made Prison: Superman's cell is fitted with hundreds of red solar lights that strip him of his powers. When there's a blackout in Chapter 6, the backup generator diverts power not into the dozens of other cells holding supercriminals, but into the lights keeping Superman from godhood.
  • Team Member in the Adaptation: A version of the Justice Incarnate from The Multiversity appears in Green Arrow's ending, but while the team still has President Superman, he's joined by versions of the Flashpoint timeline's Wonder Woman and Superman: Red Son Batman undergoing Adaptational Heroism.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: While the Insurgency and the Regime are working together to save the Earth from Brainiac, it is made known that it is only for the Earth's sake, and not because they are truly allies. There is still lingering resentment and distrust among the group leading to constant backhands and bickering, and even more evident with Wonder Woman brutally stabbing Harley Quinn after the latter stops her from killing Cheetah, which in turn causes Supergirl to turn on the Regime. Once Brainiac is neutralized, the boiling pot bursts open, and the two factions are right back at each others' throats over the fate of Brainiac and the Earth. Superman even turns on Kara, his only living family member left.
  • Temporary Online Content: During an event that lasted for a few days in November 2017, players could obtain in Multiverse mode new gear for Batman, Superman, Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg modeled after their appearances in Justice League (2017) to celebrate the film's release. After the event was over, it became impossible to unlock those gear pieces again (unless one uses a trainer program in the PC version). Averted for Wonder Woman, as she also got movie gear in the event, but it was recycled from an event promoting her previous solo movie and can still be obtained as random drops.
  • This Is Unforgivable!: In Supergirl's eyes, Wonder Woman crosses the line when she stabs Harley through the stomach, an act that leaves Kara disillusioned with the Regime.
  • Time Traveler's Dinosaur: The Flash's super move involves him grabbing his opponent and using his Super-Speed to warp them across time and space to slam them into various objects, one of which being a T-Rex in its native time period.
  • Title Confusion: Batman's team is officially without a name (at least until Batman revives the Justice League in the Absolute Justice ending), but many still call it the Insurgency because that was the name of it in the first game. However, since the Regime has been defeated and order is restored, Batman doesn't have to "insurge" against anyone. Rather, he is acting as the closest thing there is to the Justice League. Really, it's similar to whole "Team" issue from Young Justice (2010).
  • To Be Lawful or Good: This is the dilemma faced by Dr. Fate: he's forced by the Lords of Order to not intervene in Brainiac's invasion because he's an agent of order that will restore the balance fractured by the Regime's downfall and the risk of stopping him could potentially create a even worse future. During the Story Mode, he's compelled to be Lawful by Nabu and fights both Superman & Batman while in Brainiac's skull-ship whereas in his Arcade Ending, he chooses to be Good and takes on Brainiac himself, which earns the Lords of Order's wrath and forces him to flee to the House of Mystery.
  • Too Kinky to Torture: Invoked when Cyborg has to use his defibrillators to revive Harley, on reviving she just says, "More..." Later, after another injury, when told the first aid is going to hurt she replies, "Good."
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: Wonder Woman suffers from this and interesting enough, she and Superman's personalities actually swap between the first game and the sequel. In the first game, Superman was short-tempered and Ax-Crazy, performing actions that defied his Well-Intentioned Extremist ways such as wanting to invade the dimension of the their counterparts as well as destroy Gotham and Metropolis for simply siding for the Insurgency. Meanwhile Wonder Woman, while supporting Superman's tyranny and methods, was more calm and reserved, only becoming angered and impulsive when her alternate counterpart intervenes. In the sequel however, this time Superman is the calm collective one, barely raising his voice and actually having Pragmatic Villainy when it comes to dealing with Batman and Brainiac. Wonder Woman on the other hand has become increasing ruthless and violent, refusing to cooperate with Batman simply out of petty anger and is more obsessed with reclaiming the regime than even Superman. Suffice to say, many fans or players weren't pleased with her Insane Troll Logic towards Batman, how hypocritical she is to many characters and how she almost murders Harley simply for mocking her blind faith in Superman's regime. It also doesn't help that when Batman confronts Wonder Woman about how Superman should have been left to grief the death of his family, Wonder Woman coldly remarks that he needed "steel, not compassion", which confirms she is the one who ultimately corrupted the once incorruptible Man of Steel.
  • Traveling at the Speed of Plot: Just in time for Black Adam's playable chapter, the story mode gives the heroes' one hour to get to his native country of Kahndaq before they lose their chance to stop Brainiac from destroying the world. Problem is, Kahndaq is in the Middle East while Black Adam is in America. So, how does he get there within an hour, get in four gameplay-mandated fights, and still have time to stop Brainiac? No idea, the game just cuts to him and Aquaman strolling around Kahndaq like they didn't just cross the Atlantic Ocean.
    • It could be the teleporter technology used in the tie-in comic, but it is neither explicit nor used to infiltrate the Batcave.
  • Tron Lines: Batman's Powered Armor is covered in glowing green lines, hinting that the suit may be lined with Kryptonite to counteract Superman.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Some of Wonder Woman's story battles take place inside a bar. Rather than getting the hell out of Dodge, the bartender and patrons just watch her fight with bored expressions.
  • Verbal Salt in the Wound: The only remaining component of Cyborg's original body is the right side of his face, with everything else being replaced with cybernetics following a terrible accident that nearly took his life. The villainous Poison Ivy is aware of how much he longs for his lost humanity, and goes out of her way to mock him for it when the two prepare to fight each other.
    Poison Ivy: You're just dying to hurt me, aren't you, Tin Man? It won't bring back what you lost. Especially below the waist.
  • Villainous Legacy: Even though he was killed in the 1st game and only appears as a Fear Toxin-induced hallucination to Harley, the Joker's legacy of causing Superman's Face–Heel Turn still haunts everyone.
  • We Will Meet Again: In the "Absolute Justice" ending, Superman says this to Batman and Kara upon being banished to the Phantom Zone.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?:
    • Several characters from the previous game like Ares, Batgirl, and Raven just vanish from this game and are not mentioned in the story at all. The only one who gets any mention in game is Ares, with the implication that Wonder Woman defeated him, but the game never clarifies the fates of anyone else.
    • After getting into a skirmish with Supergirl in Chapter 9, Damian Wayne disappears from the game. Even when every other hero working to stop Brainiac assembles, the son of Batman is conspicuously absent.
    • Atrocitus doesn't show up in story mode after his first fight with Hal. But Hal still struggles against his inner rage throughout the game, so his influence is still felt to a degree.
    • Brainiac's fate goes unexplained in the Absolute Justice ending, which skims over exactly how Batman intends to contain him. Averted in the Absolute Power ending, in which he explicitly gets Killed Offscreen by Superman.
  • Withholding the Big Good: Played With. After Superman went evil in the first game, the Injustice universe flat-out lacks a Hope Bringer. Batman tries, but, well. . . he's Batman, so it's not going very well. The Justice League is still functionally nonexistent, with a number of heroes dead, in hiding, or swearing off using their powers. Superman is still in prison after the events of the first game, though Batman lets him out due to things crossing the Godzilla Threshold. Superman and some of his former allies still think the Regime was a good idea, and once the threat of Brainiac is dealt with, the player has the final choice to see the Regime or Insurgency fully assert control. Where this trope comes in is that Kara Zor-El/Supergirl has arrived on Earth sometime between the events of Injustice: Gods Among Us and this game, and has been taken in (and lied to and manipulated) by Regime allies Wonder Woman and Black Adam. During Supergirl's Story Chapter, she becomes horrified by the Regime and what it stood for, placing herself firmly on Batman's side, and by the end of the game (if Batman's ending is chosen) has vowed to become the Big Good Superman was supposed to be. Thus, the Big Good of the Injustice universe, Supergirl, is withheld until the game's Story Mode epilogue.
  • Wolverine Publicity:
    • With Supergirl being the Tritagonist, Green Arrow featuring in an early chapter despite being Killed Off for Real in the Injustice universe, The Flash also having an early chapter all to himself in which he fights Reverse Flash, Captain Cold being a prominent villain in the story, Firestorm also getting a chapter focus and being an important character throughout Story Mode (and The Atom being a prominent DLC character), one isn't sure if the game is publicity for the Arrowverse or vice versa.
    • The Bat-family love continues from the first game, with ten of the roster slots being given to Batman characters and Mr. Freeze being a Premium Skin for Captain Cold.
  • The Worf Effect: The characters from the first Fighter Pack are shown completely defeated in the trailer for the second to make the characters there look more impressive.
  • Worf Had the Flu:
    • In Flash's chapter, as he runs straight into action, Deadshot manages to snipe Flash in the leg, crippling him. Captain Cold then freezes his leg up in order to negate his Healing Factor. Significantly reducing his speed, allowing him to reasonably compete with the two Badass Normal characters without the odds being stacked against them. He recovers by the time he fights other Super Weights like Green Lantern and Reverse Flash, who has the same powers.
    • In the final Batman/Superman chapter, when they begin fighting each other, Batman cuts him up with gold kryptonite, which would've completely depowered him with enough exposure. Superman is forced to fight off the rest of the Justice League before confronting Batman himself. And if Batman of all people didn't plan this who else could've?
  • World of Snark: The battles intros provide good opportunities for characters get quips and roasts on each other, and boy do they do. In particular, Batman, Green Arrow, Blue Beetle, Deadshot, Scarecrow, Doctor Fate, and Captain Cold get enough snark to make up for the ones who don't.
  • You Don't Look Like You: Although the game takes place entirely in the Injustice universe, several characters (such as Bane and Black Adam) look much more like their main universe designs than their Injustice-verse designs from the previous game.
  • You Fight Like a Cow: The Clash system returns, this time having a Brawler Lock of shoving forearms instead of a running Punch Parry.
  • You Need to Get Laid: One of the Clash quotes between Doctor Fate and Green Arrow pretty much says this word for word.
    Doctor Fate: Order shall prevail!
    Green Arrow: You really need to get laid.

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Green Arrow vs Batman

He’s a Perpetual Frowner due to the world he’s in. There’s no reason for him not to be broodier than your Batman.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (2 votes)

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