Video Game / LEGO DC Super-Villains

It's good to be bad!

I said the joker is a wanted man
He makes his way all across the land
See him sifting through the sand
So I'll tell you all the story
About the joker and the thief in the night

— Wolfmother, "Joker and the Thief"

LEGO DC Super-Villains is an action-adventure video game developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

It is a direct sequel/spin-off to the LEGO Batman Trilogy, and as the title says, it focuses on the Super-Villains of the DC Universe and much like previous titles, it features similar gameplay to other LEGO adaptation games, alternating between various action-adventure sequences and puzzle-solving scenarios.

While the game was made to celebrate 10 years of the first LEGO Batman game, its plot, loosely adapted from the Crisis Crossover Forever Evil, is about the Justice League going missing due to their counterparts from Earth-3, the "Justice Syndicate", capturing them. The Syndicate is secretly working for Darkseid in search of the Anti-Life Equation - leaving Earth's fate in the hands of the villains, who form a reluctant alliance to defeat the Syndicate, and an unlikely character, the Rookie, who might have more to them than they seem...

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LEGO DC Super-Villains provides examples of:

• Actor Allusion:
  • Near the end of "Darkseid of the Moon", Lex Luthor tells Darkseid, "There can be only one greatest criminal mastermind!" Clancy Brown, who voices Lex, was the villain in the first Highlander movie; Michael Ironside, who voices Darkseid, played the villain in its sequel.
  • If able to solve a puzzle, Ra's al Ghul will claim that his "particular set of skills" will be able to handle it.
  • As mentioned in Mythology Gag, a text you can get asked: "How do you track Deadshot in the snow?" The answer: "Look for the Fresh Prints." The answer is a play on "The Fresh Prince", the name Will Smith, who played Lawton in Suicide Squad (2016), went by during his time as a rapper.
• Adaptation Expansion: The Mask of the Phantasm DLC features Captain Clown, who made no appearance within the film the DLC is based upon.
• Adaptational Alternate Ending: Played with in the Mask of the Phantasm DLC, the general bittersweet tone is kept (at least in Lobo's epilogue), but it features a much more straightforward defeat of the Joker, as well as the fact that Batman and Phantasm actually team up against him rather than the climax in the movie where all three of them are battling against each other in one way or another. Although both are primarily a pragmatic choice since it otherwise wouldn't really make sense from a game design perspective.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Quite a few, in keeping with the LEGO series' Lighter and Softer tone.
  • The Joker continues his characterization from the LEGO Batman games of being a grandiose prankster, but is also shown to have a pretty stable relationship with Harley this time around, and, even though he remains mischievous and annoying to his teammates, isn't half the back-stabber that Lex is.
  • Grodd is typically a sadistic anti-human gorilla supremacist, who at best considers his allies as either pawns to be sacrificed or a necessary evil for achieving his own goals, and who at worst cracks men's skulls open to eat their brains. Here, he not only doesn't seem to bear much of a grudge against humanity and is quite polite, but shows genuine gratitude towards Luthor for helping dethrone Solovar, something the comics version would be loath to even fake.
  • If the Reverse Flash isn't the worst person in the entire DCU, he's at least in the top five. He has demonstrated that he will do anything and everything, up to destroying the universe itself, to stick it to Barry Allen. In fact, several villains who team up with the Reverse Flash in the game have in the comics teamed up with Barry to stop the Reverse Flash. The LEGO Reverse Flash is little more than a mostly-harmless Troll who enjoys messing with Barry.
  • Heck, the other villains are nicer as well. They show that despite their differences, they can work together and all of them treat the Rookie as their friend.
  • Even the antagonistic Crime Syndicate are overall leagues nicer than their original Forever Evil appearance, since in the comics they (with the exception of Owlman) are psychopathic monsters who take glee in stuff like brutally torturous killing and child murder, while in this game they at their worst find lording over others with fear entertaining while having a few standards like never harming civilians. Heck, the fact they are capable of pretending to be heroes means they're mentally sound enough to be pragmatic, while in the comics they're too sadistic to put on such an act.
• Adaptational Villainy: The story is based on Forever Evil (2013), which saw Lex Luthor undergoing a significant character arc and becoming a genuine hero for a while (even joining the Justice League). In contrast, in this story Luthor has a lot of Chronic Backstabbing Disorder moments, and by the end of the game even the other villains don't trust him anymore.
• Adaptation Distillation:
  • The game seems to take elements from the basic premises of the "A Better World" two-parter from Justice League (the Justice League being trapped in another universe while their villainous counterparts run amok in their universe), and Forever Evil (2013) (the main universe supervillains going up against the Crime Syndicate), with further inspiration from the final arc of Justice League Unlimited for the Legion of Doom vs Darkseid aspect. The similarities are especially unavoidable due to having the same iconic Lex Luthor performance in both.
  • In general, as a large part of the voice cast is from the DCAU, there's a lot of DCAU similarities from writing to their version of the character.
    • Batman and Joker are Conroy and Hamill, and as such have the same dynamic (specifically, that of when Joker was being goofier and friendlier to him in TAS).
    • Most of the Justice League are semi-parodies of their JLU selves, with Wonder Woman in particular being identical.
    • While most of Lex Luthor comes from his DCAU counterapart, one key plot element actually comes from his Earth-3 counterpart's son Alexander in Infinite Crisis. In that comic book, Lex tells his AU son as much when Lex and Joker execute him: always treat the Joker right in your evil plots.
    • While Darkseid sports a much more modern design than used in the cartoon, otherwise the lore for him draws from the older lore and not the New 52, making him as well a distillation.
    • While many characters are based on their DCAU counterparts, the game also features a lot of characters popularized by the Arrowverse, with many also being reprises by their actors. These characters instead draw from their Arrowverse incarnations, especially Malcolm Merlin, who in the Lighter and Softer Lego writing also ends up with more of John Barrowman's comedic acting as well.
• Adaptation Name Change: Subverted. The Crime Syndicate is calling themselves "the Justice Syndicate", but the story trailer reveals that they're just using that name to try and fool the world into thinking they're good guys and Kalibak does call them by their proper name.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: It seems that this version of Grid is simply the Earth-3 counterpart of Cyborg, rather than a program within Cyborg's systems that gained sentience.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Granny Goodness, though still evil, is portrayed as a stereotypical doting grandmother complete with weaponized knitting needles and a rocket-powered walker.
• Adapted Out: In the SHAZAM! (2019) DLC pack, Greed, Sloth and Lust are completely absent despite the other Seven Deadly Sins (Pride, Envy, Wrath and Gluttony) being present in the pack's story and playable in free roam.
• Advertised Extra: Despite being prominently featured in the marketing, Deathstroke only shows up in the game's last four levels and is only playable for part of two of them.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: About midway through the story, Sea King attacks the Hall of Doom and has a Kraken drag it into the ocean. Poison Ivy is the only one outside, and she's quickly joined by King Shark and Black Manta to take it back.
• Another Side, Another Story: Beating the main story unlocks bonus missions that shows what the Justice League was doing while they were trapped on Apokolips from the time of their disappearance until their return in the main game.
• Anthropomorphic Shift: Inverted. Dex-Starr, who returns from LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, looks more like a traditional LEGO cat instead of a minifigure.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Like LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2, the character selection screen displays what abilities each character has, with the feature being upgraded with a filter that highlights all characters with a particular ability, making it easy to identify which characters can complete a patricular challenge.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The villains discuss how the Justice Syndicate don't seem as heroic as the Justice League.
  Reverse-Flash: Yeah, they trashed my lair!
  The Riddler: They broke all my henchmen!
  Captain Cold: They interrupted my evil monologue! [beat] It was a really good monologue.
• Ascended Extra:
  • The "create-a-figure" characters. Since the second LEGO Star Wars title, they've only existed for the player to goof off with and to play around with in free play. Here they actually get involved with the main story, with the player creating a custom supervillain who joins forces with the usual villains to combat the Syndicate.
  • Darkseid was a DLC character in Lego Batman 3, but him and his forces are the central antagonist of this entry.
• Bait-and-Switch: In the second Aquaman DLC, during the Ocean Master Boss, like many LEGO bosses, Orm retreats when he gets to 66% health, letting goons attack Arthur. When he gets to 33% health he tries again, but the thugs refuse.
• Big Boo's Haunt: The Arkham level in the HUB World is this, with the infamous asylum itself being in a pretty dark, spooky forest.
• Big Damn Heroes: John Stewart and the Green Lantern Corps arrive just in time to help the Justice League (along with Joker, Harley, and the player character) escape from Apokolips.
• Bowdlerise:
  • Kite-Man's catchphrase is watered down to "Heck yeah!"
  • Similar to the last game, the Suicide Squad is only referred to as "the Squad". But unlike the last game, they're also referred to by their official name, "Task Force X".
  • Jason Todd finally exists, however his combat is far less brutal than you'd expect. Ironically, there's still plenty of villains who fight closer to how Jason typically fights, making it entirely pointless.
  • Joker and Harley are presented as an actually healthy, if evil, couple without being abusive.
• Bragging Rights Reward: Getting 100% Completion unlocks Lex Luthor's mech as a vehicle. Considering there's nothing left to do at that point in the game, its only use is goofing around in the hub.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • Prior games had generally used the "Create-a-Figure" as just a fun extra, whereas the custom character in this game is a protagonist and is mandatory to play in many of the games' levels.
  • After the previous three DC games all prominently featured Batman in both the title and cover images, this one finally breaks from that and has a title more like the LEGO Marvel games, which is fitting since Batman himself is Demoted to Extra, so keeping it would result in an Artifact Title.
  • This is the first LEGO DC game that completely leaves out the "Civilian in Peril" mechanic, something that has been there since the first LEGO Batman Trilogy game, which is fitting as the whole focus of this one is playing as Villain Protagonists, who would have no reason to care about saving endangered civilians.
  • This is the first LEGO DC game not to feature an outfit-changing mechanic; any character who had the mechanic in past games now have all of their abilities from the start.
• Brick Joke: During one mission intro there is an offhand mention of Kent Clarkson (civilian identity of Ultraman) doing a story on crocodiles as house pets. In an intro several missions later, Jimmy Olsen has a crocodile on a leash with him.
• Butt-Monkey: Jimmy Olsen serves this role, taking over from Robin in previous games.
• Call-Back: During a cutscene, Harley's watching the news and the Joker breaks the TV saying that "too much television is bad for your eyes." He does and says a similar thing during a cutscene in Lego Batman 2.
• Casting Gag:
  • Nolan North voices Superman's evil double, Ultraman. North provides the voice of Superman in Young Justice (2010) and the LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes films.
  • Jason Marsden voices Batman's evil double, Owlman. Marsden voiced Batman's own father, Thomas Wayne in Batman: Gotham Knight.
  • Dee Bradley Baker voices Aquaman's evil double, Sea King after voicing Aquaman in the LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes films. Uncle Noly isn't alone in this category, kiddies.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Harley, on the title screen, is shown holding a smartphone, which she's seen, in the second half of the first level, randomly taking pictures. She loses it shortly after snapping the proof that the Crime Syndicate are evil.
  • The mysterious box that Joker and Harley steal at the beginning of the game, which Joker throws at her to shut her up, contains the key to the Anti-Life Equation.
  • The intermediary cutscene before the "Arkham Barely Believe It" level starts with an inmate named Bob being taken to a doctor for a check-up, which is too notable a scene to not be story-relevant. Sure enough, near the end of the level this "doctor" turns out to be Hugo Strange, who had put Bob (true name Robert, Joker nickname Bobby) through a Forced Transformation to act as the boss fight.
• Chicken Joke: During B'Dg's quest, you and him come across a group of chickens crossing the road, to which he questions why they did so.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Surprisingly for a game starring the Joker, it's Lex Luthor who gets hit with this. By the end of the game, he's double-crossed everybody at least twice.
• Composite Character:
  • Due to the power-up suits being removed, several of the suit-exclusive abilities were added to the characters who used said suits. Batman can now smash glass and glide (bat suit), use stealth and x-ray vision (sensor suit) and blow up silver objects (power suit).
  • Harley's design invokes the personality quirks of Arleen Sorkin's version of Harley (Calling Joker 'Mista J' and her accent) and the design of Margot Robbie's version of Harley (Using casual wear instead of a costume and moving using roller skates). Notably, both versions of Harley appear as part of the Downloadable Content.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The Deconstructor from Lego Batman 2: DC Super-Heroes can be seen among the WayneTech items stolen by Joker and Harley Quinn.
  • Ditto with Brainiac's ship from Beyond Gotham, which ends up playing a role in a later open-world mission when Gorilla Grodd and co. need the tech inside. Said mission also references his Shrink Ray, which is being studied by The Atom.
  • When discussing the Enemy Mine situation, Catwoman notes "you can't bank on Batman", which references "You Can Bank on Batman", the first level of the first game.
• Clark Kenting: Parodied. Ultraman gets a job at the Daily Planet as "Kent Clarkson", a reporter who looks exactly like Ultraman with no prior credentials who spends all his time talking about how great the Justice Syndicate is. Naturally, no one notices, and when Lois questions him, she's dismissed by her coworkers.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Tim Drake, who was Robin and had a prominent role in all previous games ^note Though LEGO Batman 2 mistakenly labeled him as Dick Grayson, is replaced by Damian Wayne as Robin and only appears as a non-voiced unlockable character.
  • The heroes in general are less focused on as the game revolves around the villains this time.
• Dirty Coward: Power Ring gets too nervous to fight Sinestro and Scarecrow, and is very dependent on his ring.
• Drives Like Crazy: Killer Frost has quite a bit of trouble steering the spaceship she and some of the other Legion members are using to get to Oa.
  Killer Frost: If anyone asks, it was like this when we found it.
• Enemy Mine: When the Justice League eventually return, they end up having to team up with the Legion to battle the Crime Syndicate and their forces.
• Even Evil Has Standards: When Lex double-crosses the Legion of Doom at the end of "Gridlocked" (Rookie and the Crime Syndicate included), everyone is furious, the Rookie included.
  • In the same level, Harley, Catwoman, and Solomon Grundy are shown to be disgusted with how Deathstorm treats Grid by calling him scrap metal.
    Harley Quinn: Yeah! With friends like those... yadda, yadda, yadda''.
  • The Joker, Captain Cold, and Livewire think Hugo Strange is a madman even by their standards.
• Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: The villains all get along pretty well. Even Cheetah and Catwoman, normally depicted as enemies, are clearly on friendly terms here. However, a few villains aren't on good terms with the rest, most notably Hugo Strange, for whom the Joker, Captain Cold, and Livewire show nothing but contempt.
• Evil Is Petty: As a LEGO game about villains, alongside large-scale villainy through various levels, there's also plenty of small-scale Jerkass stunts you can pull just to have that extra For the Evulz flavor, such as vandalizing posters for hero-insulting selfies, destroying recycling bins just to cause mass littering, and stealing candy from babies purely to make them cry. In fact, being petty in this game is outright rewarded, with either completion percentage or plenty of studs.
• Evil Smells Bad: Killer Frost and Lex pull away due to Gorilla Grodd's bad odor.
• Evil Versus Evil: The Justice League ends up stuck in another universe, and their counterparts from another show up, calling themselves the "Justice Syndicate", who get into conflict with the supervillains from the "main" universe. Fans familiar with the comics will likely have already recognized them as the Crime Syndicate, making the plot a case of this. Darkseid is also working with them to find the Anti-Life Equation, and the Legion of Doom decide to take it into their hands to stop Darkseid and the Crime Syndicate from taking over the world... so they can take over instead.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: Brought up by Lobo in regards to Mantis, with him noting the guy's yellow-and-green color scheme combined with a funky helmet is such a tacky design that it makes Flash, who himself has a somewhat goofy red-and-yellow lightning bolt-adorned outfit, look outright fashionable by comparison. invoked
• Flight Is the Final Power: Given just how puzzle-breaking flight is, especially in a Combo Platter Powers set, it's only natural that the very last power gained by the Rookie in the entire game is flight.
• Four Is Death: A subtle example in one puzzle on Apokolips: You have to solve addition and subtraction questions, but the numbers are all paired with symbols and you have to figure out the symbols for 0, 2, 4, and 9 using a provided chart. The symbol for 4 is a skull and crossbones.
• Fourth-Wall Observer: Psycho-Pirate, true to form, is the only character to recognize he is in a LEGO video game.
• Furry Reminder: One cutscene shows human/feline hybrid Cheetah playing with a ball of yarn.
• Game-Breaking Bug: There are three extremely aggravating glitches that can happen in the first part of the finale "Darkseid of the Moon". The first glitch is that Desaad sometimes can't get through the left door, which prevents him from sending the first Flying Saucer, and thus you can't proceed through the rest of the level. The second and third relate to the Red Brick of the level, where if you destroy the first fuse box before going through everything necessary to access the second, destroying the second and sitting on Darkseid's throne won't activate the electric pylons needed to spawn the brick, while if you mistakenly shrunk your flying electric character (basically only possible with a post-finale Rookie) before sitting, it also won't activate.
• Gender-Inclusive Writing: The Rookie is referred to using singular they/them pronouns by other characters as gender doesn't play a part whatsoever in the character creation, as well as possibly intentional to make the game more inclusive to players of any gender.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: A pink teddy bear can be seen in Livewire's cell in Arkham Asylum. Killer Frost counts too, as one of the lines she says upon unlocking a token or gold brick mentions that she was hoping for "a cuddly polar bear doll".
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: Flash and Reverse-Flash do this while interrogating Johnny Quick, only not the way you might expect...
  Johnny Quick: Hey, let's be reasonable here. How about I give you your old job back?
  Flash: Too late for that now. Tell me what you're up to.
  Johnny Quick: You're a good guy. You wouldn't hurt me, would you?
  Flash: Maybe, maybe not.
  Reverse Flash: Better tell him, Johnny. I've never seen him like this.
• Hand Wave: Ultraman's profile mentions that he "remembered to bring sunscreen", which would explain why his vulnerability to sunlight is never brought up or taken advantage of.
• Heel–Face Brainwashing: Played for laughs in the ending. The Rookie absorbs the Anti-Life Equation and uses it to turn Darkseid and his forces good...which causes them to act in an overly saccharine manner. Kalibak declares that he wants a kitten, Darkseid invites the others to stay for tea, and the Parademons start giving people flowers. Batman acknowledges that this might not be permanent, though.
• Hero Antagonist: Since the whole point of the game's story is playing as the bad guys, it makes sense that some of the boss fights are against the heroes trying to stop the villains.
  • Nightwing and Batgirl are fought at the Iceberg Lounge in "It's Good to be Bad".
  • Beast Boy and Raven are the bosses fought in "S.T.A.R.S. in Your Eyes".
  • Solovar is the boss fought by the villains in "Con-Grodd-ulations", who is beaten so that Gorilla Grodd can reclaim the throne of Gorilla City.
  • "Fight at the Museum" ends with a boss fight against Shazam and Mazahs.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: The Justice League themselves get hit with this, as the Crime Syndicate has them painted as villains after their Enemy Mine situation with the Legion of Doom.
• Hey, That's My Line!: Livewire gets miffed at Joker in "Arkham Barely Believe It" for stealing one of her punchlines.
• Irony: Even though Scarecrow's powers focus on fear, in "It’s Good to Be Bad", he became afraid himself when Nightwing and Batgirl arrived at the bank to stop the villains.
• Jerkass Has a Point: If the Rookie chooses to become a hero at the end, Lex will question their decision, to which the Joker points out that Lex had abandoned them on Apokolips twice.
• Kid Hero: Not only can you play as Billy Batson, you can also play as the Jonathan Kent Superboy, marking his first appearance in a video game.
• Laser-Guided Karma: For the Penguin and Two-Face in "It’s Good to Be Bad". Two-Face tried to bail out on his allies with a new gun he borrowed, and the Penguin tries placing the trouble on them just so he won't be arrested. The two get arrested as a result.
• Last-Second Ending Choice: After defeating Darkseid, the player can decide if the Rookie joins the heroes or stays with the villains.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Lobo gives a basic plot outline which spells out the identity of the Phantasm in the DLC based off of their debut movie.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • The profile of the Trickster (Axel Walker) says that he "has tried his best to emulate his predecessor [James Jesse]; at times, even sounding like him." The Trickster is voiced by Mark Hamill, who has memorably portrayed the original Trickster in several other works.
  • If unable to solve a puzzle, Shazam may remark that he had an easier time trying to understand copyright law. ...In school, of course. This can be taken as a nod to the fact that Shazam was originally called Captain Marvel, but had to be called Shazam in more recent comics because of Marvel Comics trademarking the name "Captain Marvel" in spite of the DC Captain Marvel predating Marvel's Captain Marvel. Alternatively, it could be a nod to how before Shazam was brought into the DC universe, he belonged to Fawcett Comics which was sued by DC, leading to Superman facing one or two Captain Ersatz versions of him over the years.
• Lighter and Softer: Saying Forever Evil (2013) isn't kid-friendly is a huge understatement due to the amounts of death and violence in it, a far cry from the much more light-hearted Lego world.
• Motor Mouth: Lois Lane occasionally veers into this territory. During the cutscene before "Con-Grodd-Ulations", when asking a citizen about his sightings, she just asks him questions and doesn't let him answer. Her saying that the person was a chatterbox is laughable.
• Mythology Gag: Due to the heavy amount of references to other DC stories in this game, there are enough entries to need its own page.
• Never Trust a Trailer: In the game's reveal trailer, Joker was again voiced by Christopher Corey Smith. Gameplay had since revealed he's played by Mark Hamill.
• Nobody Here but Us Statues: In "Granny Knows Best", upon entering the lower area, what seems to be a statue of Granny Goodness on a nearby wall turns out to be Grail in disguise. However, upon breaking down the wall, she finds that she can't get the statue head off, taking the gravitas out of her entrance.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: Catwoman greets Batman after seeing him return from Apokolips, although she did it seductively. Batman remains gruff by it.
• Not the Intended Use: The Wanted Meter causing increasing numbers of police to spawn is intended to act as Video Game Cruelty Punishment and deter you from causing too much chaos, but while it's in effect you have constant Respawning Enemies, and with that comes the ability to perform repeated Finishing Moves for studs combined with maintaining a X10 punch-combo stud-multiplier, so if you change into a character with either a Healing Factor or outright Nigh-Invulnerability you can easily rack up tons of money in a few minutes to buy the Stud Multipliers.
• Offhand Backhand: As is customary for him, Batman obliviously backhands somebody at one point, in this case accidentally smacking Wonder Woman in the face when pointing towards Apokolips about needing to deal with it no matter the cost.
• Oh, Crap!: Luthor has this reaction when he sees that he inadvertently brought Apokolips to Earth after a mishap.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: You can tell that Joker doesn't take Luthor betraying him and the rest of the Legion very well from his demeanor. No jokes, no smile, just one pissed off-looking clown.
  The Joker: Right now... I want to have a word with Lex.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: The Crime Syndicate frame the Justice League by wearing ill-fitting wigs and boards with their logos painted on them. They don't even dress up as their Earth-1 counterparts; Power Ring ends up as Wonder Woman. Everyone buys it.
• Poke the Poodle: The Flash pretends to be evil by eating a bunch of ice cream without paying for it first.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: For the Mask of the Phantasm DLC, Batman and the Phantasm form an Enemy Mine to fight the Joker, unlike in the movie where all three parties were opposing each other for the entire climax. This is to make sure both players have a character to use.
• Race Lift: This game's version of Firestorm is black, like Jason Rusch, but is identified as Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein, making it a case of this.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Kanto gives one to Flash, Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman in "You Kanto-Uch This" while fighting them. The rhymes make it funnier.
• Recursive Canon: In the first DLC for the Shazam movie adaptation, various boxes of minifig-sized LEGO sets line the shelves, one type of which is Black Manta and his Manta Submarine featured in the base game.
• Reflective Teleportation: Turning mirrors into portals is one of the rarest abilities. Once Raven or Mirror Master with this ability hit two of these mirrors with a projectile, any character can jump through one and teleport to the corresponding mirror. Puzzles using this ability generally rely on transporting the mirrors to somewhere Mirror Master can hit them or to an unreachable location you need to teleport to get to.
• Running Gag: The pre-mission scenes with Lois and Jimmy have a recurring gag involving people keeping crocodiles as pets, culminating in the final one outright showing a woman walking her pet crocodile like a friendly trained dog.
• Sequel Hook: The Stinger shows the Forces of Apokolips being beaten and the Anti-Monitor is shown to have presumably killed Darkseid.
• Smug Snake: Sea King fills this trope to the point that King Shark and Black Manta prefer Aquaman, Black Manta's archenemy, over him.
• Soft Reboot: While there are indications it shares continuity with the previous games, the overall aesthetic has changed, several major characters were recast, and focus seems to have significantly shifted towards greater representation of the DC Universe as a whole, even moreso than in LEGO Batman 3.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Sea King (Aquaman's counterpart) is not immediately killed off like in the comics. Atomica, Johnny Quick, Power Ring and Deathstorm are also alive and well by the end of the game rather than dying as they did in the Forever Evil event of the comics.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: The habit of Batman vanishing when nobody is looking gets lampshaded by Commissioner Gordon when Owlman doesn't do that.
• Stopped Numbering Sequels: The game is the fourth entry, but drops both the numbering and Batman's name from the title.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: The quest to unlock Silver Banshee involves asking people nearby about a missing book; one of which says they didn't see the book between a rock and a tree behind the graveyard. Banshee points out that's a lot of detail from someone claiming to have not seen the book.
• This Banana is Armed: The guards of Gorilla City have laser pistol bananas.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: In a general sense this is highly downplayed compared to other LEGO games, as most characters have a decent variety of abilities, most abilities are possessed by multiple characters, and most character-specific abilities can be given to the Rookie, meaning the majority of puzzles don't need a super-specific character. The most notable exception to this is the gas mixing canister puzzles, as Joker, Scarecrow, and Poison Ivy are personally needed to use their designated canister types since the way they work makes the ability-type impossible to give to the Rookie.
• Too Dumb to Live: The citizens can't see through that the Crime Syndicate are evil. When the Syndicate stage a fight against Darkseid, it's pretty obvious that the fight is dramatic and not real, but they still buy it. Yet, when they find out the truth, they act like they've known about the Syndicate all along.
• Troll: The Joker teases Batman about having fewer powers than Superman before they went to rescue Superman and recruit people to help fight Darkseid.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Downplayed. In true Joker form, when the Riddler gives him his joy buzzer, the Joker is grateful, but shows it by shocking him with said object.
• The Un-Smile: Superwoman forces a smile to reassure the citizens about Apokolips showing up in Gotham. It's rather creepy.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: Fitting the game's theme of villainy, you can cause all sorts of chaos in the hub world, such as taking candy from babies, vandalizing signs and attacking civilians and destroying vehicles to get a wanted level.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Unlike past games where you could cause all the havoc you wanted without penalty, this game being about villains understandably expects you to harass civilians and destroy public property with impunity, and it responds to that with the introduction of a Wanted Meter, which causes increasing numbers of police to spawn in order to try and take you down.
• Villain Episode: While the previous DC LEGO games focused on the adventures of Batman and the Justice League, DC Super-Villains instead has villains like the Joker and Lex Luthor as the main focus.
• Villain Has a Point: When the characters confront Luthor about him trying to get rid of them so he could take over the planet, Luthor replies that they would have done the same if they were in his place. They state they would, with Catwoman lampshading this trope.
• Villain Protagonist: The core concept of the game is playing as DC's most infamous villains.
• Wham Episode: At the end of "Gridlocked", Luthor revealed to the Legion of Doom and the Crime Syndicate that he's plotting to get rid of them so he could take over the planet, and this was just after he pretended to work with the Syndicate to take over the planet.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Darkseid gathers the entire Anti-Life Equation, of course.

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