Injustice: Gods Among Us Unused Concept Art (Hint: It’s Mostly Terrible) And Dicey DLC

Yikes.

Injustice: Gods Among Us, the Justice League video game that gives you the chance to pit your favorite heroes against each other in surprisingly brutal battles, continues to set itself up for pounding after pounding by the public. First, there are the dicier story elements of the NetherRealm Studios and DC Comics collaboration. Avoid the following paragraph if you don’t want major spoilers for the plot of the game. Look at your own risk.

Last warning.

***

Set in an alternate universe, Lois Lane is horrifically murdered when Superman is tricked by the Joker into thinking that she is Doomsday. So, Superman tosses her into space. Oh, and she was pregnant too. Was being the operative word for both her and the baby in this scenario. In retaliation, Superman murders the Joker and does so in front of Batman. The two then end up creating separate factions as Superman seeks to assert ultimate control over Earth and Batman seeks to usurp him. Somewhere along the line, the superheroes of this alternate Earth meet the heroes of the real (in this context, at least) DC Universe, who then try to stop Superman’s team from exerting dictator-like control over the planet. This last part sets up the in-story reason for heroes normally seen as teammates to fight each other. Heroes and villains alike (none from the recognized DCU, of course) die during these confrontations, mostly in cut scenes. Then, a bunch of fighting happens. The end.

***

Back in February of this year, IGN interviewed Tom Taylor, the writer of the Injustice: Gods Among Us digital comic (again, beware of spoilers if you care) where the writer was asked to explain how he approached adapting such a divisive and shocking concept from the game. No matter how well thought out Taylor’s explanation was, the public reacted poorly to the plot point, even citing that this was an example of fridging a female character. Whether that terminology is accurate or not doesn’t matter. It was out there and the public court of opinion was weighing in. Of course, many simply didn’t care because at its core, Injustice is a fighting game and the fighting in this game has been applauded.

Story elements aside, the controls for different characters’ fighting moves are easy to understand and their special moves are generally glee-inducing bits of in-game cinema. The costumes, on the other hand, are almost universally reviled for being overly complicated, having bizarre armor choices, and greatly changing characters’ designs from their comic book versions with little aesthetically-pleasing or sensible reasons.

It turns out that those despised designs were the good ones that made it through the editing process though. Earlier today, previously unreleased concept art for the game showed up on the art blog of concept artist Justin Murray. Now, it’s important to note here that we’re not picking apart Murray’s artistic ability, because he clearly has some serious chops. The guy can draw and makes that clear repeatedly on his blog. Murray’s design aesthetic isn’t even on trial hear (okay, a little) because it’s unclear what the editing and review process for these designs was. All we know is that Murray says this:

They wanted us to go in a live action summer blockbuster movie direction with these designs.

These overly-structured, armored versions of familiar characters come off though looking more like a cross between Gundam Wing vehicles and the bizarrely armored, overly-muscled action figures from the Total Justice toy line from the exxtreme 90s. The designs start off relatively slick with Aquaman, but quickly become convoluted from there.

In case you couldn’t tell, that last picture is of Captain Marvel, now referred to as Shazam in the comics and in the game. The character redesigns on Murray’s blog aren’t all bad though, because the tweaks for the villains’ outfits altered them in ways that appear fitting on those models.

Other than the trip-inducing placement of the whip as a pseudo cat’s tale for Catwoman, the villain designs look like solid interpretations that add to the overall affect of a darker world. It would be easy to see these same designs for the villains make some kind of appearance in the comic books. That darkening of the characters’ personalities is touted as the justification for the heroes’ drastically different looks too, but they don’t come across as grimmer as much as they look cluttered and weighed down.

In what looks like an effort to outdo itself for cringe-worthy material, the video game company has released a video to show off the latest DLC character for the game, Batgirl. The video’s introduction plays out by having an ominous voiceover give a brief rundown of The Killing Joke, a 25-year-old story that has Joker shoot and paralzye Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) in front of her father Commisioner Jim Gordon. This much-revered story (except by the writer himself, Alan Moore, who sees it as one of his weakest works) has been the center of some discussion over the years about whether or not scenes in the book also depict Joker referencing how he had also sexually molested Barbara Gordon. Tumblr blog DC Women Kicking Ass gives a thorough rundown of the history between the two characters. The introductory clip states that the hero has now set her sights on the Joker for payback.

What are your thoughts on Injustice: Gods Among Us? Have you had a chance to play the game? Do you like the costumes in the game or the ones presented here more? Does the story bother you or do you think it rocks? Do you not care because it’s a fighting game? If you’re enjoying the game, what characters do you want to see as the next DLC options?

Let us know in the comments section.