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Injustice 2
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All spoilers for Injustice: Gods Among Us, as well as the comic book prequel to this game are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

Injustice 2 (Video Game)
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 Backstory to the events of the game.

Injustice 2 provides examples of the following tropes:

  • 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.
  • Alternate Company Equivalent: To Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, another major eighth-gen superhero crossover fighter, which it outperformed commercially and critically.
  • 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.
  • And This Is for...:
    • A clash quote between Atrocitus and Supergirl : This is for calling me a baby !
    • A clash quote between Supergirl and Brainiac : For the people of Krypton !
    • Superman after defeating Brainiac in Story Mode: That was for Krypton.
  • 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.
  • Armor-Piercing Response:
  • Arrow Catch: If you pick Green Arrow to fight Bane in chapter three of the campaign mode.
    Bane: Your spine will break — like this! [snaps arrow]
    Green Arrow: Now you've done it. That was my favorite arrow.
  • 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, 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.
  • Battle in the Center of the Mind:
    • Scarecrow is a playable character that appears as a demonic ragdoll monster with magic powers and a huge metallic scythe. However, in cutscenes as well as the start of matches, we see he's really just a spindly scientist with a bag on his head; the one that does the battling is an hallucination born from his Fear Gas, essentially making every fight with Scarecrow this trope.
    • In the Story Mode, this takes a more traditional form as, after Harley Quinn beats Scarecrow, he uses a different fear gas to make her hallucinate that she's in an abandoned amusement park, back with the Joker (who was killed by Superman before the first game), who wants her to go back to being evil and kill Batman. She resists the temptation and beats the Joker hallucination instead.
  • 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; he outright admits that what he hates most is himself when Atrocitus tries to recruit him to the Red Lantern Corps.
  • 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 Damn Heroes: Superman rescues Batman at the last minute from Brainiac's Beta Minions at the start of Chapter 11. Also doubles as a Villainous Rescue of sorts.
  • 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.
  • Black and Nerdy:
    • Firestorm is a team version of this due to Jason being in a fusion with professor Martin Stein, who's a physicist.
    • Cyborg is naturally gifted with technology, but is annoyed when the others propose he repair Batman's defense system.
    • Black Lightning is this mainly because he's a Badass Teacher and is quite intelligent.
  • 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" Remark: 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 the 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.
  • 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 the story mode.
  • Camera Abuse:
  • 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 (who later joins the Insurgency), Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Black Adam, Robin/Nightwing.
    • 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 (though she turns out to be a mole for the Insurgency), Poison Ivy.
  • 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 it better to spare villains to avoid becoming no better than them, or is lethal force necessary against them to prevent a far worse outcome? 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.
  • Characters Sharing a Slot:
    • Premier Skins are alternate costumes that take the form of other characters who have similar or identical abilities to the character they are based off of, with said skins having different dialogue and animations from their base version. Some examples of said skins include John Stewart being a skin for Hal Jordan, Bizarro acting as a skin for Superman, and Black Lightning being a skin for Raiden.
    • The DLC Guest Fighters The TMNT all share the same slot, they occasionally fight as a team such as in the supermove but your primary fighter is decided by whose signature weapon (Katana, Sai, Nunchaku or Bo staff) is equipped as gear.
  • Chase Scene: A Super-Speed variant with The Flash and Reverse Flash, starting in Metropolis and ending in Gotham City before they slug it out with each other.
  • Coca-Pepsi, Inc.: Pieces of gear or background elements will feature the logo/name "Luthor-Wayne". Since Lex Luthor died in the previous game, it's likely that Bruce Wayne bought out the remains of LexCorp and merged it with Wayne Enterprises.
  • Coin Walk Flexing: Deadshot's fight intros have him walk into view knuckle rolling a cartridge before tossing it into the air and catching it after his opponent speaks.
  • 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.
    • Captain Cold fills Killer Frost's position as the ice-themed villain who has a personal rivalry with the Flash.
  • 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."
    Deadshot: Until they're confirmed...
  • 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, while killing is shown to have horrible consequences of its own.
  • 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!"
  • 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.
  • Doctor, Doctor, Doctor: one of the possible pre-fight banters between Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy in arcade mode has the two of them use this trope as a means of flirting:
    Harley Quinn: Doctor Isley.
    Poison Ivy: Doctor Quinn.
    Harley Quinn: Ooh, I love it when we play doctor.
  • Don't Do Anything I Wouldn't Do: When Superman goes against Scarecrow or Doctor Fate, should he be the first to speak, his response to their threats is "I wouldn't threaten me, Doctor."
  • 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.
  • Downer Ending: Several of the individual arcade endings are depressing, with many being cases of Pyrrhic Victory or The Bad Guy Wins. There's also Superman's ending in the main story mode, where he brainwashes Batman and intends to use Brainiac's ship to rebuild the Regime.
  • 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.
  • Dude, Not Funny!: One interaction between Green Arrow and Batman.
    ‘’’Green Arrow:’’’ You’re much broodier than my Batman.
    ‘’’Batman:’’’ Do you know how many friends I’ve lost?
    ‘’’Green Arrow:’’’ Right. Not funny.
  • 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, and the rest of the Regime. To the heroes' credit, they mostly avoid fighting one another when an existential threat to all life on Earth is imminent, but that doesn't mean they've reconciled come the ending.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Nobody really likes the Joker. Even vile persons like Brainiac, Darkseid, several members of the Society, Enchantress, Atrocitus, 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. 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 crusade against Batman's Insurgency and team up with Batman and his heroes to stop Brainiac from destroying Earth.
    • The Society (aside from 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/Ice Duo: Lampshaded during Pre-Battle Banter if Captain Cold is fighting Firestorm.
    Captain Cold: Fire and Ice...
    Firestorm: A played out theme, don't ya think?
    Captain Cold: Got a soft spot for the classics.
  • 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.
  • Forbidden Fruit: In Catwoman's arcade ending. She and Batman finally enter a long-term relationship, but she realizes she was primarily attracted to him because he was forbidden, not despite it. Also, being a billionaire's girlfriend meant she had no reason to ever steal again, boring her senseless. She leaves him to return to her old life.
  • 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 no longer siding with the Superman's regime; 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.
  • Gaia's Vengeance: Swamp Thing pulls this in his Arcade Mode ending. Fed up with his allies' and enemies' dismissal of the environment, he uses the power of Brainiac's ship to engulf the world in green.
  • 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: Vaguely justified given they're either underpowered or inexperienced and green, but 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. Doctor Fate even foreshadows / lampshades it in his very first story appearance, suggesting that saving the Earth is now in the hands of "the gods" rather than human beings.
  • 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 a barfly 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 science in a post-Regime world; he mentions that the terms of his parole involve avoiding the use of his powers, but he breaks them out once Brainiac starts trying to commit genocide on all of Earth's major cities. 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 
  • Heinous Villainy Needed: Alluded to by Jay Garrick/The Flash I, one of the oldest and most sincere superheroes in the roster, and one who has clearly witnessed the moral tarnishing of the Injustice universe with Superman's regime firsthand. He remains just as upstanding against his former allies, but based on his encounter with Black Manta, he seems to ironically miss the good 'ol days of straightforward super-baddies.
    Jay Garrick: There's no ambiguity to your evil.
    Black Manta: You got a problem with that, Garrick?
    Jay Garrick: No. It's refreshingly old-fashioned!
  • 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.
  • Homeworld Evacuation: The opening scene shows the fall of Krypton in all its tragedy. We are put into the shoes of Kara Zor-El as she escapes from Brainiac's deadly forces, watches her mother die, and then is separated from her cousin Kal-El. To make things worse, this is a universe where Superman went evil after a horrible tragedy.
  • 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.
  • Hope Spot:
    • When the former members of the Regime and the Insurgency meet around the same table to try to figure out a plan to defeat Brainiac, Superman and Batman reveal in a private conversation afterwards that it's actually the remains of the old Justice League table, symbolizing Batman's hope that, just maybe, Superman will come around and the crisis will mend their divisions so that Earth's superhero community can come together again, united and whole. Wonder Woman's own story shows her trying to save Earth civilians from Brainiac and the Society at Kara's urging. Then she tries to execute Cheetah after their fight, stabs Harley Quinn for stopping her, and fights Kara when she pushes Diana away to save Harley's life. Worse, when she goes to speak to Superman in the aftermath, Kara discovers that he's only disappointed Wonder Woman didn't do it sooner and he plans to resume taking control of the world once Brainiac is dealt with.
    • Similarly, when Superman and Batman team up for the penultimate chapter, it's actually titled "The World's Finest" like their old team-up comic book, and they show that they can work together just as well as ever. But in the end, they come to blows almost the second the crisis is over and Brainiac lies defeated.
  • 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.
  • Hypocrisy Callout: One of Enchantress's intros against Superman has the witch call out the Man of Steel for having no qualms about hurting innocent people. In this Alternate Universe, Superman has no right to call her out considering he ran a planet-wide dictatorship and murdered people who called him out.
    June: I can't help it. She has to be let out.
    Superman: But you'll hurt innocent people.
    Enchantress: Since when is that a problem for you?
  • I Know What You Fear: Scarecrow. It's a rare intro dialogue when he doesn't tell his opponent what they fear, and is always fighting in a cloud of fear gas.
  • I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: one of Harley Quinn's clash quotes against Black Adam, Black Lightning and Robin.
    Harley Quinn: I'm a doctor, not a fortune teller.
  • 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?
  • Inconsistent Spelling: Eobard Thawne - in the console story he is referred to as "Reverse-Flash", in gameplay "Reverse Flash", in the mobile version "The Reverse Flash".
  • Kneel Before Zod:
    • Grodd wants some of the people he fights to do this.
    • Darkseid makes demands of a similar caliber.
      Darkseid: On your knees, fool!
    • Bane does the same but simpler and with only one word.
  • 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.
  • Last-Second Ending Choice: The game continues after the supposed final battle with Brainiac, with the last chapter focusing on either Superman or Batman, depending on player choice. Superman has a Downer Ending where he fuses with Brainiac's technology and plans to reinstate the One Earth Regime, while Batman has a Bittersweet Ending where he depowers Superman and exiles him in the Phantom Zone.
  • 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, although Aquaman appreciates his help by the end of the chapter.
  • 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.
  • 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.".
  • 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, which are presumably parts 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).
  • Metronomic Man Mashing: Scarecrow's Super Move begins with him opening a tear in reality with his hook, through which a giant Arkham Asylum-style Scarecrow grabs his opponent with his own hook, slams him into the ground twice, and then dunks him into an open grave with the opponent's name on the headstone.
  • 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.
  • Ms. Fanservice: All ten female characters in the game are this to varying degrees, thanks to the ability to customize their outfits, which include exposed skin.
  • 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.
  • Ominous Adversarial Amusement: In story mode, Green Arrow and Black Canary infiltrate Gorilla City, overpower Grodd's allies, and then defeat and cuff Grodd himself...at which point Grodd starts laughing, which Green Arrow notes is never a good sign. Cue Brainiac's spaceship appearing in the sky.
  • One-Steve Limit: Cyborg and Mr. Freeze (Victor Stone and Victor Fries, respectively), as well as Firestorm and Red 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 Brainiac from destroying Earth.
  • Pass the Popcorn: Joker's ending has him stitch together all of Braniac's captured civilizations into Earth, then literally eat popcorn as he watches the chaos unfold.
  • 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.
  • Prison Dimension: This is Superman's fate in story mode if the player picks the Absolute Justice ending, where he tells Batman that he will make a comeback even if he's permanently depowered. Batman states that he'll be ready the day Superman escapes the Phantom Zone.
  • 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.
    Atrocitus: THIS IS FOR CALLING ME A BABY!
  • 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. Also, Superman has bonded with Brainiac's ship, brainwashed his enemies, and orders Supergirl to become The Dragon to him, threatening 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. Essentially, Gods Among Us was, at its core, 'Batman vs. Superman', while 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 blinded 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 mean that you should take 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, and 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!: On the opposite end of the conflict, Superman repeatedly blames Batman for keeping the Joker in Arkham, a well-known revolving-door prison, instead of somewhere secure. After Metropolis, the Regime comes to believe that traditional superheroics are outdated: the villains never face any consequences for their atrocities (and even if they do, it's often a slap on the wrist), they never reform or make any effort to change for the better, and they constantly use any mercy or second chances offered to double down on their wicked ways. This leads Superman and his allies to accuse Batman’s Insurgency of perpetuating the Vicious Cycle by holding their morals above the safety of Earth and refusing to accept that some villains are too dangerous to be left alive. Even Damian turns on his father, asking if Batman would still cling to his morals if the Joker had nuked Gotham instead of Metropolis, a question Batman can’t answer. The tie-in comics also drive this home, with a U.S. senator telling Batman that while Superman was a tyrant, at least his methods 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, Supergirl realizes that the Regime is not the heroic organization that Superman portrayed it as and switches over to the Resistance.
  • Skull Cups: One of Gorilla Grodd's intros features him drinking out of a human skull. Uniquely, he holds the skull cranium-side down and drinks out of the hole where the neck would meet the skull. He also crushes it in his hand like a wineglass at the end of his intro.
  • 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 a 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.
  • Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!:
  • 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.
  • Take That, Audience!: The game sees the Red Hood quip after an opponet's first health bar empties is "Let's take a vote," a reference to the infamous poll dictating Jason's fate in A Death in the Family.
  • 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.
  • Throwing Your Gun at the Enemy: Red Hood has a "Grapple Move" whose animation involves him trying to fire his gun at his opponent, only for it to jam, leading him to throw the pistol into his opponent's head, catch the gun, reload it, and fire a proper shot that sends his opponent to the other side of the screen.
  • 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.
  • Token Good Teammate:
    • The Regime has Supergirl who defects from the faction once realizing their lack of restraint and totalitarian tendencies. Cyborg also counts as he genuinely wants to avenge the fall of Metropolis and is generally less antagonistic than the others.
    • The Society has three. Catwoman ends up being Batman's eyes on the inside, Captain Cold is after the Regime for killing his sister, and Deadshot is being blackmailed by Grodd.
  • 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 grieve 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.
  • Too Much Information: There's an exchange between Captain Cold and The Flash:
    Captain Cold: Good thing you're wearing longjohns.
    The Flash: I'm totally commando under here!
    Captain Cold: ...ugh, TMI!
  • 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.
  • Tron Lines: Batman's Powered Armor is covered in glowing green lines, hinting that the suit may be lined with Kryptonite to counteract Superman.
  • Twin Threesome Fantasy: Briefly discussed in one of Black Canary's Mirror Match pre-fight conversations.
    Black Canary 1: Ollie couldn't handle two of us.
    Black Canary 2: He'd like to think he could.
    Black Canary 1: All men do.
  • Two Girls to a Team:
    • The Insurgency has Black Canary and Harley Quinn initially.
    • Supergirl and Wonder Woman were this for the Regime until the former defected to join Batman.
    • The Society has Cheetah and Poison Ivy once Catwoman is revealed to be the mole.
  • Two Shots from Behind the Bar: At one point in the story mode, Wonder Woman is sent crashing into a random bar by Cheetah. The bartender pulls out a rifle and aims it at Wonder Woman before moving his aim towards the door when he sees a door being frozen over and then busted open by Captain Cold and Reverse Flash. The bartender doesn't shoot anyone.
  • Ungrateful Townsfolk: Captain Cold has this going hard after watching the townsfolk cheer the Regime on as they murdered his fellow rogues, including his sister the Golden Glider. This caused Cold to revoke his Noble Demon and Never Hurt an Innocent policies and join the Society, a group of other less noble supervillains to fulfill his own Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
  • 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.
  • Victory Is Boring: This happens in Bane and Catwoman's arcade mode endings.
    • Bane incites a convict uprising but eventually finds himself without any heroes or law enforcement to fight, and doesn't know what to do with himself at that point.
    • In Catwoman's ending, Selina fully commits to a relationship with Bruce Wayne, but realizes it was only exciting when it was forbidden, and being a billionaire's girlfriend means never having to steal again. She leaves him to return to her old life.
  • 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 Used to Be Friends: Before their Final Battle, Batman and Superman both remember when they fought on the same side, and both of them are saddened to acknowledge that those days are gone.
  • 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. 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 Keep Telling Yourself That: During their pre-match intro, the Joker almost says the trope word-for-word to Batman when the latter refuses to acknowledge that his insistence in not taking lives is what led to the world's current state of affairs during and after the Regime's rule.
  • You Need to Get Laid: One of the Clash quotes between Doctor Fate and Green Arrow says this word for word.
    Doctor Fate: Order shall prevail!
    Green Arrow: You really need to get laid.

 
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Video Example(s):

Joker's Ending (Injustice 2)

In Battle Simulator mode, after Joker kills Brainiac, he found all civilizations collected, and simply set them free on Earth, and put countless species and people on each other's borders with no rhyme or reason. He did it, knowing that the people's fear and paranoia will lead to war all over the world. Then, he eats popcorn and watches the world burn with people killing each other in the most horrifying ways.

Example of:
Complete Monster

Absolute Power ...

Scarecrow's Ending

Earth Can Go To...

Green Arrow vs ...

Sub-Zero vs Bla...

Harley Quinn vs...

Starfire vs Won...

Aquaman kills G...

Superman breaks...

Enchantress vs ...

Harley Quinn vs...

Darkseid’...

Green Lantern&#...

Red Hood’...

The Joker’...

Injustice Brainiac

Superman's Fall

Batman

Deadshot bullet...

Injustice 2 - D...

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Joker's Ending (Injustice 2)

In Battle Simulator mode, after Joker kills Brainiac, he found all civilizations collected, and simply set them free on Earth, and put countless species and people on each other's borders with no rhyme or reason. He did it, knowing that the people's fear and paranoia will lead to war all over the world. Then, he eats popcorn and watches the world burn with people killing each other in the most horrifying ways.

How well does it match the trope?

4.91 (22 votes)

Example of:

Main / CompleteMonster

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Joker's Ending ...

Absolute Power ...

Scarecrow's Ending

Earth Can Go To...

Green Arrow vs ...

Sub-Zero vs Bla...

Harley Quinn vs...

Starfire vs Won...

Aquaman kills G...

Superman breaks...

Enchantress vs ...

Harley Quinn vs...

Darkseid’...

Green Lantern&#...

Red Hood’...

The Joker’...

Injustice Brainiac

Superman's Fall

Batman

Deadshot bullet...

Injustice 2 - D...
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