Question on Injustice Gods Among Us

[hyped78]

Hi
Wanted to check if it makes sense to read the Injustice Gods Among Us TPBs, years 1 through 5, without playing the video games and without knowing anything about the video games.
Thanks!

[Jackalope89]

Years 1-5 are the lead up to the events in the game, and then the actual part that takes place in the game, is seen from Harley Quinn's point of view.

So, no real need to play the game if you don't want to.

But if you are a long time fan of Superman, Wonder Woman, Damian Wayne, Cyborg, Flash, etc, you may grow angry at this comic. Like Wonder Woman, generally depicted as a person of compassion and love, is basically a sociopath/psychopath. Superman, you can at least kind of see where he's coming from, but eventually, he too is really bad.

[hyped78]

I am more of a Marvel fan so seeing some DC characters out of character doesn't really bother me.

So reading the 5 TPBs (Year 1-5) and then the 2 Ground Zero volumes covers everything, great! Thanks

[caj]

But if you are a long time fan of Superman, Wonder Woman, Damian Wayne, Cyborg, Flash, etc, you may grow angry at this comic. Like Wonder Woman, generally depicted as a person of compassion and love, is basically a sociopath/psychopath. Superman, you can at least kind of see where he's coming from, but eventually, he too is really bad.

This. I read the first one and was appalled. Literally, my stomach was in knots after reading it. Superman does something that broke my heart and I haven't read anymore of these since. Be warned.

[astro@work]

Never played the game, but fully enjoyed the comics. If you can get into an Elseworlds take on classic characters, it's fun.

[Zero Hunter]

I love the Injustice universe. It is an interesting take on what would happen if some heroes just took it to far. People like to say that Superman and Wonder Woman would never act that way but this is a Superman who has suffered a tragedy greater than anything the real Superman has ever had to experience and without Lois to ground him he goes too far. This Wonder Woman does lean more into the warrior side than her peaceful side, but for the first time since she came to mans world she is seeing results under Superman. By the time things start going to far she is already to far in to ever admit she might have been wrong and only focuses on the good things they do as the regime and not on the really bad things they do.

[Hawkman]

But if you are a long time fan of Superman, Wonder Woman, Damian Wayne, Cyborg, Flash, etc, you may grow angry at this comic. Like Wonder Woman, generally depicted as a person of compassion and love, is basically a sociopath/psychopath. Superman, you can at least kind of see where he's coming from, but eventually, he too is really bad.

I agree with this, too, and I want to add that as a Hawkman fan, he's another one who got a royally raw deal in this series. Without spoiling too much, he's depicted as little more than a possessive wife-beater. Easily one of the worst Hawkman characterizations I've ever read.

That said, if you can get past the extreme liberties taken with a lot of the characters, it's an entertaining series. And by no means do you have to play the games in order to understand it. I played through the first one once (and haphazardly at that), and never even bothered with the second. Never felt lost at all reading the series, though.

[Frontier]

I agree with this, too, and I want to add that as a Hawkman fan, he's another one who got a royally raw deal in this series. Without spoiling too much, he's depicted as little more than a possessive wife-beater. Easily one of the worst Hawkman characterizations I've ever read.

I wonder if Taylor just didn't like Hawkman or if we're just supposed to assume that this is "Injustice Hawkman" who's as far from the norm then the Injustice version of other heroes, maybe even moreso.

Granted, he gave said Injustice versions more depth and reasoning then he did Hawkman, so...

[RepHope]

I love the Injustice universe. It is an interesting take on what would happen if some heroes just took it to far. People like to say that Superman and Wonder Woman would never act that way but this is a Superman who has suffered a tragedy greater than anything the real Superman has ever had to experience and without Lois to ground him he goes too far. This Wonder Woman does lean more into the warrior side than her peaceful side, but for the first time since she came to mans world she is seeing results under Superman. By the time things start going to far she is already to far in to ever admit she might have been wrong and only focuses on the good things they do as the regime and not on the really bad things they do.

They ripped off Kingdom Come for this dude. Joker kills Lois and everyone else at the Daily Planet.

Also Injustice Harley Quinn is insufferable to me. She nukes a city and no one cares? No one demands she stands trial at all? And she gets a freaking spot on the JL? What a load of crap. Not even touching her murdering Jimmy Olsen and starting the Arkham riot that kills Nightwing (whose death is the DUMBEST crap I've ever seen). The series is entertaining in that it was an Elseworld so Taylor could slaughter whoever he wanted without anyone really caring.

[TheMaker1610]

I wonder if Taylor just didn't like Hawkman or if we're just supposed to assume that this is "Injustice Hawkman" who's as far from the norm then the Injustice version of other heroes, maybe even moreso.

Granted, he gave said Injustice versions more depth and reasoning then he did Hawkman, so...

To be fair, Taylor never wrote Injustice!Hawkman, Buccelato did
But yes, what I like about Taylor's writing (in Injustice at least), is that he gives his characters a lot of depht
Just look at Siniestro&Hal during Y2, and heck.. he made me care about Plastic Man a lot, a character I had zero interest to begin with

[TheMaker1610]

They ripped off Kingdom Come for this dude. Joker kills Lois and everyone else at the Daily Planet.

Also Injustice Harley Quinn is insufferable to me. She nukes a city and no one cares? No one demands she stands trial at all? And she gets a freaking spot on the JL? What a load of crap. Not even touching her murdering Jimmy Olsen and starting the Arkham riot that kills Nightwing (whose death is the DUMBEST crap I've ever seen). The series is entertaining in that it was an Elseworld so Taylor could slaughter whoever he wanted without anyone really caring.

I see this Harley's issue beint brought a lot
While, yes, she should've been held accountable for directly killing Jimmy Olsen (or was it the Joker's doing?), and orchestrating the Arkham Riot that resulted in Dick's death, she actually gets more hate out-universe that what she deserves

She didnt kill Metropolis, the Joker did. She assisting him doesnt actually matter, since the Joker could've done everything himself with the exact same result

And also, she did a lot to redeem herself from her bad deeds, during the +6 years since the Regime's Rising
Altough I would lie if I denied not smiling at the Kents' "You're not welcome here" line they made at her
From their pov, that was quite deserved actually

[Zero Hunter]

They ripped off Kingdom Come for this dude. Joker kills Lois and everyone else at the Daily Planet.

Except in Kingdom Come Joker killed Lois directly. In Injustice he tricked Superman into killing her with his own hands and in the process their unborn child. There is no comparing the amount of trauma that would have on someone. Kingdom Come was a tragedy while Injustice was just a soul shattering event.

[Agent Z]

I see this Harley's issue beint brought a lot
While, yes, she should've been held accountable for directly killing Jimmy Olsen (or was it the Joker's doing?), and orchestrating the Arkham Riot that resulted in Dick's death, she actually gets more hate out-universe that what she deserves

I’d say she gets an appropriate amount of hate out of universe for what she did.

She didnt kill Metropolis, the Joker did. She assisting him doesnt actually matter, since the Joker could've done everything himself with the exact same result

We don’t know that. We do know that she did aid the Joker in kidnapping Lois and performing invasive surgery on a pregnant woman and that her response when called out on it was to blame Superman for not foiling the Joker’s plan.


And what did she do to redeem herself? She's almost completely inconsequential to the Insurgency and even quit at some point.

[Carabas]

They ripped off Kingdom Come for this dude.

They "ripped off" Kingdom Come for a Mortal Kombat game with a DC skin that this dude had nothing to do with.

Likewise, Harley becoming a hero is an element from from the game creators. There's only so much wiggle room you have as a tie-in writer.