Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for the Injustice games, comics and animated movie.
The Injustice animated movie makes a number of changes from the video games and comic books that it is based on. This is to be expected, as there are bound to be differences in adapting a story from one medium to another, especially considering that the comics alone have been running successfully since their original debut in 2013 and are still inspiring new spinoffs and collections. Nevertheless, there are a surprising number of characters—such as The Flash—who are not included in the movie's narrative, despite playing a major role in the source material.
The world of Injustice was created by NetherRealm Studios (the publishers of the Mortal Kombat video games) as the setting for a fighting game based on DC Comics' most popular characters. In the first game—Injustice: Gods Among Us—The Joker tests his belief that "one bad day" could corrupt even the noblest of souls, engineering a complicated scheme that pushes Superman to accidentally kill Lois Lane and destroy the city of Metropolis. A tie-in comic series by writer Tom Taylor explores Superman's slow downward spiral into fascism, setting the stage for where the game's storyline continues after a five year jump. The story picks up with the world's greatest hero leading a military regime that forces peace upon the Earth, while Batman travels to another parallel Earth to enlist the help of that timeline's Justice League.
The Injustice video game went on to be a smash hit and even inspired a sequel, entitled Injustice 2. The comic series collections became New York Times Best Sellers and were highly praised for how well they developed the setting of the original game. Sadly, most of this material didn't make it into the Injustice animated film. The end result is a movie that builds off the core concept of Superman going mad with power, but ultimately tells a wildly different story with a completely different ending.
There's No Kryptonian Super Pill
"The Pill", officially know as 5-U-93-R, was a nanotech drug which could temporarily give ordinary humans the enhanced strength and durability of a Kryptonian under a yellow sun. Created to empower the armies Superman intended to use to police the world, the formula was stolen by the Insurgency and used to allow their own to stand a fighting chance against Superman and his allies. This was the in-game explanation for how the characters without superpowers could survive a physical confrontation with their stronger foes, but the Injustice movie does not develop this plot element. Instead, Superman's regime uses Mister Terrific's T-spheres to monitor the populace more strictly and developed the Amazo robot to act as a peacekeeper capable of containing any threat.
There Isn't A Heroic Lex Luthor
One major change to the world of Injustice from the comics was that Lex Luthor and Superman were allies until Lex, concerned at how far his best friend was going in his efforts to protect the world, became Batman's man inside the Regime. Lex's story in the original game was an ironic echo of the usual Superman mythos, with Luthor eventually donning an armored suit to save the world from an increasingly erratic Man of Steel. Strangely enough, despite a story about an evil Superman seeming to demand a heroic Luthor in response, Lex doesn't even appear in the Injustice animated movie and his role as the Regime technician is largely assumed by Mister Terrific.
Aquaman, Green Lanterns, Shazam & More Disappear Early In The Movie
Much of the Injustice comics series was devoted to showing how different groups of heroes not extensively shown in the original game responded to Superman's actions. For instance, Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Two detailed the Green Lantern Corps' effort to liberate Earth before Superman became a galactic threat and Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Three found John Constantine leading Earth's magicians against the Man of Steel. The comics also showed how Superman pacified Aquaman—who had previously spoken out against Superman imposing his will on global leaders—by moving Atlantis from the ocean floor and depositing it in the middle of the Sahara Desert. None of this is depicted in the Injustice movie, where Aquaman disappears from the film after reg from the Justice League, along with Shazam (who says most of the magic heroes agree with him) and the Green Lanterns, who were recalled back to Oa.
Black Canary Is Oddly Absent
While a number of characters from the video games and comics do not appear in the Injustice animated movie, the absence of Black Canary is particularly odd given the major role her longtime love interest Green Arrow plays. In the comics, Black Canary led the Insurgency during Year Two, while Batman was injured, seeking to bring Superman down and avenge her boyfriend's death at the Man of Steel's hands. She went on to have a major role in the sequel, Injustice 2, and came closer than anyone to defeating Superman in a one-on-one fight, as a sonic scream works wonders against a man with super-hearing. Unfortunately, Black Canary is one of many important characters left out of the movie.
Fortress of Solitude Battle Ends With Pa Kent & Green Arrow Dying
One of the major turning points in the battle between the Regime and the Insurgency in the Injustice comics was the latter's raid on the Fortress of Solitude, seeking a sample of the 5-U-93-R drug. Green Arrow was able to secure the sample at the cost of his life, as Superman killed him thinking he had been sent to assassinate his parents, whom he had moved to the Fortress following an earlier abduction attempt. This plays out differently in the Injustice movie, with the Insurgency seeking to steal a red sun energy weapon that might be able to hurt the Man of Steel. When Batman finds the Kent family hidden in the Fortress of Solitude he tries to leave, knowing that Superman would get the wrong idea. A fight breaks out between the two sides anyways, and Pa Kent takes an arrow through the chest when Superman, the intended target, deflects one of Green Arrow's projectiles. The Man of Steel responds to his human father's death by immediately killing Green Arrow.
Wonder Woman Turns on Superman in the End
Many elements of Injustice's original story were controversial, with some Man of Steel fans unwilling to give the story a chance since the idea of an evil Superman is antithetical to the core idea of the character's unflinching morality being absolute. Perhaps the only point more controversial than that is Injustice's interpretation of Wonder Woman, which portrays her as being more bloodthirsty and violence-prone than is typical of the Amazon warrior. It doesn't help matters that she is also implied to be less interested in promoting Superman's newfound ideals of forcing peace than she is in starting a romantic relationship with him. Regardless, in both the game and comics Diana was Superman's right-hand woman and loyal to the Regime to the end. In the animated movie, Wonder Woman turns on Superman during the final battle, after learning that he has executed a warehouse full of innocent people who attended an underground Joker-themed punk rock show.
Only Superman Comes to Save the Injustice Earth
The action of the first Injustice game centered around a parallel Justice League from another Earth coming to the assistance of the prime world's version of Batman, after the Caped Crusader develops the technology to travel between Earths. In the Injustice animated movie, it is Mister Terrific who develops the technology to breach reality. When he goes for help, strangely, Terrific only brings back an alternate version of Superman to assist in the fight. Presumably this change was made to limit the number of similar characters fighting during the film's finale, which also includes the Regime and Insurgency forces ing together to fight a rogue Amazo robot.
The Lois Lane of Another Earth Saves The Day
In the original Injustice video game and comics, the parallel Superman defeats Regime Superman and imprisons him to await trial for his crimes. The Injustice animated movie has a more bittersweet ending, which makes a hero out of a pregnant Lois Lane, who was also brought over from an alternate timeline. As the two Supermen battle, Mister Terrific retrieves the Lois variant from a world where her version of Superman died fighting Brainiac. The sight of the woman he loves crying over the man he has become inevitably drives home to Superman how far astray he has gone, and the Man of Steel surrenders himself to the Insurgency immediately.
