Injustice 3 Story Theory - Based on Mortal Kombat 11, Metal Saga, Doomsday Clock

I. Introduction

    Having recently finished Mortal Kombat 11's story with the Aftermath DLC (I'm really late I know), I saw a lot of similarities with recent events in the DC Multiverse. Naturally, for those who know me, I got a bunch of ideas how NetherRealm's going to do Injustice 3.

    Now there are rumors they're doing a Marvel or DC vs Marvel game. The latter's possible but unlikely. If so, well, then this all probably won't make it unless they do a Secret Crisis game. There are also rumors that I literally just heard that NetherRealm is focusing on MK12 because of the situation with WB and it potentially being sold off. 

    If Injustice 3 gets delayed or even cancelled, well, I've already thought and written some of this so I decided to finish it. Consider this what could've been. I hope that one's wrong though. If it's not delayed or cancelled we'll get our answer in Fandome I guess.

Disclaimer: This is all just my ideas at the end of the day and I'm just sharing for discussion.

This post is divided into 6 parts:

1. Introduction
2. MK and Injustice (Superman and Liu Kang)
3. Kronika and Perpetua
4. Dr. Manhattan and Doomsday Clock
5. Superman's Redemption
6. Shang Tsung and the Batman Who Laughs

II. MK and Injustice (Superman and Liu Kang)

   Before I go further, I'd like to point out the already existing parallels between the the last three Mortal Kombat games and Injustice 1-2. Obviously both are made by the same studio so that's answering why they're there. On what parallels are there, the most important one is probably between Superman and Liu Kang.

Both are the default main heroes of their respective franchises and their arcs in these games very much parallel each other:

• Mortal Kombat (2011) or MK9 is basically a reboot of Mortal Kombat, involving Raiden, protector of Earthrealm, sending his past self a vision to change the future. Here, Liu Kang starts off as the Chosen One hero he is supposed to be before ultimately turning against Raiden, dying and becoming a Revenant. In MKX he goes on to rule the Netherrealm with Kitana as his queen. In MK11, his past self is transported into the present and they end up fighting. More on that later.
• Injustice gods among us doesn't use time travel, but does involve the Multiverse. In one Earth, Clark Kent is tricked by the Joker into murdering his wife Lois and their unborn son, while also destroying Metropolis with a nuke. Superman kills the Joker. He becomes an authoritarian ruler along with Wonder Woman with a Regime that goes to war against Batman's Insurgency. A normal good Superman from another Earth defeats him in the first game and is depowered and imprisoned in the Phantom Zone by the second. 

*Now of course I2 has an alternate ending but that got covered by a comic crossover with Masters of the Universe. If that ending is going to be used it'll probably be an alternate Earth again so both endings can be true.

Now, what will happen to this fallen Superman in Injustice 3?

    In MK11, Raiden realizes someone had been messing with the timeline again and again in order to pit him and Liu Kang against each other, often turning them dark, dead and/or evil. To counter this he merged with both Liu Kangs creating fire god Liu Kang. From there he finally becomes the hero again, and saves the day (twice) with his newfound power.

The Injustice comics by Tom Taylor and Injustice 2 really expanded on Regime Superman and the hints of good in him. Can he still be redeemed? If so, how? Well, that's what the rest of this post is for.

III. Kronika and Perpetua

The big bad of Mortal Kombat 11 is Kronika.

    She's a Titan, the Keeper of Time and Architect of the Destiny of the Universe. She's also the mother of Cetrion, elder goddess of life, and Shinnok, the elder god of death. She's the one behind the timeline being manipulated and wants to completely remake it for her new era.

The big bad of Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV's Justice League is Perpetua.

    She's a Super Celestial/Hand, a being that creates multiverses in the Omniverse. She's also the mother of Mar Novu, Monitor of the Positive Matter Multiverse, and Mobius, Anti-Monitor of the Anti-Matter Universe. She's the one secretly behind all the Multiversal Crises and timeline reboots and she wanted to recreate the Multiverse again.

Gee they sound pretty similar.

Of course there are differences like Perpetua having a third son, Alpheus the World Forger and Kronika having a creation named Geras who is technically not her son(?)

But you get the idea.

I can definitely see Perpetua being the big bad of the next game, though with the whole Snyder-Metal Saga simplified. 

IV. Dr. Manhattan and Doomsday Clock

Last year in August BossLogic, a known artist who makes a lot of fan art for DC and officially worked for them for a few things recently, posted these:

This was pretty much out of nowhere. Doomsday Clock had been done for nearly a year and IIRC most people thought Injustice 3 would be Blackest Night or a Crisis. Of course, maybe he thought of this theory before me and he didn't get a rumor from the inside after all.

If you're aren't familiar with or haven't read Doomsday Clock or the Watchmen, I highly recommend reading it. If you haven't feel free to skip this section because I will potentially discuss spoilers do I'll do my best not minimize them. You may check out my Doomsday Clock posts as well.

DC Universe Rebirth #1 reveals that the Post-Flashpoint/New 52 timeline was in fact Dr. Manhattan's doing and was concluded by Doomsday Clock.

Jonathan Osterman, out of curiosity on a universe whose timeline constantly changed (as opposed to his fixed timeline universe) and yet always had a hero in its center: Superman. Dr. M went on to experiment with this hopeful universe. Indirectly and directly, he took away that hope, he erased years of history and relationships, weakened heroes and darkened them. On Superman specifically he caused the deaths of his human parents: Jonathan and Martha Kent, took away the JSA from inspiring him and prevented the Legion from being inspired by him.

In the end though he's inspired by Clark and ends up undoing (most of) his works, helped fix the timeline, and took a child to be raised as his world's own Clark, their own Superman with Jon's powers. 

How can this apply to Injustice?

The Regime Earth is messed up. Way more than the New 52. Who knows maybe that was Manhattans fault. 

He could've lead Joker to acquiring the nuke or something like that. In general just messing with the timeline and making it conform to his vision as it's reforming could've lead to a bunch of stuff. 

Unlike Doomsday Clock though, it looks like his experiment successfully turned Superman evil.

So how could this tie into Perpetua?

    In main comics continuity, Manhattan didn't succeed in fixing everything. Perpetua and a certain someone else kept that from happening and their defeat is what finished the Rebirth era for good. Here, to tie things more closely, maybe they can make Perpetua the reason Manhattan wound up in the DC Multiverse in the first place. He could've been manipulated like she said she manipulated everyone else who caused Crisis reboots.

V. Superman's Redemption

So how can Regime Superman get redeemed? 

Well, in danger of taking the MK parallels to literally and closely, I've got an idea that has its own basis in comics too.

In Final Crisis: Superman Beyond, a version of Captain Atom (who inspired Dr. Manhattan) named Allen Adam is introduced from Earth 5 who is a lot more like Dr. M. Long story short, he ends up merging Superman and his evil antimatter counterpart Ultraman.

He put their consciousness into the Thought Robot, worn as a Cosmic Armor, the most powerful version of Superman and protector of the Multiverse.

Superman's good consciousness remained dominant over Ultraman. Similar to Liu Kang's good self being conscious but with his evil self's memories. 

Could they do this? Maybe too high concept. They could always just merge a good and Regime Superman and give him Dr. Manhattan's powers like Raiden did. A Supermanhattan just like Clark Hollis/Dreiberg at the end of Doomsday Clock. From there he can then fix the multiverse, including the Injustice world.

But wait you say, that's not redeeming Regime Superman unless they stay merged, which wasn't the case with Thought Robot. If they do, well another universe or timeline just lost it's Superman.

Well, there is another way I'll be talking about next, but for here maybe upon dividing again he realizes the error of his ways thanks to seeing things from a good Superman's eyes and wants redemption.

VI. Shang Tsung and The Batman Who Laughs

Now, all that stuff above are probably way too close to MK11 to happen I admit. It is funny to think of. But either way I do think there's a good chance a certain character will come: The Batman Who Laughs.

He's already a skin for Noob Saibot in MK11:

The Dark Multiverse is a perfect element for Injustice. The Injustice 2 ending with Superman becoming a new SuperBrainiac of sorts and ruling everything can be a Dark Multiverse world. But BWL himself may play a role similar to Shang Tsung. If Injustice does come out, it's possible they'll make some sort of extra story DLC just like Aftermath from MK11. 

There Shang Tsung, who served Kronika, schemes to acquire the Crown of Souls he made for her and steals the powers of Raiden and others to defeat her and then steal her power. He ends up being the final villain of the story, wanting to make his own new era only to be stopped by FG Liu Kang (in one ending).

Meanwhile, BWL after the first Metal schemed to become Perpetua's right hand man, then takes Dr. Manhattan's power, the Crisis energy that powers Perpetua and then takes her remaining power after killing her. He then went on to try and make his own dark New 52 worlds.

Seems like a perfect DLC premise in the same vein based on Dark Nights Metal and Death Metal. Regime Superman could even take Superboy-Prime's place sacrificing his life to beat him.

Or they'll make a fight with Supermanhattan vs Batmanhattan because why not.

Well, this was long. Possibly for a game that won't come out in a long time if at all if rumors are to be believed. Thanks for reading anyway. Whatever the story becomes, I hope the game does get made and released soon.