Okay So, Lemme Tell You About... Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League (2024) [except just in the form of playlists]
My collection of personal writing playlists to go along with the OG Squad of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and my explanations of why those songs tho.
Okay So, Lemme Tell You About...
Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League (2024)
[except just in the form of playlists]
Ummm, hi. Been a hot minute. I was a little busy working on releasing a game and all that entails (which was mostly the post-release life as a writer). Then I got a new hobby called astrophotography, because stuff on this planet wasn't interesting enough I guess. But if you know me from ttrpgs, you'll know that music is a massive part of my writing process. The biggest thing it lets me do is quickly get back into the character's voice. Most people have a mixtape for their lives. I just, you know, actually make the mixtape part for the things that I write. And I did a lot of writing on this. It's my weird and quirky yet adorable trait.
Alright, the format of this one's gonna be a little weird compared to the film analysis (which I'll get back to some day, promise) but I wanted to provide a little commentary for each playlist. The playlists are only on Spotify (I didn't want to make a new YT account or tie my personal one to a public playlist and the TIDAL versions are potentially [REDACTED] content as work continues on the game so....) but I included a text tracklist for each so you can compile it wherever you wish.
These blurbs were also going to be WAY shorter when I was planning this out but then they... weren't. Uhhh, anyways, shoutouts to Kieron Gillen for starting me on the habit of actually sharing my writing playlists with people in the first place. You're all suffering for it now.
Note: this post will contain mild spoilers for the entire game!
Deadshot
"How You Like Me Now?", The Heavy / The Dap Kings Horns
"(Coffee's For Closers)", Fall Out Boy
"Jungle", X Ambassadors / Jamie N Commons
"Trouble", Valerie Broussard
"TRY JESUS", Tobe Nwigwe / Jabari Johnson
"99 Problems", JAY-Z
"Beast", Chris Classic
"X Gon' Give It To Ya", DMX
"What Makes A Good Man?", The Heavy
"Asylum", Desi Valentine
"INDUSTRY BABY", Lil Nas X / Jack Harlow
"Make Way For The King", Ohana Bam
For all of these playlists, I wanted something between storytelling device and a theoretical in-game item. What would each character listen to in their downtime or have pumping into some earbuds while technically saving the day?
For Deadshot, that felt obvious: a mix of more current Unapologetically Black Music, workout jams, a dash of Old Head but not THAT Old Head, and songs that captured the spirit of a Dad Who's Trying His Best Legitimately for me. Track 1 is basically an entrance theme. In that slow mo walk cutscene, he's hearing big bold brassy trumpets announce his reintroduction as The World's Greatest Assassin. Looking back, there's way more brass in this playlist than I remember putting here...
This should generally give off a vibe of pride and absolute confident swagger. Not swag. Swagger. The first track is so exemplary of that king shit attitude that feels deeply Deadshot to me. This was the original mix right up until I was remaking the Spotify playlists and stumbled on the version with the Dap-Kings Horns. How had I missed this! (I didn't click through to the album or artist, that's how. But also how had the algorithms NEVER suggested it? A travesty, honestly.)
Now for the song that probably feels the most out of place, (Coffee's For Closers). Lemme explain: this is to me young Deadshot right before his kid is born as looked back upon by a Floyd Lawton holding/looking at her and deciding to quit the business. This is a massive turning point for him that, in my unwritten head canon, is one of the big things that saves his marriage and relationship with his family. I pushed hard for Deadshot to not be a deadbeat dad and instead be one who tries and fails and tries again. Does he quit immediately? Absolutely not. He's a Black dad trying to give his daughter the best that Gotham has to offer and that takes cash. But I think he takes on less dangerous and fewer (but maybe higher paying) jobs. I also think this is when he solidifies his title.
Which leads us into the next few tracks. Jungle is his theme when he's At Work. And Trouble is the consequences. He loves his job and he's great at it. And it leads into some lore stuff. If you've gotten there in the audio logs, you know.
TRY JESUS is the response to those audio logs leading out of Trouble. I like to think there's a scene we never see with Susan where she hands him the mask and his gun, telling him to go take care of business. I fully believe she's always known he's Deadshot but seen him as Floyd because, I'll be honest, it's my favorite trope. And that flows into 99 Problems, X Gon' Give It To Ya, and Beast. Just... just listen to the audio logs. This would be full of spoilers otherwise.
And What Makes A Good Man? and Asylum are where we find Floyd Lawton as the game starts, tossed in Arkham with a truly wild story. Yes, I am once again about to tell you to go listen to the audio logs. You knew this was coming.
Final two tracks are an in-game mood. He doesn't have Susan's Seal of Approval this time but he knows he's gotta go back to the old him if he wants to see her again. So he's back to being Deadshot again. And I'm not sayin' Boomer is Jack Harlow on the track but it is right there and waiting for someone to say it.
Harley Quinn
"Being from Jersey Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry", Cobra Starship
"King For A Day", Daisy Grenade / Kasey Karlsen / Deadlands
"Cobra (Rock Remix)", Megan Thee Stallion / Spiritbox
"Wire", Worthikids
"Venom", Little Simz
"I am not a woman, I'm a god - Hot Chip Remix", Halsey / Hot Chip
"STFU!", Rina Sawayama
"Ain't It Fun", Paramore
"Harley Quinn", Princess Nokia
"Celebrity Skin", Doja Cat
"YES MOM", Tessa Violet
"THAT BITCH", Bea Miller
"Stayin' Alive", Lizzo
"Boys Wanna Be Her", Peaches
"Seize the Power", YONAKA
"Maniac", Carpenter Brut / Yann Ligner
"Army of Me", Bjork
This playlist is a whole journey on purpose. Harley's gone from half-dismissed sidekick to major player in Gotham crime and adversary of Batman to forgotten in Arkham in a pretty short time frame and she gets a lot of time to think about it. This one has a fair amount of covers and remixes rather than original tracks and that's wholly on purpose.
Look. Being From Jersey... was always going to be my playlist opener for Harley. My head canon that Gotham is actually just Hoboken, NJ, to Metropolis' NYC aside, nothing better encapsulates the modern mythos of Harley up until those versions diverge. Harley should be great in her own right but no one can remember that when you're in a shadow as long as the Joker's. It's something I definitely try to hold in my mind whenever I write her: she's ALWAYS aware of where she came from (location-wise and backstory) but she will not be apologizing for it nor where she's gotten to.
Aside from that, the two establishing tracks are harsh but vulnerable. Heavy guitars, throaty vocals, the kind of songs you scream along to rather than sing. And the whole first half is coming to terms with her own loss and grief. That's something I'll never downplay, even if I want to just forget some parts ever happened.
The second half around STFU! and Ain't It Fun is Harley becoming Harley Fuckin' Quinn. If Harley's making a playlist, it's starting at STFU! for sure. And yes, I realize that having Harley Quinn on here feels like a gimme to most people but I swear it's not. Do a search for "Harley Quinn" on Spotify or TIDAL and you'll find a WHOLE lot of songs that are actually love songs with the Joker. Princess Nokia is in the minority of identifying with specifically the modern Harley and you know Harley would love that. (Plus, it works so well with her melee and Suicide Strike animations, truly).
The final two tracks, Maniac and Army of Me, are basically her mood in-game: powerful, feeling herself, confident, moisturized for maybe the first time in her life, thriving. Just ignore that it's in the middle of an apocalypse. That definitely doesn't mean anything.
King Shark
"Save Rock And Roll", Fall Out Boy
"Yuve Yuve Yu", The HU
"Run Boy Run", Woodkid
"Godzilla", Bear McCreary / Serj Tankian
"I Wan'na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)", Fall Out Boy
"The Middle", Jimmy Eat World
"Go The Distance", Roger Bart
"I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme)", John Rzeznik
"You're Gonna Go Far, Kid", The Offspring
Someone is gonna look at this and say Ohana Bam should have been here, but that's someone who doesn't get this King Shark. He's not braggadocious. He's young. He's not seen much of the world. He could gain that swagger one day but he's not there yet.
So why open with Save Rock And Roll? Especially when I've established that all the playlist openers are essentially their theme songs? Aside from me being exactly who the fuck I am and loving Fall Out Boy, Shark is ostensibly the only person of the main playable cast who might actually care about saving the world. And in a world that he should kinda despise, he's still somehow down to save it (and himself, he's one of the people living in it). Also, Nanaue is a Disney Princess and you will never convince me otherwise.
Yuve Yuve Yu is a song that wasn't always on this list but there was always a song by The HU. Is it technically the right culture? No, not even remotely. But I like this band and also the lyrics hit the right emotional threads of not understanding why these youths are embracing modernity so much that they've forgotten their own culture. In a lot of ways, it feels like where Nanaue had to be in order to leave his homeland. And, like any kid torn by a maybe stagnated tradition and the allure of modernity and progress, he sets out to prove the two can coexist. And that's alienating, which I think the song also touches on in a meaningful way. (My head canon is that, despite definitely saying that Nanaue was exiled, Kamo absolutely would have allowed him back within the Shark Kingdom. With some work, mind. I told you King Shark is a Disney princess and his name is fuckin' Ariel.)
Run Boy Run and Godzilla are, I think, super obvious. His earliest interactions with humans on the surface go very wrong. So much so that A.R.G.U.S. get called in to do something about it. I picked this particular version of Godzilla for two reasons: the gang vocals and the delivery of the line "history shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man". That line feels like a realization young Nanaue comes to while reading philosophy and history books, sad and a little pained and just a bit pleading. Yes, I realize that's mostly just Serj Tankian's voice. But overall, the song is about realizing his own monstrousness in the eyes of those who now surround him. To humans, he's a terrifying force of nature (or at least hubris) come to find retribution. But really, he's just Nanaue who would love to talk to you about books and movies and eat ice cream. And then I Wan'na Be Like You is the Disney Princess' Wish: I just want to fit in and this is now the only place I can be so I want to be human. Could I have chosen Part of Your World instead? Yes, but I don't think there's a rock cover for that and we're building a mood here.
So then we have the turn to self-acceptance with The Middle. If you listen to the audio logs, you'll learn a lot about Shark and his relationship with his A.R.G.U.S. captors over time. I don't remember when a particular one comes in but it's the whole reason this song is here.
Then I go all in on the Disney for a hot second with Go The Distance and I'm Still Here, because King Shark absolutely deserves the uplifting hero songs.
And we wrap up with You're Gonna Go Far, Kid, which I head canon as one of Shark's favorite songs that he doesn't fully understand but it's absolutely his anthem. There's definitely an argument that, in a lot of ways, it's also about his relationship to Waller and A.R.G.U.S. because they did entrap and raise a child to be the weapon they needed. It's because I made the argument so now it's canon.
This playlist was hard to build because I got to sit in on one of the King Shark recording sessions pretty early on and Joe Seanoa has some fucking impressive character work and embodiment. Which, like, not at all a surprise if you've seen him wrestle and perform as Samoa Joe. But portraying the mean and cerebral brute is so different from this shy, sweet, and ever-helpful not-so-little guy. And he still absolutely nails it every time.
Captain Boomerang
"Hail to the King", Avenged Sevenfold
"Freaks And Geeks", Childish Gambino
"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", AC/DC
"The Rookie", The Chainsmokers
"Tall Cans In The Air", Transplants
"Start A Riot", BEGINNERS / Night Panda
"The Patron Saint of Liars and Fakes", Fall Out Boy
"Jump Around", House of Pain
"Gives You Hell", The All-American Rejects
"Could Have Been Me", The Struts
"Intergalactic", Beastie Boys
"Tick Tick Boom", The Hives
"In One Ear", Cage The Elephant
I like to think Boomer's playlist is the most straightforward but it's probably not as much I think it is. It's a lot more vibes than direct story. A slick veneer of sleaze over insecurity and passive jealousy (more "yeah, I'd be so cool if that were me" than "it SHOULD be me and it WILL be"). Digger Harkness is absolutely his own biggest fan and hype man but he's at least a little realistic about it.
Hail to the King is what he'd have as a theme song or a song to walk out to as a wrestler. If this game is the big blowout PPV of the year, this is what he has the actual band playing as he arrives ringside. On the flipside, Freaks And Geeks and Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap are more what he's actually like. I picked early Gambino on purpose. It's less sophisticated than even the next following album. And, let's face it, Boomer would unironically sing along without a thought in his fool head. He's also the guy with the "do you want me to boomerang him?" sign outside your window like he's Fairuza Balk in The Waterboy. My head canon is that these are his shitty teen dirtbag years up until graduating (or maybe just dropping out of) high school.
The Rookie and Tall Cans In The Air are transition songs, something that would play over a montage of his first heists (and their subsequent incarcerations). It's him just starting to get into the thief game for real. Start A Riot is the end of that transition and probably when he "officially" becomes one of the Flash's rogues. Maybe even when he starts running with the Rogues.
The Patron Saint of Liars and Fakes is mostly here the vibes and because I love Fall Out Boy. This could be a plaintive moment with the Rogues when he gets left behind and finally gets out of jail. But I think it really sums up Boomer: the king of the losers and always looking for acceptance in the wrong places. Jump Around is the braggadocio that goes with that. I don't know what it is about white boy rappers but they just work so well for Boomerang.
I gotta admit, Gives You Hell has been on this playlist, like, since the moment I gave the relationship between the Flash and Boomer any kind of thought. An extremely one-sided post-breakup song hoping the other person never knows a moment of peace and is always thinking about you? Even though you know they barely give you half a moment? Yeah, that's them.
It used to be that Could Have Been Me was the end of this playlist but it never quite worked for me. Just a little too aspirational to be the end for Boomer but is about where he lands as you enter the HoJ in the very beginning of the game. He's in this because he wants to be loved, or at least pretty well liked. What better way than saving the poor schmucks of the world? So, like, if you want a playlist that only goes to the start of the game, this is your jumping off point.
Intergalactic is totally a song Boomer sings (raps?) to himself when he sees what he's up against out in Metropolis. It's here because it doesn't quite work on the wider Metropolis playlist and feels very Boomer-centric. Same with Tick Tick Boom. I can hear these while doing traversal around Metropolis. I don't know if it's the sets of threes in the hook and chorus and drumline, but it works for me.
In One Ear ended up becoming the end for one reason and one reason only: this is the core of Boomer. He's not growing and changing nearly as much as anyone else because he's comfortable with exactly who he is in the end. This man is always gonna come back to exactly who he is, and not just because comics have to maintain a status quo in order to function.
Metropolis
"Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)", My Chemical Romance
"Scherzo No. 5 in Death Minor", Hollywood Burns
"Parasite Eve", Bring Me The Horizon
"Come Together", Gary Clark Jr. / Junkie XL
"Ready To Die", Andrew W.K.
"B.O.B. - Bombs Over Baghdad", OutKast
"Humans Are Such Easy Prey", Perturbator
"Rip & Tear", Mick Gordon
"In The Face Of Evil", Magic Sword
"Sabotage", Beastie Boys
"Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back", My Chemical Romance
"Tales of Villain", HANABIE.
"The Hand That Feeds", Nine Inch Nails
"Kill Or Be Killed", Muse
"Kingslayer", Bring Me The Horizon / BABYMETAL
"Spoiler - Original Mix", Hyper
"Bulls On Parade", Rage Against The Machine
"Highway to Hell", AC/DC
"Can't Go to Hell", Sin Shake Sin
"Too Good At Raising Hell", The Struts
"Mayhem", Halestorm
Let's face it, I'd be remiss if I didn't include a playlist for the city. Originally, this was where I collected the single tracks for the NPCs I had to write the voices of a lot but I realized what I needed and wanted far more was the sound of the city. Maybe I'll include some of those single NPC tracks in a future post some day. I think I wrote them down...
Anyways, I realized what I needed was the story of the city and the game. So that's what I built for myself here. It all starts with my personal favorite action-adventure romp theme song, Na Na Na. I promise, it's not just because it mentions Batman while aping the 60s theme song. Or because Gerard Way is totally a giant nerd. The song feels like barreling forward and not quite knowing where you're going or even if you'll get there. But you're in for this ride, for better or worse. And that's it, that's the whole game. It originally dropped while I was on a semi-impromptu (for me) road trip to follow a band for several dates where we were pulled over once a day so, like, it's got some feels attached.
Scherzo No. 5 in Death Minor is a Brainiac theme song, which I think are the only NPC songs that stayed on this playlist. The theremin is what really makes this for me. The theremin is the stereotypical scary movie/supernatural/alien instrument in movie scoring. Brainiac is a classic Justice League and Superman villain. Having a modern movie take on the theremin to accompany his modernized design aesthetic just really works for me and solidifies his whole approach. He's not doing anything new per say, just considering a new angle with which to manifest his goals.
Parasite Eve is actually a really late add from after seeing BMTH open for Fall Out Boy live last year. The chorus is what snaps in hardest for me on this one, as a reflection of the population of Metropolis as the invasion starts. This is a city that sees weird shit constantly. They're among the first who have to deal with alien villains in general within the DC universe, as this is where Superman operates from. The rest of the Justice League arrives and they get more of the same. Brainiac should be whatever but it isn't. You stop seeing people you know, you have to board yourself in somewhere secure, and the people you thought would be your heroes are nowhere to be seen. Until they reemerge as your worst nightmares. For the average person, this game is survival horror. Pretty fitting since POST HUMAN is a survival horror concept album.
The next three feel pretty self-explanatory to me. Come Together is the soundtrack theme from the movie Justice League and is... for the League. Normally, if I were going for "chronological" order, this would have gone before Parasite Eve but I really wanted to catch the fear of the people of Metropolis first. This holds a little too much swagger for the follow up but I didn't find another cover I felt really worked and the original also didn't. So here we are.
Ready To Die is, like, the song every action-adventure game uses and I am highly aware of it. But my god if it isn't the exact mood of the Suicide Squad. I really wanted a song that reminded me of the wild but exuberant gameplay but also the very life-or-death nature of this particular mission. It's happy chaos. Not that Happy Chaos. Bombs Over Baghdad is in the same vein but specifically was also the song used in the first trailer I watched for the game. So, ya know, nostalgia.
This next section goes along with the bulk of the game's story and gameplay, sort of a back-and-forth of protagonists and antagonists. Humans Are Such Easy Prey is another Brainiac bop, obviously. Rip & Tear is actually mostly a player theme, specifically for those moments when you're in the thick of the shit and surrounded as you try to shoot your way out. In The Face Of Evil is one for the Brainiac-controlled Justice League, no theremin but some of the same vibes from Scherzo No. 5. And then there' Sabotage... I realized I had never seen the actual music video before and watched it when I was considering where to place it on the playlist. And my god if it doesn't have such solid loser vibes. The last in this chunk are Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back and Tales of Villain. Kind of a transition into the near-endgame/endgame loop part of the playlist but also I picked out Save Yourself for the prelude, which I did most of the writing on. But they get the vibe of the Squad and the trauma-bond of the experience as a whole. Tales of Villain is, in a way, a reflection on the deal made with Amanda Waller.
And that leads into this next chunk, starting with the anthem of questioning the authority that controls you: The Hand That Feeds. Kill Or Be Killed does, in a roundabout way, acknowledge the mechanics and gamified nature this being, well, a video game in its lyrics. I haven't really thought about that as much before writing this but the 80s arcade-y synths do a great job of underlining it.
Kingslayer, Spoiler, and Bulls On Parade are your big final boss fight themes and the end of the main story. I can't go into why without a ton of spoilers but I hope it tracks in an if you know you know way. Bulls On Parade is probably more me being pessimistic about the post-ending of the game than anything else. Like, really, what will A.R.G.U.S. do about Metropolis and the aftermath once everything is actually over and the dust has settled?
The last four tracks are technically out of order and that's because they're a goof. They're me having a wee cheeky giggle. Because of the endgame loop. Get it? It's three songs about hell and/or raising it and Mayhem. I... I had to write a lot of barks mentioning heck and its lifted status. So many barks...
And that's it! This was pretty fun to do, even if it was VERY broken up by massive chunks of time in the typing it all out. And next one of these will be the Joker's playlist, once people have had some time to marinate with him a bit.
In the meantime, I started a watch and analysis of the original Scream that I might finish because it does have some pretty interesting things to say about the state of horror movies at the time. In particular about tropes and their relationships to things like misogyny and patriarchy and toxic masculinity. But we'll see.
I also have the photos from my eclipse trip to share and my very beginner forays into astrophotography. I don't actually know where those will go beyond Instagram but I'll at least link them here.
Wanna chat about these playlists with me? Just reply to this email. Or say something on BlueSky.
Thanks for reading! You can also find me on TikTok and Blue Sky.