Thanks to an ill-conceived Pride Month event, the game Injustice 2 is dealing with a huge shitstorm. Here’s what’s behind it
To mark Pride Month, many games are running special events and rewards this month. However, an action of the mobile version of “Injustice 2”, which is supposed to support the LGBTIQA+ community, meets with incomprehension and outrage.
Punch for Poison Ivy
Players are to band together to defeat Poison Ivy. The DC antagonist is a famously bisexual character who has recently started dating Harley Quinn in the comics. Fighting Poison Ivy, of all people, and taking her down moved many fans on Twitter to resist.
Like I just wanna know who thought that was a good idea? Let's beat up a canonically bi character FOR PRIDE? I hate it here pic.twitter.com/0Aj6yxH0cG
— Kiro (@FourSeasonsKiro) June 4, 2021
Nothing celebrates Pride month like going ham on a queer character in a videogame. Dumbasses!!! 🤔
https://t.co/j2lwF7sdxm via @Polygon— Delios (@Dellyrascal) June 4, 2021
After proudly showing players’ progress at the beginning of the event and celebrating how many times the bisexual character was beaten up on the Injustice page, the developers have now rowed back. The old posts have been deleted, plus there was an apology for the insensitive and inappropriate event:
Real violence against the LGBTQIA+ community and women in the community in particular, happens too often and we should actively seek to end LGBTQIA+ violence, not normalise it.
The event has since ended, but players were allowed to keep their prizes. There was also a free Pride gift and offers available in the shop to mark Pride Month. However, how the idea of celebrating Pride Month with a fight against a queer character could ever come about remains a mystery.
