injustice movie black knuckles featured image the strange case of the censored knuckles

DC’s Injustice Movie: The Strange Case of the Censored Knuckles

injustice movie black knuckles featured image the strange case of the censored knuckles

DC’s Injustice animated movie dropped in October 2021. It’s based on the Injustice: Gods Among Us video game and the related comic book series.

The plot involves Superman breaking bad after the Joker does a Really, Really Horrible Thing and heroes taking sides and beating the dog nuts out of each other with the fate of the world at stake (fascism or freedom).

The video game and comic books have received high praise. The movie is watchable and has some interesting moments but I wouldn’t say it’s great.

But that’s not what we’re here to talk about.

We’re here to talk about knuckles.

Or rather, the lack of knuckles.

There are no knuckles in the Injustice animated movie.

They have been, for want of a better description, censored.

Redacted, even.

The knuckles, throughout the entire movie, have black bars on them.

dc injustice animated movie black knuckles man in suit pointing
“We’ve got to knuckle down on this.”
dc injustice animated movie black knuckles man reading a paper report
“Nothing in this report explains why my knuckles are censored.”

I’ve watched this movie twice now and I just don’t get it. If it’s an aesthetic choice, it’s baffling because it’s not a pleasing effect. It’s distracting and ugly. I constantly get distracted by it. All I can think is, “Why did they do this?” when instead I should be enjoying someone getting super-punched the heck out.

dc injustice animated movie black knuckles superman flying and punching
“I’m about to super-punch this menace out, but he’s… staring at my knuckles?? Wait, where ARE my knuckles?”
dc injustice animated movie black knuckles wonder woman flying
“Great Hera! The evil of Man’s World has censored my knuckles!”
dc injustice animated movie black knuckles amazo's fist grabbing superman's face
“Amazing! Amazo can even absorb my black knuckles!”

I’ve searched online a few times to see if there is an answer to this mystery. I can find other people commenting and asking about the black knuckles (other folks seem as confused as I am), but I have yet to find anything mentioning why they went with such a glaring and weird artistic choice. It’s such a weird and noticeable deviation in the style you think someone would be talking about why they did it. But the Internet is as silent on the subject as those censored knuckles.

I considered the possibility that it was some kind of computer-assisted animation process. Maybe there was something wrong with the original knuckle art and instead of spending a lot of time to correct it they just used a process to put black bars over the knuckles as a cheap fix.

But no, I’ve found another instance of Warner Bros.-related animation that has the same style.

The Mortal Kombat Legends animated movies do the same thing.

mortal kombat legends animated movie black knuckles johnny cage
“My knuckles look really stupid, but at least they kind of match my sunglasses. I guess.”
mortal kombat legends animated movie black knuckles scorpion
“Bah! Scorpion will… wait, no, stare at my cool snakelike spear thing, NOT MY KNUCKLES!! Sigh…”
mortal kombat legends animated movie black knuckles shao kahn
“Black or red with my enemy’s blood, Shao Kahn cares not the color. But they do look kind of weird.”

So, inexplicably, it seems to be an intentional choice.

Someone actually thought, “Hey, it will look SO cool to put ugly and distracting black bars over all the knuckles in this animation.” And the other people involved went “Yep, amazing idea. Let’s do it.”*
*Theoretical dramatization, not actual footage of the event in question

It looks like two different South Korean animation studios did Injustice (NE4U Inc.) and Mortal Kombat Legends (Studio Mir). Maybe they share some animators or both of them farmed their work out to yet a third studio that does the weird knuckle thing. But on paper, they are not the same studio. I expected to find otherwise once I saw two different Warner Bros.-related movies using the same design choice.

Hopefully, someday, somehow, the decision behind this knuckle-biting mystery will be unredacted and we can finally understand. It probably will still be strange, but at least we’ll know why for goodness sake.

If you’re reading this and you know why and how this happened, for my sanity please share the knowledge. I beg you.

I leave you with more examples of the black knuckle carnage:

dc injustice animated movie black knuckles hand with wedding ring
These black knuckles just don’t ring true.
dc injustice animated movie black knuckles victor zsasz
“Chicks dig scars, but these black knuckles? Not so much.”
dc injustice animated movie black knuckles army general clenching fist
“I just gave an order! Why is everyone staring at my knuckles?!”
The theory that the censored knuckles were a power source was disproven quickly.
These aren’t even censored knuckles. They’re like bands or knuckle rings or something.
dc injustice animated movie black knuckles superman punching
“No, don’t start blacking out until AFTER I punch you!”
dc injustice animated movie black knuckles superman standing in front of computer display
“I’m trying to look intimidating, but I know you’re just looking at my weird knuckles right?”
This dramatic moment completely ruined by strangely censored knuckles.
dc injustice animated movie black knuckles the flash rubbing the brow of his nose
“Flash Fact: trying to figure out why they drew my knuckles this way is a headache.”
dc injustice animated movie black knuckles superman holding his head in pain
“You said it, Flash!”

2 thoughts on “DC’s Injustice Movie: The Strange Case of the Censored Knuckles

  1. David

    After research online, it appears that the black bars on knuckles happens after Apokalips (sic) War, so viewers can differentiate which movies happen after that story, or so tye interwebs states

    Reply

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