As PCGamesN reported over the weekend, the Deathstroke character has a symbol on his sword that appears to be a Halo emblem. The symbol was spotted on Deathstroke’s costume by actor Geoff Reeves, who visited the #SnyderCut Exhibit in Dallas, Texas recently. At the time, this symbol was taken to refer to the famous Batman villain, Ra’s Al Ghul. This “Easter egg” was then backed up by Joe Manganiello, the actor who plays Deathstroke in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. That, you would think, would be that - a nice little hint at the hidden history of a Batman villain who hasn’t been seen on the big screen since Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins. But! The story did not end there. It looks like this Deathstroke symbol began life as the Runes multiplayer icon from Bungie-era Halo. Christopher Barrett, director of an unannounced project at Bungie who worked on Halo all those years ago, tweeted to point out the similarity. So, what’s happened here? Google “Ra’s Al Ghul symbol” and the first result is a custom version of the Halo Runes icon. This image is hosted on a website called favpng.com under the name “Ra’s Al Ghul Ninja Symbol Emblem Logo PNG”. According to the website, the image in question was uploaded in July 2017. This image also pops up on Comics Crossroads, a fan-fiction database on Fandom.com. Here, the symbol is used on the page for the League of Shadows, DC’s ancient order of ninjas and assassins who work for Ra’s al Ghul. Over the years, Google has bubbled up this image to become the top result for anyone searching for “Ra’s Al Ghul symbol”. Did whoever put this Easter egg together for Zack Snyder’s Justice League simply do a Google search and lift the first result? It looks like it. The entire episode reminds me of the time Marvel’s Agents of Shield was spotted using Mass Effect 3 concept art. Developer BioWare ended up chuckling at ABC’s slip-up.
