In Justice League Part I, I discussed DC Comics' biggest failing up until now while making movies with the biggest failing of all being the fact that their heroes have been too good and their villains too bad. In Justice League Part II, I talked about the most important thing when adapting a superhero, that is, the relationship between that hero's mortal persona and their super persona. This is referred to as their Mortal-Super Relationship or MSR.
Many different development strategies have been considered for the Justice League movie. For obvious reasons, this movie has been frequently compared to Marvel's extremely successful counterpart, The Avengers (2012). As such, it only makes sense to consider it.
Marvel's strategy began with the individuals. Each of the main heroes was established in a movie of their own with hints about an Avengers movie being dropped with increasing frequency and blatancy. This was an incredibly successful model for them because no such thing had been done before. It also got the nerd world buzzing about the movie, and kept them trying to work out the movie along the way.
Here's the deal, though: the nerd world has already been talking about a Justice League movie and trying to figure it out since hints of The Avengers began.
Because of this, another model has been considered. Namely, the suggestion has been to start with the team, and spin off the individual movies. The idea here is that they would establish some of the better known heroes in movies leading up to Justice League and then after establishing them in the team-up movie and getting them in the public eye, work up their individual movies.
Superman has already been established in this new universe. Batman is set to be established in the next. This is arguably the two most important characters in the DC Universe and particularly in the Justice League. Clearly they will be major players in the Justice League movie, but who else should be in it? In my opinion, that must depend on the story.
Why would all of the world's most powerful heroes be required to team up? What force in the DC Universe would have the power to bring them together? Who's going to be the villain?
In virtually all of the comic book origin stories of the Justice League, they are brought together to fight off an alien invasion. This is a very good and obvious reason to bring them together. The obvious choice would be to bring the villain Darkseid across the universe with an invasion force, but honestly DC needs to distance themselves from The Avengers as much as possible. They're already behind the competition on this major team-up. The last thing they need is to be accused of ripping them off. The Avengers created a very successful alien invasion, and I'm sorry to say, I wouldn't expect DC to live up to that.
Thus, I must suggest they distance themselves from Darkseid for this first movie and look to other, earth-based villains. Whatever the conflict is, it must be on a global scale and there must be some epic fight at the end. That's just simply what people want to see. To me, this means that you need a villainous mastermind. Luckily, DC Comics has several of those.
Often, the people that the Justice League would fight would be some kind of large-scale villainous team-up with someone heading up the organization of the criminals. Unfortunately, with their current time-table, DC simply doesn't have enough time to establish enough villains for this to work. It really needs to be one, maybe two villains. After digging through several articles (most of which suggest Darkseid), I would suggest going with the second most suggested DC villain: Vandal Savage.
Savage's basic premise is that he is brilliant, power-hungry, and immortal. In the animated movie Justice League: Doom (2012), he managed to bring together all of the Justice League's greatest villains, steal contingency plans from Batman, discover Batman's identity, and incapacitate the entire League. If Cyborg hadn't conveniently been around, his plan would have succeeded without a single hitch. Imagine that he had managed to get his associates (potentially along with some familiar power-hungry faces like Lex Luthor) planted and lined up in every major government in the world, then all at once, unleashed a wave of assassins (possibly including some well-known characters, such as Deathstroke) who take out the heads of state, leaving Savage's people in charge. They then turn over power to him, and he is ruler of the world.
This would be in the very beginning of the movie. It would be sudden, swift, and flawless. The movie should then focus on Superman, who is well established by previous movies. He should be distraught, confused, and feeling rather powerless. He knows that he should do something, but isn't sure what, because, in reality, Clark Kent is not very confident.
Enter Batman.
Batman is paranoid. He always has been. In the animated Justice League movie I mentioned before, he had very elegant and effective plans in place to take down every single member of the Justice League. It would only make sense that if there were super-powered beings around the globe, Batman would know about them. He comes to Superman with information about several other heroes who were less conspicuous in their actions, because Batman doesn't have the public reputation that Superman does. While Batman was dodging the authorities even before Savage's takeover, Superman has a reputation and image that these people can unite behind. Thus, Superman goes out to recruit the Justice League.
In my perfect movie, here is the League:
- Superman takes the lead. He brings the group together to fight back against Savage and topple his regime. He very reluctantly becomes the public face of the team. He would spend a short montage meeting with several heroes who will turn him down. When the League finally meets for the first time, he tries to appear hopeful and optimistic, but is ultimately disappointed by the turnout.
- Barry Allen as the fast-talking joker Flash, who received the power of super speed in a lab accident. He would be a large source of comic relief, but still very driven. He would be at odds with some of the other team members with accusations flying of him not taking things seriously. If I got my way, he would die by the end and pass his mantle on to his nephew, Wally West. His MSR wouldn't be very complex. Much like Spider-Man, he would be much funnier as Flash and a bit more serious as Barry Allen.
- Princess Diana of Themyscira as the fearsome and beautiful Amazon warrior Wonder Woman. She would be young and inexperienced. Superman would come to Themyscira, the island home of the Amazons, and ask the Amazons for their help in fighting Savage, but the queen of the Amazons, Diana's mother, would refuse, saying that it isn't their fight. Diana would then, in an act of rebellion, fly off to join the League in their fight. She would be referred to as Diana throughout the movie and only be called Wonder Woman at the very end, perhaps in a newspaper headline or something. Thus, her MSR would be non-existent.
- John Stewart as the rigid and militaristic Green Lantern. The Green Lanterns are essentially an intergalactic police force. John Stewart was a marine who, in the comics, was selected to be a backup for Hal Jordan. In my universe, Hal Jordan would have disappeared and Stewart would have been chosen as his replacement. In doing so, he would have given up his previous life and fully committed to being a Lantern. Because of his military training, he would try to take the lead, but would ultimately find himself at odds with other members (particularly Flash) and yield to Superman. To recruit him, Superman would travel to Oa, the Green Lantern headquarters to ask for their help. Due to having given up his life on Earth, Stewart would also have no MSR.
- The dark, mysterious and unpredictable Black Adam. People who know who this is are currently screaming at me from across cyberspace to tell me that I'm an idiot. Black Adam is the main antagonist of the hero Shazam (formerly Captain Marvel). However, he is also well established as an anti-hero, that is a much darker more violent superhero who isn't always such a good guy. He would push for a direct approach of simply killing Savage and moving on with the world. Nothing of his past would be revealed. He would simply show up at the meeting and force his way onto the team. He would be at odds with Superman who would be trying to find a more peaceful approach. Taking a hint from Marvel's movies, there would be a cut scene after the credits with him talking to a boy that he has imprisoned who he will simply refer to as Billy.
As far as building the universe and revealing characters, DC doesn't have a whole lot of time to work with before they plan on releasing this movie. Batman vs. Superman (2015) is their next scheduled movie. This leaves time for only one, maybe two other films if they rush them. With the storyline the way I would set it up, Wonder Woman and Black Adam would actually be hindered by lead-in movies. I also feel that while Green Lantern (2011) was an awful movie that DC should leave as far in their past as possible, it did have enough popularity that the basic idea of the Green Lanterns is established in the public eye. Thus, I don't feel that he would need a lead-in movie either. Since Superman and Batman will both be established after the next movie, I believe that DC should turn their attention to Flash and establish the characters of Barry Allen and Wally West.
After this Justice League movie, DC would be set with characters to spin off. They could go from their and make Shazam, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and, of course, sequels galore! If they were smart enough to follow my advice, Aquaman could be established in a Wonder Woman movie and Booster Gold and/or Martian Manhunter could be set up in a Justice League sequel.
So there you have it, DC Comics. I just handfed you a Justice League movie that would give them enough distance from The Avengers to be successful in addition to setting them up for success on future movies.
What do you think? Would this movie work? Would it be successful? Does anyone have a better idea? Leave some comments with your thoughts!
And if you're a producer working with DC Comics and like what you've read, send me an email! I'd LOVE to hear from you!
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